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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.

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
Persons
Clever
Person
Communicate
Sing
Singing
Stupid
Song
Credible
Place
Beautifully
Character
Precisely

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All good art is in the nature of a letter written to amuse a sick friend. Too much art, particularly in our time, is only a letter written to oneself.
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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 true men of action in our time, those who transform the world, are not the politicians and statesmen, but the scientists
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But if a stranger in the train asks me my occupation, I never answer writer for fear that he may go on to ask me what I write, and to answer poetry would embarrass us both, for we both know that nobody can earn a living simply by writing poetry.
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The nightingales are sobbing in The orchards of our mothers, And hearts that we broke long ago Have long been breaking others Tears are round, the sea is deep: Roll them overboard and sleep.
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By mourning tongues The death of the poet was kept from his poems.
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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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Money is the necessity that frees us from necessity.
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If there are any souls in hell, it is because that is where they insist on being.
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Fame often makes a writer vain, but seldom makes him proud.
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To choose what is difficult all one's days, as if it were easy, that is faith
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The Americans are violently oral. That's why in America the mother is all-important and the father has no position at all -- isn't respected in the least. Even the American passion for laxatives can be explained as an oral manifestation. They want to get rid of any unpleasantness taken in through the mouth.
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To save your world you asked this man to die would this man, could he see you now, ask why?
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Of course,Behaviourism 'works'. So does torture.
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Ideally, government is the means by which all the individual wills are assured complete freedom of moral choice and at the same time prevented from ever clashing.
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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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The slogan of Hell: Eat or be eaten. The slogan of Heaven: Eat and be eaten.
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To ask the hard question is simple.
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Every poet has his dream reader: mine keeps a look out for curious prosodic fauna like bacchics and choriambs.
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A false enchantment can all too easily last a lifetime.
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