I think the first prerequisite to civilization is an ability to make polite conversation. W. H. Auden More Quotes by W. H. Auden More Quotes From W. H. Auden I don't think the mystical experience can be verbalized. When the ego disappears, so does power over language. W. H. Auden mystical-experiencesegothinking No hero is mortal till he dies. W. H. Auden diesdemisehero Cats can be very funny, and have the oddest ways of showing they're glad to see you. W. H. Auden catgladway Hemingway is terribly limited. His technique is good for short stories, for people who meet once in a bar very late at night, but do not enter into relations. But not for the novel. W. H. Auden writingnightpeople Words have no word for words that are not true. W. H. Auden I used to try and concentrate the poem so much that there wasn't a word that wasn't essential. This leads to becoming boring and constipated. W. H. Auden becomingessentialstrying A poet's hope: to be, like some valley cheese, local, but prized elsewhere. W. H. Auden cookinghopefood Had Greek civilization never existed ... we would never have become fully conscious. W. H. Auden consciousgreekcivilization So long as we think of it objectively, time is Fate or Chance, the factor in our lives for which we are not responsible, and about which we can do nothing; but when we begin to think of it subjectively, we feel responsible for our time, and the notion of punctuality arises. W. H. Auden fatelongthinking About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters. W. H. Auden masterssuffering Money is the necessity that frees us from necessity. W. H. Auden money Private faces in public places Are wiser and nicer Than public faces in private places. W. H. Auden wiserfaces Time will say nothing but I told you so. W. H. Auden told-you-sotime To me Art's subject is the human clay, / And landscape but a background to a torso; / All Cezanne's apples I would give away / For one small Goya or a Daumier. W. H. Auden applesgivingart There is no love; W. H. Auden variousenvysadness My poetry doesn't change from place to place - it changes with the years. It's very important to be one's age. You get ideas you have to turn down - 'I'm sorry, no longer'; 'I'm sorry, not yet. W. H. Auden maturitysorryyears The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews Not to be born is the best for man The second best is a formal order The dance's pattern, dance while you can. Dance, dance, for the figure is easy The tune is catching and will not stop Dance till the stars come down from the rafters Dance, dance, dance till you drop. W. H. Auden starsheartmen There is no such thing as the State And no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die. W. H. Auden policecitizenschoices How happy is the lot of the mathematician! He is judged solely by his peers, and the standard is so high that no colleague or rival can ever win a reputation he does not deserve. No cashier writes a letter to the press complaining about the incomprehensibility of Modern Mathematics and comparing it unfavorably with the good old days when mathematicians were content to paper irregularly shaped rooms and fill bathtubs without closing the waste pipe. W. H. Auden paperwinningwriting The glacier knocks in the cupboard, The desert sighs in the bed, And the crack in the teacup opens A lane to the land of the dead. W. H. Auden cracksbedland
