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W. H. Auden Quotes
294 Sourced Quotes
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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
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Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.
W. H. Auden
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We are all here on Earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know.
W. H. Auden
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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
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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
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Fame often makes a writer vain, but seldom makes him proud.
W. H. Auden
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Evil is unspectacular and always human,
And shares our bed and eats at our own table.
W. H. Auden
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No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.
W. H. Auden
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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A million eyes, a million boots in line,
Without expression, waiting for a sign.
W. H. Auden
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Aphorisms are essentially an aristocratic genre of writing.
W. H. Auden
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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
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Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.
W. H. Auden
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A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.
W. H. Auden
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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
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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
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I am beginning to lose patience
With my personal relations.
They are not deep
And they are not cheap.
W. H. Auden
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All sin tends to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is what is called damnation.
W. H. Auden
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Each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom.
W. H. Auden
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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
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All wishes, whatever their apparent content, have the same and unvarying meaning: "I refuse to be what I am."
W. H. Auden
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Quote of the day
Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.
Robert F. Kennedy
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
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