Authors
Topics
Lists
Pictures
Resources
More about W. H. Auden
W. H. Auden Quotes
294 Sourced Quotes
Source
Report...
It takes little talent to see clearly what lies under one's nose, a good deal of it to know in which direction to point that organ.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
We are all here on Earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practising it.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
Fame often makes a writer vain, but seldom makes him proud.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
Evil is unspectacular and always human,
And shares our bed and eats at our own table.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
Time will say nothing but I told you so, Time only knows the price we have to pay; If I could tell you I would let you know.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use
Their full height to proclaim
The strength of Collective Man,
Each language pours its vain
Competitive excuse.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
Though the great artists of the past could not change the course of history, it is only through their work that we are able to break bread with the dead, and without communion with the dead a fully human life is impossible.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
Base words are uttered only by the base
And can for such at once be understood;
But noble platitudes — ah, there's a case
Where the most careful scrutiny is needed
To tell a voice that's genuinely good
From one that's base but merely has succeeded.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street, I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
A million eyes, a million boots in line,
Without expression, waiting for a sign.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
Aphorisms are essentially an aristocratic genre of writing.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
To the man-in-the-street, who, I'm sorry to say,
Is a keen observer of life,
The word 'Intellectual' suggests straight away
A man who's untrue to his wife.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
Any one who attempts to translate from one tongue into another will know moods of despair when he feels he is wasting his time upon an impossible task. But, irrespective of success or failure, the mere attempt can teach a writer much about his own language which he would find it hard to learn elsewhere.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
Put the car away; when life fails
What's the good of going to Wales?
Here am I, here are you:
But what does it mean? What are we going to do?
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
I am beginning to lose patience
With my personal relations.
They are not deep
And they are not cheap.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
All sin tends to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is what is called damnation.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
Each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder what you've missed.
The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the teacup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
No poet or novelist wishes he were the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were the only one alive, and quite a number fondly believe their wish has been granted.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
They never forgot
That even the most dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
Criticism should be a casual conversation.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
All wishes, whatever their apparent content, have the same and unvarying meaning: "I refuse to be what I am."
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality.
W. H. Auden
Source
Report...
Beloved, we are always in the wrong, Handling so clumsily our stupid lives, Suffering too little or too long, Too careful even in our selfish loves: The decorative manias we obey Die in grimaces round us every day, Yet through their tohu-bohu comes a voice Which utters an absurd command - Rejoice.
W. H. Auden
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Quote of the day
What's a cult? It just means not enough people to make a minority.
Robert Altman
W. H. Auden
Creative Commons
Born:
February 21, 1907
Died:
September 29, 1973
(aged 66)
Bio:
Wystan Hugh Auden was an Anglo-American poet noted for his vast poetic work in many forms on many themes.
Known for:
Funeral Blues
Poems
Musée des Beaux Arts
The Unknown Citizen
The Age of Anxiety
Most used words:
man
love
people
time
human
poetry
poet
art
life
law
day
find
heart
dead
lie
W. H. Auden on Wikipedia
W. H. Auden works on Wikisource
Suggest an edit or a new quote
W. H. Auden Quotes
W. H. Auden Short Quotes
Quotes about W. H. Auden
American Poet Quotes
Poet Quotes
20th-century Poet Quotes
Related Authors
William Butler Yeats
Irish Playwright
T. S. Eliot
English Author
Christopher Isherwood
English Novelist
Benjamin Britten
English Conductor
Featured Authors
Lists
Predictions that didn't happen
If it's on the Internet it must be true
Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words)
Picture Quotes
Confucius
Philip James Bailey
Eleanor Roosevelt
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Popular Topics
life
love
nature
time
god
power
human
mind
work
art
heart
thought
men
day
×
Lib Quotes