--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Time and fevers burn away Individual…" description: "\"Time and fevers burn away Individual beauty from Thoughtful children, and the grave Proves the child ephemeral\" — W. H. Auden" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ac7/w-h-auden-856_beauty_time-and-fevers-burn-away-individual-bea_142135.png" --- # Time and fevers burn away Individual beauty from… ![“Time and fevers burn away Individual beauty from Thoughtful children, and the grave Proves the child ephemeral” quote by W. H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ac7/w-h-auden-856_beauty_time-and-fevers-burn-away-individual-bea_142135.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ac7/w-h-auden-856_beauty_time-and-fevers-burn-away-individual-bea_142135.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ac7/w-h-auden-856_beauty_time-and-fevers-burn-away-individual-bea_142135.png) > “Time and fevers burn away Individual beauty from Thoughtful children, and the grave Proves the child ephemeral” [W. H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Time and illness erode physical beauty, while youthful innocence is fleeting, underscoring mortality. **In simple terms:** Beauty fades with time and illness; childhood is temporary. Key Takeaway Accept impermanence and cherish inner qualities. Themes mortality beauty childhood ephemerality Mood melancholic contemplative Type philosophical poetic When to use this quote - hospital visits - parenting - reflecting on aging - legacy planning Key Concepts existentialism human condition aging Questions to Reflect On - How do you value inner versus outer beauty? - What does impermanence teach you? A Different Perspective Focusing on external beauty can distract from deeper growth. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Beauty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beauty/) [Children](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/children/) [Death](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/death/) [Ephemeral](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ephemeral/) [Individual](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/individual/) [Thoughtful](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thoughtful/) [Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/) ## Related quotes > [“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/) > [An artist's creative energy is ephemeral as a flower. It blooms and soon dies. No artist is great forever. 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It is the center of my beliefs, but it cannot be strengthened by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-teller/i-believe-in-good-it-is-an-ephemeral-and-elusive-quality-it-is-the/) [Edward Teller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-teller/) > [In the theater, everything is ephemeral. Everything is almost weightless and without a very clear definition of how you made it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rafael-vinoly/in-the-theater-everything-is-ephemeral-everything-is-almost/) [Rafael Vinoly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rafael-vinoly/) ## More by W. H. Auden > [Pleasure is by no means an infallible critical guide, but it is the least fallible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden/pleasure-is-by-no-means-an-infallible-critical-guide-but-it-is-the/) [W. H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden/) > [Why doesn't the United States take over the monarchy and unite with England? England does have important assets. 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Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden/) > [I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden/i-and-the-public-know-what-all-schoolchildren-learn-those-to-whom/) [W. H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden/) > [One cannot walk through an assembly factory and not feel that one is in Hell.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden/one-cannot-walk-through-an-assembly-factory-and-not-feel-that-one-is/) [W. H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden/) > [How happy the lot of the mathematician. He is judged solely by his peers, and the standard is so high that no colleague or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden/how-happy-the-lot-of-the-mathematician-he-is-judged-solely-by-his/) [W. H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden/) > [Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden/perhaps-there-is-only-one-cardinal-sin-impatience-because-of/) [W. H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden/) > [The windiest militant trash Important Persons shout Is not so crude as our wish: What mad Nijinsky wrote About Diaghilev Is true of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden/the-windiest-militant-trash-important-persons-shout-is-not-so-crude/) [W. H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden/) > [To hunt for symbols in a fairy tale is absolutely fatal.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden/to-hunt-for-symbols-in-a-fairy-tale-is-absolutely-fatal/) [W. H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden/) > [Life is a picnic on a precipice.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden/life-is-a-picnic-on-a-precipice/) [W. H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden/) [Explore all 344 W. H. Auden quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden/) ## More Beauty quotes > [We do not want nowadays temples of worship and outward rites and ceremonies. What we really want is an Asram. We want a place…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/we-do-not-want-nowadays-temples-of-worship-and-outward-rites-and/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [How could anybody confuse truth with beauty, I thought as I looked at him. Truth came with sunken eyes, bony or scarred, decayed. Its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-fitch/how-could-anybody-confuse-truth-with-beauty-i-thought-as-i-looked-at/) [Janet Fitch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-fitch/) > [A thing of beauty is a joy for ever;It's loveliness increase;it will never pass into nothingness;but still will keep a bower quiet for us,and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-keats/a-thing-of-beauty-is-a-joy-for-ever-it-s-loveliness-increase-it-will/) [John Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-keats/) > [To fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity, and still be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tool/to-fathom-the-power-to-witness-the-beauty-to-bathe-in-the-fountain-to/) [Tool](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tool/) > [The term "black metal" has become a lot looser, or can include a larger range of sounds and extra-musical aesthetics, not just Satan and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colin-marston/the-term-black-metal-has-become-a-lot-looser-or-can-include-a-larger/) [Colin Marston](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colin-marston/) > [“We've all met people who are beautiful on the outside, however, when they open their mouths to speak, they have nothing of substance to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-c-young/we-ve-all-met-people-who-are-beautiful-on-the-outside-however-when/) [Susan C. 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When…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/natalie/to-me-the-beauty-of-a-quilt-or-a-dress-lies-within-the-stitches-and/) [Natalie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/natalie/) > [“do not misunderstand person by beauty You really do not know its real or Mask on dirty thoughts”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mohammed-zaki-ansari/do-not-misunderstand-person-by-beauty-you-really-do-not-know-its-real/) [Mohammed Zaki Ansari](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mohammed-zaki-ansari/) > [“I already love in you your beauty, but I am only beginning to love in you that which is eternal and ever precious –…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leo-tolstoy/i-already-love-in-you-your-beauty-but-i-am-only-beginning-to-love-in/) [Leo Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leo-tolstoy/) > [The more perfect the sight is the more delightful the beautiful object. The more perfect the appetite, the sweeter the food. 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