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W. H. Auden

W. H. Auden Quotes

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“Between labor and play stands work. A man is a worker if he is personally interested in the job which society pays him to do; whatfrom the point of view of society is necessary labor is from his point of view voluntary play. Whether a job is to be classified as labor or work depends, not on the job itself, but on the tastes of the individual who undertakes it. The difference does not, for example, coincide with the difference between a manual and a mental job; a gardener or a cobbler may be a worker, a bank clerk a laborer.”

IfsMenMayDoePlayJobsIndividualDifferencesWorkViewsPayExampleDependsTasteLaborWorkersPoint Of ViewGardenerManualsClerksLaborersCobblers
Author:W. H. Auden
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“In Brueghel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away Quite leisurely from the disaster, the ploughman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green water, And the expensive ship that must have seen Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.”

MayImportantTurnsFallWaterWhiteBoysSunHeardSkyCryGreenLegsDisappearDisasterShipsInstanceExpensiveForsakenIcarus
Book:Canción de cuna y otros poemas
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“Beauty, midnight, vision dies: Let the winds of dawn that blow Softly round your dreaming head Such a day of welcome show Eye and knocking heart may bless, Find our mortal world enough; Noons of dryness find you fed By the involuntary powers, Nights of insult let you pass Watched by every human love.”

WorldHumansHeartMayEnoughShowsDreamEyeNightDiesVisionWindRoundsBlowWelcomeMortalsDawnInsultFedsBlessMidnightNoonKnockingInvoluntaryHuman Love
Author:W. H. Auden
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“In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for it: they must not do too much of it: and they must have a sense of success in it - not a doubtful sense, such as needs some testimony of others for its confirmation, but a sure sense, or rather knowledge, that so much work has been done well, and fruitfully done, whatever the world may say or think about it.”

PeopleThinkingWorldNeedsWellsMayHas BeensDoneSuccessOrderThreeWorkToo MuchNeededFitTestimonyThree ThingsDoubtfulConfirmation
Author:W. H. Auden
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“A doctor, like anyone else who has to deal with human beings, each of them unique, cannot be a scientist; he is either, like the surgeon, a craftsman, or, like the physician and the psychologist, an artist. This means that in order to be a good doctor a man must also have a good character, that is to say, whatever weaknesses and foibles he may have, he must love his fellow human beings in the concrete and desire their good before his own.”

MenLoveHumansMayMeanCharacterDesireArtistOrderHuman BeingsDealsUniqueWeaknessDoctorsScientistFellowsGoodConcretePhysiciansPsychologistSurgeonsCaring For OthersGood CharacterCraftsmanFoiblesIndividual DifferencesGood DoctorsDoctoring
Author:W. H. Auden
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“The masculine imagination lives in a state of perpetual revolt against the limitations of human life. In theological terms, one might say that all men, left to themselves, become gnostics. They may swagger like peacocks, but in their heart of hearts they all think sex an indignity and wish they could beget themselves on themselves. Hence the aggressive hostility toward women so manifest in most club-car stories.”

ThinkingMenHumansHeartMayStatesStoriesMightLeftWishSexTermImaginationCarClubsLimitationHuman LifeManifestAggressivePerpetualMasculineHostilityRevoltTheologicalBegetsSwaggerIndignityPeacock
Author:W. H. Auden
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