Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.
W. H. AudenRead
The center that I cannot find is known to my unconscious mind.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote implies that there are aspects of ourselves and our thoughts that we may not be consciously aware of but are known at a deeper, subconscious level.
W. H. Auden's quote suggests that while we may struggle to understand our own motivations and feelings consciously, our unconscious mind holds knowledge that is often elusive to our waking thoughts. It highlights the complexity of human consciousness and the hidden depths of our psyche that influence our actions and decisions without our direct awareness.
Themes
UnconsciousMindSelf-DiscoveryPsychologyAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about psychological awareness and self-exploration during a therapy session.
More from W. H. Auden
All quotes βThat 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.
W. H. AudenRead
Nobody knows what the cause is, though some pretend they do; it like some hidden assassin waiting to strike at you. Childless women get it, and men when they retire; it as if there had to be some outlet for their foiled creative fire.
W. H. AudenRead
History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology.
W. H. AudenRead
Music is the best means we have of digesting time.
W. H. AudenRead
'Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'
W. H. AudenRead
Similar quotes
Forget about enlightenment. Sit down wherever you are and listen to the wind that is singing in your veins. Feel the love, the longing and the fear in your bones. Open your heart to who you are, right now, not who you would like to be. Not the saint you're striving to become. But the being right here before you, inside you, around you. All of you is holy. You're already more and less than whatever you can know. Breathe out, look in, let go.
John WelwoodRead
I have always had trouble recognizing myself in the features of the intellectual playing his political role according to the screenplay that you are familiar with and whose heritage deserves to be questioned.
Jacques DerridaRead
Did it matter then, she asked herself, walking towards Bond Street, did it matter that she must inevitably cease completely? All this must go on without her; did she resent it; or did it not become consoling to believe that death ended absolutely?
Virginia WoolfRead
No race has a monopoly on vice or virtue, and the worth of an individual is not related to the color of his skin.
Whitney M. YoungRead
The Bible is not interested in arguing, because if you state a thesis of belief you have already stated it's opposite; if you say, I believe in God, you have already suggested the possibility of not believing in him. [p.250]
Northrop FryeRead
As an individual who undertakes to live by borrowing, soon finds his original means devoured by interest, and next no one left to borrow from - so must it be with a government.
Abraham LincolnRead