You owe it to us all to get on with what you're good at.

Quote by W H Auden

Topics: W H Auden Quotes

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...

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...

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

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

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...

No hero is immortal till he dies

No hero is immortal till he dies

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.

Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality.

Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality.

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

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

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...

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...

When the Sex War ended with the slaughter of the Grandmothers, / They found a...

When the Sex War ended with the slaughter of the Grandmothers, / They found a...

Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they...

Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they...

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...

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...

Now is the age of anxiety.

Now is the age of anxiety.

We must love one another or die.

We must love one another or die.

Music can be made anywhere, is invisible and does not smell.

Music can be made anywhere, is invisible and does not smell.

If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons...

If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons...

If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving be me.

If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving be me.

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.