W. H. Auden Quotes - Page 5

Quotes about:

• 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

  Eye, Hands, Bored

  29 Copy quote

• Base words are uttered only by the base
  And can for such at once be understood;
  But noble platitudes - ah, there's a case
  Where the most careful scrutiny is needed
  To tell a voice that's genuinely good
  From one that's base but merely has succeeded.

  W. H. Auden

  Voice, Noble, Cases

  "Base words are uttered". Poem by W. H. Auden, 1940.

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• Genealogies are admirable things, provided they do not encourage the curious delusion that some families are older than others.

  W. H. Auden

  Curious, Genealogy, Delusion

  "Forewords and Afterwords" by W. H. Auden, ("As It Seemed to Us"), (p. 498), 1973.

  7 Copy quote

• The image of myself which I try to create in my own mind in order that I may love myself is very different from the image which I try to create in the minds of others in order that they may love me.

  W. H. Auden

  Love, Order, Mind

  Dyer's Hand (1963) "Hic et Ille"

  9 Copy quote

• To read is to translate, for no two persons' experiences are the same. A bad reader is like a bad translator: he interprets literally when he ought to paraphrase and paraphrases when he ought to interpret literally.

  W. H. Auden

  Two, Translate, Reader

  8 Copy quote

• No human being is innocent, but there is a class of innocent human actions called Games.

  W. H. Auden

  Playing Games, Class, Innocence

  31 Copy quote

• A dead man who never caused others to die seldom rates a statue.

  W. H. Auden

  Men, Dead Man, Rate

  10 Copy quote

• Learn from your dreams what you lack.

  W. H. Auden

  Dream, Your Dreams

  15 Copy quote

• How should we like it were stars to burn With a passion for us we could not return? If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me.

  W. H. Auden

  Stars, Passion, Return

  W. H. Auden, “The More Loving One”

  13 Copy quote

• What we have not named as a symbol escapes our notice.

  W. H. Auden

  Symbols

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• Nobody knows what the cause is, though some pretend they do; it like some hidden assassin waiting to strike at you. Childless women get it, and men when they retire; it as if there had to be some outlet for their foiled creative fire.

  W. H. Auden

  Cancer, Men, Fire

  8 Copy quote

• We are all here on earth to help others.

  W. H. Auden

  Funny Life, Helping Others, Earth

  W H Auden (1981). “Antæus”, Ecco Press

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• That the speech of self-disclosure should be translatable seems to me very odd, but I am convinced that it is. The conclusion that I draw is that the only quality which all human being without exception possess is uniqueness: any characteristic, on the other hand, which one individual can be recognized as having in common with another, like red hair or the English language, implies the existence of other individual qualities which this classification excludes.

  W. H. Auden

  Hair, Self, Hands

  9 Copy quote

• Fate succumbs many a species: one alone jeopardises itself.

  W. H. Auden

  Life, Fate, Species

  4 Copy quote

• In relation to a writer, most readers believe in the Double Standard: they may be unfaithful to him as often as they like, but he must never, never be unfaithful to them.

  W. H. Auden

  Believe, Writing, Double Standard

  19 Copy quote

• Cats can be very funny, and have the oddest ways of showing they're glad to see you.

  W. H. Auden

  Cat, Way, Glad

  22 Copy quote

• Money is the necessity that frees us from necessity.

  W. H. Auden

  Money

  "Forewords and Afterwords" by W. H. Auden, ("A Poet of the Actual"), (p. 266), 1973.

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• Political history is far too criminal to be a fit subject of study for the young. Children should acquire their heroes and villians from fiction.

  W. H. Auden

  Children, Hero, History

  12 Copy quote

• If we really want to live, we'd better start at once to try.

  W. H. Auden

  Success, Trying, Want

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• The poet marries the language, and out of this marriage the poem is born.

  W. H. Auden

  Language, Poet, Born

  4 Copy quote

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

  W. H. Auden

  Gentleman, Acting, Actors

  10 Copy quote

• Men will pay large sums to whores for telling them they are not bores.

  W. H. Auden

  Men, Pay, Bores

  12 Copy quote

• History marched to the drums of a clear idea...

  W. H. Auden

  Ideas, March, Clear

  "Memorial for the City". Poem by W. H. Auden, 1947.

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• No hero is mortal till he dies.

  W. H. Auden

  Hero, Demise, Dies

  7 Copy quote

• Sincerity is technique.

  W. H. Auden

  Technique, Crafts, Sincerity

  18 Copy quote

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