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My face looks like a wedding-cake left out in the rain.

Self-deprecation, Aging, Metaphor, Appearance, Humor

My face looks like a wedding-cake left out in the

My face looks like a wedding-cake left out in the

My face looks like a wedding-cake left out in the

W.H. Auden’s Quotes On Topics

Familiarity | Cultural Differences | Sophistication | Empathy | Conflict | Ultimatum | Body | Animal Behavior | Escapism | Mathematics | Distraction | Community | Reason | Sensory Experience | Guilt | Goodness | Companionship | Academic Skepticism | Sorrow | Academic Disciplines | More

More W.H. Auden Quotes

“God may reduce you on Judgment Day to tears of shame, reciting by heart the poems you would have written, had your life been good.”

Judgment, Poetry, Morality, Potential, Divine Perspective

“It's frightening how easy it is to commit murder in America. Just a drink too much. I can see myself doing it. In England, one feels all the social restraints holding one back. But here, anything can happen.”

Violence, America, Cultural Differences, Social Restraints, Potential For Evil

“Why doesn't the United States take over the monarchy and unite with England? England does have important assets. Naturally the longer you wait, the more they will dwindle. At least you could use it for a summer resort instead of Maine.”

Politics, Colonialism, Satire, International Relations, Cultural Assets

“Aside from purely technical analysis, nothing can be said about music, except when it is bad; when it is good, one can only listen and be grateful.”

Music, Criticism, Appreciation, Quality, Gratitude

“Now the leaves are falling fast, Nurse's flowers will not last, Nurses to their graves are gone, But the prams go rolling on.”

Autumn, Transience, Death, Continuity, Life Cycle

“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.”

Writing, Poetry, Quantity, Experience, Artistic Growth

“Words have no word for words that are not true.”

Truth, Language, Honesty, Expression, Communication

“Just as a good man forgets his deed the moment he has done it, a genuine writer forgets a work as soon as he has completed it and starts to think about the next one; if he thinks about his past work at all, he is more likely to remember its faults than its virtues. Fame often makes a writer vain, but seldom makes him proud.”

Writing, Humility, Creativity, Fame, Self-criticism

“Drama began as the act of a whole community. Ideally, there would be no speculators. In practice, every member of the audience should feel like an understudy.”

Drama, Community, Participation, Audience, Ideal Theater

“The friends who met here and embraced are gone, Each to his own mistake;.”

Friendship, Separation, Mistakes, Individual Paths, Transience

“Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.”

Literature, Memory, Legacy, Quality, Cultural Value

“To save your world, you asked this man to die; would this man, could he see you now, ask why?”

Sacrifice, Gratitude, Questioning, Morality, War

“Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.”

Routine, Intelligence, Ambition, Discipline, Productivity

“Dance till the stars come down from the rafters Dance, Dance, Dance 'till you drop.”

Dance, Enthusiasm, Cosmic Imagery, Abandon, Celebration

“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.”

Fantasy, Art, Empathy, Suffering, Human Connection

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

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

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

Foreboding, Nature, Negativity, Metaphor, Anticipation

“There is no love; There are only the various envies, all of them sad.”

Love, Envy, Cynicism, Human Emotion, Disillusionment

“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 forever: I was wrong.”

Love, Loss, All-encompassing, Disillusionment, Poetic Expression

“The most difficult problem in personal knowledge, whether of oneself or of others, is the problem of guessing when to think as a historian and when to think as an anthropologist.”

Self-knowledge, Perspective, History, Anthropology, Understanding Others