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A person incapable of imaging another world than given to him by his senses would be subhuman, and a person who identifies his imaginary world with the world of sensory fact has become insane.
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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Jórvík
Wystan Hugh Auden
Wystan Auden
Wystan H Auden
W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden
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More quotes by W. H. Auden
We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment and let our illusions die.
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Intellectual disgrace Stares from every human face, And the seas of pity lie Locked and frozen in each eye.
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The countenances of children, like those of animals, are masks, not faces, for they have not yet developed a significant profile of their own.
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The windiest militant trash Important Persons shout Is not so crude as our wish: What mad Nijinsky wrote About Diaghilev Is true of the normal heart For the error bred in the bone Of each woman and each man Craves what it cannot have Not universal love But to be loved alone.
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A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them. Even a rich man thinks he has to go down to the office everyday. Not because he likes it but because he can't think of anything else to do.
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Dance till the stars come down from the rafters Dance, Dance, Dance 'till you drop.
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I see little hope for a peaceful world until men are excluded from the realm of foreign policy altogether and all decisions concerning international relations are reserved for women, preferably married ones.
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There are not many English novels which deserve to be called great: Parade's End is one of them.
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You owe it to all of us all get on with what you're good at.
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All wishes, whatever their apparent content, have the same and unvarying meaning: I refuse to be what I am.
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The most exciting rhythms seem unexpected and complex, the most beautiful melodies simple and inevitable.
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The relation of faith between subject and object is unique in every case. Hundreds may believe, but each has to believe by himself.
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To have a sense of sin means to feel guilty at there being an ethical choice to make, a guilt which, however good I may become, remains unchanged.
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Each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom.
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Goodness is easier to recognize than to define.
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Every high C accurately struck demolishes the theory that we are the irresponsible puppets of fate or chance.
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Though one cannot always Remember exactly why one has been happy, There is no forgetting that one was.
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The only way to spend New Year's Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears.
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I'm always amazed at the American practice of allowing one party to a homosexual act to remain passive--it's so undemocratic. Sexmust be mutual.
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Literary confessors are contemptible, like beggars who exhibit their sores for money, but not so contemptible as the public that buys their books.
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