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

Quote by W H Auden

Topics: W H Auden Quotes

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

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

All that we are not stares back at what we are.

All that we are not stares back at what we are.

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

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

A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man...

A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man...

For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?

For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?

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

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

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

We are not commanded (or forbidden) to love our mates, our children, our friends, our...

We are not commanded (or forbidden) to love our mates, our children, our friends, our...

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

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

In a world of prayer, we are all equal in the sense that each of...

In a world of prayer, we are all equal in the sense that each of...

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

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

Geniuses are the luckiest of mortals because what they must do is the same as...

Geniuses are the luckiest of mortals because what they must do is the same as...

No poet or novelist wishes he were the only one who ever lived, but most...

No poet or novelist wishes he were the only one who ever lived, but most...

You must go to bed with friends or whores, where money makes up the difference...

You must go to bed with friends or whores, where money makes up the difference...

What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to...

What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to...

The belief that politics can be scientific must inevitably produce tyrannies. Politics cannot be a...

The belief that politics can be scientific must inevitably produce tyrannies. Politics cannot be a...

You owe it to us all to get on with what you're good at.

You owe it to us all to get on with what you're good at.

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

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

It is better to be deceived by one's friends than to deceive them.

It is better to be deceived by one's friends than to deceive them.

Friendship is almost always the union of a part of one mind with the part...

Friendship is almost always the union of a part of one mind with the part...