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W. H. Auden Quotes

1907–1973 England

Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was an Anglo-American poet known for his vast poetic work in many forms on many themes.

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Also known as: Auden, W(ystan) H(ugh), Auden, W. H., Auden, Wystan Hugh, Wystan Hugh Auden

Random W. H. Auden quote

217 quotes

Law, say the gardeners, is the sun,
Law is the one
All gardeners obey
To-morrow, yesterday, to-day.

Another Time (1940)

I'm beginning to lose patience
With my personal relations:
They are not deep,
And they are not cheap.

Shorts (1932)

Sir Rider Haggard
Was completely staggered
When his bride-to-be
Announced, "I AM SHE!"

Academic Graffiti (1972)

Thomas the Rhymer
Was probably a social climber:
He should have known Fairy Queens
Were beyond his means.

Academic Graffiti (1972)

We must lose our loves,
On each beast and bird that moves
Turn an envious look.

Look, Stranger! (1936) · On This Island (1937)

In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.

Another Time (1940)

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.

The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)

You know there are no secrets in America. It's quite different in England, where people think of a secret as a shared relation between two people.

The Table Talk of W. H. Auden (1991)

O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

As I Walked Out One Evening (1937)

My Dear One is mine as mirrors are lonely.

For the Time Being (1944)

To the man-in-the-street, who, I'm sorry to say,
Is a keen observer of life,
The word 'Intellectual' suggests straight away
A man who's untrue to his wife.

The Double Man · New Year Letter (1941)

The class distinctions proper to a democratic society are not those of rank or money, still less, as is apt to happen when these are abandoned, of race, but of age.

The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)

That girls are raped, that two boys knife a third,
Were axioms to him, who'd never heard
Of any world where promises were kept
Or one could weep because another wept.

The Shield of Achilles (1955)

Money is the necessity that frees us from necessity. Of all novelists in any country, Trollope best understands the role of money. Compared with him even Balzac is a romantic.

Forewords and Afterwords (1973)

The greater the love, the more false to its object
Not to be born is the best for man
After the kiss comes the impulse to throttle
Break the embraces, dance while you can.

Letters from Iceland (1937)

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. But it is unbecoming in an artist to talk about inspiration; that is the reader's business.

Forewords and Afterwords (1973)

The old lady, quoted by E. M. Forster — "How can I know what I think till I see what I say?"

The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)

O what is that sound which so thrills the ear
Down in the valley drumming, drumming?
Only the scarlet soldiers, dear,
The soldiers coming.

Look, Stranger! (1936) · On This Island (1937)

Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.

The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.

Homage to Clio (1960)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: W. H. Auden (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.