Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.
W. H. AudenRead
Health is the state about which medicine has nothing to say.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights that true health goes beyond what medicine can address or diagnose.
W. H. Auden's quote suggests that health is a holistic state that encompasses more than just the absence of illness or medical conditions. It implies that wellness is a broader concept that may include emotional, mental, and social well-being, aspects that traditional medicine may not fully capture or understand.
Themes
HealthMedicineWellnessHolisticWell-Being
In practice
Example use cases
During a seminar on holistic health, this quote could be used to emphasize the importance of emotional and mental wellness.
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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