Civilizations should be measured by the degree of diversity attained and the degree of unity retained. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Anyone who has a child today should train him to be either a physicist or a ballet dancer. Then he'll escape. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Political history is far too criminal to be a fit subject of study for the young. Children should acquire their heroes and… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
There has been a vast output of critical studies in contemporary poetry, some of them first rate, but I do not think… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
What answer to the meaning of existence should one require beyond the right to exercise one's gifts? — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
It is axiomatic that we should all think of ourselves as being more sensitive than other people because, when we are insensitive… — 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
That the speech of self-disclosure should be translatable seems to me very odd, but I am convinced that it is. The conclusion… — 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… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Drama began as the act of a whole community. Ideally, there would be no speculators. In practice, every member of the audience… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
It's frightfully important for a writer to be his age, not to be younger or older than he is. One might ask,… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Precisely because we do not communicate by singing, a song can be out of place but not out of character; it is… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
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 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
