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It is, for example, axiomatic that we should all think of ourselves as being more sensitive than other people because, when we are insensitive in our dealings with others, we cannot be aware of it at the time: conscious insensitivity is a self-contradiction.

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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Left to itself the masculine imagination has very little appreciation for the here and now it prefers to dwell on what is absent, on what has been or may be. If men are more punctual than women, it is because they know that, without the external discipline of clock time, they would never get anything done.
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The closest modern equivalent to the Homeric hero is the ace fighter pilot.
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A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish.
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Precisely because we do not communicate by singing, a song can be out of place but not out of character it is just as credible that a stupid person should sing beautifully as that a clever person should do so.
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The way to read a fairy tale is to throw yourself in.
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In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.
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Language is the mother, not the handmaiden, of thought words will tell you things you never thought or felt before.
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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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A dead man who never caused others to die seldom rates a statue.
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We honor founders of these starving cities, Whose honor is the image of our sorrow.
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Behind you swiftly the figure comes softly, The spot on your skin is a shocking disease.
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But he would have us most of all remember to be enthusiastic over the night. Not only for the sense of wonder it alone has to offer but also because it needs our love. For with sad eyes its delectable creatures look up and beg us dumbly to ask them to follow. They are exiles who long for a future that lies in our power.
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My deepest feeling about politicians is that they are dangerous lunatics to be avoided when possible and carefully humored people, above all, to whom one must never tell the truth.
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A poet must never make a statement simply because it is sounds poetically exciting he must also believe it to be true.
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In relation to a writer, most readers believe in the Double Standard: they may be unfaithful to him as often as they like, but he must never, never be unfaithful to them.
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Clear, unscaleable ahead, Rise the mountains of instead From whose cold, cascading streams None may drink except in dreams
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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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We were put on this earth to make things.
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And none will hear the postman’s knock Without a quickening of the heart. For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?
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An unmanly sort of man whose love life seems to have been largely confined to crying in laps and playing mouse.
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