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

Quote by W H Auden

Topics: W. H. Auden Quotes

May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God...

May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God...

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...

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...

Like everything which is not the involuntary result of fleeting emotion but the creation of...

Like everything which is not the involuntary result of fleeting emotion but the creation of...

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.

To save your world you asked this man to die; would this man, could he...

To save your world you asked this man to die; would this man, could he...

Health is the state about which medicine has nothing to say

Health is the state about which medicine has nothing to say

Good can imagine Evil; but Evil cannot imagine Good.

Good can imagine Evil; but Evil cannot imagine Good.

When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate...

When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate...

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

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

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....

History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology...

History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology...

No hero is immortal till he dies

No hero is immortal till he dies

A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it...

A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it...

Drama is based on the Mistake. I think someone is my friend when he really...

Drama is based on the Mistake. I think someone is my friend when he really...

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...

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.

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...

Experience is what you got by not having it when you need it.

Experience is what you got by not having it when you need it.

The human race has had long experience and a fine tradition in surviving adversity. But...

The human race has had long experience and a fine tradition in surviving adversity. But...

I take as metaphysical poetry that in which what is ordinarily apprehensible only by thought...

I take as metaphysical poetry that in which what is ordinarily apprehensible only by thought...