Aside from purely technical analysis, nothing can be said about music, except when it is bad; when it is good, one can… — W. H. Auden Analysis Copy Share Image
“Looking up at the stars, I know quite well That, for all they care, I can go to hell, But on earth… — W. H. Auden Indifference Copy Share Image
A god who is both self-sufficient and content to remain so could not interest us enough to raise the question of his… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Behind you swiftly the figure comes softly, The spot on your skin is a shocking disease. — 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 Action Copy Share Image
A craftsman knows in advance what the finished result will be, while the artist knows only what it will be when he… — W. H. Auden Art Copy Share Image
In addition to English, at least one ancient language, probably Greek or Hebrew, and two modern languages would be required. — W. H. Auden Ancient Copy Share Image
Sexual fidelity is more important in a homosexual relationship than in any other. In other relationships there are a variety of ties.… — W. H. Auden Fidelity Copy Share Image
If the most significant characteristic of man is the complex of biological needs he shares with all members of his species, then… — W. H. Auden Art Copy Share Image
Nobody knows what the cause is, though some pretend they do; it like some hidden assassin waiting to strike at you. Childless… — W. H. Auden Assassins Copy Share Image
Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of action… — W. H. Auden Action Copy Share Image
A poet, qua poet, has only one political duty, namely, in his own writing to set an example of the correct use… — W. H. Auden Duty Copy Share Image
God is Love, we are taught as children to believe. But when we first begin to get some inkling of how He… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people… — W. H. Auden Modern poetry Copy Share Image
Dogmatic theological statements are neither logical propositions nor poetic utterances. They are ''shaggy dog'' stories; they have a point, but he who… — W. H. Auden Dog Copy Share Image
The Americans are violently oral. That's why in America the mother is all-important and the father has no position at all --… — W. H. Auden America Copy Share Image
What answer to the meaning of existence should one require beyond the right to exercise one's gifts? — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become. — W. H. Auden Art Copy Share Image
Genealogies are admirable things, provided they do not encourage the curious delusion that some families are older than others. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
In relation to a writer, most readers believe in the Double Standard: they may be unfaithful to him as often as they… — 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 Affair Copy Share Image
The only reason the Protestants and Catholics have given up the idea of universal domination is because they've realised they can't get… — W. H. Auden Atheism Copy Share Image
A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a bomb. — W. H. Auden Dragon Copy Share Image
Money is the necessity that frees us from necessity. Of all novelists in any country, Trollope best understands the role of money.… — W. H. Auden Balzac Copy Share Image
Every high C accurately struck demolishes the theory that we are the irresponsible puppets of fate or chance. — W. H. Auden Chance Copy Share Image
No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible. — W. H. Auden Music Copy Share Image
Caesar's double-bed is warm As an unimportant clerk Writes i do not like my work On a pink official form. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
The trees encountered on a country stroll Reveal a lot about that country's soul ... A culture is no better than its woods. — W. H. Auden Country Copy Share Image
“Every poet has his dream reader: mine keeps a look out for curious prosodic fauna like bacchics and choriambs.” — W. H. Auden Books Copy Share Image
We till shadowed days are done, We must weep and sing Duty's conscious wrong, The Devil in the clock — W. H. Auden Clock 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 Class Copy Share Image
There has been a vast output of critical studies in contemporary poetry, some of them first rate, but I do not think… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Politics cannot be a science, because in politics theory and practice cannot be separated, and the sciences depend upon their separation. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
A writer is a maker, not a man of action: his private life is of no concern to anybody but himself, his… — W. H. Auden Action Copy Share Image
Geniuses are the luckiest of mortals because what they must do is the same as what they most want to do. — W. H. Auden Death Copy Share Image
We do not change as we grow up. The difference between the child and the adult is that the former doesn't know… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Machines are beneficial to the degree that they eliminate the need for labor, harmful to the degree that they eliminate the need… — 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 Architecture Copy Share Image
Political history is far too criminal to be a fit subject of study for the young. Children should acquire their heroes and… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
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 Acting Copy Share Image
