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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.

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

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Far from his illness The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests, The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays By mourning tongues The death of the poet was kept from his poems.
W. H. Auden
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A poet feels the impulse to create a work of art when the passive awe provoked by an event is transformed into a desire to express that awe in a rite of worship.
W. H. Auden
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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.
W. H. Auden
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Without Art, we should have no notion of the sacred without Science, we should always worship false gods.
W. H. Auden
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The chances are that, in the course of his lifetime, the major poet will write more bad poems than the minor, simply because major poets write a lot.
W. H. Auden
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The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen.
W. H. Auden
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Most people enjoy the sight of their own handwriting as they enjoy the smell of their own farts.
W. H. Auden
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Words have no word for words that are not true.
W. H. Auden
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To choose what is difficult all one's days, as if it were easy, that is faith
W. H. Auden
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Cathedrals, luxury liners laden with souls, Holding to the east their hulls of stone.
W. H. Auden
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Why doesn't the United States take over the monarchy and unite with England? England does have important assets. Naturally the longer you wait, the more they will dwindle. At least you could use it for a summer resort instead of Maine.
W. H. Auden
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All the rest is silence On the other side of the wall, And the silence ripeness, And the ripeness all.
W. H. Auden
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A poet's hope: to be, like some valley cheese, local, but prized elsewhere.
W. H. Auden
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A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them. Even a rich man thinks he has to go down to the office everyday. Not because he likes it but because he can't think of anything else to do.
W. H. Auden
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About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters How well they understood Its human position how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along.
W. H. Auden
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For time is inches And the heart's changes, Where ghost has haunted Lost and wanted.
W. H. Auden
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If it form the one landscape that we the inconstant ones Are consistently homesick for, this is chiefly Because it dissolves in water.
W. H. Auden
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Oh, how I wish that Orwell were still alive, so that I could read his comments on contemporary events!
W. H. Auden
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Those who will not reason, perish in the act. Those who will not act, perish for that reason.
W. H. Auden
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Murder is commoner among cooks than among members of any other profession.
W. H. Auden