W. H. Auden Quotes - Page 9

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Say this city has ten million souls, Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes: Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place for us.

W. H. Auden

Cities, Soul, Holes

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Our researchers into Public Opinion are content That he held the proper opinions for the time of year; When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went. He was married and added five children to the population, Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation, And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education. Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: Had everything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

W. H. Auden

Teacher, Children, War

"The Unknown Citizen" l. 22 (1939)

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I am sure it is everyone’s experience, as it has been mine, that any discovery we make about ourselves or the meaning of life is never, like a scientific discovery, a coming upon something entirely new and unsuspected; it is rather, the coming to conscious recognition of something, which we really knew all the time but, because we were unwilling to formulate it correctly, we did not hitherto know we knew.

W. H. Auden

Discovery, Meaning Of Life, Recognition

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History marched to the drums of a clear idea...

W. H. Auden

Ideas, March, Clear

"Memorial for the City". Poem by W. H. Auden, 1947.

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Drama began as the act of a whole community. Ideally, there would be no speculators. In practice, every member of the audience should feel like an understudy.

W. H. Auden

Drama, Practice, Community

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As readers, we remain in the nursery stage so long as we cannot distinguish between taste and judgment, so long, that is, as the only possible verdicts we can pass on a book are two: this I like; this I don't like. For an adult reader, the possible verdicts are five: I can see this is good and I like it; I can see this is good but I don't like it; I can see this is good and, though at present I don't like it, I believe that with perseverance I shall come to like it; I can see that this is trash but I like it; I can see that this is trash and I don't like it.

W. H. Auden

Perseverance, Book, Believe

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

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America has always been a country of amateurs where the professional, that is to say, the man who claims authority as a member of an élite which knows the law in some field or other, is an object of distrust and resentment.

W. H. Auden

Country, Men, Law

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No hero is mortal till he dies.

W. H. Auden

Hero, Demise, Dies

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No being can make another one happy.

W. H. Auden

Happiness

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Happy the hare at morning, for she cannot read The hunter's waking thoughts.

W. H. Auden

Morning, Hunters, Waking

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One cannot review a bad book without showing off.

W. H. Auden

Book, Criticism, Reviews

Dyer's Hand (1963) "Reading"

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The chances are that, in the course of his lifetime, the major poet will write more bad poems than the minor, simply because major poets write a lot.

W. H. Auden

Writing, Chance, Lifetime

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Organic growth is a cyclical process; it is just as true to say that the oak is a potential acorn as it is to say the acorn is a potential oak. But the process of writing a poem, of making any art object, is not cyclical but a motion in one direction toward a definite end.

W. H. Auden

Art, Writing, One Direction

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Narcissus does not fall in love with his reflection because it is beautiful, but because it is his. If it were his beauty that enthralled him, he would be set free in a few years by its fading.

W. H. Auden

Love, Beautiful, Fall

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I see little hope for a peaceful world until men are excluded from the realm of foreign policy altogether and all decisions concerning international relations are reserved for women, preferably married ones.

W. H. Auden

Men, Decision, Peaceful

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It is, for example, axiomatic that we should all think of ourselves as being more sensitive than other people because, when we are insensitive in our dealings with others, we cannot be aware of it at the time: conscious insensitivity is a self-contradiction.

W. H. Auden

Thinking, Self, People

"Forewords and Afterwords" by W. H. Auden, ("Markings"), (p. 438), 1973.

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Of course,Behaviourism 'works'. So does torture.

W. H. Auden

Doe, Torture, No Nonsense

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To make one, there must be two.

W. H. Auden

Marriage, Two

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Machines are beneficial to the degree that they eliminate the need for labor, harmful to the degree that they eliminate the need for skill.

W. H. Auden

Science, Skills, Degrees

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How happy the lot of the mathematician. He is judged solely by his peers, and the standard is so high that no colleague or rival can ever win a reputation he does not deserve.

W. H. Auden

Happiness, Math, Science

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Attacking bad books is not only a waste of time but also bad for the character. If I find a book really bad, the only interest I can derive from writing about it has to come from myself, from such display of intelligence, wit and malice as I can contrive. One cannot review a bad book without showing off.

W. H. Auden

Book, Writing, Character

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The stars are not wanted now, put out every one Pack up the moon & dismantle the sun.

W. H. Auden

Stars, Moon, Funeral

W.H. Auden (2016). “Canción de cuna y otros poemas”, p.87, DEBOLS!LLO

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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

Men, Air, Height

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

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When I am in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a drawing room full of dukes.

W. H. Auden

Mistake, Science, Drawing

Dyer's Hand (1963) "The Poet and the City"

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Aside from purely technical analysis, nothing can be said about music, except when it is bad; when it is good, one can only listen and be grateful.

W. H. Auden

Grateful, Analysis, Be Grateful

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Born: February 21, 1907
Died: September 29, 1973
Occupation: Poet
Cite this Page: Citation

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