W. H. Auden quotes - page 5

A crowd of ordinary decent folk Watched from without and neither moved nor spoke As three pale figures were led forth and bound To three posts driven upright in the ground. (W. H. Auden)
Unfortunately for the modern dramatist, during the past century and a half the public realm has been less and less of a realm where human deeds are done, and more and more of a realm of mere human behavior. The contemporary dramatist has lost his natural subject. View quote
W. H. Auden
The thin-lipped armorer, Hephaestos, hobbled away, Thetis of the shining breasts Cried out in dismay At what the god had wrought To please her son, the strong Iron-hearted man-slaying Achilles Who would not live long. View quote
W. H. Auden
Sad is Eros, builder of cities, And weeping anarchic Aphrodite. View quote
W. H. Auden
When I consider others I can easily believe that their bodies express their personalities and that the two are inseparable. But it is impossible for me not to feel that my body is other than I, that I inhabit it like a house, and that my face is a mask which, with or without my consent, conceals my real nature from others. View quote
W. H. Auden
I never write when I'm drunk. Why should one need aids? The Muse is a high-spirited girl who doesn't like to be brutally or coarsely wooed. And she doesn't like slavish devotion - then she lies. View quote
W. H. Auden
He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong. View quote
W. H. Auden
The mass and majesty of this world, all That carries weight and always weighs the same Lay in the hands of others; they were small And could not hope for help and no help came: What their foes like to do was done, their shame Was all the worst could wish; they lost their pride And died as men before their bodies died. View quote
W. H. Auden
By mourning tongues The death of the poet was kept from his poems. But for him it was his last afternoon as himself, An afternoon of nurses and rumours; The provinces of his body revolted, The squares of his mind were empty, Silence invaded the suburbs. The current of his feeling failed: he became his admirers. Now he is scattered over a hundred cities And wholly given over to unfamiliar affections; To find his happiness in another kind of wood And be punished under a foreign code of conscience. The words of a dead man Are modified in the guts of the living. View quote
W. H. Auden
Look, stranger, on this island now The leaping light for your delight discovers, Stand stable here And silent be, That through the channels of the ear May wander like a river The swaying sound of the sea. View quote
W. H. Auden
In societies with fewer opportunities for amusement, it was also easier to tell a mere wish from a real desire. If, in order to hear some music, a man has to wait for six months and then walk twenty miles, it is easy to tell whether the words, "I should like to hear some music," mean what they appear to mean, or merely, "At this moment I should like to forget myself." When all he has to do is press a switch, it is more difficult. He may easily come to believe that wishes can come true. (W. H. Auden)
A real book reads us. View quote
W. H. Auden
It's frightening how easy it is to commit murder in America. Just a drink too much. I can see myself doing it. In England, one feels all the social restraints holding one back. But here, anything can happen. View quote
W. H. Auden
One cannot walk through an assembly factory and not feel that one is in Hell. View quote
W. H. Auden
No human being is innocent, but there is a class of innocent human actions called Games. View quote
W. H. Auden
Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality. View quote
W. H. Auden
We all have these places where shy humiliations gambol on sunny afternoons. View quote
W. H. Auden
The countenances of children, like those of animals, are masks, not faces, for they have not yet developed a significant profile of their own. View quote
W. H. Auden
Murder is commoner among cooks than among members of any other profession. View quote
W. H. Auden
Fame often makes a writer vain, but seldom makes him proud. View quote
W. H. Auden
A poet is a professional maker of verbal objects. (W. H. Auden)
All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one by a simple act of will but must wait until what he believes to be a good idea for a work comes to him. View quote
W. H. Auden
In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag. View quote
W. H. Auden
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. View quote
W. H. Auden
Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead. View quote
W. H. Auden