Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.
W. H. AudenRead
God is Love, we are taught as children to believe. But when we first begin to get some inkling of how He loves us, we are repelled; it seems so cold, indeed, not love at all as we understand the word.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the complex nature of divine love as perceived by humans, often feeling distant or cold compared to our understanding of love.
W. H. Auden's quote explores the paradox of divine love, suggesting that while we are taught that God embodies love, the realization of how this love operates can sometimes feel unwelcoming or unfamiliar. This tension arises when we encounter the idea of love that transcends human emotions, provoking a sense of disconnection from what we traditionally understand as warmth and affection.
Themes
LoveDivineUnderstandingEmotionRelationship
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion about spirituality in a philosophy class.
More from W. H. Auden
All quotes →That 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
He who gives away shall have real gain. He who subdues himself shall be free; he shall cease to be a slave of passions. The righteous man casts off evil, and by rooting out lust, bitterness, and illusion do we reach Nirvana.
BuddhaRead
The willingness to not bypass illusion is very important. We come to nirvana by way of samsara. We come to see the true nature of things by seeing through the illusory nature of things. We don't come to nirvana by avoiding samsara. We don't come to clarity by avoiding confusion.
AdyashantiRead
Man is not logical and his intellectual history is a record of mental reserves and compromises. He hangs on to what he can in his old beliefs even when he is compelled to surrender their logical basis.
John DeweyRead
Standards are always out of date. That's what makes them standards.
Alan BennettRead
Do we really think that the United States will have the protection of innocent Afghans in mind if it rains terror down on the Afghan infrastructure? We are supposedly fighting them because they immorally killed innocent civilians. That made them evil. If we do the same, are we any less immoral?
George LakoffRead
Thought is the organizing factor in man, intersected between the causal primary instincts and the resulting actions.
Albert EinsteinRead