W. H. Auden ( 10 of 21 )
We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know.
We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know.
Learn from your dreams what you lack.
Learn from your dreams what you lack.
Among those whom I like, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all read more
Among those whom I like, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.
Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I read more
Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.
In those whom I like, I can find no common denominator; in those whom I love I can: they all read more
In those whom I like, I can find no common denominator; in those whom I love I can: they all make me laugh.
It takes little talent to see clearly what lies under one's nose, a good deal of it to know in read more
It takes little talent to see clearly what lies under one's nose, a good deal of it to know in which direction to point that organ.
He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, read more
He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
All theological language is necessarily analogical, but it was singularly unfortunate that the Church, in speaking of punishment for sin, read more
All theological language is necessarily analogical, but it was singularly unfortunate that the Church, in speaking of punishment for sin, should have chosen the analogy of criminal law, for the analogy is incompatible with the Christian belief in God as the creator of Man. Criminal laws are laws, imposed on men, who are already in existence, with or without their consent, and, with the possible exception of capital punishment for murder, there is no logical relation between the nature of a crime and the penalty inflicted for committing it. If God created man, then the laws of man's spiritual nature must, like the laws of his physical nature, be laws -- laws, that is to say, which he is free to defy but no more free to break than he can break the law of gravity by jumping out of the window, or the laws of biochemistry by getting drunk -- and the consequences of defying them must be as inevitable and as intrinsically related to their nature as a broken leg or a hangover. To state spiritual laws in the imperative -- Thou shalt love God with all thy being, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself -- is simply a pedagogical technique, as when a mother says to her small son, "Stay away from the window!" because the child does not yet know what will happen if he falls out of it.
When the Sex War ended with the slaughter of the Grandmothers, / They found a bachelor's baby suffocating under them; read more
When the Sex War ended with the slaughter of the Grandmothers, / They found a bachelor's baby suffocating under them; / Somebody called him George and that was the end of it: / They hitched him up to the Army.
Continuing a short series on forgiveness: Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner. ("To know all is to forgive all.") read more
Continuing a short series on forgiveness: Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner. ("To know all is to forgive all.") No commonplace is more untrue. Behavior, whether conditioned by an individual neurosis or by society, can be understood, that is to say, one knows exactly why such and such an individual behaves as he does. But a personal action or deed is always mysterious. When we really act, precisely because it is a matter of free choice, we can never say exactly why we do this rather than that. But it is only deeds that we are required to forgive. If someone does me an injury, the question of forgiveness only arises if I am convinced (a) that the injury he did me was a free act on his part and therefore no less mysterious to him than to me, and (b) that it was me personally whom he meant to injure. Christ does not forgive the soldiers who are nailing him to the Cross; he asks the Father to forgive them. He knows as well as they do why they are doing this -- they are a squad, detailed to execute a criminal. They do not know what they are doing, because it is not their business, as executioners, to know whom they are crucifying. If the person who does me an injury does not know what he is doing, then it is as ridiculous for me to talk about forgiving him as it would be for me to "forgive" a tile which falls on my head in a gale.
