Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.
W. H. AudenRead
Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Differences among friends are often more annoying when the issues at hand are insignificant.
W. H. Auden suggests that the trivial differences in taste or opinion can become a source of irritation among friends. This highlights the tendency for people to become more frustrated by inconsequential disagreements, emphasizing the importance of valuing friendship over petty differences. It serves as a reminder to focus on the deeper connections that bind us rather than letting minor disputes create discord.
Themes
FriendshipDifferencesIrritationTrivialityTaste
In practice
Example use cases
During a casual gathering, one might quote Auden to resolve a minor argument over movie preferences.
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.
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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.
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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
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A blessed thing it is to have a friend; one human soul whom we can trust utterly; who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults; who will speak the honest truth to us, while the world flatters us to our face, and laughs at us behind our back; who will give us counsel and reproof in a day of prosperity and self-conceit; but who, again, will comfort and encourage us in days of difficulty and sorrow, when the world leaves us alone to fight our own battle as we can.
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