To save your world you asked this man to die; would this man, could he see you now, ask why? — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Thou shalt not answer questionnaires Or quizzes upon world affairs, Nor with compliance Take any test. Thou shalt not sit with statisticians… — 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
In a world of prayer, we are all equal in the sense that each of us is a unique person, with a… — 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
Sob, heavy world Sob as you spin, Mantled in mist Remote from the happy. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
If we apply the term revolution to what happened in North America between 1776 and 1829, it has a special meaning. Normally,… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for it: they… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
I see little hope for a peaceful world until men are excluded from the realm of foreign policy altogether and all decisions… — 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
