~ W. H. Auden Quotes ~

[MysteRy]

When I find myself in the company of scientists I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a room full of dukes.

[MysteRy]

The relation of faith between subject and object is unique in every case. Hundreds may believe but each has to believe by himself.

[MysteRy]

It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practising it.

[MysteRy]

It is nonsense to speak of 'higher' and 'lower' pleasures. To a hungry man it is rightly more important that he eat than that he philosophize.

[MysteRy]

What the mass media offer is not popular art but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food forgotten and replaced by a new dish.

[MysteRy]

The ear tends to be lazy craves the familiar and is shocked by the unexpected; the eye on the other hand tends to be impatient craves the novel and is bored by repetition.

[MysteRy]

Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation a mental or physical barter to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods.

[MysteRy]

Choice of attention ... is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences whatever they may be.

[MysteRy]

My poetry doesn't change from place to place - it changes with the years. It's very important to be one's age. You get ideas you have to turn down - 'I'm sorry no longer'; 'I'm sorry not yet.'

[MysteRy]

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.

[MysteRy]

Choice of attention-to pay attention to this and ignore that-is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences.

[MysteRy]

Nobody can honestly think of himself as a strong character because however successful he may be in overcoming them he is necessarily aware of the doubts and temptations that accompany every important choice.