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380 Powerful W.H. Auden Quotes to Inspire You

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1. “All art is based on a certain degree of unnaturalness.”

W.H. Auden

Art, Creativity, Perception, Authenticity, Commentary

2. “Acts of injustice done Between the setting and the rising sun In history lie like bones, each one.”

W.H. Auden

Injustice, History, Metaphor, Societal Impact, Human Consequence

3. “Art is born of humiliation.”

W.H. Auden

Art, Creativity, Suffering, Expression, Emotional Depth

4. “The relation of faith between subject and object is unique in every case. Hundreds may believe, but each has to believe by himself.”

W.H. Auden

Faith, Individuality, Belief, Subjectivity, Personal Experience

5. “To my generation no other English poet seemed so perfectly to express the sensibility of a male adolescent. If I do not now turn to him very often, I am eternally grateful to him for the joy he gave me in my youth.”

W.H. Auden

Poetry, Nostalgia, Male Adolescence, Gratitude, Literary Influence

6. “Cats can be very funny, and have the oddest ways of showing they’re glad to see you...”

W.H. Auden

Cats, Humor, Affection, Companionship, Animal Behavior

7. “One of the troubles of our times is that we are all, I think, precocious as personalities and backward as characters.”

W.H. Auden

Character, Personality, Societal Issues, Youth, Development

8. “To discover how to be human now is the reason we follow this star.”

W.H. Auden

Humanity, Self-discovery, Purpose, Aspiration, Navigation

9. “Like everything which is not the involuntary result of fleeting emotion but the creation of time and will, any marriage, happy or unhappy, is infinitely more interesting than any romance, however passionate.”

W.H. Auden

Marriage, Romance, Commitment, Time, Emotional Complexity

10. “Civilizations should be measured by the degree of diversity attained and the degree of unity retained.”

W.H. Auden

Civilization, Diversity, Unity, Social Values, Cultural Assessment

11. “The sky is darkening like a stain Something is going to fall like rain And it won’t be flowers.”

W.H. Auden

Foreboding, Nature, Negativity, Metaphor, Anticipation

12. “To the man-in-the-street, who, I’m sorry to say, is a keen observer of life. The word Intellectual suggests straight away: A man who’s untrue to his wife.”

W.H. Auden

Intellectuals, Perception, Stereotypes, Societal Values, Criticism

13. “Into this neutral air Where blind skyscrapers use Their full height to proclaim The strength of Collective Man, Each language pours its vain Competitive excuse.”

W.H. Auden

Urban Life, Society, Competition, Language, Metaphor

14. “What answer to the meaning of existence should one require beyond the right to exercise one’s gifts?”

W.H. Auden

Meaning Of Life, Creativity, Self-expression, Purpose, Individual Potential

15. “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

Identity, Youth, Self-exploration, Authenticity, Masks

16. “In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start.”

W.H. Auden

Healing, Emotional Recovery, Metaphor, Inner Peace, Self-discovery

17. “We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment and let our illusions die.”

W.H. Auden

Fear, Resistance To Change, Suffering, Personal Truth, Existential Struggle

18. “Long ago the accusations had begun, And suddenly knew by whom it had been judged.”

W.H. Auden

Judgment, Accusations, Awareness, Accountability, Introspection

19. “God bless the USA, so large, so friendly, and so rich.”

W.H. Auden

National Pride, America, Identity, Wealth, Optimism

20. “All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one by a simple act of will but must wait until what he believes to be a good idea for a work comes to him.”

W.H. Auden

Art, Creativity, Inspiration, Artistic Process, Commissioning

21. “I am not in favor of Facebook friends who make Facebook enemies for me.”

W.H. Auden

Social Media, Friendship, Conflict, Boundaries, Modern Relationships

22. “The identification of fantasy is always an attempt to avoid one’s own suffering: the identification of art is the sharing in the suffering of another.”

W.H. Auden

Fantasy, Art, Empathy, Suffering, Human Connection

23. “The chances are that, in the course of his lifetime, the major poet will write more bad poems than the minor, simply because major poets write a lot.”

W.H. Auden

Writing, Poetry, Quantity, Experience, Artistic Growth