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Blessed be all metrical rules that forbid automatic responses, force us to have second thoughts, free us from the fetters of Self.

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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Wystan Hugh Auden
Wystan Auden
Wystan H Auden
W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden
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Forbid
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Aside from purely technical analysis, nothing can be said about music, except when it is bad when it is good, one can only listen and be grateful.
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No being can make another one happy.
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Fame often makes a writer vain, but seldom makes him proud.
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We are not commanded (or forbidden) to love our mates, our children, our friends, our country because such affections come naturally to us and are good in themselves, although we may corrupt them. We are commanded to love our neighbor because our natural attitude toward the other is one of either indifference or hostility.
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No poet or novelist wishes he were the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were the only one alive, and quite a number fondly believe their wish has been granted.
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The camera may do justice to laughter, but must degrade sorrow.
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Like love we don't know where or why Like love we cant compel or fly Like Love we often weep Like Love we seldom keep
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All wishes, whatever their apparent content, have the same and unvarying meaning: I refuse to be what I am.
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If we really want to live, we'd better start at once to try.
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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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A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us.
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The only reason the Protestants and Catholics have given up the idea of universal domination is because they've realised they can't get away with it.
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No human being is innocent, but there is a class of innocent human actions called Games.
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You know there are no secrets in America. It's quite different in England, where people think of a secret as a shared relation between two people.
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Detective stories have nothing to do with works of art.
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The habit-forming pain, Mismanagement and grief: We must suffer them all again.
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Private faces in public places Are wiser and nicer Than public faces in private places.
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Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.
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Defenceless under the night Our world in stupor lies Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages: May I, composed like them Of Eros and of dust, Beleaguered by the same Negation and despair, Show an affirming flame.
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