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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.

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
Cannot
Power
Wronged
Persons
Punish
Pardon
Forgive
Forgiving
Broken
Law

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Encased in talent like a uniform, The rank of every poet is well known They can amaze us like a thunderstorm, Or die so young, or live for years alone.
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Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the differences between accidental limitations which it is our duty to outgrow and the necessary limitations of our nature beyond which we cannot trespass with impunity.
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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 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.
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No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.
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We are all here on earth to help others what on earth the others are here for I don't know.
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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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Man desires to be free and he desires to feel important. This places him in a dilemma, for the more he emancipates himself from necessity the less important he feels.
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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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All pity is self-pity.
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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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Oh, how I wish that Orwell were still alive, so that I could read his comments on contemporary events!
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The eye likes novelty, but the ear craves familiarity.
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An unmanly sort of man whose love life seems to have been largely confined to crying in laps and playing mouse.
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If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving be me.
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If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons and take his gun away.
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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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Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle.
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It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.
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Poetry is the only art people haven't learned to consume like soup.
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