“Do you think that this will not exist for ever and ever: two prayers struck together into one prayer, two loves into one love, two forces into one force.”

Original: Czyś ty nigdy nie marzyła, droga moja, o spiorunowaniu dwóch modlitw w jedną modlitwę, dwojga miłości w jedną miłość, dwóch sił w jedną siłę? Czy ty myślisz, że tego na wieki wieków nie będzie? — He imagines human and spiritual unity as a force created by joining separate lives and purposes. · Letter to his mother, 15 October 1845 (Polish)

• Hope
• Love
• Unity

“I want to transform reason into wisdom, awaken a person, and give him an impulse towards the great purposes of life.”

Original: z chęcią, aby mu serce zapełnić, rozum zamienić w mądrość, wskrzesić go niby i dać mu pęd ku wielkim celom żywota — He distinguishes mere intellectual understanding from wisdom put into purposeful action. · Letter to his mother, 15 October 1845 (Polish)

• Growth
• Purpose
• Wisdom

“I approach each person as though he were a brother, wishing to fill his heart, turn his reason into wisdom, awaken him and give him an impulse towards life's great purposes.”

Original: Do każdego zbliżam się niby do brata, z chęcią, aby mu serce zapełnić, rozum zamienić w mądrość, wskrzesić go niby i dać mu pęd ku wielkim celom żywota. — His ideal of human influence is intimate, generous and directed towards spiritual growth. · Letter to his mother, 15 October 1845 (Polish)

• Compassion
• Growth
• Wisdom

“I have worked for these five years as perhaps no man has worked before. The fruits of this work are not in books, but in living hearts and spirits.”

Original: Przez te lat pięć pracowałem tak, jak może jeszcze żaden człowiek nie pracował. Skutki tej pracy nie w księgach są, ale w żywych sercach i duchach, w które je wrzuciłem i posiałem. — He measures creative achievement by its effect on people rather than by books or reputation. · Letter to Wojciech Stattler, 25 December 1848 (Polish)

• Achievement
• Influence
• Work

“Whoever comes first with such poetry, I shall make a pedestal of all my books for him and lie beneath his feet myself, so that he may stand higher.”

Original: Kto pierwszy z taką poezyą przyjdzie, ja mu z wszystkich książek moich postument zrobię, i sam się położę pod nogami, aby stał wyżej i prawdę zawsze oglądał z wysoka. — He values poetry that serves truth so highly that personal literary fame becomes secondary. · Letter to his mother, February 1845 (Polish)

• Humility
• Poetry
• Truth

“Pray to the Most High God day and night for poetry for living people.”

Original: Proś Boga najwyższego w dzień i w nocy o poezyę dla żywych ludzi. — Poetry is imagined as something spiritually useful to living people rather than merely an ornament. · Letter to his mother, February 1845 (Polish)

• Inspiration
• Poetry
• Purpose

“Why should we be sad? Why should we doubt? I shall write about this sadness and doubt at length one day, sternly and fiercely.”

Original: Kwiatków ma pełno w domu, i dzieciątek mu Bóg nasyła — czegóż on się smuci? dla czego wątpi? O tym smutku i zwątpieniu będę długo kiedyś pisał srogo i groźnie. — He treats habitual melancholy and doubt as states to be resisted rather than passively accepted. · Letter to his mother, 1 January 1845 (Polish)

• Courage
• Doubt
• Hope

“As long as there is struggle, resistance and hope, I am unwounded.”

Original: Póki walki, póki oporu, póki nadziei, póty ja jestem nieranny. — Struggle itself becomes a source of resilience and protection against defeat. · Letter to his mother, 14 May 1844 (Polish)

• Endurance
• Hope
• Struggle

“If anything were dangerous to me now, it would be human happiness, great, immense and wholly human happiness.”

Original: Wiesz ty, droga moja, że jeżeliby mi co teraz było niebezpiecznem, to właśnie szczęście ludzkie, szczęście jakie wielkie, ogromne a zupełnie ludzkie. — He sees comfort and fulfilment as potentially distracting from the difficult path he has chosen. · Letter to his mother, 14 May 1844 (Polish)

• Happiness
• Purpose
• Sacrifice

“The happiness of this earthly life is only a secondary thing, as all those know who have pursued happiness and found its fruit bitter.”

Original: Lecz to szczęście ziemskie jest tylko podrzędną rzeczą i wiedzą o tem wszyscy, którzy tylko za szczęściem gonili, i którym ten owoc w ustach zgorzkniał. — He places worldly happiness below the deeper spiritual purposes that increasingly governed his life. · Letter to his mother, 18 March 1843 (Polish)

• Contentment
• Happiness
• Spirituality

“I often dream of the day when we shall live together in a modest country house with a fruit garden, and perhaps we shall be happy.”

Original: Marzę sobie, jak to my kiedyś zamieszkamy w skromnym dworku z owocowym sadem, jak będziem mieli co wieczór kilku miłych przyjaciół, a czasem pójdziemy do żydowskiej szopy, gdzie przy łojowych świeczkach będą włóczący się aktorowie grać komedyjki, umyślnie dla ciebie napisane. — The imagined future is modest, domestic and communal rather than grand or worldly. · Letter to his mother, 1842 (Polish)

• Family
• Happiness
• Home

“Greece, full of wonderful ruins, pleased me greatly and astonished me more than Rome. Egypt has erased Greece from my memory.”

Original: Grecja pełna ruin przecudownych podobała mi się bardzo i bardziej niż Rzym mnie zachwyciła. Egipt zatarł Grecję w mojej pamięci. — His impressions of travel are vivid enough for one landscape to eclipse another in memory. · Letter to his mother, November 1836 (Polish)

• Beauty
• Memory
• Travel

“Life there is so strange and light that Europe now seems dark to me.”

Original: Tak tam dziwne i lekkie jest życie, że mi teraz Europa ciemną się wydaje. — Distance has altered his perception of home and made another way of living seem luminous. · Letter to his mother, 24 November 1837 (Polish)

• Home
• Perception
• Travel

“Such a life and such a journey have a strange attraction.”

Original: Życie takie i podróż taka ma dziwny powab. — The appeal of travel lies partly in its unfamiliarity and freedom from ordinary life. · Letter to his mother, 1836 (Polish)

• Adventure
• Novelty
• Travel

“I myself truly cannot explain why, with such sad eagerness, I throw myself into an unknown world full of dangers.”

Original: Ja sam prawdziwie nie mogę sobie wytłumaczyć, dlaczego z takim smutnym zapałem rzucam się w świat nieznajomy pełny niebezpieczeństw. — He captures the paradox of being drawn towards danger while fully conscious of its risks. · Letter to his mother, August 1836 (Polish)

• Adventure
• Courage
• Uncertainty

“I shall see new countries and new people, live among them, think of death at Christ's tomb, pray for those I love, and return with a heart full of memories and images.”

Original: Obaczę — nowe kraje, nowych ludzi, będę żył z nimi, pomyślę o śmierci na grobie Chrystusa. Będę się tam modlił za tych, których kocham, a potem z sercem pełnym pamiątek i obrazów wrócę do jakiej cichej europejskiej samotności. — The journey combines discovery, devotion, love and the prospect of returning to solitude. · Letter to his mother, 24 August 1836 (Polish)

• Memory
• Solitude
• Travel

“I expect that this journey will be useful to me; if only it strengthens the character needed to undertake and accomplish difficult things, that alone will be enough benefit.”

Original: Spodziewam się, że ta podróż będzie mi użyteczną — chociażby tylko ustaliła moc charakteru, którego potrzeba do przedsięwzięcia i wykonania rzeczy połączonej z trudami znacznymi, to już dosyć będę z niej miał korzyści. — Travel is valued not merely for what it reveals but for the character it demands. · Letter to his mother, 24 August 1836 (Polish)

• Adventure
• Character
• Endurance

“Perhaps you will take this for superstition, but I trusted the verse, and it is leading me on the distant road.”

Original: Może to, droga moja, weźmiesz za przesąd, ale wierszowi temu zawierzyłem, i on mię prowadzi w daleką drogę. — He willingly lets chance, faith and intuition become guides for an uncertain journey. · Letter to his mother, 24 August 1836 (Polish)

• Adventure
• Chance
• Faith

“The project, conceived long ago and several times rejected as too frightening an undertaking, has finally come to pass.”

Original: Projekt ten, od dawna zrobiony i kilka razy odrzucony ode mnie jako nadto straszne przedsięwzięcie, przyszedł na koniec do skutku. — A characteristic mixture of apprehension and determination before his journey east. · Letter to his mother, 24 August 1836 (Polish)

• Action
• Adventure
• Courage

“I cried with such sobbing as I had once done as a child, for that letter made me a child again.”

Original: Płakałem z takiem łkaniem jak dawniej, kiedy byłem dzieckiem, bo też list ten nanowo dzieckiem mię zrobił. — Memory and correspondence collapse the distance between the adult exile and the child he once was. · Letter to his mother, 1830s (Polish)

• Childhood
• Grief
• Memory

“My pen has become unsteady; I am sad, but what can one do.”

Original: Pióro rozkołysało się, smutno mi, ale co robić!.. — A spontaneous glimpse of emotion breaking through the act of writing. · Letter to his mother concerning Ludwika, 1830s (Polish)

• Emotion
• Sadness
• Writing

“I had several events this month that flattered my pride, so I experienced several moments of happiness. Admit that it is a wretched life that finds happiness in such things.”

Original: Miałem w tym miesiącu kilka zdarzeń pochlebiających mojej dumie, więc doznałem kilka chwil szczęścia, wyznajcie, że nędzne to życie, co w tym szczęścia szuka! — He recognises the emptiness of confusing wounded pride with genuine happiness. · Letter to his mother, December 1832 (Polish)

• Happiness
• Pride
• Self Knowledge

“I would like as soon as possible to escape from Paris to some quiet Italian town, so that the town itself might speak to my imagination.”

Original: Chciałbym jak najprędzej wyrwać się z Paryża do jakiego cichego miasta Włoch, żeby samo miasto mogło przemawiać do mojej imaginacji. — He longs for surroundings that nourish the imagination rather than merely entertain. · Letter to his mother, December 1831 (Polish)

• Imagination
• Place
• Solitude

“I have many acquaintances now, but not a single pleasant one, not one with whom it would be agreeable to live.”

Original: Wiele mam teraz znajomych, ale żadnego miłego, żadnego, z którym by mi było żyć przyjemnie. — He distinguishes between having company and finding genuine companionship. · Letter to his mother, December 1831 (Polish)

• Companionship
• Friendship
• Loneliness