Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.

Quote by W H Auden

Topics: W H Auden Quotes

Even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot...

Even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot...

All that we are not stares back at what we are.

All that we are not stares back at what we are.

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...

Men will pay large sums to whores for telling them they are not bores.

Men will pay large sums to whores for telling them they are not bores.

Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.

Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.

What people don't realize is that intimacy has its conventions as well as ordinary social...

What people don't realize is that intimacy has its conventions as well as ordinary social...

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.

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...

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 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...

It takes little talent to see what lies under one's nose, a good deal to...

It takes little talent to see what lies under one's nose, a good deal to...

Now is the age of anxiety.

Now is the age of anxiety.

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...

When I am in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who...

When I am in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who...

Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out...

Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out...

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

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

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...

Art is born of humiliation.

Art is born of humiliation.

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...

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...