Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.
W. H. AudenRead
Music is the best means we have of digesting time.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Music serves as a powerful medium for experiencing and understanding the passage of time.
In this quote, W. H. Auden suggests that music provides a unique way to perceive and process time. Through its rhythms, melodies, and themes, music captures moments and emotions, allowing us to reflect on our experiences and the flow of life in a profound way.
Themes
MusicTimeArtExperienceEmotion
In practice
Example use cases
A speaker at a conference on the role of music in society could use this quote to emphasize its impact on human experience.
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
'Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'
W. H. AudenRead
Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness; it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest.
W. H. AudenRead
Similar quotes
It's wonderful when music is intellectually stimulating. But ultimately it has to be a visceral experience.
Maya BeiserRead
It's ironic that while I was a worker in Detroit, which I left when I was twenty six, my sense was that the thing that's going to stop me from being a poet is the fact that I'm doing this crummy work.
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This is the role of writers: to turn their tears into a story - and perhaps into a prayer.
Elie WieselRead
Look, Salvador Dali did not paint because he needed the money. No conversation about materialism and music makes sense. You make music and that's that, it doesn't matter why.
Robert PlantRead
I find that kid actors are great reminders of the simplicity of acting. As you get older, you can sometimes complicate things a little more. You can become too aware of, 'Okay, this is the scene emotionally. This is where we need to be. We've got the climax coming up.' You can start to analyze it too much.
Hugh JackmanRead
I give myself homework when I have an audition. I give myself goals, and that's how I check how I'm doing. It can be something simple like 'listen,' or 'find your feet.' And then afterward it's an assessment, so in a way it's not about booking the job or not. It's about what I learned as an actor about that character.
Lupita Nyong'ORead