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To be happy means to be free, not from pain or fear, but from care or anxiety.

W. H. Auden

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W. H. Auden
Age: 66 †
Born: 1907
Born: February 21
Died: 1973
Died: September 28
Author
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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
Means
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Anxiety
Happy
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Pain
Fear

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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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It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy. When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful.
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The most important truths are likely to be those which society at that time least wants to hear.
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Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest.
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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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Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality.
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Over the tea-cups and in the square the tongue has its desire Still waters run deep, my dear, there's never smoke without fire.
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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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Those who will not reason, perish in the act. Those who will not act, perish for that reason.
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Each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom.
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Whatever you do, good or bad, people will always have something negative to say
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Weep for the lives your wishes never led.
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All that we are not stares back at what we are.
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See without looking, hear without listening, breathe without asking.
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Attacking bad books is not only a waste of time but also bad for the character. If I find a book really bad, the only interest I can derive from writing about it has to come from myself, from such display of intelligence, wit and malice as I can contrive. One cannot review a bad book without showing off.
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The most exciting rhythms seem unexpected and complex, the most beautiful melodies simple and inevitable.
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The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen.
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O let not Time deceive you, You cannot conquer Time.
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Sexual fidelity is more important in a homosexual relationship than in any other. In other relationships there are a variety of ties. But here, fidelity is the only bond.
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