W. H. Auden ( 10 of 21 )
Learn from your dreams what you lack.
Learn from your dreams what you lack.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable.
Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable.
Commemoration of Cecile Isherwood, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, Grahamstown, South Africa, 1906 Christ did not enchant read more
Commemoration of Cecile Isherwood, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, Grahamstown, South Africa, 1906 Christ did not enchant men; He demanded that they believe in Him: except on one occasion, the Transfiguration. For a brief while, Peter, James, and John were permitted to see Him in His glory. For that brief while they had no need of faith. The vision vanished, and the memory of it did not prevent them from all forsaking Him when He was arrested, or Peter from denying that he had ever known Him.
