451 Quotes by 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.

Anyone who has a child today should train him to be either a physicist or a ballet dancer. Then he’ll escape.

Get up very early and get going at once. In fact, work first and wash afterwards.

There’s always another story. There’s more than meets the eye.

Lust is less a physical need than a way of forgetting time and death.

No human being is innocent, but there is a class of innocent human actions called Games.

Time will say nothing but I told you so...

A poet feels the impulse to create a work of art when the passive awe provoked by an event is transformed into a desire to express that awe in a rite of worship.

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.