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

Quote by W H Auden

Topics: W H Auden Quotes

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...

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.

The image of myself which I try to create in my own mind in order...

The image of myself which I try to create in my own mind in order...

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

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

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.

Literary confessors are contemptible, like beggars who exhibit their sores for money, but not so...

Literary confessors are contemptible, like beggars who exhibit their sores for money, but not so...

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

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

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

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

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

Healing, Papa would tell me, is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing...

Healing, Papa would tell me, is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing...

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....

Now is the age of anxiety.

Now is the age of anxiety.

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.

Hemingway is terribly limited. His technique is good for short stories, for people who meet...

Hemingway is terribly limited. His technique is good for short stories, for people who meet...

Good can imagine Evil; but Evil cannot imagine Good.

Good can imagine Evil; but Evil cannot imagine Good.

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...

Let us honor if we can the vertical man, though we value none but the...

Let us honor if we can the vertical man, though we value none but the...

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

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

The countenances of children, like those of animals, are masks, not faces, for they have...

The countenances of children, like those of animals, are masks, not faces, for they have...

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

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