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

I'll love you, dear, I'll love you till China and Africa meet and the river...

I'll love you, dear, I'll love you till China and Africa meet and the river...

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...

Art is born of humiliation.

Art is born of humiliation.

Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to...

Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to...

Every autobiography is concerned with two characters, a Don Quixote, the Ego, and a Sancho...

Every autobiography is concerned with two characters, a Don Quixote, the Ego, and a Sancho...

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.

Music is the best means we have of digesting time.

Music is the best means we have of digesting time.

He was my North, my South, my East and West.

He was my North, my South, my East and West.

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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....

Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own...

Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own...

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

Men make the mistake of thinking that because women can't see the sense in violence,...

Men make the mistake of thinking that because women can't see the sense in violence,...

Good can imagine Evil; but Evil cannot imagine Good.

Good can imagine Evil; but Evil cannot imagine Good.

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...

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.