A craftsman knows in advance what the finished result will be, while the artist knows only what it will be when he… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
As biological organisms made of matter, we are subject to the laws of physics and biology: as conscious persons who create our… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Rhymes, meters, stanza forms, etc., are like servants. If the master is fair enough to win their affection and firm enough to… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
All good art is in the nature of a letter written to amuse a sick friend. Too much art, particularly in our… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
It's impossible to represent a saint [in Art]. It becomes boring. Perhaps because he is, like the Saturday Evening Post people, inthe… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
The primary function of poetry, as of all the arts, is to make us more aware of ourselves and the world around… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
When one looks into the window of a store which sells devotional art objects, one can't help wishing the iconoclasts had won. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
It's a pity I am so impatient and careless, as any ordinary person could learn all the techniques of photography in a… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
If the most significant characteristic of man is the complex of biological needs he shares with all members of his species, then… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Earth, receive an honored guest; William Yeats is laid to rest. Let the Irish vessel lie Emptied of its poetry. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
In the end, art is small beer. The really serious things are earning one's living so as not to be a parasite… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
A poet feels the impulse to create a work of art when the passive awe provoked by an event is transformed into… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
'Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.' — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
A doctor, like anyone else who has to deal with human beings, each of them unique, cannot be a scientist; he is… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Of all possible subjects, travel is the most difficult for an artist, as it is the easiest for a journalist. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one by a simple act of will but… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Pleasure is by no means an infallible critical guide, but it is the least fallible. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Why doesn't the United States take over the monarchy and unite with England? England does have important assets. Naturally the longer you wait, the… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
The commonest ivory tower is that of the average man, the state of passivity towards experience. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Harrow the house of the dead; look shining at New styles of architecture, a change of heart. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Most poetry is the utterance of a man in some state of passion, love, joy, grief, rage, etc., and no doubt this is as… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Men will pay large sums to whores for telling them they are not bores. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
If age, which is certainly Just as wicked as youth, look any wiser, It is only that youth is still able to believe It… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
One cannot walk through an assembly factory and not feel that one is in Hell. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
How happy the lot of the mathematician. He is judged solely by his peers, and the standard is so high that no colleague or… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
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