W. H. Auden Quotes

Quotes about:

• We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know.

  W. H. Auden

  Inspirational, Funny, Helping Others

  W H Auden (1981). “Antæus”, Ecco Press

  126 Copy quote

• Nobody is ever sent to Hell: he or she insists on going there.

  W. H. Auden

  Hell

  40 Copy quote

• Civilizations should be measured by the degree of diversity attained and the degree of unity retained.

  W. H. Auden

  Respect, Civilization, Diversity

  110 Copy quote

• But once in a while the odd thing happens
  Once in a while the dream comes true
  And the whole pattern of life is altered
  Once in a while, the moon turns blue

  W. H. Auden

  Dream, Moon, Blue

  16 Copy quote

• We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment and let our illusions die.

  W. H. Auden

  Change, Religion, Growth

  Wystan Hugh Auden (2011). “The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue”, p.105, Princeton University Press

  112 Copy quote

• The most important truths are likely to be those which society at that time least wants to hear.

  W. H. Auden

  Truth, Important, Want

  54 Copy quote

• There's always another story. There's more than meets the eye.

  W. H. Auden

  Eye, Stories, More Than Meets The Eye

  W.H. Auden (2016). “Canción de cuna y otros poemas”, p.86, DEBOLS!LLO

  52 Copy quote

• No person can be a great leader unless he takes genuine joy in the successes of those under him.

  W. H. Auden

  Inspirational, Leadership, Joy

  55 Copy quote

• A craftsman knows in advance what the finished result will be, while the artist knows only what it will be when he has finished it.

  W. H. Auden

  Artist, Craftsman, Results

  "Forewords and Afterwords" by W. H. Auden, ("A Poet of the Actual"), (p. 265), 1973.

  19 Copy quote

• Good can imagine Evil; but Evil cannot imagine Good.

  W. H. Auden

  Evil, Politics, Imagine

  "A Certain World". Book by W. H. Auden, 1970.

  17 Copy quote

• A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us.

  W. H. Auden

  Real, Book, Reading

  27 Copy quote

• I think the first prerequisite to civilization is an ability to make polite conversation.

  W. H. Auden

  Thinking, Civilization, Firsts

  16 Copy quote

• 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

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Dyer's Hand (1963) "Notes on the Comic"

  38 Copy quote

• The lights must never go out,
  The music must always play

  W. H. Auden

  Light, Play

  W.H. Auden (2016). “Canción de cuna y otros poemas”, p.159, DEBOLS!LLO

  17 Copy quote

• You owe it to all of us all get on with what you're good at.

  W. H. Auden

  Stewardship

  28 Copy quote

• What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish.

  W. H. Auden

  Art, Media, Political

  "The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays" by W. H. Auden, ("The Poet & The City"), (p. 83), 1962.

  31 Copy quote

• Young people, who are still uncertain of their identity, often try on a succession of masks in the hope of finding the one which suits them - the one, in fact, which is not a mask.

  W. H. Auden

  Finding The One, People, Trying

  "Forewords and Afterwords" by W. H. Auden, ("One of the Family"), (p. 369), 1973.

  60 Copy quote
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  Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.

  W. H. Auden

  Love, Motivational, Strength

  W. H. Auden, Katherine Bucknell (2003). “Juvenilia: Poems, 1922-1928”, p.105, Princeton University Press

  259 Copy quote

• God may reduce you on Judgment Day to tears of shame, reciting by heart the poems you would have written, had your life been good.

  W. H. Auden

  Heart, Tears, May

  14 Copy quote

• All that we are not stares back at what we are.

  W. H. Auden

  Crazy, Mad, Staring

  20 Copy quote

• To be free is often to be lonely.

  W. H. Auden

  Lonely

  W. H. Auden, “In Memory Of Sigmund Freud”

  19 Copy quote

• People always get what they want. But there is a price for everything. Failures are either those who do not know what they want or are not prepared to pay the price asked them. The price varies from individual to individual. Some get things at bargain-sale prices, others only at famine prices. But it is no use grumbling. Whatever price you are asked, you must pay.

  W. H. Auden

  Pay The Price, People, Grumbling

  23 Copy quote

• Christ did not enchant men; He demanded that they believe in Him: except on one occasion, the Transfiguration. For a brief while, Peter, James, and John were permitted to see Him in His glory. For that brief while they had no need of faith. The vision vanished, and the memory of it did not prevent them from all forsaking Him when He was arrested, or Peter from denying that he had ever known Him.

  W. H. Auden

  Memories, Believe, Men

  31 Copy quote

• The slogan of Hell: Eat or be eaten. The slogan of Heaven: Eat and be eaten.

  W. H. Auden

  Heaven, Hell, Slogans

  9 Copy quote

• Those who will not reason, perish in the act. Those who will not act, perish for that reason.

  W. H. Auden

  Reason

  37 Copy quote

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