Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.
W. H. AudenRead
All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Addiction to sins can lead to dire consequences, potentially resulting in one's downfall.
This quote by W. H. Auden highlights the nature of sin and addiction, suggesting that engaging in sinful behavior can become a compulsive habit that ultimately leads to self-destruction or moral failure. It serves as a warning about the extreme consequences of giving in to our darker impulses, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and resisting such temptations.
Themes
AddictionSinDamnationConsequencesBehavior
In practice
Example use cases
In a talk about self-control, I quoted W. H. Auden to illustrate the dangers of giving in to bad habits.
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
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The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world not destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside ... Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them ... the weak will become prey to the strong.
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A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now.
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You see, when you're middle class, you have to live with the fact that history will ignore you. You have to live with the fact that history can never champion your causes and that history will never feel sorry for you. It is the price that is paid for day-to-day comfort and silence. And because of this price, all happinesses are sterile; all sadnesses go unpitied.
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The doing evil to avoid an evil cannot be good.
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We are not as Christ-centered and cross-cherishing as we should be, because we do not ponder the truth that everything good, and everything bad that God turns for the good, was purchased by the sufferings of Christ.
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In the search for reality, energy creates its own discipline. But mere discipline, without full comprehension of all this, has no meaning, it is a most destructive thing.
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