Top quotes by W. H. Auden

What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish. Votes: 24

Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.' Votes: 23

My face looks like a wedding-cake left out in the rain. Votes: 19

Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality. Votes: 18

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. Votes: 17

History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology. Votes: 17

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, whatever they may be. Votes: 16

Health is the state about which medicine has nothing to say. Votes: 16

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. Votes: 16

Like everything which is not the involuntary result of fleeting emotion but the creation of time and will, any marriage, happy or unhappy, is infinitely more interesting than any romance, however passionate. Votes: 16

Sob, heavy world Sob as you spin, Mantled in mist Remote from the happy. Votes: 15

The class distinctions proper to a democratic society are not those of rank or money, still less, as is apt to happen when these are abandoned, of race, but of age. Votes: 14

In relation to a writer, most readers believe in the Double Standard: they may be unfaithful to him as often as they like, but he must never, never be unfaithful to them. Votes: 13

God bless the USA, so large, so friendly, and so rich. Votes: 13

No human being is innocent, but there is a class of innocent human actions called Games. Votes: 13

Of all possible subjects, travel is the most difficult for an artist, as it is the easiest for a journalist. Votes: 12

A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep. Votes: 12

It's frightening how easy it is to commit murder in America. Just a drink too much. I can see myself doing it. In England, one feels all the social restraints holding one back. But here, anything can happen. Votes: 11

It takes little talent to see what lies under one's nose, a good deal to know in what direction to point that organ. Votes: 10

A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language. Votes: 10

Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people and on how many occasions they have genuinely and profoundly shared some experience with another. Votes: 9

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. Votes: 9

In a world of prayer, we are all equal in the sense that each of us is a unique person, with a unique perspective on the world, a member of a class of one. Votes: 8

May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and, considering the history of the human race so far, may it not be that 'faith' is even more difficult for Him than it is for us? Votes: 8

You know there are no secrets in America. It's quite different in England, where people think of a secret as a shared relation between two people. Votes: 8

If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons and take his gun away. Votes: 8

It's a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it. Votes: 5

Music is the best means we have of digesting time. Votes: 4

To save your world you asked this man to die; would this man, could he see you now, ask why? Votes: 2

Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead. Votes: 1

The words of a dead man are modified in the guts of the living. Votes: 0

I'll love you, dear, I'll love you till China and Africa meet and the river jumps over the mountain and the salmon sing in the street. Votes: 0

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 practicing it. Votes: 0

And maps can really point to placesWhere life is evil now:Nanking. Dachau. Votes: 0

The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews. Votes: 0

To make one, there must be two. Votes: 0

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." Votes: 0

The closest modern equivalent to the Homeric hero is the ace fighter pilot. Votes: 0

Organic growth is a cyclical process; it is just as true to say that the oak is a potential acorn as it is to say the acorn is a potential oak. But the process of writing a poem, of making any art object, is not cyclical but a motion in one direction toward a definite end. Votes: 0

The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen. Votes: 0

Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh. Votes: 0

Pleasure is by no means an infallible critical guide, but it is the least fallible. Votes: 0

The Americans are violently oral. That's why in America the mother is all-important and the father has no position at all -- isn't respected in the least. Even the American passion for laxatives can be explained as an oral manifestation. They want to get rid of any unpleasantness taken in through the mouth. Votes: 0

One rational voice is dumb: over a grave The household of Impulse mourns one dearly loved. Sad is Eros, builder of cities, And weeping anarchic Aphrodite. Votes: 0

Of course, Behaviourism 'works'. So does torture. Give me a no-nonsense, down-to-earth behaviourist, a few drugs, and simple electrical appliances, and in six months I will have him reciting the Athanasian Creed in public. Votes: 0

Courses in prosody, rhetoric and comparative philology would be required of all students, and every student would have to select three courses out of courses in mathematics, natural history, geology, meteorology, archaeology, mythology, liturgics, cooking. Votes: 0

Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his shoulders, that he is a literary aristocracy of one. Votes: 0

Nobody knows what the cause is, though some pretend they do; it like some hidden assassin waiting to strike at you. Childless women get it, and men when they retire; it as if there had to be some outlet for their foiled creative fire. Votes: 0

One cannot walk through an assembly factory and not feel that one is in Hell. Votes: 0

Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness; it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest. Votes: 0

Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry. Votes: 0

Christmas and Easter can be subjects for poetry, but Good Friday, like Auschwitz, cannot. The reality is so horrible it is not surprising that people should have found it a stumbling block to faith. Votes: 0

Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about. Votes: 0

Every autobiography is concerned with two characters, a Don Quixote, the Ego, and a Sancho Panza, the Self. Votes: 0

Whatever you do, good or bad, people will always have something negative to say Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Anyone who has a child today should train him to be either a physicist or a ballet dancer. Then he'll escape. Votes: 0

Money is the necessity that frees us from necessity. Of all novelists in any country, Trollope best understands the role of money. Compared with him even Balzac is a romantic. Votes: 0

A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a bomb. Votes: 0

The only way to spend New Year's Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears. Votes: 0

The ideal audience the poet imagines consists of the beautiful who go to bed with him, the powerful who invite him to dinner and tell him secrets of state, and his fellow-poets. The actual audience he gets consists of myopic schoolteachers, pimply young men who eat in cafeterias, and his fellow-poets. This means, in fact, he writes for his fellow-poets. Votes: 0

There are three cardinal rules - don't take somebody else's boyfriend unless you've been specifically invited to do so, don't take a drink without being asked, and keep a scrupulous accounting in financial matters. Votes: 0

Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return. Votes: 0

To me Art's subject is the human clay, / And landscape but a background to a torso; / All Cezanne's apples I would give away / For one small Goya or a Daumier. Votes: 0

We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment and let our illusions die. Votes: 0

Great art is clear thinking about mixed feelings. Votes: 0

Precisely because we do not communicate by singing, a song can be out of place but not out of character; it is just as credible that a stupid person should sing beautifully as that a clever person should do so. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Murder is commoner among cooks than among members of any other profession. Votes: 0

The countenances of children, like those of animals, are masks, not faces, for they have not yet developed a significant profile of their own. Votes: 0

All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation. Votes: 0

A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish. Votes: 0

It is axiomatic that we should all think of ourselves as being more sensitive than other people because, when we are insensitive in our dealings with others, we cannot be aware of it at the time; conscious insensitivity is a self-contradiction. Votes: 0

My deepest feeling about politicians is that they are dangerous lunatics to be avoided when possible and carefully humored; people, above all, to whom one must never tell the truth. Votes: 0

How happy the lot of the mathematician. He is judged solely by his peers, and the standard is so high that no colleague or rival can ever win a reputation he does not deserve. Votes: 0

When one looks into the window of a store which sells devotional art objects, one can't help wishing the iconoclasts had won. Votes: 0

In a land which is fully settled, most men must accept their local environment or try to change it by political means; only the exceptionally gifted or adventurous can leave to seek his fortune elsewhere. In America, on the other hand, to move on and make a fresh start somewhere else is still the normal reaction to dissatisfaction and failure. Votes: 0

When I am in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a drawing room full of dukes. Votes: 0

He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong. Votes: 0

The poet who writes "free" verse is like Robinson Crusoe on his desert island: he must do all his cooking, laundry and darning for himself. In a few exceptional cases, this manly independence produces something original and impressive, but more often the result is squalor dirty sheets on the unmade bed and empty bottles on the unswept floor. Votes: 0

A false enchantment can all too easily last a lifetime. Votes: 0

Defenceless under the night Our world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages: May I, composed like them Of Eros and of dust, Beleaguered by the same Negation and despair, Show an affirming flame. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Narcissus does not fall in love with his reflection because it is beautiful, but because it is his. If it were his beauty that enthralled him, he would be set free in a few years by its fading. Votes: 0

The way to read a fairy tale is to throw yourself in. Votes: 0

Lay your sleeping head, my love, Human on my faithless arm; Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered. Votes: 0

In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start. Votes: 0

Genealogies are admirable things, provided they do not encourage the curious delusion that some families are older than others. Votes: 0

No person can be a great leader unless he takes genuine joy in the successes of those under him. Votes: 0

Beloved, we are always in the wrong, Handling so clumsily our stupid lives, Suffering too little or too long, Too careful even in our selfish loves: The decorative manias we obey Die in grimaces round us every day, Yet through their tohu-bohu comes a voice Which utters an absurd command - Rejoice. Votes: 0

A person incapable of imaging another world than given to him by his senses would be subhuman, and a person who identifies his imaginary world with the world of sensory fact has become insane. Votes: 0

A poor American feels guilty at being poor, but less guilty than an American rentier who has inherited wealth but is doing nothingto increase it; what can the latter do but take to drink and psychoanalysis? Votes: 0

Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition. Votes: 0

I see little hope for a peaceful world until men are excluded from the realm of foreign policy altogether and all decisions concerning international relations are reserved for women, preferably married ones. Votes: 0

There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair, Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem From insignificance. Votes: 0

God may reduce you on Judgment Day to tears of shame, reciting by heart the poems you would have written, had your life been good. Votes: 0

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone. Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Votes: 0

The image of myself which I try to create in my own mind in order that I may love myself is very different from the image which I try to create in the minds of others in order that they may love me. Votes: 0

We must love one another or die Votes: 0

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? Votes: 0

A poet is a professional maker of verbal objects. Votes: 0

Behind the corpse in the reservoir, behind the ghost on the links, Behind the lady who dances and the man who madly drinks, Under the look of fatigue, the attack of migraine and the sigh There is always another story, there is more than meets the eye. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings. Votes: 0

There's always another story. There's more than meets the eye. Votes: 0

The nightingales are sobbing in The orchards of our mothers, And hearts that we broke long ago Have long been breaking others; Tears are round, the sea is deep: Roll them overboard and sleep. Votes: 0

I'll love you till the ocean Is folded and hung up to dry And the seven stars go squawking Like geese about the sky. Votes: 0

No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible. Votes: 0

There must always be two kinds of art: escape-art, for man needs escape as he needs food and deep sleep, and parable-art, that art which shall teach man to unlearn hatred and learn love. Votes: 0

Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic. Votes: 0

August for the people and their favourite islands. Daily the steamers sidle up to meet The effusive welcome of the pier. Votes: 0

A poet must never make a statement simply because it is sounds poetically exciting; he must also believe it to be true. Votes: 0

I think the first prerequisite to civilization is an ability to make polite conversation. Votes: 0

There's only one good test of pornography. Get twelve normal men to read the book, and then ask them, ''Did you get an erection?'' If the answer is ''Yes'' from a majority of the twelve, then the book is pornographic. Votes: 0

Accurate scholarship can unearth the whole offence from luther untill noe that has driven a culture mad. From what occured at linz what huge imago made a psychopathic god. i and the public know what all schoolchildren learn those to whom evil is done do evil in return. Votes: 0

We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know. Votes: 0

Left to itself the masculine imagination has very little appreciation for the here and now; it prefers to dwell on what is absent, on what has been or may be. If men are more punctual than women, it is because they know that, without the external discipline of clock time, they would never get anything done. Votes: 0

Thou shalt not answer questionnaires Or quizzes upon world affairs, Nor with compliance Take any test. Thou shalt not sit with statisticians nor commit A social science. Votes: 0

Dance till the stars come down from the rafters Dance, Dance, Dance 'till you drop. Votes: 0

The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews Not to be born is the best for man The second best is a formal order The dance's pattern, dance while you can. Dance, dance, for the figure is easy The tune is catching and will not stop Dance till the stars come down from the rafters Dance, dance, dance till you drop. Votes: 0

Herds of reindeer move across Miles and miles of golden moss Votes: 0

In the eyes of others a man is a poet if he has written one good poem. In his own he is only a poet at the moment when he is making his last revision to a new poem. The moment before, he was still only a potential poet; the moment after, he is a man who has ceased to write poetry, perhaps forever. Votes: 0

I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-Second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade Waves of anger and fear Circulate over the bright And darkened lands of the earth, Obsessing our private lives The unmentiona Votes: 0

The slogan of Hell: Eat or be eaten. The slogan of Heaven: Eat and be eaten. Votes: 0

We all have these places where shy humiliations gambol on sunny afternoons. Votes: 0

We are, for all our polish, of littlestature, and, as human lives,compared with authentic martyrs,of no account. Votes: 0

All we are not stares back at what we are. Votes: 0

If equal affection cannot be,Let the more loving one be me. Votes: 0

To read is to translate, for no two persons' experiences are the same. A bad reader is like a bad translator: he interprets literally when he ought to paraphrase and paraphrases when he ought to interpret literally. Votes: 0

Without art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without science, we should always worship false gods. Votes: 0

Thou shalt not live within thy meansNor on plain water and raw greens. If thou must chooseBetween the chances, choose the odd;Read The New Yorker, trust in God; And take short views. Votes: 0

No poet or novelist wishes he was the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were the only one alive, and quite a number believe their wish has been granted. Votes: 0

Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society must take the place of the victim, and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness. Votes: 0

The religious definition of truth is not that it is universal but that it is absolute. Votes: 0

Happy the hare at morning, for she cannot readThe hunter's waking thoughts. Votes: 0

The most exciting rhythms seem unexpected and complex, the most beautiful melodies simple and inevitable. Votes: 0

But he would have us most of all remember to be enthusiastic over the night. Not only for the sense of wonder it alone has to offer but also because it needs our love. For with sad eyes its delectable creatures look up and beg us dumbly to ask them to follow. They are exiles who long for a future that lies in our power. Votes: 0

It's impossible to represent a saint [in Art]. It becomes boring. Perhaps because he is, like the Saturday Evening Post people, inthe position of having almost infinitely free will. Votes: 0

A man has his distinctive personal scent which his wife, his children and his dog can recognize. A crowd has a generalized stink. The public is odorless. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Desire, even in its wildest tantrums, can neither persuade me it is love nor stop me from wishing it were. Votes: 0

A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become. Votes: 0

Over the tea-cups and in the square the tongue has its desire; Still waters run deep, my dear, there's never smoke without fire. Votes: 0

Dogmatic theological statements are neither logical propositions nor poetic utterances. They are ''shaggy dog'' stories; they have a point, but he who tries too hard to get it will miss it. Votes: 0

Politics cannot be a science, because in politics theory and practice cannot be separated, and the sciences depend upon their separation. Votes: 0

Encased in talent like a uniform, The rank of every poet is well known; They can amaze us like a thunderstorm, Or die so young, or live for years alone. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Time will say nothing but I told you so... Votes: 0

All poets adore explosions, thunderstorms, tornadoes, conflagrations, ruins, scenes of spectacular carnage. The poetic imagination is therefore not at all a desirable quality in a chief of state. Votes: 0

The truly tragic kind of suffering is the kind produced and defiantly insisted upon by the hero himself so that, instead of making him better, it makes him worse and when he dies he is not reconciled to the law but defiant, that is, damned. Lear is not a tragic hero, Othello is. Votes: 0

The center that I cannot find is known to my unconscious mind. Votes: 0

Drama began as the act of a whole community. Ideally, there would be no speculators. In practice, every member of the audience should feel like an understudy. Votes: 0

The windiest militant trash Important Persons shout Is not so crude as our wish: What mad Nijinsky wrote About Diaghilev Is true of the normal heart; For the error bred in the bone Of each woman and each man Craves what it cannot have; Not universal love But to be loved alone. Votes: 0

Fame often makes a writer vain, but seldom makes him proud. Votes: 0

In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag. Votes: 0

Without communication with the dead, a fully human life is not possible. Votes: 0

A vice in common can be the ground of a friendship but not a virtue in common. X and Y may be friends because they are both drunkards or womanizers but, if they are both sober and chaste, they are friends for some other reason. Votes: 0

Earth, receive an honored guest; William Yeats is laid to rest. Let the Irish vessel lie Emptied of its poetry. Votes: 0

Political history is far too criminal to be a fit subject of study for the young. Children should acquire their heroes and villians from fiction. Votes: 0

Geniuses are the luckiest of mortals because what they must do is the same as what they most want to do. Votes: 0

All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one by a simple act of will but must wait until what he believes to be a good idea for a work comes to him. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

No poet or novelist wishes he were the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were the only one alive, and quite a number fondly believe their wish has been granted. Votes: 0

For who can bear to feel himself forgotten? Votes: 0

Hemingway is terribly limited. His technique is good for short stories, for people who meet once in a bar very late at night, but do not enter into relations. But not for the novel. Votes: 0

A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us. Votes: 0

Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table. Votes: 0

Learn from your dreams what you lack. Votes: 0

Music can be made anywhere, is invisible and does not smell. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

a culture is no better than its woods Votes: 0

A dead man who never caused others to die seldom rates a statue. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

A god who is both self-sufficient and content to remain so could not interest us enough to raise the question of his existence. Votes: 0

A man is a form of life that dreams in order to act and acts in order to dream. Votes: 0

A poem is a verbal artifact which must be as skillfully and solidly constructed as a table or a motorcycle. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

A poet, qua poet, has only one political duty, namely, in his own writing to set an example of the correct use of his mother tongue, which is always being corrupted. When words lose their meaning, physical force takes over. Votes: 0

A poet's hope: to be, like some valley cheese, local, but prized elsewhere. Votes: 0

A shilling life will give you all the facts. Votes: 0

A small grove massacred to the last ash, An oak with heart-rot, give away the show: This great society is going to smash; They cannot fool us with how fast they go, How much they cost each other and the gods. A culture is no better than its woods. Votes: 0

A writer is a maker, not a man of action: his private life is of no concern to anybody but himself, his family and his friends. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Acts of injustice done Between the setting and the rising sun In history lie like bones, each one. Votes: 0

Adjectives are the potbelly of poetry. Votes: 0

All good art is in the nature of a letter written to amuse a sick friend. Too much art, particularly in our time, is only a letter written to oneself. Votes: 0

All I have is a voice to undo the folded lie, the romantic lie in the brain of the sensual man-in-the-street and the lie of Authority whose buildings grope the sky: There is no such thing as the State and no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice to the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die. Votes: 0

All I have is a voice. Votes: 0

All pity is self-pity. Votes: 0

All that we are not stares back at what we are. Votes: 0

All the literati keep An imaginary friend. Votes: 0

All the rest is silence On the other side of the wall, And the silence ripeness, And the ripeness all. Votes: 0

All wishes, whatever their apparent content, have the same and unvarying meaning: "I refuse to be what I am. Votes: 0

Alone, alone, about the dreadful wood / Of conscious evil runs a lost mankind, / Dreading to find its Father. Votes: 0

America has always been a country of amateurs where the professional, that is to say, the man who claims authority as a member of an élite which knows the law in some field or other, is an object of distrust and resentment. Votes: 0

An honest self-portrait is extremely rare because a man who has reached the degree of self-consciousness presupposed by the desire to paint his own portrait has almost always also developed an ego-consciousness which paints himself painting himself, and introduces artificial highlights and dramatic shadows. Votes: 0

An unmanly sort of man whose love life seems to have been largely confined to crying in laps and playing mouse. Votes: 0

And make us as Newton was, who in his garden watching The apple falling towards England, became aware Between himself and her of an eternal tie. Votes: 0

And none will hear the postman's knock Without a quickening of the heart. For who can bear to feel himself forgotten? Votes: 0

Aphorisms are essentially an aristocratic genre of writing. The aphorist does not argue or explain, he asserts; and implicit in his assertion is a conviction that he is wiser and more intelligent than his readers. Votes: 0

Art is born of humiliation. Votes: 0

As a poet, there is only one political duty, and that is to defend one's language from corruption. Votes: 0

As a rule, it was the pleasure-haters who became unjust. Votes: 0

As biological organisms made of matter, we are subject to the laws of physics and biology: as conscious persons who create our own history we are free to decide what that history shall be. Without science, we should have no notion of equality; without art, no notion of liberty. Votes: 0

As I walked out one evening, Walking down Bristol Street, The crowds upon the pavement Were fields of harvest wheat. And down by the brimming river I heard a lover sing Under an arch of the railway: 'Love has no ending. 'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you Till China and Africa meet, And the river jumps over the mountain And the salmon sing in the street, 'I'll love you till the ocean Is folded and hung up to dry And the seven stars go squawking Like geese about the sky. Votes: 0

As readers, we remain in the nursery stage so long as we cannot distinguish between taste and judgment, so long, that is, as the only possible verdicts we can pass on a book are two: this I like; this I don't like. For an adult reader, the possible verdicts are five: I can see this is good and I like it; I can see this is good but I don't like it; I can see this is good and, though at present I don't like it, I believe that with perseverance I shall come to like it; I can see that this is trash but I like it; I can see that this is trash and I don't like it. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

At first critics classified authors as Ancients, that is to say, Greek and Latin authors, and Moderns, that is to say, every post-Classical Author. Then they classified them by eras, the Augustans, the Victorians, etc., and now they classify them by decades, the writers of the '30's, '40's, etc. Very soon, it seems, they will be labeling authors, like automobiles, by the year. Votes: 0

Attacking bad books is not only a waste of time but also bad for the character. If I find a book really bad, the only interest I can derive from writing about it has to come from myself, from such display of intelligence, wit and malice as I can contrive. One cannot review a bad book without showing off. Votes: 0

Base words are uttered only by the base And can for such at once be understood; But noble platitudes — ah, there's a case Where the most careful scrutiny is needed To tell a voice that's genuinely good From one that's base but merely has succeeded. Votes: 0

Be subtle, various, ornamental, clever, And do not listen to those critics ever Whose crude provincial gullets crave in books Plain cooking made still plainer by plain cooks. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Behind you swiftly the figure comes softly, The spot on your skin is a shocking disease. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the differences between accidental limitations which it is our duty to outgrow and the necessary limitations of our nature beyond which we cannot trespass with impunity. Votes: 0

Blessed be all metrical rules that forbid automatic responses, force us to have second thoughts, free us from the fetters of Self. Votes: 0

But if a stranger in the train asks me my occupation, I never answer "writer" for fear that he may go on to ask me what I write, and to answer "poetry" would embarrass us both, for we both know that nobody can earn a living simply by writing poetry. Votes: 0

But once in a while the odd thing happens Once in a while the dream comes true And the whole pattern of life is altered Once in a while, the moon turns blue Votes: 0

By mourning tongues The death of the poet was kept from his poems. Votes: 0

Caesar's double-bed is warm As an unimportant clerk Writes i do not like my work On a pink official form. Votes: 0

Cathedrals, luxury liners laden with souls, Holding to the east their hulls of stone. Votes: 0

Cats can be very funny, and have the oddest ways of showing they're glad to see you... Votes: 0

Christ did not enchant men; He demanded that they believe in Him: except on one occasion, the Transfiguration. For a brief while, Peter, James, and John were permitted to see Him in His glory. For that brief while they had no need of faith. The vision vanished, and the memory of it did not prevent them from all forsaking Him when He was arrested, or Peter from denying that he had ever known Him. Votes: 0

Civilizations should be measured by the degree of diversity attained and the degree of unity retained. Votes: 0

Clear, unscaleable ahead, Rise the mountains of instead From whose cold, cascading streams None may drink except in dreams Votes: 0

Composing mortals with immortal fire. Votes: 0

Criticism should be a casual conversation. Votes: 0

Dance, dance, dance till you drop. Votes: 0

Detective stories have nothing to do with works of art. Votes: 0

Does God judge us by appearances? I Suspect that He does. Votes: 0

Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle. Votes: 0

Drama is based on the Mistake. Votes: 0

Drama is based on the Mistake. I think someone is my friend when he really is my enemy, that I am free to marry a woman when in fact she is my mother, that this person is a chambermaid when it is a young nobleman in disguise, that this well-dressed young man is rich when he is really a penniless adventurer, or that if I do this such and such a result will follow when in fact it results in something very different. All good drama has two movements, first the making of the mistake, then the discovery that it was a mistake. Votes: 0

Each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom. Votes: 0

Even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot Where the dogs go on with their doggy life Votes: 0

Every high C accurately struck demolishes the theory that we are the irresponsible puppets of fate or chance. Votes: 0

Every man carries with him through life a mirror, as unique and impossible to get rid of as his shadow. Votes: 0

Every poet has his dream reader: mine keeps a look out for curious prosodic fauna like bacchics and choriambs. Votes: 0

Fate succumbs many a species: one alone jeopardises itself. Votes: 0

Few can remember clearly when innocence came to a sudden end, the moment at which we ask for the first time: Am I loved? Votes: 0

Few people take an interest in Iceland, but in those few the interest is passionate. Votes: 0

Follow, poet, follow right To the bottom of the night, With your unconstraining voice Still persuade us to rejoice; With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse, Sing of human unsuccess In a rapture of distress; In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start, In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise. Votes: 0

For time is inches And the heart's changes, Where ghost has haunted Lost and wanted. Votes: 0

From beginning to end Wilde performed his life and continued to do so even after fame had taken the plot out of his own hands. Votes: 0

Get up very early and get going at once. In fact, work first and wash afterwards. Votes: 0

God is Love, we are taught as children to believe. But when we first begin to get some inkling of how He loves us, we are repelled; it seems so cold, indeed, not love at all as we understand the word. Votes: 0

Good can imagine Evil; but Evil cannot imagine Good. Votes: 0

Goodness is easier to recognize than to define. Votes: 0

Had Greek civilization never existed ... we would never have become fully conscious. Votes: 0

Harrow the house of the dead; look shining at New styles of architecture, a change of heart. Votes: 0

'Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.' Votes: 0

History marches to the drum of a clear idea. Votes: 0

How happy is the lot of the mathematician! He is judged solely by his peers, and the standard is so high that no colleague or rival can ever win a reputation he does not deserve. No cashier writes a letter to the press complaining about the incomprehensibility of Modern Mathematics and comparing it unfavorably with the good old days when mathematicians were content to paper irregularly shaped rooms and fill bathtubs without closing the waste pipe. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Human beings are, necessarily, actors who...can be divided...into the sane who know they are acting and the mad who do not. Votes: 0

Human language is mythological and metaphorical by nature. Votes: 0

Hunger allows no choice. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return. Votes: 0

I don't get acting jobs because of my looks. Votes: 0

I don't think the mystical experience can be verbalized. When the ego disappears, so does power over language. Votes: 0

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.' Votes: 0

I know nothing, except what everyone knows - if there when Grace dances, I should dance. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade Votes: 0

I smell blood and an era of prominent madmen. Votes: 0

I used to try and concentrate the poem so much that there wasn't a word that wasn't essential. This leads to becoming boring and constipated. Votes: 0

Ideally, government is the means by which all the individual wills are assured complete freedom of moral choice and at the same time prevented from ever clashing. Votes: 0

If age, which is certainly Just as wicked as youth, look any wiser, It is only that youth is still able to believe It will get away with anything, while age Knows only too well that it has got away with nothing. Votes: 0

If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving be me. Votes: 0

If it form the one landscape that we the inconstant ones Are consistently homesick for, this is chiefly Because it dissolves in water. Votes: 0

If it really was Queen Elizabeth who demanded to see Falstaff in a comedy, then she showed herself a very perceptive critic. But even in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff has not and could not have found his true home because Shakespeare was only a poet. For that he was to wait nearly two hundred years till Verdi wrote his last opera. Falstaff is not the only case of a character whose true home is the world of music; others are Tristan, Isolde and Don Giovanni. Votes: 0

If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves. The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Br?nnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni. Votes: 0

If the most significant characteristic of man is the complex of biological needs he shares with all members of his species, then the best lives for the writer to observe are those in which the role of natural necessity is clearest, namely, the lives of the very poor. Votes: 0

If there are any souls in hell, it is because that is where they insist on being. Votes: 0

If we apply the term revolution to what happened in North America between 1776 and 1829, it has a special meaning. Normally, the word describes the process by which man transforms himself from one kind of man, living in one kind of society, with one way of looking at the world, into another kind of man, another society, another conception of life.... The American case is different: it is not a question of the Old Man transforming himself into the New, but of the New Man becoming alive to the fact that he is new, that he has been transformed already without his having realized it. Votes: 0

If we really want to live, we'd better start at once to try. Votes: 0

I'm always amazed at the American practice of allowing one party to a homosexual act to remain passive--it's so undemocratic. Sexmust be mutual. Votes: 0

In a game, just losing is almost as satisfying as just winning... In life the loser's score is always zero. Votes: 0

In addition to English, at least one ancient language, probably Greek or Hebrew, and two modern languages would be required. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

In headaches and in worry Vaguely life leaks away, And Time will have his fancy To-morrow or today. Votes: 0

In life the loser's score is always zero. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

In the end, art is small beer. The really serious things are earning one's living so as not to be a parasite and loving one's neighbor. Votes: 0

Intellectual disgrace Stares from every human face, And the seas of pity lie Locked and frozen in each eye. Votes: 0

Into this neutral air Where blind skyscrapers use Their full height to proclaim The strength of Collective Man, Each language pours its vain Competitive excuse. Votes: 0

It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy. When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

It's a pity I am so impatient and careless, as any ordinary person could learn all the techniques of photography in a week. It is the democratic art, i.e. technical skill is practically eliminated - the more foolproof cameras become with focusing and exposure gadgets the better - and artistic quality depends only on choice of subject. Votes: 0

It's better to say, 'I'm suffering,' than to say, 'This landscape is ugly. Votes: 0

It's frightfully important for a writer to be his age, not to be younger or older than he is. One might ask, "What should I write at the age of sixty-four," but never, "What should I write in 1940. Votes: 0

It's usually the stupid people that develop long illnesses. You need more than indolence and selfishness, you need endurance to make a good patient. Votes: 0

Language is the mother, not the handmaiden, of thought; words will tell you things you never thought or felt before. Votes: 0

Laziness acknowledges the relation of the present to the past but ignores its relation to the future; impatience acknowledge its relation to the future but ignores its relation to the past; neither the lazy nor the impatient man, that is, accepts the present instant in its full reality and so cannot love his neighbour completely. Votes: 0

Let all your thinks be thanks. Votes: 0

Let me see what I wrote so I know what I think Votes: 0

Let us honor if we can the vertical man, though we value none but the horizontal one Votes: 0

Life is a picnic on a precipice. Votes: 0

Like love we don't know where or why Like love we cant compel or fly Like Love we often weep Like Love we seldom keep Votes: 0

Literary confessors are contemptible, like beggars who exhibit their sores for money, but not so contemptible as the public that buys their books. Votes: 0

Long ago the accusations had begun, And suddenly knew by whom it had been judged Votes: 0

Look if you like, but you will have to leap. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Lost in a haunted wood, Children afraid of the night Who have never been happy or good. Votes: 0

Love each other or perish Votes: 0

Lovers have lived so long with giants and elves, they won't believe again in their own size. Votes: 0

Machines are beneficial to the degree that they eliminate the need for labor, harmful to the degree that they eliminate the need for skill. Votes: 0

Machines have no political opinions, but they have profound political effects. They demand a strict regimentation of time, and, by abolishing the need for manual skill, have transformed the majority of the population from workers into laborers. There are, that is to say, fewer and fewer jobs which a man can find a pride and satisfaction in doing well, more and more which have no interest in themselves and can be valued only for the money they provide. Votes: 0

Man is a history-making creature, who can neither repeat his past, nor leave it behind. Votes: 0

Marriage is rarely bliss But, surely it would be worse As particles to pelt At thousands of miles per sec About a universe In which a lover's kiss Would either not be felt Or break the loved one's neck. Votes: 0

Men will pay large sums to whores for telling them they are not bores. Votes: 0

Money cannot buy the fuel of love but is excellent kindling. Votes: 0

Money is the necessity that frees us from necessity. Votes: 0

Moreover, if great men are the only hope of the Evolutionary Process, they are morally bound to rule over the masses for their own good -- we are all here on earth to help others: what on earth the others are here for, I don't know -- and the masses have no right whatsoever to resist them. Votes: 0

Most people call something profound, not because it is near some important truth but because it is distant from ordinary life. Thus, darkness is profound to the eye, silence to the ear; what-is-not is the profundity of what-is. Votes: 0

Most people enjoy the sight of their own handwriting as they enjoy the smell of their own farts. Votes: 0

Most poetry is the utterance of a man in some state of passion, love, joy, grief, rage, etc., and no doubt this is as it should be. But no man is perpetually in a passion and those states in which he is amused and amusing, detached and irreverent, if less important, are no less amusing. If there were no poets who, like Byron, express these states, Poetry would lack something. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

No being can make another one happy. Votes: 0

No hero is mortal till he dies. Votes: 0

Nobody is ever sent to Hell: he or she insists on going there. Votes: 0

Now is the age of anxiety. Votes: 0

Now the leaves are falling fast, Nurse's flowers will not last, Nurses to their graves are gone, But the prams go rolling on. Votes: 0

O let not Time deceive you, You cannot conquer Time. Votes: 0

O plunge your hands in water, Plunge them in up to the wrist; Stare, stare in the basin And wonder what you've missed. Votes: 0

Of course,Behaviourism 'works'. So does torture. Votes: 0

Oh, how I wish that Orwell were still alive, so that I could read his comments on contemporary events! Votes: 0

One can only blaspheme if one believes. Votes: 0

One cannot review a bad book without showing off. Votes: 0

One demands two things of a poem. Firstly, it must be a well-made verbal object that does honor to the language in which it is written. Secondly, it must say something significant about a reality common to us all, but perceived from a unique perspective. What the poet says has never been said before, but, once he has said it, his readers recognize its validity for themselves. Votes: 0

One of the most horrible, yet most important, discoveries of our age has been that, if you really wish to destroy a person and turn him into an automaton, the surest method is not physical torture, in the strict sense, but simply to keep him awake, i.e., in an existential relation to life without intermission. Votes: 0

One of the troubles of our times is that we are all, I think, precocious as personalities and backward as characters. Votes: 0

Our claim to our own bodies and our world is our catastrophe. Votes: 0

Our researchers into Public Opinion are content That he held the proper opinions for the time of year; When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went. He was married and added five children to the population, Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation, And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education. Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: Had everything been wrong, we should certainly have heard. Votes: 0

Our sufferings and weaknesses, in so far as they are personal, are of no literary interest whatsoever. They are only interesting in so far as we can see them as typical of the human condition. Votes: 0

Out on the lawn I lie in bed, Vega conspicuous overhead. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Poetry is the only art people haven't learned to consume like soup. Votes: 0

Poetry makes nothing happen. Votes: 0

Private faces in public places Are wiser and nicer Than public faces in private places. Votes: 0

Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable. Votes: 0

Recipe for the upbringing of a poet: 'As much neurosis as the child can bear. Votes: 0

Rhymes, meters, stanza forms, etc., are like servants. If the master is fair enough to win their affection and firm enough to command their respect, the result is an orderly happy household. If he is too tyrannical, they give notice; if he lacks authority, they become slovenly, impertinent, drunk and dishonest. Votes: 0

Say this city has ten million souls, Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes: Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us. Votes: 0

See without looking, hear without listening, breathe without asking. Votes: 0

Sexual fidelity is more important in a homosexual relationship than in any other. In other relationships there are a variety of ties. But here, fidelity is the only bond. Votes: 0

Shall memory restore The steps and the shore, The face and the meeting place; Votes: 0

Sincerity is technique. Votes: 0

Slavery is so intolerable a condition that the slave can hardly escape deluding himself into thinking that he is choosing to obey his master's commands when, in fact, he is obliged to. Most slaves of habit suffer from this delusion and so do some writers, enslaved by an all too personal style. Votes: 0

So long as we think of it objectively, time is Fate or Chance, the factor in our lives for which we are not responsible, and about which we can do nothing; but when we begin to think of it subjectively, we feel responsible for our time, and the notion of punctuality arises. Votes: 0

Soft as the earth is mankind and both need to be altered. Votes: 0

Swans in the winter air A white perfection have Votes: 0

Thank God for books as an alternative to conversation. Votes: 0

That the speech of self-disclosure should be translatable seems to me very odd, but I am convinced that it is. The conclusion that I draw is that the only quality which all human being without exception possess is uniqueness: any characteristic, on the other hand, which one individual can be recognized as having in common with another, like red hair or the English language, implies the existence of other individual qualities which this classification excludes. Votes: 0

The actors today really need the whip hand. They're so lazy. They haven't got the sense of pride in their profession that the less socially elevated musical comedy and music hall people or acrobats have. The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen. Votes: 0

The basic stimulus to the intelligence is doubt, a feeling that the meaning of an experience is not self-evident. Votes: 0

The belief that politics can be scientific must inevitably produce tyrannies. Politics cannot be a science, because in politics theory and practice cannot be separated, and the sciences depend upon their separation. Empirical politics must be kept in bounds by democratic institutions, which leave it up to the subjects of the experiment to say whether it shall be tried, and to stop it if they dislike it, because, in politics, there is a distinction, unknown to science, between Truth and Justice. Votes: 0

The camera may do justice to laughter, but must degrade sorrow. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

the child unlucky in his little State, Some hearth where freedom is excluded, A hive whose honey is fear and worry, Feels calmer now and somehow assured of escape Votes: 0

The commonest ivory tower is that of the average man, the state of passivity towards experience. Votes: 0

The condition of mankind is, and always has been, so miserable and depraved that, if anyone were to say to the poet: "For God's sake stop singing and do something useful like putting on the kettle or fetching bandages," what just reason could he give for refusing? Votes: 0

The critical opinions of a writer should always be taken with a large grain of salt. For the most part, they are manifestations of his debate with himself as to what he should do next and what he should avoid. Votes: 0

The definition of prayer is paying careful and concentrated attention to something other than your own constructions. Votes: 0

The element of craftsmanship in poetry is obscured by the fact that all men are taught to speak and most to read and write, while very few men are taught to draw or paint or write music. Votes: 0

The eye likes novelty, but the ear craves familiarity. Votes: 0

The friends who met here and embraced are gone, Each to his own mistake; Votes: 0

The glacier knocks in the cupboard, The desert sighs in the bed, And the crack in the teacup opens A lane to the land of the dead. Votes: 0

The habit-forming pain, Mismanagement and grief: We must suffer them all again. Votes: 0

The law cannot forgive, for the law has not been wronged, only broken; only persons can be wronged. The law can pardon, but it can only pardon what it has the power to punish. Votes: 0

The lights must never go out, The music must always play Votes: 0

The most difficult problem in personal knowledge, whether of oneself or of others, is the problem of guessing when to think as a historian and when to think as an anthropologist. Votes: 0

The most important truths are likely to be those which society at that time least wants to hear. Votes: 0

The Ogre does what ogres can, Deeds quite impossible for Man, But one prize is beyond his reach: The Ogre cannot master speech. About a subjugated plain, Among it's desperate and slain, The Ogre stalks with hands on hips, While drivel gushes from his lips. Votes: 0

The older lives like not to be stood in rows or at right angles. Votes: 0

The only reason the Protestants and Catholics have given up the idea of universal domination is because they've realised they can't get away with it. Votes: 0

The parlour cars and Pullmans are packed also with scented assassins, salad-eaters who murder on milk. Votes: 0

The poet marries the language, and out of this marriage the poem is born. Votes: 0

The primary function of poetry, as of all the arts, is to make us more aware of ourselves and the world around us. I do not know if such increased awareness makes us more moral or more efficient. I hope not. I think it makes us more human, and I am quite certain it makes us more difficult to deceive. Votes: 0

The relation of faith between subject and object is unique in every case. Hundreds may believe, but each has to believe by himself. Votes: 0

The sky is darkening like a stain Something is going to fall like rain And it won't be flowers Votes: 0

The stars are dead. The animals will not look: We are left alone with our day, and the time is short, and History to the defeated May say Alas but cannot help nor pardon. Votes: 0

The stars are not wanted now, put out every one Pack up the moon & dismantle the sun. Votes: 0

The surest sign that a man has a genuine taste of his own is that he is uncertain of it. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

The trees encountered on a country stroll Reveal a lot about that country's soul ... A culture is no better than its woods. Votes: 0

The true men of action in our time those who transform the world are not the politicians and statesmen but the scientists. Unfortunately poetry cannot celebrate them because their deeds are concerned with things, not persons, and are therefore speechless. When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a drawing room full of dukes. Votes: 0

The true men of action in our time, those who transform the world, are not the politicians and statesmen, but the scientists Votes: 0

There are good books which are only for adults. There are no good books which are only for children. Votes: 0

There are not many English novels which deserve to be called great: Parade's End is one of them. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

There is a certain kind of person who is so dominated by the desire to be loved for himself alone that he has constantly to test those around him by tiresome behavior; what he says and does must be admired, not because it is intrinsically admirable, but because it is his remark, his act. Does not this explain a good deal of avant-garde art? Votes: 0

There is a great deal of difference in believing something still, and believing it again. Votes: 0

There is no love; There are only the various envies, all of them sad. Votes: 0

There is no such thing as the State And no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die. Votes: 0

There was still gold and silver in the mountains, And hunger was a more immediate sorrow Votes: 0

Those to whom evil is doneDo evil in return. Votes: 0

Those who hate to go to bed fear death; those who hate to get up fear life. Votes: 0

Those who will not reason, perish in the act. Those who will not act, perish for that reason. Votes: 0

Though one cannot always Remember exactly why one has been happy, There is no forgetting that one was. Votes: 0

Time and fevers burn away Individual beauty from Thoughtful children, and the grave Proves the child ephemeral Votes: 0

To ask the hard question is simple. Votes: 0

To be free is often to be lonely. Votes: 0

To be happy means to be free, not from pain or fear, but from care or anxiety. Votes: 0

To choose what is difficult all one's days, as if it were easy, that is faith Votes: 0

To discover how to be human now is the reason we follow this star. Votes: 0

To have a sense of sin means to feel guilty at there being an ethical choice to make, a guilt which, however "good" I may become, remains unchanged. Votes: 0

To hunt for symbols in a fairy tale is absolutely fatal. Votes: 0

To my generation no other English poet seemed so perfectly to express the sensibility of a male adolescent. If I do not now turn to him very often, I am eternally grateful to him for the joy he gave me in my youth. Votes: 0

To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself. Whenever a man so concentrates his attention - on a landscape, a poem, a geometrical problem, an idol, or the True God - that he completely forgets his own ego and desires, he is praying. The primary task of the schoolteacher is to teach children, in a secular context, the technique of prayer. Votes: 0

To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself... Votes: 0

To the man-in-the-street, who, I'm sorry to say, is a keen observer of life. The word Intellectual suggests straight away. A man who's untrue to his wife. Votes: 0

Warm are the still and lucky miles, White shores of longing stretch away, A light of recognition fills The whole great day, and bright The tiny world of lovers' arms. Silence invades the breathing wood Where drowsy limbs a treasure keep, Now greenly falls the learned shade Across the sleeping brows And stirs their secret to a smile. Restored! Returned! The lost are borne On seas of shipwreck home at last: See! In a fire of praising burns The dry dumb past, and we Our life-day long shall part no more. Votes: 0

Water is the soul of the Earth. Votes: 0

We are all here on earth to help others. Votes: 0

We are lived by powers we pretend to understand. Votes: 0

We are not commanded (or forbidden) to love our mates, our children, our friends, our country because such affections come naturally to us and are good in themselves, although we may corrupt them. We are commanded to love our neighbor because our natural attitude toward the other is one of either indifference or hostility. Votes: 0

We do not change as we grow up. The difference between the child and the adult is that the former doesn't know who he is and the latter does. Votes: 0

We honor founders of these starving cities, Whose honor is the image of our sorrow. Votes: 0

We till shadowed days are done, We must weep and sing Duty's conscious wrong, The Devil in the clock Votes: 0

We were put on this Earth to help others. Why others were put here is beyond me. Votes: 0

We were put on this earth to make things. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Weep for the lives your wishes never led. Votes: 0

What answer to the meaning of existence should one require beyond the right to exercise one's gifts? Votes: 0

What is a Professor of Poetry? How can poetry be professed? Votes: 0

What living occasion can, Be just to the absent? Votes: 0

What the poet says has never been said before, but, once he has said it, his readers recognize its validity for themselves. Votes: 0

What we have not named as a symbol escapes our notice. Votes: 0

Whatever the field under discussion, those who engage in debate must not only believe in each other's good faith, but also in their capacity to arrive at the truth. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse Votes: 0

Words are for those with promises to keep. Votes: 0

Words have no word for words that are not true. Votes: 0

Yet no one hears his own remarks as prose. Votes: 0

You must go to bed with friends or whores, where money makes up the difference in beauty or desire. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

You shall love your crooked neighbour, with your crooked heart. Votes: 0

You will be a poet because you will always be humiliated. Votes: 0

Accurate scholarship can Votes: 0