--- title: "1 Taste Literature Quotes By W.H. Auden" description: "1 Taste Literature quotes by W.H. Auden. Plus more from W.H. Auden and more Taste Literature sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f65/w-h-auden-2-7412_books_a-child-s-reading-is-guided-by-pleasure_44469.jpg" --- > [“A child's reading is guided by pleasure, but his pleasure is undifferentiated; he cannot distinguish, for example, between aesthetic pleasure and the pleasures of learning or daydreaming. In adolescence we realize that there are different kinds of pleasure, some of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/a-child-s-reading-is-guided-by-pleasure-but-his-pleasure-is/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f65/w-h-auden-2-7412_books_a-child-s-reading-is-guided-by-pleasure_44469.jpg) ## More by W.H. Auden > [“Part came from Lane, and part from D.H. Lawrence; Gide, though I didn't know it then, gave part. They taught me to express my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/part-came-from-lane-and-part-from-d-h-lawrence-gide-though-i-didn-t/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“As his wife, Emilia must know Iago better than anybody else. She does not know, any more than the others, that he is malevolent,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/as-his-wife-emilia-must-know-iago-better-than-anybody-else-she-does/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“A child's reading is guided by pleasure, but his pleasure is undifferentiated; he cannot distinguish, for example, between aesthetic pleasure and the pleasures of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/a-child-s-reading-is-guided-by-pleasure-but-his-pleasure-is/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“No poet or novelist wishes he was the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were the only one alive,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/no-poet-or-novelist-wishes-he-was-the-only-one-who-ever-lived-but/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“Human "nature" is a nature continually in quest of itself, obliged at every moment to transcend what it was a moment before.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/human-nature-is-a-nature-continually-in-quest-of-itself-obliged-at/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“Cassio is a ladies’ man, that is to say, a man who feels most at home in feminine company where his looks and good…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/cassio-is-a-ladies-man-that-is-to-say-a-man-who-feels-most-at-home-in/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“Lay your sleeping head, my love, Human on my faithless arm; Time and fevers burn away Individual beauty from Thoughtful children, and the grave…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/lay-your-sleeping-head-my-love-human-on-my-faithless-arm-time-and/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“In any first-class work of art, you can find passages that in themselves are extremely boring, but try to cut them out, as they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/in-any-first-class-work-of-art-you-can-find-passages-that-in/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“Healing is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/healing-is-not-a-science-but-the-intuitive-art-of-wooing-nature/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“For a desert island, one would choose a good dictionary rather than the greatest literary masterpiece imaginable, for, in relation to its readers, a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/for-a-desert-island-one-would-choose-a-good-dictionary-rather-than/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“Sorry, my dear, one mustn't be bohemian!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/sorry-my-dear-one-mustn-t-be-bohemian/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“Our hunting fathers told the story Of the sadness of the creatures, Pitied the limits and the lack Set in their finished features; Saw…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/our-hunting-fathers-told-the-story-of-the-sadness-of-the-creatures/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“After Portia has trapped Shylock through his own insistence upon the letter of the law of Contract, she produces another law by which any…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/after-portia-has-trapped-shylock-through-his-own-insistence-upon-the/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“Iago’s treatment of Othello conforms to Bacon’s definition of scientific enquiry as putting Nature to the Question. If a member of the audience were…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/iago-s-treatment-of-othello-conforms-to-bacon-s-definition-of/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) > [“But round your image there is no fog, and the Earth can still astonish.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden-2/but-round-your-image-there-is-no-fog-and-the-earth-can-still-astonish/) [W.H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden-2/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/taste-literature/w-h-auden-2/#itemlist", "name": "1 Taste Literature Quotes By W.H. Auden", "numberOfItems": 1, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“A child's reading is guided by pleasure, but his pleasure is undifferentiated; he cannot distinguish, for example, between aesthetic pleasure and the pleasures of learning or daydreaming. In adolescence we realize that there are different kinds of pleasure, some of which cannot be enjoyed simultaneously, but we need help from others in defining them. Whether it be a matter of taste in food or taste in literature, the adolescent looks for a mentor in whose authority he can believe. He eats or reads what his mentor recommends and, inevitably, there are occasions when he has to deceive himself a little; he has to pretend that he enjoys olives or War and Peace a little more than he actually does. Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the difference between accidental limitations which it is our duty to outgrow and the necessary limitations of our nature beyond which we cannot trespass with impunity. Few of us can learn this without making mistakes, without trying to become a little more of a universal man than we are permitted to be. It is during this period that a writer can most easily be led astray by another writer or by some ideology. When someone between twenty and forty says, apropos of a work of art, 'I know what I like,'he is really saying 'I have no taste of my own but accept the taste of my cultural milieu', because, between twenty and forty, the surest sign that a man has a genuine taste of his own is that he is uncertain of it. After forty, if we have not lost our authentic selves altogether, pleasure can again become what it was when we were children, the proper guide to what we should read.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "W.H. 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