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Laziness acknowledges the relation of the present to the past but ignores its relation to the future impatience acknowledge its relation to the future but ignores its relation to the past neither the lazy nor the impatient man, that is, accepts the present instant in its full reality and so cannot love his neighbour completely.

W. H. Auden

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W. H. Auden
Age: 66 †
Born: 1907
Born: February 21
Died: 1973
Died: September 28
Author
Composer
Essayist
Librettist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Playwright
Poet
Screenwriter
University Teacher
Writer
Jórvík
Wystan Hugh Auden
Wystan Auden
Wystan H Auden
W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden
Reality
Instant
Ignores
Cannot
Relation
Accepts
Past
Neither
Impatience
Men
Completely
Neighbour
Love
Accepting
Impatient
Present
Laziness
Full
Lazy
Future
Acknowledge
Acknowledges

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With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse
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There's always another story. There's more than meets the eye.
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Few can remember clearly when innocence came to a sudden end, the moment at which we ask for the first time: Am I loved?
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There must always be two kinds of art: escape-art, for man needs escape as he needs food and deep sleep, and parable-art, that art which shall teach man to unlearn hatred and learn love.
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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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Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone. Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
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Genealogies are admirable things, provided they do not encourage the curious delusion that some families are older than others.
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I will love you forever swears the poet. I find this easy to swear too. I will love you at 4:15 pm next Tuesday - Is that still as easy?
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One rational voice is dumb: over a grave The household of Impulse mourns one dearly loved. Sad is Eros, builder of cities, And weeping anarchic Aphrodite.
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Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the differences between accidental limitations which it is our duty to outgrow and the necessary limitations of our nature beyond which we cannot trespass with impunity.
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In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start.
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Human language is mythological and metaphorical by nature.
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Water is the soul of the Earth.
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No person can be a great leader unless he takes genuine joy in the successes of those under him.
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The element of craftsmanship in poetry is obscured by the fact that all men are taught to speak and most to read and write, while very few men are taught to draw or paint or write music.
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a culture is no better than its woods
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Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table.
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