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When someone between twenty and forty says, apropos of a work of art, 'I know what I like,' he is really saying 'I have no taste of my own but accept the taste of my cultural milieu.

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
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W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden
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Young people, who are still uncertain of their identity, often try on a succession of masks in the hope of finding the one which suits them - the one, in fact, which is not a mask.
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I just try to put the thing out and hope somebody will read it. Someone says: 'Whom do you write for?' I reply: 'Do you read me?' If they say 'Yes,' I say, 'Do you like it?' If they say 'No,' then I say, 'I don't write for you.'
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Man desires to be free and he desires to feel important. This places him in a dilemma, for the more he emancipates himself from necessity the less important he feels.
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Sincerity is technique.
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Let us honor if we can the vertical man, though we value none but the horizontal one
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To choose what is difficult all one's days, as if it were easy, that is faith
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By mourning tongues The death of the poet was kept from his poems.
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Harrow the house of the dead look shining at New styles of architecture, a change of heart.
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Geniuses are the luckiest of mortals because what they must do is the same as what they most want to do.
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Music can be made anywhere, is invisible and does not smell.
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The relation of faith between subject and object is unique in every case. Hundreds may believe, but each has to believe by himself.
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We who must die demand a miracle. How could the Eternal do a temporal act, The Infinite become a finite fact? Nothing can save us that is possible: We who must die demand a miracle.
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The older lives like not to be stood in rows or at right angles.
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Out on the lawn I lie in bed, Vega conspicuous overhead.
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I will love you forever swears the poet. I find this easy to swear too. I will love you at 4:15 pm next Tuesday - Is that still as easy?
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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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Aside from purely technical analysis, nothing can be said about music, except when it is bad when it is good, one can only listen and be grateful.
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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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Time will say nothing but I told you so, Time only knows the price we have to pay If I could tell you I would let you know.
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Who on earth invented the silly convention that it is boring or impolite to talk shop? Nothing is more interesting to listen to, especially if the shop is not one's own.
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