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Thank God for books as an alternative to conversation.

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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I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade
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All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation.
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The actors today really need the whip hand. They're so lazy. They haven't got the sense of pride in their profession that the less socially elevated musical comedy and music hall people or acrobats have. The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen.
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Happy the hare at morning, for she cannot read The hunter's waking thoughts.
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Words are for those with promises to keep.
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Long ago the accusations had begun, And suddenly knew by whom it had been judged
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One cannot walk through an assembly factory and not feel that one is in Hell.
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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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In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.
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Lost in a haunted wood, Children afraid of the night Who have never been happy or good.
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I just try to put the thing out and hope somebody will read it. Someone says: 'Whom do you write for?' I reply: 'Do you read me?' If they say 'Yes,' I say, 'Do you like it?' If they say 'No,' then I say, 'I don't write for you.'
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The definition of prayer is paying careful and concentrated attention to something other than your own constructions.
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One of the troubles of our times is that we are all, I think, precocious as personalities and backward as characters.
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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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But once in a while the odd thing happens Once in a while the dream comes true And the whole pattern of life is altered Once in a while, the moon turns blue
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Cathedrals, luxury liners laden with souls, Holding to the east their hulls of stone.
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Of course,Behaviourism 'works'. So does torture.
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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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Narcissus does not fall in love with his reflection because it is beautiful, but because it is his. If it were his beauty that enthralled him, he would be set free in a few years by its fading.
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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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