Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.
W. H. AudenRead
The words of a dead man are modified in the guts of the living.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that the interpretations of the deceased's words are shaped by the perceptions and experiences of the living.
W. H. Auden's quote highlights the dynamic relationship between the past and the present, illustrating how the thoughts and expressions of those who have passed away are not static but are continually reinterpreted and reshaped by the living. It underscores the idea that language, literature, and ideas evolve as they are embraced by new generations, reflecting contemporary understandings, emotions, and contexts.
Themes
InterpretationWordsLegacyLivingModification
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a literary discussion about the evolution of classic texts.
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
Similar quotes
World events are the work of individuals whose motives are often frivolous, even casual.
Gore VidalRead
Somebody said once or wrote, once: 'We're all of us children in a vast kindergarten trying to spell God's name with the wrong alphabet blocks!
Tennessee WilliamsRead
In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead. In the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead.
Erich FrommRead
If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.
Thurgood MarshallRead
At the bottom no one in life can help anyone else in life; this one experiences over and over in every conflict and every perplexity: that one is alone. That isn't as bad as it may first appear; and again it is the best thing in life that each should have everything in himself; his fate, his future, his whole expanse and world.
Rainer Maria RilkeRead
Is not nationalism - that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder - one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred? These ways of thinking - cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on - have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.
Howard ZinnRead