All the rest is silence On the other side of the wall, And the silence ripeness, And the ripeness all. W. H. Auden More Quotes by W. H. Auden More Quotes From W. H. Auden To read is to translate, for no two persons' experiences are the same. A bad reader is like a bad translator: he interprets literally when he ought to paraphrase and paraphrases when he ought to interpret literally. W. H. Auden translate reader two The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen. W. H. Auden gentleman actors acting About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters; How well they understood Its human position; how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along. W. H. Auden sorrow suffering window One demands two things of a poem. Firstly, it must be a well-made verbal object that does honor to the language in which it is written. Secondly, it must say something significant about a reality common to us all, but perceived from a unique perspective. What the poet says has never been said before, but, once he has said it, his readers recognize its validity for themselves. W. H. Auden unique two reality The only reason the Protestants and Catholics have given up the idea of universal domination is because they've realised they can't get away with it. W. H. Auden catholic ideas religion A poem is a verbal artifact which must be as skillfully W. H. Auden artifacts motorcycle tables There is a certain kind of person who is so dominated by the desire to be loved for himself alone that he has constantly to test those around him by tiresome behavior; what he says and does must be admired, not because it is intrinsically admirable, but because it is his remark, his act. Does not this explain a good deal of avant-garde art? W. H. Auden doe desire art To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself. Whenever a man so concentrates his attention - on a landscape, a poem, a geometrical problem, an idol, or the True God - that he completely forgets his own ego and desires, he is praying. The primary task of the schoolteacher is to teach children, in a secular context, the technique of prayer. W. H. Auden prayer god children The closest modern equivalent to the Homeric hero is the ace fighter pilot. W. H. Auden aces pilots hero Organic growth is a cyclical process; it is just as true to say that the oak is a potential acorn as it is to say the acorn is a potential oak. But the process of writing a poem, of making any art object, is not cyclical but a motion in one direction toward a definite end. W. H. Auden one-direction writing art In a land which is fully settled, most men must accept their local environment or try to change it by political means; only the exceptionally gifted or adventurous can leave to seek his fortune elsewhere. In America, on the other hand, to move on and make a fresh start somewhere else is still the normal reaction to dissatisfaction and failure. W. H. Auden men mean moving The words of a dead man are modified in the guts of the living. W. H. Auden gmos men death A poet is a professional maker of verbal objects. W. H. Auden poetic poet makers It is, for example, axiomatic that we should all think of ourselves as being more sensitive than other people because, when we are insensitive in our dealings with others, we cannot be aware of it at the time: conscious insensitivity is a self-contradiction. W. H. Auden self people thinking I am sure it is everyone’s experience, as it has been mine, that any discovery we make about ourselves or the meaning of life is never, like a scientific discovery, a coming upon something entirely new and unsuspected; it is rather, the coming to conscious recognition of something, which we really knew all the time but, because we were unwilling to formulate it correctly, we did not hitherto know we knew. W. H. Auden recognition meaning-of-life discovery Drama is based on the Mistake. W. H. Auden mistake drama In the end, art is small beer. The really serious things are earning one's living so as not to be a parasite and loving one's neighbor. W. H. Auden beer life art Man desires to be free and he desires to feel important. This places him in a dilemma, for the more he emancipates himself from necessity the less important he feels. W. H. Auden important desire men No being can make another one happy. W. H. Auden happiness Machines are beneficial to the degree that they eliminate the need for labor, harmful to the degree that they eliminate the need for skill. W. H. Auden degrees skills science
