The countenances of children, like those of animals, are masks, not faces, for they have not yet developed a significant profile of their own.

Quote by W H Auden

Topics: W H Auden Quotes

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...

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.

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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.

In a world of prayer, we are all equal in the sense that each of...

In a world of prayer, we are all equal in the sense that each of...

Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his...

Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his...

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...

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...

All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation.

All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation.

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.

In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.

For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?

For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?