--- title: "1 Deadly sins Quotes By W.H. Auden" description: "1 Deadly sins quotes by W.H. Auden. Plus more from W.H. Auden and more Deadly sins sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a02/w-h-auden-2-7412_deadly-sins_he-who-despises-himself-nevertheless-est_836231.jpg" --- > [“He who despises himself, nevertheless esteems himself as a self-despiser. (Nietzsche.) A vain person is always vain about something. He overestimates the importance of some quality or exaggerates the degree to which he possesses it, but the quality has some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/he-who-despises-himself-nevertheless-esteems-himself-as-a-self/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a02/w-h-auden-2-7412_deadly-sins_he-who-despises-himself-nevertheless-est_836231.jpg) ## More by W.H. Auden > [“Part came from Lane, and part from D.H. Lawrence; Gide, though I didn't know it then, gave part. They taught me to express my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/part-came-from-lane-and-part-from-d-h-lawrence-gide-though-i-didn-t/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“As his wife, Emilia must know Iago better than anybody else. She does not know, any more than the others, that he is malevolent,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/as-his-wife-emilia-must-know-iago-better-than-anybody-else-she-does/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“A child's reading is guided by pleasure, but his pleasure is undifferentiated; he cannot distinguish, for example, between aesthetic pleasure and the pleasures of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/a-child-s-reading-is-guided-by-pleasure-but-his-pleasure-is/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“No poet or novelist wishes he was the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were the only one alive,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/no-poet-or-novelist-wishes-he-was-the-only-one-who-ever-lived-but/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“Human "nature" is a nature continually in quest of itself, obliged at every moment to transcend what it was a moment before.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/human-nature-is-a-nature-continually-in-quest-of-itself-obliged-at/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“Cassio is a ladies’ man, that is to say, a man who feels most at home in feminine company where his looks and good…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/cassio-is-a-ladies-man-that-is-to-say-a-man-who-feels-most-at-home-in/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“Lay your sleeping head, my love, Human on my faithless arm; Time and fevers burn away Individual beauty from Thoughtful children, and the grave…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/lay-your-sleeping-head-my-love-human-on-my-faithless-arm-time-and/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“In any first-class work of art, you can find passages that in themselves are extremely boring, but try to cut them out, as they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/in-any-first-class-work-of-art-you-can-find-passages-that-in/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“Healing is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/healing-is-not-a-science-but-the-intuitive-art-of-wooing-nature/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“For a desert island, one would choose a good dictionary rather than the greatest literary masterpiece imaginable, for, in relation to its readers, a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/for-a-desert-island-one-would-choose-a-good-dictionary-rather-than/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“Sorry, my dear, one mustn't be bohemian!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/sorry-my-dear-one-mustn-t-be-bohemian/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“Our hunting fathers told the story Of the sadness of the creatures, Pitied the limits and the lack Set in their finished features; Saw…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/our-hunting-fathers-told-the-story-of-the-sadness-of-the-creatures/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“After Portia has trapped Shylock through his own insistence upon the letter of the law of Contract, she produces another law by which any…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/after-portia-has-trapped-shylock-through-his-own-insistence-upon-the/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“Iago’s treatment of Othello conforms to Bacon’s definition of scientific enquiry as putting Nature to the Question. If a member of the audience were…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/iago-s-treatment-of-othello-conforms-to-bacon-s-definition-of/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“But round your image there is no fog, and the Earth can still astonish.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/but-round-your-image-there-is-no-fog-and-the-earth-can-still-astonish/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/deadly-sins/w-h-auden-2/#itemlist", "name": "1 Deadly sins Quotes By W.H. Auden", "numberOfItems": 1, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“He who despises himself, nevertheless esteems himself as a self-despiser. (Nietzsche.) A vain person is always vain about something. He overestimates the importance of some quality or exaggerates the degree to which he possesses it, but the quality has some real importance and he does possess it to some degree. The fantasy of overestimation or exaggeration makes the vain person comic, but the fact that he cannot be vain about nothing makes his vanity a venial sin, because it is always open to correction by appeal to objective fact. A proud person, on the other hand, is not proud of anything, he is proud, he exists proudly. Pride is neither comic nor venial, but the most mortal of all sins because, lacking any basis in concrete particulars, it is both incorrigible and absolute: one cannot be more or less proud, only proud or humble. Thus, if a painter tries to portray the Seven Deadly Sins, his experience will furnish him readily enough with images symbolic of Gluttony, Lust, Sloth, Anger, Avarice, and Envy, for all these are qualities of a person’s relations to others and the world, but no experience can provide an image of Pride, for the relation it qualifies is the subjective relation of a person to himself. In the seventh frame, therefore, the painter can only place, in lieu of a canvas, a mirror.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "W.H. 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