Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.
W. H. AudenRead
To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself. Whenever a man so concentrates his attention - on a landscape, a poem, a geometrical problem, an idol, or the True God - that he completely forgets his own ego and desires, he is praying. The primary task of the schoolteacher is to teach children, in a secular context, the technique of prayer.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Prayer is a way of focusing on something beyond oneself, leading to a deeper understanding and connection with the world.
In this quote, W. H. Auden suggests that the act of prayer transcends traditional religious practices and can be understood as a profound focus on anything outside of oneself that captures one's full attention, whether it's art, nature, or a deeper truth. He emphasizes the importance of teaching this technique in educational settings, allowing individuals, especially children, to learn the value of concentrating on aspects beyond their own personal desires, cultivating a sense of awareness and appreciation for the world around them.
Themes
PrayerAttentionSelflessnessTeachingAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about mindfulness, one might say, 'As W. H. Auden expresses, 'To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself.'
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
Most men think graft a sporadic evil, breaking out here and there, with no connection between outbreaks. I shared the same opinion, but very soon I discovered that the graft in the cities always leads to the graft in the State.
Lincoln SteffensRead
Understand: any phenomenon in the world is by nature complex. The people you deal with are equally complex. Any action sets off a limitless chain of reactions. It is never so simple as A leads to B. B will lead to C, D and beyond.
Robert GreeneRead
All men in their hearts, I say, bear witness to these truths; they need only to be made to understand it.
Pierre-Joseph ProudhonRead
And we have made of ourselves living cesspools, and driven doctors to invent names for our diseases.
PlatoRead
The idea is to remain in a state of constant departure, while always arriving.
Richard LinklaterRead
There's guilt about our treatment of native peoples in modern intellectual life, and an unwillingness to acknowledge there could be anything good about Western culture.
Steven PinkerRead