The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Love3 quotes
If equal affection cannot be
let the more loving one be me. — W.H. Auden · 1957He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong. — W.H. Auden · 1936Like love we don't know where or why
Like love can't compel or fly
Like love we often weep
Like love we seldom keep — W.H. Auden · 1939Art2 quotes
Art is born of humiliation. — W.H. Auden · 1951Without Art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without Science, we should always worship false gods. — W.H. Auden · 1962The human condition2 quotes
Man is a history-making creature who can neither repeat his past nor leave it behind. — W.H. Auden · 1962The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews.
Not to be born is the best for man. — W.H. Auden · 1937Art and science1 quote
Without Art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without Science, we should always worship false gods. — W.H. Auden · 1962Artists1 quote
Though the great artists of the past could not change the course of history, it is only through their work that we are able to break bread with the dead, and without communion with the dead a fully human life is impossible. — W.H. Auden · 1967Books1 quote
Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered. — W.H. Auden · 1962Broken heart1 quote
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong. — W.H. Auden · 1936Brutality1 quote
That girls are raped, that two boys knife a third.
Were axioms to him, who'd never heard
Of any world where promises were kept,
Or one could weep because another wept. — W.H. Auden · 1952Collective memory1 quote
Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered. — W.H. Auden · 1962Cycle of violence1 quote
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return. — W.H. Auden · 1939Desire1 quote
The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews.
Not to be born is the best for man. — W.H. Auden · 1937Disillusionment1 quote
I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade — W.H. Auden · 1939Doubt and skepticism1 quote
The basic stimulus to the intelligence is doubt, a feeling that the meaning of an experience is not self-evident. — W.H. Auden · 1973Evil1 quote
Evil is unspectacular and always human,
And shares our bed and eats at our table. — W.H. Auden · 1940Eye for an eye1 quote
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return. — W.H. Auden · 1939Financial freedom1 quote
Money is the necessity that frees us from necessity. — W.H. Auden · 1973Finding oneself1 quote
Young people, who are still uncertain of their identity, often try on a succession of masks in the hope of finding the one which suits them-the one, in fact, which is not a mask. — W.H. Auden · 1973Foreboding1 quote
The sky is darkening like a stain;
Something is going to fall like rain,
And it won't be flowers. — W.H. Auden · 1935Freedom1 quote
Money is the necessity that frees us from necessity. — W.H. Auden · 1973Generous love1 quote
If equal affection cannot be
let the more loving one be me. — W.H. Auden · 1957God and man1 quote
The Godhead is broken like bread. We are the pieces. — W.H. Auden · 1939History1 quote
Man is a history-making creature who can neither repeat his past nor leave it behind. — W.H. Auden · 1962Human nature1 quote
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return. — W.H. Auden · 1939Judgment1 quote
It takes little talent to see clearly what lies under one's nose, a good deal of it to know in which direction to point that organ. — W.H. Auden · 1962Lost love1 quote
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong. — W.H. Auden · 1936Loving others1 quote
We must love one another or die. — W.H. Auden · 1939Money1 quote
Money is the necessity that frees us from necessity. — W.H. Auden · 1973Nature of evil1 quote
Evil is unspectacular and always human,
And shares our bed and eats at our table. — W.H. Auden · 1940Nature of love1 quote
Like love we don't know where or why
Like love can't compel or fly
Like love we often weep
Like love we seldom keep — W.H. Auden · 1939Personal growth1 quote
Young people, who are still uncertain of their identity, often try on a succession of masks in the hope of finding the one which suits them-the one, in fact, which is not a mask. — W.H. Auden · 1973