The closest modern equivalent to the Homeric hero is the ace fighter pilot. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
The lights must never go out, The music must always play — W. H. Auden Inspirational Copy Share Image
For time is inches And the heart's changes, Where ghost has haunted Lost and wanted. — W. H. Auden Futility Copy Share Image
“for once in our lives / Everything became a You and nothing was an It.” — W. H. Auden 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… — W. H. Auden Driven Copy Share Image
I think the first prerequisite to civilization is an ability to make polite conversation. — W. H. Auden Ability Copy Share Image
I'll love you, dear, I'll love you till China and Africa meet and the river jumps over the mountain and the salmon… — W. H. Auden China Copy Share Image
Clear, unscaleable ahead, Rise the mountains of instead From whose cold, cascading streams None may drink except in dreams — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
In headaches and in worry Vaguely life leaks away, And Time will have his fancy To-morrow or today. — W. H. Auden Before sunrise Copy Share Image
Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality. — W. H. Auden Differences Copy Share Image
Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about. — 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
Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to… — W. H. Auden Barter Copy Share Image
The actors today really need the whip hand. They're so lazy. They haven't got the sense of pride in their profession that… — W. H. Auden Acting Copy Share Image
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 Art Copy Share Image
The condition of mankind is, and always has been, so miserable and depraved that, if anyone were to say to the poet:… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
There's only one good test of pornography. Get twelve normal men to read the book, and then ask them, ''Did you get… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and,… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Behind the corpse in the reservoir, behind the ghost on the links, Behind the lady who dances and the man who madly… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Rhymes, meters, stanza forms, etc., are like servants. If the master is fair enough to win their affection and firm enough to… — W. H. Auden Affection Copy Share Image
Sob, heavy world Sob as you spin, Mantled in mist Remote from the happy. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Dance till the stars come down from the rafters Dance, Dance, Dance 'till you drop. — W. H. Auden Art dance Copy Share Image
To choose what is difficult all one's days, as if it were easy, that is faith — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Let us honor if we can the vertical man, though we value none but the horizontal one — W. H. Auden Honor Copy Share Image
By mourning tongues The death of the poet was kept from his poems. — W. H. Auden Death Copy Share Image
