W. H. Auden Quotes

294 Sourced Quotes

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
Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

W. H. Auden
We are all here on Earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know.

W. H. Auden
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
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
Fame often makes a writer vain, but seldom makes him proud.

W. H. Auden
Evil is unspectacular and always human,
And shares our bed and eats at our own table.

W. H. Auden
No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.

W. H. Auden
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
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
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
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
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
A million eyes, a million boots in line,
Without expression, waiting for a sign.

W. H. Auden
Aphorisms are essentially an aristocratic genre of writing.

W. H. Auden
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
Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.

W. H. Auden
A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.

W. H. Auden
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
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
I am beginning to lose patience
With my personal relations.
They are not deep
And they are not cheap.

W. H. Auden
All sin tends to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is what is called damnation.

W. H. Auden
Each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom.

W. H. Auden
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
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
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
Criticism should be a casual conversation.

W. H. Auden
All wishes, whatever their apparent content, have the same and unvarying meaning: "I refuse to be what I am."

W. H. Auden
Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality.

W. H. Auden
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