“Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings”
“Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.”
“I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.”
“Whatever you do, good or bad, people will always have something negative to say”
“A professor is one who talks in someone else’s sleep”
“Once in a while the moon turns blue”
“There must always be two kinds of art: escape-art, for man needs escape as he needs food and deep sleep and parable-art, that art which shall teach man to unlearn hatred and learn love.”
“You owe it to all of us to get on with what you’re good at.”
“In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.”
“Good can imagine Evil; but Evil cannot imagine Good”
“A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.”
“No opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.”
“Recipe for the upbringing of a poet: As much neurosis as the child can bear.”
“Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.”
– WH Auden, 1907–1973