451 Quotes by W.H. Auden

Our sufferings and weaknesses, in so far as they are personal, are of no literary interest whatsoever. They are only interesting in so far as we can see them as typical of the human condition.

Time and fevers burn away Individual beauty from Thoughtful children, and the grave Proves the child ephemeral.

Detective stories have nothing to do with works of art.

People always get what they want. But there is a price for everything. Failures are either those who do not know what they want or are not prepared to pay the price asked them. The price varies from individual to individual. Some get things at bargain-sale prices, others only at famine prices. But it is no use grumbling. Whatever price you are asked, you must pay.

A writer is a maker, not a man of action: his private life is of no concern to anybody but himself, his family and his friends.

Without communication with the dead, a fully human life is not possible.

In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start.

In any first-class work of art, you can find passages that in themselves are extremely boring, but try to cut them out, as they are in an abridged edition, and you lose the life of the work. Don’t think that art that is alive can remain on the same level of interest throughout – and the same is true of life.

Young people, who are still uncertain of their identity, often try on a succession of masks in the hope of finding the one which suits them – the one, in fact, which is not a mask.