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Attacking bad books is not only a waste of time but also bad for the character. If I find a book really bad, the only interest I can derive from writing about it has to come from myself, from such display of intelligence, wit and malice as I can contrive. One cannot review a bad book without showing off.

W. H. Auden

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W. H. Auden
Age: 66 †
Born: 1907
Born: February 21
Died: 1973
Died: September 28
Author
Composer
Essayist
Librettist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
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Poet
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University Teacher
Writer
Jórvík
Wystan Hugh Auden
Wystan Auden
Wystan H Auden
W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden
Without
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The older lives like not to be stood in rows or at right angles.
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Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings.
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As a rule, it was the pleasure-haters who became unjust.
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What we have not named as a symbol escapes our notice.
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A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep.
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Look if you like, but you will have to leap.
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It is, for example, axiomatic that we should all think of ourselves as being more sensitive than other people because, when we are insensitive in our dealings with others, we cannot be aware of it at the time: conscious insensitivity is a self-contradiction.
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A false enchantment can all too easily last a lifetime.
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Though one cannot always Remember exactly why one has been happy, There is no forgetting that one was.
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All the literati keep An imaginary friend.
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Drama is based on the Mistake.
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Nobody is ever sent to Hell: he or she insists on going there.
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There are three cardinal rules - don't take somebody else's boyfriend unless you've been specifically invited to do so, don't take a drink without being asked, and keep a scrupulous accounting in financial matters.
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