Wystan Hugh Auden quotes

" We are all on earth to help others. What on earth the others are here for, I can't imagine. " # Imagination

" A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language. " # Language

" Goodness is easier to recognize than to define. " # Goodness

" History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology. " # Literary Criticism # Questions # Literature

" To ask the hard question is simple. " # Questions

" All sin tends to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is what is called damnation. " # Sin # Addiction # Love

" The condition of mankind is, and always has been, so miserable and depraved that, if anyone were to say to the poet: "For God's sake stop singing and do something useful like putting on the kettle or fetching bandages," what just reason could he give for refusing? But nobody says this. The self-appointed unqualified nurse says: "You are to sing the patient a song which will make him believe that I, and I alone, can cure him. If you can't or won't, I shall confiscate your passport and send you to the mines." And the poor patient in his delirium cries: "Please sing me a song which will give me sweet dreams instead of nightmares. If you succeed, I will give you a penthouse in New York or a ranch in Arizona." " # Justice

" As a rule it was the pleasure haters that became unjust. " # Hatred

" All poets adore explosions, thunderstorms, tornadoes, conflagrations, ruins, scenes of spectacular carnage. The poetic imagination is not at all a desirable quality in a statesman. " # Conflict

" 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. " # Politicians and Politics