"A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language."
-W. H. Auden
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"Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest.“
-W. H. Auden
posted in Society
Other Quotes by W. H. Auden
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"Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods."
-W. H. Auden
RelationshipView Quote
"Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people and on how many occasions they have genuinely and profoundly shared some experience with another."
-W. H. Auden
PoetryView Quote
"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."
-W. H. Auden
LoveView Quote
"Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be."
-W. H. Auden
LifeView Quote
"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."
-W. H. Auden
SadView Quote
Same Category
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"Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners."
-Vladimir Lenin
SocietyView Quote
"How can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to its young?"
-Paul Sweeney
SocietyView Quote
"There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other."
-Eric Hoffer
SocietyView Quote
"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
-John Lennon
SocietyView Quote
"Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all."
-Edmund Burke
SocietyView Quote
"Civilized society is perpetually menaced with disintegration through this primary hostility of men towards one another."
-Sigmund Freud
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