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The glacier knocks in the cupboard, The desert sighs in the bed, And the crack in the teacup opens A lane to the land of the dead.
W. H. Auden
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W. H. Auden
Age: 66 †
Born: 1907
Born: February 21
Died: 1973
Died: September 28
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Wystan Hugh Auden
Wystan Auden
Wystan H Auden
W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden
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More quotes by W. H. Auden
Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be.
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Out on the lawn I lie in bed, Vega conspicuous overhead.
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All that we are not stares back at what we are.
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Good can imagine Evil but Evil cannot imagine Good.
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What the poet says has never been said before, but, once he has said it, his readers recognize its validity for themselves.
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With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse
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No hero is mortal till he dies.
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A poor American feels guilty at being poor, but less guilty than an American rentier who has inherited wealth but is doing nothingto increase it what can the latter do but take to drink and psychoanalysis?
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Most people enjoy the sight of their own handwriting as they enjoy the smell of their own farts.
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Like love we don't know where or why Like love we cant compel or fly Like Love we often weep Like Love we seldom keep
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O plunge your hands in water, Plunge them in up to the wrist Stare, stare in the basin And wonder what you've missed.
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We are lived by powers we pretend to understand.
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The lights must never go out, The music must always play
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Nobody is ever sent to Hell: he or she insists on going there.
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It's a pity I am so impatient and careless, as any ordinary person could learn all the techniques of photography in a week. It is the democratic art, i.e. technical skill is practically eliminated - the more foolproof cameras become with focusing and exposure gadgets the better - and artistic quality depends only on choice of subject.
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Time will say nothing but I told you so, Time only knows the price we have to pay If I could tell you I would let you know.
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From beginning to end Wilde performed his life and continued to do so even after fame had taken the plot out of his own hands.
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Beauty, midnight, vision dies: Let the winds of dawn that blow Softly round your dreaming head Such a day of welcome show Eye and knocking heart may bless, Find our mortal world enough Noons of dryness find you fed By the involuntary powers, Nights of insult let you pass Watched by every human love.
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I don't think the mystical experience can be verbalized. When the ego disappears, so does power over language.
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Life is a picnic on a precipice.
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