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No poet or novelist wishes he were the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were the only one alive, and quite a number fondly believe their wish has been granted.
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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More quotes by W. H. Auden
Criticism should be a casual conversation.
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Composing mortals with immortal fire.
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'Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'
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Marriage is rarely bliss But, surely it would be worse As particles to pelt At thousands of miles per sec About a universe In which a lover's kiss Would either not be felt Or break the loved one's neck.
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The law cannot forgive, for the law has not been wronged, only broken only persons can be wronged. The law can pardon, but it can only pardon what it has the power to punish.
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A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish.
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We who must die demand a miracle. How could the Eternal do a temporal act, The Infinite become a finite fact? Nothing can save us that is possible: We who must die demand a miracle.
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As a rule, it was the pleasure-haters who became unjust.
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A poet must never make a statement simply because it is sounds poetically exciting he must also believe it to be true.
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Murder is commoner among cooks than among members of any other profession.
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Behind the corpse in the reservoir, behind the ghost on the links, Behind the lady who dances and the man who madly drinks, Under the look of fatigue, the attack of migraine and the sigh There is always another story, there is more than meets the eye.
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There are good books which are only for adults. There are no good books which are only for children.
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Those who hate to go to bed fear death those who hate to get up fear life.
W. H. Auden
Anyone who has a child today should train him to be either a physicist or a ballet dancer. Then he'll escape.
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Weep for the lives your wishes never led.
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A man is a form of life that dreams in order to act and acts in order to dream.
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We till shadowed days are done, We must weep and sing Duty's conscious wrong, The Devil in the clock
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Political history is far too criminal to be a fit subject of study for the young. Children should acquire their heroes and villians from fiction.
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If there are any souls in hell, it is because that is where they insist on being.
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The camera may do justice to laughter, but must degrade sorrow.
W. H. Auden
