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Goodness is easier to recognize than to define.
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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More quotes by W. H. Auden
To the man-in-the-street, who, I'm sorry to say, is a keen observer of life. The word Intellectual suggests straight away. A man who's untrue to his wife.
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To be happy means to be free, not from pain or fear, but from care or anxiety.
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Without communication with the dead, a fully human life is not possible.
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I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return.
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All pity is self-pity.
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As a poet, there is only one political duty, and that is to defend one's language from corruption.
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But he would have us most of all remember to be enthusiastic over the night. Not only for the sense of wonder it alone has to offer but also because it needs our love. For with sad eyes its delectable creatures look up and beg us dumbly to ask them to follow. They are exiles who long for a future that lies in our power.
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What answer to the meaning of existence should one require beyond the right to exercise one's gifts?
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The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews Not to be born is the best for man The second best is a formal order The dance's pattern, dance while you can. Dance, dance, for the figure is easy The tune is catching and will not stop Dance till the stars come down from the rafters Dance, dance, dance till you drop.
W. H. Auden
I used to try and concentrate the poem so much that there wasn't a word that wasn't essential. This leads to becoming boring and constipated.
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A man has his distinctive personal scent which his wife, his children and his dog can recognize. A crowd has a generalized stink. The public is odorless.
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About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters.
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The glacier knocks in the cupboard, The desert sighs in the bed, And the crack in the teacup opens A lane to the land of the dead.
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Love each other or perish.
W. H. Auden
No hero is mortal till he dies.
W. H. Auden
There are good books which are only for adults. There are no good books which are only for children.
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See without looking, hear without listening, breathe without asking.
W. H. Auden
Weep for the lives your wishes never led.
W. H. Auden
For time is inches And the heart's changes, Where ghost has haunted Lost and wanted.
W. H. Auden
It's frightening how easy it is to commit murder in America. Just a drink too much. I can see myself doing it. In England, one feels all the social restraints holding one back. But here, anything can happen.
W. H. Auden
