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To make one, there must be two.

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
Playwright
Poet
Screenwriter
University Teacher
Writer
Jórvík
Wystan Hugh Auden
Wystan Auden
Wystan H Auden
W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden
Marriage
Two
Must
Make

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Composing mortals with immortal fire.
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Music can be made anywhere, is invisible and does not smell.
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Detective stories have nothing to do with works of art.
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Does God judge us by appearances? I Suspect that He does.
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Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.
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There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair, Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem From insignificance.
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The primary function of poetry, as of all the arts, is to make us more aware of ourselves and the world around us. I do not know if such increased awareness makes us more moral or more efficient. I hope not. I think it makes us more human, and I am quite certain it makes us more difficult to deceive.
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If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving be me.
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Acts of injustice done Between the setting and the rising sun In history lie like bones, each one.
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One cannot walk through an assembly factory and not feel that one is in Hell.
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I don't get acting jobs because of my looks.
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A poet, qua poet, has only one political duty, namely, in his own writing to set an example of the correct use of his mother tongue, which is always being corrupted. When words lose their meaning, physical force takes over.
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Moreover, if great men are the only hope of the Evolutionary Process, they are morally bound to rule over the masses for their own good -- we are all here on earth to help others: what on earth the others are here for, I don't know -- and the masses have no right whatsoever to resist them.
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Words have no word for words that are not true.
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There is a certain kind of person who is so dominated by the desire to be loved for himself alone that he has constantly to test those around him by tiresome behavior what he says and does must be admired, not because it is intrinsically admirable, but because it is his remark, his act. Does not this explain a good deal of avant-garde art?
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My face looks like a wedding-cake left out in the rain.
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A craftsman knows in advance what the finished result will be, while the artist knows only what it will be when he has finished it.
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Desire, even in its wildest tantrums, can neither persuade me it is love nor stop me from wishing it were.
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August for the people and their favourite islands. Daily the steamers sidle up to meet The effusive welcome of the pier.
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I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade
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