Quotessence
Home / Authors / W. H. Auden
W. H. Auden

W. H. Auden Quotes

Poet

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsPoetArtKnowsWritingPeopleShouldMayHumansLoveThinkingWorldDoeFeelsBelieveChildrenHeartPersonsBook

Famous W. H. Auden Quotes

“Looking up at the stars, I know quite well That, for all they care, I can go to hell, But on earth indifference is the least We have to dread from man or beast. How should we like it were stars to burn With a passion for us we could not return? If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me. Admirer as I think I am Of stars that do not give a damn, I cannot, now I see them, say I missed one terribly all day. Were all stars to disappear or die, I should learn to look at an empty sky And feel its total dark sublime, Though this might take me a little time.”

IfsThinkingKnowsMenGivingFeelsShouldWellsLooksLittlesI CanMightCareEarthDiesPassionStarsDarkHellSkyReturnEqualEmptyAffectionDisappearDamnIndifferenceBeastTake MeDreadSublimeLittle TimeGo To HellAdmirerAll StarsMissed Ones
Author:W. H. Auden
Create image

“The Three Wiseman: The weather has been awful, The countryside is dreary, Marsh, jungle, rock; and echoes mock, Calling our hope unlawful; But a silly song can help along Yours ever and sincerely: At least we know for certain that we are three old sinners, that this journey is much too long, that we want our dinners, and miss our wives, our books, our dogs, but have only the vaguest idea why we are what we are. To discover how to be human now Is the reason we follow this star.”

KnowsWantHumansLongHas BeensBookIdeasReasonHelpingCertainSongThreeStarsWifeJourneyRocksDogMissingCallingDinnerSillyWeatherAwfulSinnerEchoesJungleSincerelyCountrysideMockDrearyMarshesUnlawful
Author:W. H. Auden
Create image

“A writer, or at least a poet, is always being asked by people who should know better: “Whom do you write for?” The question is, of course, a silly one, but I can give it a silly answer. Occasionally I come across a book which I feel has been written especially for me and for me only. Like a jealous lover I don’t want anybody else to hear of it. To have a million such readers, unaware of each other’s existence, to be read with passion and never talked about, is the daydream, surely, of every author.”

PeopleKnowsWantGivingFeelsShouldWritingHas BeensI CanBookPassionCoursesAnswersExistenceMillionsWrittenPoetReaderLoversSillyJealousDaydreaming
Author:W. H. Auden
Create image

“I am sure it is everyone’s experience, as it has been mine, that any discovery we make about ourselves or the meaning of life is never, like a scientific discovery, a coming upon something entirely new and unsuspected; it is rather, the coming to conscious recognition of something, which we really knew all the time but, because we were unwilling to formulate it correctly, we did not hitherto know we knew.”

KnowsHas BeensLife IsMinesConsciousDiscoveryRecognitionMeaning Of LifeLife ExperienceUnwillingScientific Discovery
Author:W. H. Auden
Create image

“People always get what they want. But there is a price for everything. Failures are either those who do not know what they want or are not prepared to pay the price asked them. The price varies from individual to individual. Some get things at bargain-sale prices, others only at famine prices. But it is no use grumbling. Whatever price you are asked, you must pay.”

PeopleKnowsWantUseIndividualPayPreparedVaryBargainsFaminePay The PriceGrumbling
Author:W. H. Auden
Create image

“You need not see what someone is doing to know if it is his vocation, you have only to watch his eyes: a cook mixing a sauce, a surgeon making a primary incision, a clerk completing a bill of lading wear the same rapt expression, forgetting themselves in a function. How beautiful it is, that eye-on-the-obje ct look.”

IfsKnowsNeedsLooksEyeBeautifulForgetWatchesExpressionFunctionBillsPrimariesCooksHis EyesVocationSurgeonsSauceMixingClerksCompleting
Author:W. H. Auden
Create image