W. H. Auden Quotes - Page 2

English - Poet February 21, 1907 - September 29, 1973

Good can imagine Evil; but Evil cannot imagine Good.

Good, Evil, Cannot, Imagine

Art is born of humiliation. - W. H. Auden

Art is born of humiliation.

Art, Born, Humiliation

God bless the USA, so large, so friendly, and so rich.

God, Rich, Bless, God Bless, Friendly

Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead.

Art, Dead, Bread, Our, Chief, Breaking

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

Man, You, World, Die, See, Why

Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.

Aim, Always, Never, Authenticity, Some

Like everything which is not the involuntary result of fleeting emotion but the creation of time and will, any marriage, happy or unhappy, is infinitely more interesting than any romance, however passionate.

Marriage, Time, Happy, Result, Unhappy

Geniuses are the luckiest of mortals because what they must do is the same as what they most want to do.

Want, Same, Most, Because, Luckiest

Sob, heavy world Sob as you spin, Mantled in mist Remote from the happy.

Happy, You, World, Mist, Heavy, Spin

Every autobiography is concerned with two characters, a Don Quixote, the Ego, and a Sancho Panza, the Self.

Self, Ego, Two, Autobiography, Concerned

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

Book, Us, Real, Read, Reads

Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his shoulders, that he is a literary aristocracy of one.

Poetry, Responsibility, American, Poet

Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people and on how many occasions they have genuinely and profoundly shared some experience with another.

Experience, Poetry, People, First, Some

Health is the state about which medicine has nothing to say.

Health, Medicine, Nothing, Say, About

When I am in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a drawing room full of dukes.

I Am, Mistake, Drawing, Feel, Company

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.

Forgiveness, Society, Unique, Place, His

Learn from your dreams what you lack.

Dreams, Your Dreams, You, Learn, Your

All that we are not stares back at what we are.

A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a bomb.

Man, Poet, Dragon, About, Write, Bomb

No poet or novelist wishes he were the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were the only one alive, and quite a number fondly believe their wish has been granted.

Believe, Wish, Only, Wishes, Alive, Poet

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

Books, Remembered, Forgotten, Some, None

The center that I cannot find is known to my unconscious mind.

Mind, Find, Cannot, Center, Unconscious

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.

Sad, Art, Culture, Money, Writing, More

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.

Relationship, Run, Relationships, Out

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

Time, Gun, Riding, Horse, Pay, Opera

A poet is a professional maker of verbal objects.

Professional, Poet, Objects, Verbal

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