W. H. Auden quotes - page 7

God bless the USA, so large, so friendly, and so rich. (W. H. Auden)
Sob, heavy world Sob as you spin, Mantled in mist Remote from the happy. View quote
W. H. Auden
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. View quote
W. H. Auden
A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become. View quote
W. H. Auden
Lay your sleeping head, my love Human on my faithless arm; Time and fevers burn away Individual beauty from Thoughtful children, and the grave Proves the child ephemeral; But in my arms till break of day Let the living creature lie: Mortal, guilty, but to me The entirely beautiful. View quote
W. H. Auden
A million eyes, a million boots in line, Without expression, waiting for a sign. View quote
W. H. Auden
To choose what is difficult all ones days, as if it were easy, that is faith. View quote
W. H. Auden
Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature. View quote
W. H. Auden
Thank God for books as an alternative to conversation. View quote
W. H. Auden
Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the differences between accidental limitations which it is our duty to outgrow and the necessary limitations of our nature beyond which we cannot trespass with impunity. View quote
W. H. Auden
Private faces in public places Are wiser and nicer Than public faces in private places. (W. H. Auden)
I don't get acting jobs because of my looks. View quote
W. H. Auden
If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons and take his gun away. View quote
W. H. Auden
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? View quote
W. H. Auden
I do not believe an artist's life throws much light upon his works. I do believe, however, that, more often than most people realize, his works may throw light upon his life. View quote
W. H. Auden
the first flint was flaked this landing was merely a matter of time. But our selves, like Adam's, still don't fit us exactly, modern only in this-our lack of decorum. View quote
W. H. Auden
False enchantment can last a lifetime. View quote
W. H. Auden
A poet's hope: to be,like some valley cheese,local, but prized elsewhere. View quote
W. H. Auden
The idea of a sacrificial victim is not new; but that it should be the victim who chooses to be sacrificed, and the sacrificers who deny that any sacrifice has been made, is very new. View quote
W. H. Auden
Machines have no political opinions, but they have profound political effects. They demand a strict regimentation of time, and, by abolishing the need for manual skill, have transformed the majority of the population from workers into laborers. View quote
W. H. Auden
He suffers from one great literary defect, which is often found in lonely geniuses: he never knows when to stop. (W. H. Auden)
The mystics themselves do not seem to have believed their physical and mental sufferings to be a sign of grace, but it is unfortunate that it is precisely physical manifestations which appeal most to the religiosity of the mob. View quote
W. H. Auden
Man ... always acts either self-loving, just for the hell of it, or God-loving, just for the heaven of it; his reasons, his appetites are secondary motivations. View quote
W. H. Auden
In most poetic expressions of patriotism, it is impossible to distinguish what is one of the greatest human virtues from the worst human vice, collective egotism. View quote
W. H. Auden
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one, Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun, Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods; For nothing now can ever come to any good. View quote
W. H. Auden