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 · 1939World War II3 quotes
For the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. — Neville Chamberlain · 1938This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final Note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 0'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany. — Neville Chamberlain · 1939How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing. — Neville Chamberlain · 1938Art2 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 · 1937War2 quotes
History is littered with the wars which everybody knew would never happen. — Enoch Powell · 1967In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers. — Neville Chamberlain · 1938Adventure1 quote
We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can't think what anybody sees in them. — J.R.R. Tolkien · 1937Advice1 quote
Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill. — J.R.R. Tolkien · 1954Appeasement1 quote
For the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. — Neville Chamberlain · 1938Art 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 · 1967Being in love1 quote
A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces,
An airline ticket to romantic places;
And still my heart has wings
These foolish things
Remind me of you. — Holt Marvell · 1935Books1 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 · 1962Critics1 quote
A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car. — Kenneth Tynan · 1963Crying1 quote
I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil. — J.R.R. Tolkien · 1955Cycle 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 · 1939Decisions and choices1 quote
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. — J.R.R. Tolkien · 1954Desire1 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 · 1940Exploration1 quote
Not all those who wander are lost. — J.R.R. Tolkien · 1954Eye 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 · 1957