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

Quote by W H Auden

Topics: W H Auden Quotes

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

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

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.

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

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

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...

A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them....

A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them....

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

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

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

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

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.

For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?

For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?

We are here on Earth to do good to others. What the others are here...

We are here on Earth to do good to others. What the others are here...

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

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

I know nothing, except what everyone knows if there when Graces dances, I should dance.

I know nothing, except what everyone knows if there when Graces dances, I should dance.

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...

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

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

A false enchantment can all too easily last a lifetime.

A false enchantment can all too easily last a lifetime.

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...

Art is born of humiliation.

Art is born of humiliation.

All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one...

All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one...

We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are...

We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are...

A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them....

A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them....