W. H. Auden

We are all here on earth to help others.

— W. H. Auden

One can only blaspheme if one believes.

— W. H. Auden

In life the loser's score is always zero.

— W. H. Auden

To ask the hard question is simple.

— W. H. Auden

Now is the age of anxiety.

— W. H. Auden

All the literati keep An imaginary friend.

— W. H. Auden

Words are for those with promises to keep.

— W. H. Auden

Time will say nothing but I told you so...

— W. H. Auden

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

— W. H. Auden

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

— W. H. Auden

The camera may do justice to laughter, but must degrade sorrow.

— W. H. Auden

What we have not named as a symbol escapes our notice.

— W. H. Auden

“Fate succombs many a species. One alone jeopardizes itself.”

— W. H. Auden

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

— W. H. Auden

The habit-forming pain, Mismanagement and grief: We must suffer them all again.

— W. H. Auden

Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead.

— W. H. Auden

It's usually the stupid people that develop long illnesses. You need more than indolence and selfishness, you need endurance to make a…

— W. H. Auden

How happy the lot of the mathematician. He is judged solely by his peers, and the standard is so high that no…

— W. H. Auden

If it form the one landscape that we the inconstant ones Are consistently homesick for, this is chiefly Because it dissolves in…

— 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…

— W. H. Auden

The law cannot forgive, for the law has not been wronged, only broken; only persons can be wronged. The law can pardon,…

— W. H. Auden

Whatever the field under discussion, those who engage in debate must not only believe in each other's good faith, but also in…

— 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…

— W. H. Auden

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

— W. H. Auden

Hemingway is terribly limited. His technique is good for short stories, for people who meet once in a bar very late at…

— W. H. Auden

A poor American feels guilty at being poor, but less guilty than an American rentier who has inherited wealth but is doing…

— W. H. Auden

The truly tragic kind of suffering is the kind produced and defiantly insisted upon by the hero himself so that, instead of…

— W. H. Auden

The image of myself which I try to create in my own mind in order that I may love myself is very…

— W. H. Auden

Young people, who are still uncertain of their identity, often try on a succession of masks in the hope of finding the…

— W. H. Auden

The actors today really need the whip hand. They're so lazy. They haven't got the sense of pride in their profession that…

— W. H. Auden

I said earlier that I do not believe an artist's life throws much light upon his works. I do believe, however, that,…

— W. H. Auden

May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and,…

— W. H. Auden

Between labor and play stands work. A man is a worker if he is personally interested in the job which society pays…

— W. H. Auden

To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself. Whenever a man so concentrates his attention - on…

— W. H. Auden

Our researchers into Public Opinion are content That he held the proper opinions for the time of year; When there was peace,…

— W. H. Auden

In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for it: they…

— W. H. Auden

If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in…

— W. H. Auden

Machines have no political opinions, but they have profound political effects. They demand a strict regimentation of time, and, by abolishing the…

— W. H. Auden

If we apply the term revolution to what happened in North America between 1776 and 1829, it has a special meaning. Normally,…

— W. H. Auden

The masculine imagination lives in a state of perpetual revolt against the limitations of human life. In theological terms, one might say…

— W. H. Auden