Stanisław Jerzy Lec: A Life of Extraordinary Resilience

Portrait of Stanisław Jerzy Lec
Stanisław Jerzy Lec

An Extraordinary Escape

After being captured by Nazi forces, Lec received a death sentence for his second escape attempt. When taken to dig his own grave, he killed his guard with a shovel and escaped again. This remarkable act of survival later became the subject of his most famous poem.

According to Clifton Fadiman‘s introduction to Lec’s book Unkempt Thoughts (Myśli nieuczesane):

“Lec has led the strange (to us), hunted, haunted life of thousands of Central European intellectuals, their experience inexorably shaped by war and revolution. At the outbreak of the war he was imprisoned in a German concentration camp. There he stayed until July 1943 when the camp was liquidated by mass executions. Escaping in a German uniform, he succeeded in reaching Warsaw where he joined the underground fighters. After the war he continued his writing, varying his career by brief service as cultural attache of the Polish Embassy in Vienna. He has also spent two years in Israel.”

After Nazi Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union, Lec was imprisoned in a German work camp in Ternopol. Following his escape, he participated in partisan warfare within communist formations and eventually served in regular units of the Polish army until the end of the war, which he finished in the rank of major and was awarded the order of “Polonia Restituta.”

Lec’s Memorable Aphorisms

Lec is best remembered for his razor-sharp aphorisms that cut through the complexities of human existence with wit, irony, and profound insight:

“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”

“The first condition of immortality is death.”

“You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories.”

“He who limps is still walking.”

“Is it progress if a cannibal is using knife and fork?”

“Suppose you succeed in breaking the wall with your head. And what, then, will you do in the next cell?”

Complete Collection of Notable Aphorisms

  • Beyond each corner new directions lie in wait.
  • The exit is usually where the entrance was.
  • He who limps is still walking.
  • In a war of ideas it is people who get killed.
  • The mob shouts with one big mouth and eats with a thousand little ones.
  • Even a glass eye can see its blindness.
  • To whom should we marry Freedom, to make it multiply?
  • I am against using death as a punishment. I am also against using it as a reward.
  • You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories.
  • Optimists and pessimists differ only on the date of the end of the world.
  • Is it a progress if a cannibal is using knife and fork?
  • If a man who cannot count finds a four-leaf clover, is he lucky?
  • No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.
  • All is in the hands of man. Therefore wash them often.
  • Do not ask God the way to heaven; he will show you the hardest one.
  • If you are not a psychiatrist, stay away from idiots. They are too stupid to pay a layman for his company.
  • Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man, but they don’t bite everybody.
  • The first condition of immortality is death.
  • Suppose you succeed in breaking the wall with your head. And what, then, will you do in the next cell?
  • When smashing monuments, save the pedestals—they always come in handy.

Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep

A Timeless Poem of Comfort and Remembrance

Do not stand at my grave and weep is a poem written in 1932 by Mary Elizabeth Frye. Although the origin of the poem was disputed until later in her life, Mary Frye’s authorship was confirmed in 1998 after research by Abigail Van Buren, a newspaper columnist.

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there; I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sun on ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight.

I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there; I did not die.

About the Poet

Mary Elizabeth Frye

Mary Elizabeth Frye (1905-2004) was an American housewife and florist who, despite having no formal education or training in poetry, wrote this timeless poem to comfort a young Jewish girl who was unable to visit her dying mother in Nazi Germany.

The poem’s enduring appeal lies in its simple yet profound message that the essence of a person continues in the natural world even after death.

Cultural Impact

Funerals & Memorials

Frequently read at funeral services and memorial gatherings around the world

Literary Recognition

Voted Britain’s most popular poem in a 1996 poll despite its American origin

Legacy

Has been translated into many languages and set to music by various composers

Join the Conversation

What meaning does this poem hold for you? Have you encountered it at a meaningful moment in your life?

Enounter With A Snake

OK, it probably wasn’t deadly, but we saw this on our walk tonight and luckily Christina had her iPhone on her. I’m not a huge snake fan, AKA, yeah I’m scared of them, so I got as close as I felt comfortable…AKA… I got close enough that if it charged me, I could run like crazy away from it safely. Risking my life for your blogging enjoyment, people, that’s what I’m here for.