W. H. Auden

Explore inspiring quotes by W. H. Auden, a remarkable figure whose words continue to inspire and motivate people around the world.

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art

8 quotes

music

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poetry

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money

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love

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age

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death

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Featured Quotes by W. H. Auden

Some of the most memorable quotes from this author

"Now is the age of anxiety."

— W. H. Audenage

"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."

— W. H. Audenage

"Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'"

— W. H. Audenart

"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."

— W. H. Audenart

"What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish."

— W. H. Audenart

"Art is born of humiliation."

— W. H. Audenart

All Quotes by W. H. Auden

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"Now is the age of anxiety."

-W. H. Auden

ageView Quote

"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."

-W. H. Auden

ageView Quote

"Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'"

-W. H. Auden

artView Quote

"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."

-W. H. Auden

artView Quote

"What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish."

-W. H. Auden

artView Quote

"Art is born of humiliation."

-W. H. Auden

artView Quote

"A verbal art like poetry is reflective it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become."

-W. H. Auden

artView Quote

"It's 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."

-W. H. Auden

artView Quote

"Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead."

-W. H. Auden

artView Quote

"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."

-W. H. Auden

artView Quote

"Music is the best means we have of digesting time."

-W. H. Auden

bestView Quote

"The words of a dead man are modified in the guts of the living."

-W. H. Auden

deathView Quote

"Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic."

-W. H. Auden

deathView Quote

"Learn from your dreams what you lack."

-W. H. Auden

dreamsView Quote

"Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people and on how many occasions they have genuinely and profoundly shared some experience with another."

-W. H. Auden

experienceView Quote

"May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and, considering the history of the human race so far, may it not be that 'faith' is even more difficult for Him than it is for us?"

-W. H. Auden

faithView Quote

"What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish."

-W. H. Auden

foodView Quote

"Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest."

-W. H. Auden

forgivenessView Quote

"Health is the state about which medicine has nothing to say."

-W. H. Auden

healthView Quote

"History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology."

-W. H. Auden

historyView Quote

"May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and, considering the history of the human race so far, may it not be that 'faith' is even more difficult for Him than it is for us?"

-W. H. Auden

historyView Quote

"Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be."

-W. H. Auden

lifeView Quote

"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."

-W. H. Auden

loveView Quote

"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."

-W. H. Auden

loveView Quote

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

-W. H. Auden

loveView Quote

"Like everything which is not the involuntary result of fleeting emotion but the creation of time and will, any marriage, happy or unhappy, is infinitely more interesting than any romance, however passionate."

-W. H. Auden

marriageView Quote

"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."

-W. H. Auden

moneyView Quote

"It's 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."

-W. H. Auden

moneyView Quote

"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."

-W. H. Auden

moneyView Quote

"No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible."

-W. H. Auden

musicView Quote

"Music is the best means we have of digesting time."

-W. H. Auden

musicView Quote

"Music can be made anywhere, is invisible and does not smell."

-W. H. Auden

musicView Quote

"A verbal art like poetry is reflective it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become."

-W. H. Auden

musicView Quote

"Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'"

-W. H. Auden

natureView Quote

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

-W. H. Auden

poetryView Quote

"A verbal art like poetry is reflective it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become."

-W. H. Auden

poetryView Quote

"Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people and on how many occasions they have genuinely and profoundly shared some experience with another."

-W. H. Auden

poetryView Quote

"Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his shoulders, that he is a literary aristocracy of one."

-W. H. Auden

poetryView Quote

"Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods."

-W. H. Auden

relationshipView Quote

"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."

-W. H. Auden

sadView Quote

"It's 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."

-W. H. Auden

sadView Quote

"When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a room full of dukes."

-W. H. Auden

scienceView Quote

"Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'"

-W. H. Auden

scienceView Quote

"Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest."

-W. H. Auden

societyView Quote

"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."

-W. H. Auden

societyView Quote

"A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep."

-W. H. Auden

teacherView Quote

"Of all possible subjects, travel is the most difficult for an artist, as it is the easiest for a journalist."

-W. H. Auden

travelView Quote

"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."

-W. H. Auden

migrate3View Quote

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W. H. Auden

Top Categories by W. H. Auden

art

music

poetry

money

love

age

death

history

Featured Quotes by W. H. Auden

All Quotes by W. H. Auden

"Now is the age of anxiety."

"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."

"Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'"

"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."

"What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish."

"Art is born of humiliation."

"A verbal art like poetry is reflective it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become."

"It's 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."

"Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead."

"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."

"Music is the best means we have of digesting time."

"The words of a dead man are modified in the guts of the living."

"Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic."

"Learn from your dreams what you lack."

"Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people and on how many occasions they have genuinely and profoundly shared some experience with another."

"May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and, considering the history of the human race so far, may it not be that 'faith' is even more difficult for Him than it is for us?"

"What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish."

"Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest."

"Health is the state about which medicine has nothing to say."

"History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology."

"May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and, considering the history of the human race so far, may it not be that 'faith' is even more difficult for Him than it is for us?"

"Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be."

"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."

"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."

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

"Like everything which is not the involuntary result of fleeting emotion but the creation of time and will, any marriage, happy or unhappy, is infinitely more interesting than any romance, however passionate."

"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."

"It's 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 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."

"No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible."

"Music is the best means we have of digesting time."

"Music can be made anywhere, is invisible and does not smell."

"A verbal art like poetry is reflective it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become."

"Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'"

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

"A verbal art like poetry is reflective it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become."

"Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people and on how many occasions they have genuinely and profoundly shared some experience with another."

"Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his shoulders, that he is a literary aristocracy of one."

"Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods."

"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."

"It's 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."

"When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a room full of dukes."

"Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'"

"Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest."

"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."

"A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep."

"Of all possible subjects, travel is the most difficult for an artist, as it is the easiest for a journalist."

"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."

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