One cannot review a bad book without showing off. W. H. Auden More Quotes by W. H. Auden More Quotes From W. H. Auden Aside from purely technical analysis, nothing can be said about music, except when it is bad; when it is good, one can only listen and be grateful. W. H. Auden be-gratefulanalysisgrateful The nightingales are sobbing in The orchards of our mothers, And hearts that we broke long ago Have long been breaking others; Tears are round, the sea is deep: Roll them overboard and sleep. W. H. Auden mothersleepheart It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy. When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful. W. H. Auden cheerfulmajoritypast In addition to English, at least one ancient language, probably Greek or Hebrew, and two modern languages would be required. W. H. Auden greekwould-betwo Without Art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without Science, we should always worship false gods. W. H. Auden technologyscienceart Base words are uttered only by the base W. H. Auden casesnoblevoice The windiest militant trash Important Persons shout Is not so crude as our wish: What mad Nijinsky wrote About Diaghilev Is true of the normal heart; For the error bred in the bone Of each woman and each man Craves what it cannot have; Not universal love But to be loved alone. W. H. Auden errorsheartmen Left to itself the masculine imagination has very little appreciation for the here and now; it prefers to dwell on what is absent, on what has been or may be. If men are more punctual than women, it is because they know that, without the external discipline of clock time, they would never get anything done. W. H. Auden disciplineappreciationmen It's frightfully important for a writer to be his age, not to be younger or older than he is. One might ask, "What should I write at the age of sixty-four," but never, "What should I write in 1940." W. H. Auden importantagewriting Nobody knows what the cause is, though some pretend they do; it like some hidden assassin waiting to strike at you. Childless women get it, and men when they retire; it as if there had to be some outlet for their foiled creative fire. W. H. Auden cancerfiremen As readers, we remain in the nursery stage so long as we cannot distinguish between taste and judgment, so long, that is, as the only possible verdicts we can pass on a book are two: this I like; this I don't like. For an adult reader, the possible verdicts are five: I can see this is good and I like it; I can see this is good but I don't like it; I can see this is good and, though at present I don't like it, I believe that with perseverance I shall come to like it; I can see that this is trash but I like it; I can see that this is trash and I don't like it. W. H. Auden perseverancebelievebook There's only one good test of pornography. Get twelve normal men to read the book, and then ask them, ''Did you get an erection?'' If the answer is ''Yes'' from a majority of the twelve, then the book is pornographic. W. H. Auden majoritymenbook America has always been a country of amateurs where the professional, that is to say, the man who claims authority as a member of an élite which knows the law in some field or other, is an object of distrust and resentment. W. H. Auden lawmencountry One can only blaspheme if one believes. W. H. Auden ifsbelieve Courses in prosody, rhetoric and comparative philology would be required of all students, and every student would have to select three courses out of courses in mathematics, natural history, geology, meteorology, archaeology, mythology, liturgics, cooking. W. H. Auden meteorologycookingwould-be Most poetry is the utterance of a man in some state of passion, love, joy, grief, rage, etc., and no doubt this is as it should be. But no man is perpetually in a passion and those states in which he is amused and amusing, detached and irreverent, if less important, are no less amusing. If there were no poets who, like Byron, express these states, Poetry would lack something. W. H. Auden passiongriefmen Who on earth invented the silly convention that it is boring or impolite to talk shop? Nothing is more interesting to listen to, especially if the shop is not one's own. W. H. Auden listeningsillyinteresting And make us as Newton was, who in his garden watching The apple falling towards England, became aware Between himself and her of an eternal tie. W. H. Auden gardensciencefall Machines have no political opinions, but they have profound political effects. They demand a strict regimentation of time, and, by abolishing the need for manual skill, have transformed the majority of the population from workers into laborers. There are, that is to say, fewer and fewer jobs which a man can find a pride and satisfaction in doing well, more and more which have no interest in themselves and can be valued only for the money they provide. W. H. Auden pridejobsmen As biological organisms made of matter, we are subject to the laws of physics and biology: as conscious persons who create our own history we are free to decide what that history shall be. Without science, we should have no notion of equality; without art, no notion of liberty. W. H. Auden should-havelawart
