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The stars are dead. The animals will not look: We are left alone with our day, and the time is short, and History to the defeated May say Alas but cannot help nor pardon.

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
Helping
Animals
Left
Short
Cannot
Dead
May
Animal
Look
Alone
Looks
Stars
Pardon
Time
Help
Alas
History
Defeated

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Oh, how I wish that Orwell were still alive, so that I could read his comments on contemporary events!
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We were put on this Earth to help others. Why others were put here is beyond me.
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There has been a vast output of critical studies in contemporary poetry, some of them first rate, but I do not think that , as a rule, a poet should read them.
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One of the most horrible, yet most important, discoveries of our age has been that, if you really wish to destroy a person and turn him into an automaton, the surest method is not physical torture, in the strict sense, but simply to keep him awake, i.e., in an existential relation to life without intermission.
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We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment and let our illusions die.
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To have a sense of sin means to feel guilty at there being an ethical choice to make, a guilt which, however good I may become, remains unchanged.
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The law cannot forgive, for the law has not been wronged, only broken only persons can be wronged. The law can pardon, but it can only pardon what it has the power to punish.
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No hero is mortal till he dies.
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All the literati keep An imaginary friend.
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A dead man who never caused others to die seldom rates a statue.
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Lost in a haunted wood, Children afraid of the night Who have never been happy or good.
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Recipe for the upbringing of a poet: 'As much neurosis as the child can bear.
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Money is the necessity that frees us from necessity.
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