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.
W. H. Auden
Related An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one. GEORGE MIKES The fact is that people are good, if only their fundamental wishes are satisfied, their wish for aff... ABRAHAM MASLOW For a firm like H&R Block, credibility is of paramount importance. If the H&R Block story becomes fo... JAMES MCALEXANDER He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough. LAO TZU I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES The love you get, is equal to the love you give. BEN OAK If the best is possible, than good is never enough and only do the best. ROBERT SIAHAAN It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have ca... BIBLE There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say: 'Enough is enough.' LANCE ARMSTRONG Some people are like a thermometer. If their environment is negative, they are negative. If bad thin... CAMERON C. TAYLOR If they had said my writing wasn't good enough, fair enough, that's an opinion. But to say i... TANITH LEE He's lived a fiction. And, of course, he thinks that if you love someone enough, they will love you.... JULIAN FELLOWES A samurai chooses to serve a master and does it out of respect and love, not because they are forced... ALEXEI MAXIM RUSSELL It is not enough just to get your forces from A to B - you have to keep them fed and watered as they... SAUL DAVID Relativism poses as humble by saying: “We are not smart enough to know what the truth is—or if t... JOHN PIPER They are incredibly active and have to be worked. If you don't, they become neurotic and they're sma... STANLEY COREN The fact is that people are good, Give people affection and security, and they will give affection a... ABRAHAM MASLOW Continuing a short series about the early church: Christians love one another. They never fail t... ARISTIDES The artist is an interpreter of Nature. People learn to love Nature through pictures. To the artist,... WILLIAM MORRIS HUNT And she has no qualms about letting someone know if they are not maintaining their property to the s... BARBARA PERRY The young are too apt to believe what a great man says, especially if he be an authority in the prof... GEORGE KEETON What I find sometimes that is tricky is if actors are using too much of their own life in a picture,... TOM CRUISE Bid the dishonest man mend himself; if he mend, he is no longer dishonest. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE The home of a clergyman is constantly judged by its parishioners. If it is too large and richly deco... LAURA MONCUR Hip-hop is more about attaining wealth. People respect success. They respect big. They don't eve... JAY-Z The world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don't mind happiness not always... LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI Some feel lucky, if they haven't got to be happy, as they don’t like their frame of mind to be unr... ERIK PEVERNAGIE In those whom I like, I can find no common denominator; in those whom I love I can: they all make me... W. H. AUDEN Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to t... GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to t... GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to t... GEORGE WASHINGTON Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to t... GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to t... GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER The result is that their message gets repeated over and over again. If (lawmakers) hear a message of... JOE SANCHEZ If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands ... NORMAN MAILER If thy words be too luxuriant, confine them, lest they confine thee. He that thinks he can never spe... FRANCIS QUARLES My guess is they (the president and first lady) are discussing tradeoffs between SMU and Baylor but ... BRUCE BUCHANAN If they don't get their sales up, it's not going to be enough. There is going to be ongoing restruct... EFRAIM LEVY Rise of Science Denialism The problem is, in a world where some people (even in the USA, ... CHRISTINA ENGELA Concepts that have proven useful in ordering things easily achieve such an authority over us that we... ALBERT EINSTEIN I don't think we've actually seen the best of him yet. If he is hungry enough to do it, he will win ... DAWN FRASER If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison. Theyll have enough to eat, a bed and ... DWIGHT D EISENHOWER This food is needed urgently. People are trying to recover from a major disaster; they are in shock ... AMJAD JAMAL Examinations, sir, are pure humbug from beginning to end. If a man is a gentleman, he knows quite en... OSCAR WILDE The emotional response is natural. However, people have to let the intellectual side win, because th... CHARLES HAMOWY If the effort you give is just enough then it is not enough. CRYSTAL E. RUFFIN-MASON Even paradise could become a prison if one had enough time to take notice of the walls. MORGAN RHODES Every person has the power to change their fate if they are brave enough to fight for what they desi... STEPHANIE GARBER Clever is when one is crafty enough to mistake your imagination for intelligence. Smart is when one ... KERRY E. WAGNER If you respect the audience enough, they can take onboard many things. NICK PARK Particles of the allergen -- in this particular case, peanuts -- are small enough to actually float ... DAVID TANNER If your pain is the same like somebody else, I think that this will be the best couple it will be. DEYTH BANGER Judgment refers to a sound mind. When there is no sound mind in a society, people in that society do... SUNDAY ADELAJA If they're too drunk I'm not sure they would actually look at their key ring and think about it. LAUREN EIGEN So it is fair enough that you are paying me what I ask for, because it is my name you are using to s... AJAY DEVGAN He clearly deserves it, even if there are other important sportsmen, he has shown enough merit to wi... DAVID MARTINEZ Women live lives of continual apology. They are born and raised to take the blame for other people... GERMAINE GREER Until you get enough of enough, the "enough" that is never enough, you dare not quit! If your good i... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR Tyrannical men, rarely announce they are tyrants. Instead, Man must use their eyes and ears to spot ... ENRIQUE VEGA become as much a part of their books as do the readers, and they escape into the worlds they have cr... ROBERT VAUGHAN If we are fortunate enough to win it, he won't be satisfied then, either. He'll want another one. Th... JAY HAYES Rumors said that if he got drunk enough, he sometimes got his jollies by stripping naked and scaring... ILONA ANDREWS They are no longer competitive because their technology is not up-to-date and their management costs... DIEP THANH KIET He who knows little knows enough if he knows how to hold is tongue. ITALIAN PROVERB These are high-risk, high-reward [vaccines]. The chances of their success are remote, but if they do... GBOLA AMUSA In the private sector if somebody is not happy with a job, and they do not think they are being comp... JASON BAKER If you give me enough time, enough leash, I can become pretty reasonable. MICHAEL SHANNON A prince must be prudent enough to know how to escape the bad reputation of those vices that would l... NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI Let me implore the reader to try to believe, if only for a moment, that God, who made these deservin... C.S. LEWIS It's not good enough if your intent is to win, and I'm in this race to win. JASS STEWART He is great enough that is his own master. JOSEPH HALL Every child grows up thinking their father is a hero or villain until they are old enough to realize... MARK MAISH It is not the business of the botanist to eradicate weeds. Enough for him if he can tell us just how... C. NORTHCOTE PARKINSON Typically, if people are happy in their housing, and they have housing that's convenient to their em... MARILYN ROBINSON He knows the game inside out. If you talk to guys in their clubhouse, they all respect him as a man ... DAVE ROBERTS IF" - I lie I am going to add the best features... the peoplea around = features will be taken to bu... DEYTH BANGER He was from a different class, too poor, and they would never approve if their daughter became serio... NICHOLAS SPARKS With these fuel prices, they've gone through cash quickly, ... Their strategy might work, but the qu... BETSY SNYDER It's enough for you to do it once for a few men to remember you. But if you do it year after year, t... ERNEST HEMINGWAY Not less important than the brilliant hue that lead a nation or a literature to the fresh achievemen... F.L. LUCAS Make sure the grease is hot enough. If the grease is hot enough, they will float real quick. DONALD BEECHLER They are the Chinese heroes. I am happy for their performance and the result is not the most importa... HE ZHENLIANG If a teacher comes in with a smile, he is well-prepared. If he conducts a test without prior notice,... JECON B. NADELA These are the three main diseases of this country, sir: typhoid, cholera, and election fever. This l... ARAVIND ADIGA If any man has drunk a little too deeply from the cup of physical pleasure; if he has spent too much... JEAN-ANTHELME BRILLAT-SAVARIN If anyone is crazy enough to want to kill a president of the United States, he can do it. All he mus... JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY I believe that every English poet should read the English classics, master the rules of grammar befo... ROBERT GRAVES If recapture is in place still this fall and, if they haven't shared their wealth as they are requir... DEBBIE RATCLIFFE If you allow your enemy to steal your faith, he can destroy your life and ultimately kill your relat... CRAIG GROESCHEL He is old school. He's not a friend to the students, he's an authority figure. He is type of faculty... JANE MOORE This is their assessment, which we think is fair enough, AHMED KHAN Why do men like me want sons?" he wondered. "It must be because they hope in their poor beaten souls... JOHN STEINBECK The irrepressible spirit that made his playing seem like good conversation is the Rubinstein legacy ... DONAL HENAHAN A lot of people just want to not lose money on the deal. They just want to cover their expenses. The... CINDY FRAILING Very often when I am introduced to women, I think, What is she really like behind the disguise which... ROBERTSON DAVIES If ladies be but young and fair, They have the gift to know it; and in his brain, Which is as dry as... WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE To stand on the brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation—with no feeli... ASK AND IT IS GIVEN Don't waste your time trying to provide people with proof of deceit, in order to keep their love, wi... SHANNON L. ALDER They did their due-diligence over the past two weeks, the last three weeks, and then we had an offer... HAYNE HIPP If the story is good enough, if it's imaginative enough, if it's moving enough it is going t... DAVID REMNICK
More W. H. Auden
Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Para... W. H. AUDEN May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and, consideri... W. H. AUDEN All that we are not stares back at what we are. W. H. AUDEN A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a ... W. H. AUDEN To save your world you asked this man to die; would this man, could he see you now, ask why? W. H. AUDEN You owe it to all of us all get on with what you're good at. W. H. AUDEN In relation to a writer, most readers believe in the Double Standard: they may be unfaithful to him ... W. H. AUDEN 'Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature... W. H. AUDEN Art is born of humiliation. W. H. AUDEN Good can imagine Evil; but Evil cannot imagine Good. W. H. AUDEN In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag. W. H. AUDEN Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic. W. H. AUDEN What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed li... W. H. AUDEN If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving be me. W. H. AUDEN The ear tends to be lazy, craves the familiar and is shocked by the unexpected; the eye, on the othe... W. H. AUDEN Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I ... W. H. AUDEN In those whom I like, I can find no common denominator; in those whom I love I can: they all make me... W. H. AUDEN Continuing a short series on forgiveness: Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner. ("To know all i... W. H. AUDEN All theological language is necessarily analogical, but it was singularly unfortunate that the Churc... W. H. AUDEN Commemoration of Cecile Isherwood, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, Grahamstown, South ... W. H. AUDEN All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation. W. H. AUDEN Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Par... W. H. AUDEN Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table. W. H. AUDEN Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable. W. H. AUDEN We are here on earth to do good to others. What the others
are here for, I don't know. W H AUDEN A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them. Even a rich ma... W. H. AUDEN Like everything which is not the involuntary result of fleeting emotion but the creation of time and... W. H. AUDEN Eagerly, musician,Sweep your string,So we may sing,Elated, optative,Our several voicesInterblending,... W. H. AUDEN The words of a dead man are modified in the guts of the living. W. H. AUDEN The ear tends to be lazy, craves the familiar, and is shocked by the unexpected; the eye, on the oth... W. H. AUDEN You have to see the sex act comically, as a child. W. H. AUDEN We are here on earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don't know. W. H. AUDEN You know there are no secrets in America. It's quite different in England, where people think of a s... W. H. AUDEN When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mist... W. H. AUDEN In a land which is fully settled, most men must accept their local environment or try to change it b... W. H. AUDEN A man has his distinctive personal scent which his wife, his children and his dog can recognize. A c... W. H. AUDEN Slavery is so intolerable a condition that the slave can hardly escape deluding himself into thinkin... W. H. AUDEN Precisely because we do not communicate by singing, a song can be out of place but not out of charac... W. H. AUDEN It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say,... W. H. AUDEN Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life ... W. H. AUDEN Dogmatic theological statements are neither logical propositions nor poetic utterances. They are sha... W. H. AUDEN A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us. W. H. AUDEN Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered. W. H. AUDEN America has always been a country of amateurs where the professional, that is to say, the man who cl... W. H. AUDEN To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself. Whenever a man so concentrat... W. H. AUDEN There's only one good test of pornography. Get twelve normal men to read the book, and then ask them... W. H. AUDEN The belief that politics can be scientific must inevitably produce tyrannies. Politics cannot be a s... W. H. AUDEN My deepest feeling about politicians is that they are dangerous lunatics to be avoided when possible... W. H. AUDEN Drama is based on the Mistake. I think someone is my friend when he really is my enemy, that I am fr... W. H. AUDEN A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep. W. H. AUDEN It takes little talent to see clearly what lies under one's nose, a good deal of it to know in which... W. H. AUDEN Anyone who has a child today should train him to be either a physicist or a ballet dancer. Then he'l... W. H. AUDEN Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. W. H. AUDEN Narcissus does not fall in love with his reflection because it is beautiful, but because it is his. ... W. H. AUDEN We must love one another or die. W. H. AUDEN We are not commanded (or forbidden) to love our mates, our children, our friends, our country becaus... W. H. AUDEN A false enchantment can all too easily last a lifetime. W. H. AUDEN In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for... W. H. AUDEN A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them. Even a rich ma... W. H. AUDEN The center that I cannot find is known to my unconscious mind. W. H. AUDEN What people don't realize is that intimacy has its conventions as well as ordinary social intercours... W. H. AUDEN Left to itself the masculine imagination has very little appreciation for the here and now; it prefe... W. H. AUDEN The masculine imagination lives in a state of perpetual revolt against the limitations of human life... W. H. AUDEN How happy the lot of the mathematician! He is judged solely by his peers, and the standard is so hig... W. H. AUDEN Of course, behaviorism works. So does torture. Give me a no-nonsense, down-to-earth behaviorist, a f... W. H. AUDEN Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table. W. H. AUDEN I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in... W. H. AUDEN To the man-in-the-street, who, I'm sorry to say, is a keen observer of life. The word Intellectual s... W. H. AUDEN Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable. W. H. AUDEN Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I ... W. H. AUDEN No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible. W. H. AUDEN If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willful... W. H. AUDEN The only way to spend New Year's Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when ... W. H. AUDEN A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become. W. H. AUDEN Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of... W. H. AUDEN It's frightening how easy it is to commit murder in America. Just a drink too much. I can see myself... W. H. AUDEN A doctor, like anyone else who has to deal with human beings, each of them unique, cannot be a scien... W. H. AUDEN Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their trivial... W. H. AUDEN God is Love, we are taught as children to believe. But when we first begin to get some inkling of ho... W. H. AUDEN Geniuses are the luckiest of mortals because what they must do is the same as what they most want to... W. H. AUDEN No human being is innocent, but there is a class of innocent human actions called Games. W. H. AUDEN Funeral Blues W. H. AUDEN Literary confessors are contemptible, like beggars who exhibit their sores for money, but not so con... W. H. AUDEN One cannot walk through an assembly factory and not feel that one is in Hell. W. H. AUDEN Healing, Papa would tell me, is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature. W. H. AUDEN And none will hear the postman's knock Without a quickening of the heart. For who can bear to ... W. H. AUDEN Every autobiography is concerned with two characters, a Don Quixote, the Ego, and a Sancho Panza, th... W. H. AUDEN All poets adore explosions, thunderstorms, tornadoes, conflagrations, ruins, scenes of spectacular c... W. H. AUDEN It is... axiomatic that we should all think of ourselves as being more sensitive than other people b... W. H. AUDEN Fame often makes a writer vain, but seldom makes him proud. W. H. AUDEN May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and, consideri... W. H. AUDEN My face looks like a wedding-cake left out in the rain. W. H. AUDEN Every European visitor to the United States is struck by the comparative rarity of what he would cal... W. H. AUDEN Aphorisms are essentially an aristocratic genre of writing. The aphorist does not argue or explain, ... W. H. AUDEN The countenances of children, like those of animals, are masks, not faces, for they have not yet dev... W. H. AUDEN Nobody knows what the cause is, though some pretend they do; it like some hidden assassin waiting to... W. H. AUDEN Cancer is a curious thing... Nobody knows what the cause is, Though some pretend they do; I... W. H. AUDEN I cannot accept the doctrine that in poetry there is a suspension of belief. A poet must never make ... W. H. AUDEN It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his... W. H. AUDEN Poetry makes nothing happen. It survives in the valley of its saying. W. H. AUDEN As a poet there is only one political duty, and that is to defend one's language against corruption.... W. H. AUDEN You must go to bed with friends or whores, where money makes up the difference in beauty or desire. W. H. AUDEN Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a m... W. H. AUDEN A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good ... W. H. AUDEN But in seven weeks it was done, the frontiers decided. A continent for better or worse divided. W. H. AUDEN If the most significant characteristic of man is the complex of biological needs he shares with all ... W. H. AUDEN Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they s... W. H. AUDEN No poet or novelist wishes he were the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were the ... W. H. AUDEN The Americans are violently oral. That's why in America the mother is all-important and the father h... W. H. AUDEN God bless the USA, so large, so friendly, and so rich. W. H. AUDEN The actors today really need the whip hand. They're so lazy. They haven't got the sense of pride in ... W. H. AUDEN The critical opinions of a writer should always be taken with a large grain of salt. For the most pa... W. H. AUDEN Criticism should be a casual conversation. W. H. AUDEN All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one by a simple act of will... W. H. AUDEN Now is the age of anxiety. W. H. AUDEN The ear tends to be lazy, craves the familiar, and is shocked by the unexpected: the eye, on the ot... W. H. AUDEN A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep. W H AUDEN It takes little talent to see clearly what lies under one's nose, a good deal of it to know in whi... W. H. AUDEN Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Pa... W. H. AUDEN One cannot review a bad book without showing off. W. H. AUDEN A poet's hope: to be, like some valley cheese, local, but prized elsewhere. W. H. AUDEN All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation. W. H. AUDEN I'll love you, dear, I'll love you till China and Africa meet and the river jumps over the m... W. H. AUDEN We all have these places where shy humiliations gambol on sunny afternoons. W. H. AUDEN We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know. W. H. AUDEN A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language. W. H. AUDEN The class distinctions proper to a democratic society are not those of rank or money, still less, as... W. H. AUDEN History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology ... W. H. AUDEN When I am in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into ... W. H. AUDEN He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, ... W. H. AUDEN Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Pa... W. H. AUDEN To save your world you asked this man to die; Would this man, could he see you now, ask why? W. H. AUDEN No opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible. W. H. AUDEN False enchantment can last a lifetime. W. H. AUDEN Evil is unspectacular and always human, And shares our bed and eats at our own table. W. H. AUDEN When the Sex War ended with the slaughter of the Grandmothers, / They found a bachelor's baby suffoc... W. H. AUDEN Men will pay large sums to whores for telling them they are not bores W. H. AUDEN 'Healing,'' Papa would tell me, ''is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.' W. H. AUDEN Embrace me, belly, like a bride. W. H. AUDEN Murder is commoner among cooks than among members of any other profession W. H. AUDEN O for doors to be open and an invite with gilded edges / To dine with Lord Lobcock and Count Asthma. W. H. AUDEN I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-Second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of ... W. H. AUDEN It takes little talent to see what lies under one's nose, a good deal to know in what direction ... W. H. AUDEN The nightingales are sobbing in / The orchards of our mothers, / And hearts that we broke long ago /... W. H. AUDEN The image of myself which I try to create in my own mind in order that I may love myself is very dif... W. H. AUDEN If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons and take his gun away. W. H. AUDEN If there are any of you at the back who do not hear me, please don't raise your hands because I am a... W. H. AUDEN Sob, heavy world Sob as you spin, Mantled in mist Remote from the happy. W. H. AUDEN Look, stranger, at this island now / The leaping light for your delight discovers. W. H. AUDEN Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their conscience... W. H. AUDEN Hemingway is terribly limited. His technique is good for short stories, for people who meet once in ... W. H. AUDEN Good can imagine Evil; but Evil cannot imagine Good W. H. AUDEN lay your faithless head upon my arm W. H. AUDEN Now Ireland has her madness and her weather still, For poetry makes nothing happen W. H. AUDEN I'll love you, dear, I'll love you till China and Africa meet and the river jumps over the mountain ... W. H. AUDEN Hunger allows no choice, To the citizens or the police; We must love one another or die W. H. AUDEN Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator; but among those whom I love, I ... W. H. AUDEN Five minutes on even the nicest mountain / Is awfully long. W. H. AUDEN The ear tends to be lazy, craves the familiar, and is shocked by the unexpected: the eye, on the oth... W. H. AUDEN 'In headaches and in worry Vaguely life leaks away,And Time will have his fancy To-morrow or to-day. W. H. AUDEN Sob, heavy world Sob as you spin, Mantled in mist Remote from the happy W. H. AUDEN A doctor, like anyone else who has to deal with human beings, each of them unique, cannot be a scien... W. H. AUDEN But in my arms till break of dayLet the living creature lie,Mortal, guilty, but to meThe entirely be... W. H. AUDEN Dogmatic theological statements are neither logical propositions nor poetic utterances. They are ''s... W. H. AUDEN All sin tends to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is what is called damnation W. H. AUDEN If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving be me W. H. AUDEN A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep W. H. AUDEN No hero is immortal till he dies W. H. AUDEN Let mortals beware of wordsFor with words we lieCan speak peaceWhen we mean warBut song is trueLet m... W. H. AUDEN A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a ... W. H. AUDEN All that we are not stares back at what we are W. H. AUDEN . . . see without looking, . . . hear without listening, . . . breathe without asking. W. H. AUDEN Private faces in public places / Are wiser and nicer / Than public faces in private places. W. H. AUDEN Alone, alone, about the dreadful wood / Of conscious evil runs a lost mankind, / Dreading to find it... W. H. AUDEN Though I believe it sinful to be queer, it has at least saved me from becoming a pillar of the estab... W. H. AUDEN Within these breakwaters English is spoken; without / Is the immense, improbable atlas. W. H. AUDEN Our researchers into Public Opinion are content/ That he held the proper opinions for the time of ye... W. H. AUDEN Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their conscience... W. H. AUDEN A poet is a professional maker of verbal objects. W. H. AUDEN I know nothing, except what everyone knows – if there when Graces dances, I should dance. W. H. AUDEN Of all possible subjects, travel is the most difficult for an artist, as it is the easiest for a jou... W. H. AUDEN We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know W. H. AUDEN Music is the best means we have of digesting time. W. H. AUDEN We would rather be ruined than changed, We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the... W. H. AUDEN Health is the state about which medicine has nothing to say W. H. AUDEN Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of... W. H. AUDEN Even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot Where the dogs ... W. H. AUDEN But all the clocks in the city Began to whirr and chime:'O let not Time deceive you, You cannot conq... W. H. AUDEN It's usually the stupid people that develop long illnesses. You need more than indolence and selfish... W. H. AUDEN Pleasure is by no means an infallible guide, but it is the least fallible. W. H. AUDEN Poor Poe! At first so forgotten that his grave went without a tomb-stone twenty-six years. . . today... W. H. AUDEN Thou shalt not sit With statisticians nor commit A social science W. H. AUDEN In the nightmare of the dark - All the dogs of Europe bark, And the living nations wait, Each seques... W. H. AUDEN Poetry is the clear expression of mixed feelings. W. H. AUDEN When it comes, will it come without warning/ Just as I'm picking my nose?/ Will it knock on my door ... W. H. AUDEN Yet no one hears his own remarks as prose. W. H. AUDEN If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willful... W. H. AUDEN All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one by a simple act of will... W. H. AUDEN Few writers have had less journalistic talent than James, and this is his defect, for the supreme ma... W. H. AUDEN For who can bear to feel himself forgotten? W. H. AUDEN