W. H. Auden Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving be me.

  W. H. Auden

  Love, Heart, Affection

  W. H. Auden, Katherine Bucknell (2003). “Juvenilia: Poems, 1922-1928”, p.41, Princeton University Press

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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

  264 Copy quote

• Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings.

  W. H. Auden

  Expression, Feelings, Might

  28 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

  54 Copy quote

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

  W. H. Auden

  Stewardship

  29 Copy quote

• 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

  Love, Stars, Ocean

  Another Time (1940) "As I Walked Out One Evening"

  39 Copy quote

• Whatever you do, good or bad, people will always have something negative to say

  W. H. Auden

  People, Negative, Bad People

  53 Copy quote

• See without looking, hear without listening, breathe without asking.

  W. H. Auden

  Philosophical, Listening, Asking

  W. H. Auden (2013). “For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio”, p.23, Princeton University Press

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

  W. H. Auden

  Thinking, Civilization, Firsts

  17 Copy quote

• Geniuses are the luckiest of mortals because what they must do is the same as what they most want to do.

  W. H. Auden

  Inspirational, Genius, Want

  In Dag Hammarskj"ld Markings (1964) foreword

  39 Copy quote

• Thank God for books as an alternative to conversation.

  W. H. Auden

  Book, Thank God, Alternatives

  11 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

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• We do not change as we grow up. The difference between the child and the adult is that the former doesn't know who he is and the latter does.

  W. H. Auden

  Children, Growing Up, Learning

  29 Copy quote

• Music is the best means we have of digesting time.

  W. H. Auden

  Music, Art, Philosophy

  Quoted in Robert Craft Stravinsky: Chronicle of a Friendship (1972).

  49 Copy quote

• Every man carries with him through life a mirror, as unique and impossible to get rid of as his shadow.

  W. H. Auden

  Unique, Men, Mirrors

  28 Copy quote

• In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.

  W. H. Auden

  Dog, Joy, Tails

  39 Copy quote

• If we really want to live, we'd better start at once to try.

  W. H. Auden

  Success, Trying, Want

  6 Copy quote

• Words are for those with promises to keep.

  W. H. Auden

  Promise

  4 Copy quote

• The masculine imagination lives in a state of perpetual revolt against the limitations of human life. In theological terms, one might say that all men, left to themselves, become gnostics. They may swagger like peacocks, but in their heart of hearts they all think sex an indignity and wish they could beget themselves on themselves. Hence the aggressive hostility toward women so manifest in most club-car stories.

  W. H. Auden

  Sex, Heart, Men

  32 Copy quote

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

  W. H. Auden

  Love, Passion, Language Words

  "Poets at Work" by W. H. Auden, (p. 170), 1948.

  25 Copy quote

• I smell blood and an era of prominent madmen.

  W. H. Auden

  Blood, Smell, Eras

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• You need not see what someone is doing to know if it is his vocation, you have only to watch his eyes: a cook mixing a sauce, a surgeon making a primary incision, a clerk completing a bill of lading wear the same rapt expression, forgetting themselves in a function. How beautiful it is, that eye-on-the-obje ct look.

  W. H. Auden

  Beautiful, Eye, Expression

  4 Copy quote

• A dead man who never caused others to die seldom rates a statue.

  W. H. Auden

  Men, Dead Man, Rate

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• 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.

  61 Copy quote

• You shall love your crooked neighbour, with your crooked heart.

  W. H. Auden

  Heart, Crooked, Neighbour

  W.H. Auden (2016). “Canción de cuna y otros poemas”, p.76, DEBOLS!LLO

  48 Copy quote

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