Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.
Thou shalt not answer questionnaires Or quizzes upon world affairs, Nor with compliance Take any test. Thou shalt not sit with statisticians nor commit A social science.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques the idea of using data and statistics to understand complex social issues, suggesting a skepticism toward overly analytical approaches.
W. H. Auden's quote encourages a critical view of the reliance on statistics and social sciences in understanding the world. It suggests that questionnaires and tests, often seen as tools for knowledge, may fail to capture the complexity of human experience and social phenomena. Auden seems to advocate for a more nuanced, intuitive approach to understanding relationships and societal issues rather than mere data-driven analysis.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on the implications of data in policy-making, one might quote Auden to emphasize the limitations of statistics.
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.
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.
History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology.
Music is the best means we have of digesting time.
'Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'
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Let evil wait for the day on which it must fall.
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Rich Mullins was the uneasy conscience of Christian music. He didn't live like a star. He'd taken a vow of poverty so that what he earned could be used to help others.
Seek not abroad, for in the inner man dwells the truth.
Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.
You ought not attempt to cure the eyes without the head, or the head without the body, so neither ought you attempt to cure the body without the soul.