W. H. Auden

A poet feels the impulse to create a work of art when the passive awe provoked by an event is transformed into…

— W. H. Auden

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

The most important truths are likely to be those which society at that time least wants to hear.

— W. H. Auden

Man is a history-making creature, who can neither repeat his past, nor leave it behind.

— W. H. Auden

The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen.

— W. H. Auden

Lost in a haunted wood, Children afraid of the night Who have never been happy or good.

— W. H. Auden

Art is born of humiliation.

— W. H. Auden

Most people call something profound, not because it is near some important truth but because it is distant from ordinary life. Thus,…

— W. H. Auden

It is nonsense to speak of 'higher' and 'lower' pleasures. To a hungry man it is, rightly, more important that he eat…

— W. H. Auden

Hemingway is terribly limited. His technique is good for short stories, for people who meet once in a bar very late at…

— W. H. Auden

Murder is commoner among cooks than among members of any other profession.

— W. H. Auden

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

In a land which is fully settled, most men must accept their local environment or try to change it by political means;…

— W. H. Auden

In a game, just losing is almost as satisfying as just winning... In life the loser's score is always zero.

— W. H. Auden

Oh, how I wish that Orwell were still alive, so that I could read his comments on contemporary events!

— W. H. Auden

I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest…

— W. H. Auden

A poor American feels guilty at being poor, but less guilty than an American rentier who has inherited wealth but is doing…

— W. H. Auden

I said earlier that I do not believe an artist's life throws much light upon his works. I do believe, however, that,…

— W. H. Auden

Whatever the field under discussion, those who engage in debate must not only believe in each other's good faith, but also in…

— W. H. Auden

The camera may do justice to laughter, but must degrade sorrow.

— W. H. Auden

You need not see what someone is doing to know if it is his vocation, you have only to watch his eyes:…

— W. H. Auden

'Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'

— W. H. Auden

The lights must never go out, The music must always play

— W. H. Auden

No person can be a great leader unless he takes genuine joy in the successes of those under him.

— W. H. Auden

Human beings are, necessarily, actors who...can be divided...into the sane who know they are acting and the mad who do not.

— W. H. Auden