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Thou shalt not answer questionnaires Or quizzes upon world affairs, Nor with compliance Take any test. Thou shalt not sit with statisticians nor commit A social science.

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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Literary Critic
Literary Historian
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Jórvík
Wystan Hugh Auden
Wystan Auden
Wystan H Auden
W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden
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Math
Questionnaires
Upon
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Statisticians
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Quiz
Social
Commit
Statistician
Take
Tests
Compliance
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Thou
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Mathematics
Affairs
Answer
Mathematical

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The condition of mankind is, and always has been, so miserable and depraved that, if anyone were to say to the poet: For God's sake stop singing and do something useful like putting on the kettle or fetching bandages, what just reason could he give for refusing?
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Harrow the house of the dead look shining at New styles of architecture, a change of heart.
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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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Politics cannot be a science, because in politics theory and practice cannot be separated, and the sciences depend upon their separation.
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He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
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A verbal art like poetry is reflective it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become.
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As a poet, there is only one political duty, and that is to defend one's language from corruption.
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The center that I cannot find is known to my unconscious mind.
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Without communication with the dead, a fully human life is not possible.
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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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Dogmatic theological statements are neither logical propositions nor poetic utterances. They are ''shaggy dog'' stories they have a point, but he who tries too hard to get it will miss it.
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Aphorisms are essentially an aristocratic genre of writing. The aphorist does not argue or explain, he asserts and implicit in his assertion is a conviction that he is wiser and more intelligent than his readers.
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Behind you swiftly the figure comes softly, The spot on your skin is a shocking disease.
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It's frightening how easy it is to commit murder in America. Just a drink too much. I can see myself doing it. In England, one feels all the social restraints holding one back. But here, anything can happen.
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All I have is a voice.
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Time and fevers burn away Individual beauty from Thoughtful children, and the grave Proves the child ephemeral
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And make us as Newton was, who in his garden watching The apple falling towards England, became aware Between himself and her of an eternal tie.
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O plunge your hands in water, Plunge them in up to the wrist Stare, stare in the basin And wonder what you've missed.
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We are lived by powers we pretend to understand.
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