A Quote by W. H. Auden

The masculine imagination lives in a state of perpetual revolt against the limitations of human life. In theological terms, one might say that all men, left to themselves, become gnostics. They may swagger like peacocks, but in their heart of hearts they all think sex an indignity and wish they could beget themselves on themselves. Hence the aggressive hostility toward women so manifest in most club-car stories.

W. H. Auden

Quote Topics

Against Aggressive Become Car Club Could Heart Hearts Hence Hostility Human Human Life Imagination Indignity Left Life Like Limitations Lives Manifest Masculine May Men Might Most Perpetual Revolt Say Sex State Stories Swagger Terms Themselves Theological Think Toward Wish Women

Quote Author

W. H. Auden
English - Poet
February 21, 1907 - September 29, 1973

Personally, I think that children should be left alone, they should be given an opportunity to grow up, to become aware of themselves and decide themselves who they are: men or women, if they want to have a traditional or homosexual marriage.

Vladimir Putin

Most women seem to be required to pit themselves against men in dramatic situations, and the men got to pit themselves against ideas or God.

Judy Davis

We're used to seeing fantasy explored from a male perspective, and the way men might see sex, have sex, want sex and even be addicted to sex. But I don't think women pursuing that sexuality within themselves is something that's talked about or experienced as often.

Tasha Smith

Now and then women should do for themselves what men have already done—occasionally what men have not done—thereby establishing themselves as persons, and perhaps encouraging other women toward greater independence of thought and action.

Amelia Earhart

I would like to assist these beings who aren't aware that they are actually to assist nature so that they are able to fully realise themselves to be that which they are to become. Luckily for me I prepared the way for others who don't understand themselves by pushing past all limitations and standing up. I prepared the way for those who are not aware of what is to step forth in their lives as their purpose and who are unable to place themselves without forgetting what they are here to do.

Timothy Treadwell

But I think that because they trusted themselves and respected themselves as individuals, because they knew beyond doubt that they were valuable and potentially moral units -- because of this they could give God their own courage and dignity and then receive it back. Such things have disappeared perhaps because men do not trust themselves anymore, and when that happens there is nothing left except perhaps to find some strong sure man, even though he may be wrong, and to dangle from his coattails.

John Steinbeck

Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object - and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.

John Berger

All writers write about themselves, just as the old storytellers chose to tell stories that spoke to and about themselves. They call it the world, but it is themselves they portray. The world of which they write is like a mirror that reflects the inside of their hearts, often more truly than they know.

Jane Yolen

If women were by nature what they make themselves by art; if they were to lose suddenly all the freshness of their complexion, and their faces to become as fiery and as leaden as they make them with the red and the paint they besmear themselves with, they would consider themselves the most wretched creatures on earth.

Jean de la Bruyere

It's so important for women to say to other women, 'I like myself how I am.' But it's hard because in your heart of hearts you are thinking, 'I don't really.' But you have to learn to say it. Imagine what a world it would be if people felt good about themselves the whole time.

Evangeline Lilly

I've learned that men and women who are living wholehearted lives really allow themselves to soften into joy and happiness. They allow themselves to experience it.

Brene Brown

I like men who style themselves so that I can tell they give a damn about how they present themselves, but not too much as to say that's probably what they care about most.

Emma Ishta

The creed of our democracy is that liberty is acquired and kept by men and women who are strong and self-reliant, and possessed of such wisdom as God gives mankind - men and women who are just, and understanding, and generous to others - men and women who are capable of disciplining themselves. For they are the rulers and they must rule themselves.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Romantics might like to think of themselves as being composed of stardust. Cynics might prefer to think of themselves as nuclear waste.

Simon Singh

Unity and self-sacrifice, of themselves, even when fostered by the most noble means, produce a facility for hating. Even when men league themselves mightily together to promote tolerance and peace on earth, they are likely to be violently intolerant toward those not of a like mind.