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W. H. Auden Quotes - Page 2

All Quotes Acting Affection Age Art Character Children Choices Cooking Country Criticism Culture Dance Dancing Death Desire Drama Earth Ego Evil Fate Fear Feelings Food Funeral Funny Giving God Greek Grief Happiness Healing Heart Hell Helping Others History Homosexuality Honor Hope Hunger Imagination Inspirational Joy Judgment Language Life Listening Love Lying Mankind Money Mountain Mourning Music Nature Passion Past Pleasure Poetry Politics Prayer Quality Reality Religion Running Science Silence Sin Sleep Sorrow Soul Study Success Suffering Time Today Torture Waiting Water Winning Work Writing

Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.

Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.

Ambition, Intelligent, Men

"The Good Order" by David Brooks, www.nytimes.com. September 25, 2014.

Every man carries with him through life a mirror, as unique and impossible to get rid of as his shadow.

Unique, Men, Mirrors

Those who will not reason, perish in the act. Those who will not act, perish for that reason.

Reason

Christ did not enchant men; He demanded that they believe in Him: except on one occasion, the Transfiguration. For a brief while, Peter, James, and John were permitted to see Him in His glory. For that brief while they had no need of faith. The vision vanished, and the memory of it did not prevent them from all forsaking Him when He was arrested, or Peter from denying that he had ever known Him.

Memories, Believe, Men

We do not change as we grow up. The difference between the child and the adult is that the former doesn't know who he is and the latter does.

Children, Growing Up, Learning

The eye likes novelty, but the ear craves familiarity.

Eye, Ears, Likes

See without looking, hear without listening, breathe without asking.

Philosophical, Listening, Asking

W. H. Auden (2013). “For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio”, p.23, Princeton University Press

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

Inspirational, Mind, Unconscious

I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return.

Learning, Israel, Evil

"September 1, 1939" l. 19 (1939)

You shall love your crooked neighbour, with your crooked heart.

Heart, Crooked, Neighbour

W.H. Auden (2016). “Canción de cuna y otros poemas”, p.76, DEBOLS!LLO

You owe it to all of us all get on with what you're good at.

Stewardship

Young people, who are still uncertain of their identity, often try on a succession of masks in the hope of finding the one which suits them - the one, in fact, which is not a mask.

Finding The One, People, Trying

"Forewords and Afterwords" by W. H. Auden, ("One of the Family"), (p. 369), 1973.

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

Dog, Joy, Tails

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

Addiction, Damnation, Sin

A Certain World (1970) "Hell"

Let all your thinks be thanks.

Thinking, Thanks

Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings.

Expression, Feelings, Might

To be happy means to be free, not from pain or fear, but from care or anxiety.

Pain, Mean, Anxiety

Whatever you do, good or bad, people will always have something negative to say

People, Negative, Bad People

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

Love, Heart, Affection

W. H. Auden, Katherine Bucknell (2003). “Juvenilia: Poems, 1922-1928”, p.41, Princeton University Press

Thank God for books as an alternative to conversation.

Book, Thank God, Alternatives

It's better to say, 'I'm suffering,' than to say, 'This landscape is ugly.

Suffering, Criticism, Ugly

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

Inspirational, Genius, Want

In Dag Hammarskj"ld Markings (1964) foreword

I smell blood and an era of prominent madmen.

Blood, Smell, Eras

In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start.

Healing, Heart, Relaxation

Another Time (1940) "In Memory of W. B. Yeats"

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

Love, Passion, Language Words

"Poets at Work" by W. H. Auden, (p. 170), 1948.

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