457 Quotes by W. H. Auden

By mourning tongues The death of the poet was kept from his poems.

If it form the one landscape that we the inconstant ones Are consistently homesick for, this is chiefly Because it dissolves in water.

If age, which is certainly Just as wicked as youth, look any wiser, It is only that youth is still able to believe It will get away with anything, while age Knows only too well that it has got away with nothing.

The true men of action in our time, those who transform the world, are not the politicians and statesmen, but the scientists

Man desires to be free and he desires to feel important. This places him in a dilemma, for the more he emancipates himself from necessity the less important he feels.

In addition to English, at least one ancient language, probably Greek or Hebrew, and two modern languages would be required.

We were put on this Earth to help others. Why others were put here is beyond me.

Courses in prosody, rhetoric and comparative philology would be required of all students, and every student would have to select three courses out of courses in mathematics, natural history, geology, meteorology, archaeology, mythology, liturgics, cooking.

Poetry is the only art people haven't learned to consume like soup.