Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Cats can be very funny, and have the oddest ways of showing they're glad to see you... — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Dance till the stars come down from the rafters Dance, Dance, Dance 'till you drop. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
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
To choose what is difficult all one's days, as if it were easy, that is faith — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Get up very early and get going at once. In fact, work first and wash afterwards. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
The most important truths are likely to be those which society at that time least wants to hear. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
No person can be a great leader unless he takes genuine joy in the successes of those under him. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
I just try to put the thing out and hope somebody will read it. Someone says: 'Whom do you write for?' I… — 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
