Quotes by W. H. Auden

The following are quotes from W. H. Auden:

A poet's hope to be, like some valley cheese, local, but prized elsewhere.

Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can all of them make me laugh.

Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest.

No opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.

One cannot review a bad book without showing off.

Some books are undeservedly forgotten none are undeservedly remembered.

We are here on Earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don't know.

What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish.

When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a room full of dukes.

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