W.h. Auden Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old W.h. Auden quotes, W.h. Auden sayings, and W.h. Auden proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.'

Whatever you do, good or bad, people will always have something negative to say. W.H. Auden
Water is the soul of the Earth. W.H. Auden
Dance till the stars come down from the rafters Dance, Dance, Dance till you drop. W.H. Auden
Narcissus does not fall in love with his reflection because it is beautiful, but because it is his. If it were his beauty that ent hralled him, he would be set free in a few years by its fading. W.H. Auden
The only way to spend New Year's Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears. W.H. Auden
Between friends, differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality. W.H. Auden
Every man carries with him through life a mirror, as unique and impossible to get rid of as his shadow. W.H. Auden
A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep. W.H. Auden
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. W.H. Auden
In general, when reading a scholarly critic, one profits more from his quotations than from his comments. W.H. Auden
Most people enjoy the sight of their own handwriting as they enjoy the smell of their own farts. W.H. Auden
The commonest ivory tower is that of the average man, the state of passivity towards experience. W.H. Auden
A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a bomb. W.H. Auden
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
In the deserts of the heart / Let the healing fountain start / In the prison of his days / Teach the free man how to praise. W.H. Auden
If you really want to live you'd better start at once to try. If you don't, it doesn't really matter but you'd better start to die. W.H. Auden
Fame often makes a writer vain, but seldom makes him proud. W.H. Auden
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
Dear little not-so-innocents, beware of Old Grandmother Spider: rump her endearments – She’s not quite as nice as She looks, nor you quite as tough as you think. W.H. Auden
May it not be that, just as we have to faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and, considering the history og 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
My face looks like a wedding cake left out in the rain. W.H. Auden
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. W.H. Auden
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
Happy Birthday, Johnny, / Live beyond your income, / Travel for enjoyment, / Follow your own nose. W.H. Auden
Certainly our city — with the byres of poverty down to / The river's edge, the cathedral, the engines, the dogs; / Here is the cosmopolitan cooking / And the light allows and the glass. / Built by the conscious-stricken, the weapon-making. / By us. W.H. Auden
To build the City where / The will of love is done / And brought to its full flower / The dignity of man. W.H. Auden
Christmas and Easter can be subjects for poetry, but Good Friday, like Auschwitz, cannot. The reality is so horrible it is not surprising that people should have found it a stumbling block to faith. W.H. Auden
Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead. W.H. Auden
In relation to a writer, most readers believe in the Double Standard: they may be unfaithful to him as often as they like, but he must never, never be unfaithful to them. W.H. Auden
A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us. W.H. Auden