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.

Quote by W H Auden

Topics: W H Auden Quotes

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

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

We must love one another or die.

We must love one another or die.

Art is born of humiliation.

Art is born of humiliation.

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....

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...

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

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

No human being is innocent, but there is a class of innocent human actions called...

No human being is innocent, but there is a class of innocent human actions called...

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

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

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

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

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...

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...

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...

Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences...

Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences...

In relation to a writer, most readers believe in the Double Standard: they may be...

In relation to a writer, most readers believe in the Double Standard: they may be...

For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?

For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?

Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has...

Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has...

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

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

A poet is a professional maker of verbal objects.

A poet is a professional maker of verbal objects.

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

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

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...