Skip to content

W. H. Auden on Anniversary

1907–1973 England

← All quotes by W. H. Auden

11 quotes

Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.

Homage to Clio (1960)

For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.

Another Time (1940)

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

There is no love;
There are only the various envies, all of them sad.

Nones (1951)

Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.

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

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

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

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

As I Walked Out One Evening (1937)

One rational voice is dumb: over a grave
The household of Impulse mourns one dearly loved.
Sad is Eros, builder of cities,
And weeping anarchic Aphrodite.

Another Time (1940)

Like love we don't know where or why
Like love we can't compel or fly
Like love we often weep
Like love we seldom keep

Another Time (1940)

Love each other or perish.

Misattributed

Attribution

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