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You owe it to all of us all get on with what you're good at.

W. H. Auden

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W. H. Auden
Age: 66 †
Born: 1907
Born: February 21
Died: 1973
Died: September 28
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Wystan Hugh Auden
Wystan Auden
Wystan H Auden
W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden
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Cats can be very funny, and have the oddest ways of showing they're glad to see you.
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O plunge your hands in water, Plunge them in up to the wrist Stare, stare in the basin And wonder what you've missed.
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A false enchantment can all too easily last a lifetime.
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America has always been a country of amateurs where the professional, that is to say, the man who claims authority as a member of an élite which knows the law in some field or other, is an object of distrust and resentment.
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In a game, just losing is almost as satisfying as just winning... In life the loser's score is always zero.
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The slogan of Hell: Eat or be eaten. The slogan of Heaven: Eat and be eaten.
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The closest modern equivalent to the Homeric hero is the ace fighter pilot.
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To choose what is difficult all one's days, as if it were easy, that is faith
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An honest self-portrait is extremely rare because a man who has reached the degree of self-consciousness presupposed by the desire to paint his own portrait has almost always also developed an ego-consciousness which paints himself painting himself, and introduces artificial highlights and dramatic shadows.
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It is nonsense to speak of 'higher' and 'lower' pleasures. To a hungry man it is, rightly, more important that he eat than that he philosophize.
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There has been a vast output of critical studies in contemporary poetry, some of them first rate, but I do not think that , as a rule, a poet should read them.
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The condition of mankind is, and always has been, so miserable and depraved that, if anyone were to say to the poet: For God's sake stop singing and do something useful like putting on the kettle or fetching bandages, what just reason could he give for refusing?
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Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people and on how many occasions they have genuinely and profoundly shared some experience with another...
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The relation of faith between subject and object is unique in every case. Hundreds may believe, but each has to believe by himself.
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We are all here on earth to help others.
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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?
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Shall memory restore The steps and the shore, The face and the meeting place.
W. H. Auden
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One rational voice is dumb: over a grave The household of Impulse mourns one dearly loved. Sad is Eros, builder of cities, And weeping anarchic Aphrodite.
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A shilling life will give you all the facts.
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You must go to bed with friends or whores, where money makes up the difference in beauty or desire.
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