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W. H. Auden Quotes

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Famous W. H. Auden Quotes

“The Three Wiseman: The weather has been awful, The countryside is dreary, Marsh, jungle, rock; and echoes mock, Calling our hope unlawful; But a silly song can help along Yours ever and sincerely: At least we know for certain that we are three old sinners, that this journey is much too long, that we want our dinners, and miss our wives, our books, our dogs, but have only the vaguest idea why we are what we are. To discover how to be human now Is the reason we follow this star.”

KnowsWantHumansLongHas BeensBookIdeasReasonHelpingCertainSongThreeStarsWifeJourneyRocksDogMissingCallingDinnerSillyWeatherAwfulSinnerEchoesJungleSincerelyCountrysideMockDrearyMarshesUnlawful
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“Follow, poet, follow right To the bottom of the night, With your unconstraining voice Still persuade us to rejoice; With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse, Sing of human unsuccess In a rapture of distress; In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start, In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise.”

MenHumansHeartStillsNightVoiceHealingTeachPoetPraisePrisonBottomDesertCurseRejoiceVersesDistressFountainFarmingFree ManRaptureVineyards
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“Beauty, midnight, vision dies: Let the winds of dawn that blow Softly round your dreaming head Such a day of welcome show Eye and knocking heart may bless, Find our mortal world enough; Noons of dryness find you fed By the involuntary powers, Nights of insult let you pass Watched by every human love.”

WorldHumansHeartMayEnoughShowsDreamEyeNightDiesVisionWindRoundsBlowWelcomeMortalsDawnInsultFedsBlessMidnightNoonKnockingInvoluntaryHuman Love
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“That the speech of self-disclosure should be translatable seems to me very odd, but I am convinced that it is. The conclusion that I draw is that the only quality which all human being without exception possess is uniqueness: any characteristic, on the other hand, which one individual can be recognized as having in common with another, like red hair or the English language, implies the existence of other individual qualities which this classification excludes.”

ShouldHumansSelfHandsSeemsIndividualLanguageHuman BeingsCommonExistenceQualityHairSpeechDrawsRedConvincedConclusionOddCharacteristicsExceptionUniquenessEnglish LanguageClassificationDisclosureRed HairSelf Disclosure
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“A doctor, like anyone else who has to deal with human beings, each of them unique, cannot be a scientist; he is either, like the surgeon, a craftsman, or, like the physician and the psychologist, an artist. This means that in order to be a good doctor a man must also have a good character, that is to say, whatever weaknesses and foibles he may have, he must love his fellow human beings in the concrete and desire their good before his own.”

MenLoveHumansMayMeanCharacterDesireArtistOrderHuman BeingsDealsUniqueWeaknessDoctorsScientistFellowsGoodConcretePhysiciansPsychologistSurgeonsCaring For OthersGood CharacterCraftsmanFoiblesIndividual DifferencesGood DoctorsDoctoring
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“If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves. The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Br?nnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.”

IfsHumansRealStatesFactsFeelingsCommonQualityRolesParticularCostPassionateReal LifeOperaRootedBoresImitationHuman WillWillfulness
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“The masculine imagination lives in a state of perpetual revolt against the limitations of human life. In theological terms, one might say that all men, left to themselves, become gnostics. They may swagger like peacocks, but in their heart of hearts they all think sex an indignity and wish they could beget themselves on themselves. Hence the aggressive hostility toward women so manifest in most club-car stories.”

ThinkingMenHumansHeartMayStatesStoriesMightLeftWishSexTermImaginationCarClubsLimitationHuman LifeManifestAggressivePerpetualMasculineHostilityRevoltTheologicalBegetsSwaggerIndignityPeacock
Author:W. H. Auden
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