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We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment and let our illusions die.

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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In headaches and in worry Vaguely life leaks away, And Time will have his fancy To-morrow or today.
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We are all here on earth to help others what on earth the others are here for I don't know.
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If we really want to live, we'd better start at once to try.
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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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All poets adore explosions, thunderstorms, tornadoes, conflagrations, ruins, scenes of spectacular carnage. The poetic imagination is not at all a desirable quality in a statesman.
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Pleasure is by no means an infallible critical guide, but it is the least fallible.
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The parlour cars and Pullmans are packed also with scented assassins, salad-eaters who murder on milk.
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Rhymes, meters, stanza forms, etc., are like servants. If the master is fair enough to win their affection and firm enough to command their respect, the result is an orderly happy household. If he is too tyrannical, they give notice if he lacks authority, they become slovenly, impertinent, drunk and dishonest.
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You owe it to all of us all get on with what you're good at.
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In life the loser's score is always zero.
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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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There is no love There are only the various envies, all of them sad.
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I said earlier that I do not believe an artist's life throws much light upon his works. I do believe, however, that, more often than most people realize, his works may throw light upon his life. An artist with certain imaginative ideas in his head may then involve himself in relationships which are congenial to them.
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What the poet says has never been said before, but, once he has said it, his readers recognize its validity for themselves.
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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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In addition to English, at least one ancient language, probably Greek or Hebrew, and two modern languages would be required.
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Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the differences between accidental limitations which it is our duty to outgrow and the necessary limitations of our nature beyond which we cannot trespass with impunity.
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Narcissus does not fall in love with his reflection because it is beautiful, but because it is his. If it were his beauty that enthralled him, he would be set free in a few years by its fading.
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You shall love your crooked neighbour, with your crooked heart.
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