Time and fevers burn away Individual beauty from Thoughtful children, and the grave Proves the child ephemeral — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair, Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem From insignificance. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
One of the troubles of our times is that we are all, I think, precocious as personalities and backward as characters. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
The true men of action in our time, those who transform the world, are not the politicians and statesmen, but the scientists — 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
For time is inches And the heart's changes, Where ghost has haunted Lost and wanted. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Like everything which is not the involuntary result of fleeting emotion but the creation of time and will, any marriage, happy or… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment and… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons and take his gun away. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Few can remember clearly when innocence came to a sudden end, the moment at which we ask for the first time: Am… — 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
Man is a history-making creature, who can neither repeat his past, nor leave it behind. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
The stars are dead. The animals will not look: We are left alone with our day, and the time is short, and… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
But he would have us most of all remember to be enthusiastic over the night. Not only for the sense of wonder… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Left to itself the masculine imagination has very little appreciation for the here and now; it prefers to dwell on what 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
