W. H. Auden Quotes

I'll love you, dear, I'll love you till China and Africa meet and the river jumps over the mountain and the salmon sing in the street.
W. H. Auden

Valentine's Day, Love, Meet

Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.
W. H. Auden

Love, Laugh, Find

Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be.
W. H. Auden

Life, May, Ignore

We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know.
W. H. Auden

Help, Others, Here

A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep.
W. H. Auden

Teacher, Sleep, Someone

A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.
W. H. Auden

Poetry, Love, Person

Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods.
W. H. Auden

Relationship, Both, Almost

Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table.
W. H. Auden

Evil, Human, Bed

The ear tends to be lazy, craves the familiar and is shocked by the unexpected; the eye, on the other hand, tends to be impatient, craves the novel and is bored by repetition.
W. H. Auden

Lazy, Bored, Unexpected

If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving be me.
W. H. Auden

Cannot, Equal, Loving

No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.
W. H. Auden

Music, Good, Feeling

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

Nature, Art, Science

All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation.
W. H. Auden

Addiction, Point, Sins

A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us.
W. H. Auden

Book, Real, Read

Music is the best means we have of digesting time.
W. H. Auden

Music, Time, Best

Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality.
W. H. Auden

Friends, Opinion, Between

We all have these places where shy humiliations gambol on sunny afternoons.
W. H. Auden

Sunny, Shy, Places

It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.
W. H. Auden

Money, Art, Sad

To save your world you asked this man to die; would this man, could he see you now, ask why?
W. H. Auden

History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology.
W. H. Auden

History, Study, Questions

In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.
W. H. Auden

Joy, Times, Possessed

Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.
W. H. Auden

Death, Sound, Thunder

Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness; it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest.
W. H. Auden

Society, Place, Unique

If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons and take his gun away.
W. H. Auden

Time, Away, Gun

God bless the USA, so large, so friendly, and so rich.
W. H. Auden

God, Friendly, Rich

Share with your Friends

Everyone likes a good quote - don't forget to share.

Biography

Nationality: English

Type: Poet

Born: February 21, 1907

Died: September 29, 1973

Links

Find on Amazon: W. H. Auden

Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics

Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

Related Authors

William Blake
John Keats
Alexander Pope
Alfred Lord Tennyson
William Wordsworth
William Congreve
William Cowper
Percy Bysshe Shelley
More

Get Social with BrainyQuote

BrainyQuote Desktop

BrainyQuote Mobile

Site

Quote of the Day

Social

BQ on Pinterest

Syndication

Funny Quote Feed

Love Quote Feed

Nature Quote Feed

About Us