Osip Mandelstam

My turn shall also come:

— Osip Mandelstam

Poetry is the plough that turns up time, so that the deepest layer, its black earth, is on top.

— Osip Mandelstam

We live, but we do not feel the land beneath us, Ten steps away and our words cannot be heard.

— Osip Mandelstam

Only in Russia poetry is respected – it gets people killed. Is there anywhere else where poetry is so common a motive for murder?

— Osip Mandelstam