{
  "type": "book",
  "site": {
    "name": "Leafy Quotes",
    "language": "en",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com"
  },
  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "title": "Less Than One",
  "slug": "less-than-one",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-brodsky/less-than-one",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-brodsky/less-than-one.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-brodsky/less-than-one.md",
  "author": {
    "name": "Joseph Brodsky",
    "slug": "joseph-brodsky",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-brodsky"
  },
  "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin/joseph-brodsky/less-than-one_978-02-4196-200-8.jpg",
  "quotes_count": 3,
  "quotes": [
    {
      "id": "bdcbd0c8-edb6-4567-b2b0-27fcbea35ed4",
      "slug": "it-is-the",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-brodsky/less-than-one/it-is-the",
      "text": "It is the army that finally makes a citizen of you; without it you still have a chance, however slim, to remain a human being.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "human nature",
          "slug": "human-nature",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Brodsky#Less_Than_One:_Selected_Essays_(1986)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:16"
    },
    {
      "id": "9db8fad6-790f-47f8-8f1c-292b4b9c1dc1",
      "slug": "the-formula-for",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-brodsky/less-than-one/the-formula-for",
      "text": "The formula for prison is a lack of space counterbalanced by a surplus of time. This is what really bothers you, that you can't win. Prison is lack of alternatives, and the telescopic predictability of the future is what drives you crazy.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 28,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "time",
          "slug": "time",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time"
        },
        {
          "name": "prison",
          "slug": "prison",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Brodsky#Less_Than_One:_Selected_Essays_(1986)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:16"
    },
    {
      "id": "1b8f0820-92f8-4fe7-8b91-a22b1c26b810",
      "slug": "this-is-just",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-brodsky/less-than-one/this-is-just",
      "text": "This is just one example of the trimming of the self that — along with the language itself, where verbs and nouns changed places as freely as one dare to have them do so — bred in us such an overpowering sense of ambivalence that in ten years we ended up with a willpower in no way superior to a seaweed’s.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 14,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "totalitarianism",
          "slug": "totalitarianism",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/totalitarianism"
        },
        {
          "name": "willpower",
          "slug": "willpower",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/willpower"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Brodsky#Less_Than_One:_Selected_Essays_(1986)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:16"
    }
  ]
}