W. H. Auden Quotes

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.

Evil is unspectacular and always human, And shares our bed and eats at our own table.

False enchantment can last a lifetime.

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.

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