W. H. Auden
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.
A poet is a professional maker of verbal objects.
Geniuses are the luckiest of mortals because what they must do is the same as what they most want to do.
One cannot walk through an assembly factory and not feel that one is in Hell.
Sob, heavy world Sob as you spin, Mantled in mist Remote from the happy.
Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality.
The countenances of children, like those of animals, are masks, not faces, for they have not yet developed a significant profile of their own.
Good can imagine Evil; but Evil cannot imagine Good.
Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.
Fame often makes a writer vain, but seldom makes him proud.
We all have these places where shy humiliations gambol on sunny afternoons.
Nobody is ever sent to Hell: he or she insists on going there.Collection: Hell
Civilizations should be measured by the degree of diversity attained and the degree of unity retained.Collection: Respect
We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment and let our illusions die.Collection: Change
The most important truths are likely to be those which society at that time least wants to hear.Collection: Truth
There's always another story. There's more than meets the eye.Collection: Eye
No person can be a great leader unless he takes genuine joy in the successes of those under him.Collection: Inspirational
A craftsman knows in advance what the finished result will be, while the artist knows only what it will be when he has finished it.Collection: Artist
I think the first prerequisite to civilization is an ability to make polite conversation.Collection: Thinking
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.Collection: Finding The One
Those who will not reason, perish in the act. Those who will not act, perish for that reason.Collection: Reason
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.Collection: Children
Language is the mother, not the handmaiden, of thought; words will tell you things you never thought or felt before.Collection: Mother
Thank God for books as an alternative to conversation.Collection: Book
The element of craftsmanship in poetry is obscured by the fact that all men are taught to speak and most to read and write, while very few men are taught to draw or paint or write music.Collection: Writing
Fate succumbs many a species: one alone jeopardises itself.Collection: Life
Drama is based on the Mistake.Collection: Mistake
If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves. The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Br?nnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.Collection: Real
Of course,Behaviourism 'works'. So does torture.Collection: Doe
There are three cardinal rules - don't take somebody else's boyfriend unless you've been specifically invited to do so, don't take a drink without being asked, and keep a scrupulous accounting in financial matters.Collection: Matter
Drama began as the act of a whole community. Ideally, there would be no speculators. In practice, every member of the audience should feel like an understudy.Collection: Drama
Pleasure is by no means an infallible critical guide, but it is the least fallible.Collection: Mean
A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish.Collection: Love
It is nonsense to speak of 'higher' and 'lower' pleasures. To a hungry man it is, rightly, more important that he eat than that he philosophize.Collection: Happiness
How happy the lot of the mathematician. He is judged solely by his peers, and the standard is so high that no colleague or rival can ever win a reputation he does not deserve.Collection: Happiness
Every poet has his dream reader: mine keeps a look out for curious prosodic fauna like bacchics and choriambs.Collection: Dream
Happy the hare at morning, for she cannot read The hunter's waking thoughts.Collection: Morning
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content That he held the proper opinions for the time of year; When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went. He was married and added five children to the population, Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation, And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education. Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: Had everything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.Collection: Teacher
A writer, or at least a poet, is always being asked by people who should know better: “Whom do you write for?” The question is, of course, a silly one, but I can give it a silly answer. Occasionally I come across a book which I feel has been written especially for me and for me only. Like a jealous lover I don’t want anybody else to hear of it. To have a million such readers, unaware of each other’s existence, to be read with passion and never talked about, is the daydream, surely, of every author.Collection: Silly
Without Art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without Science, we should always worship false gods.Collection: Art
Even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot Where the dogs go on with their doggy lifeCollection: Running
Courses in prosody, rhetoric and comparative philology would be required of all students, and every student would have to select three courses out of courses in mathematics, natural history, geology, meteorology, archaeology, mythology, liturgics, cooking.Collection: Cooking
Does God judge us by appearances? I Suspect that He does.Collection: Judging
The Three Wiseman: The weather has been awful, The countryside is dreary, Marsh, jungle, rock; and echoes mock, Calling our hope unlawful; But a silly song can help along Yours ever and sincerely: At least we know for certain that we are three old sinners, that this journey is much too long, that we want our dinners, and miss our wives, our books, our dogs, but have only the vaguest idea why we are what we are. To discover how to be human now Is the reason we follow this star.Collection: Dog
There is no such thing as the State And no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die.Collection: Choices