W. H. Auden

Man is a history-making creature who can neither repeat his past nor leave it behind.

To be happy means to be free not from pain or fear but from care or anxiety.

It is nonsense to speak of 'higher' and 'lower' pleasures. To a hungry man it is rightly more important that he eat than that he philosophize.

We are all here on earth to help others what on earth the others are here for I don't know.

If we really want to live we'd better start at once to try.

Geniuses are the luckiest of mortals because what they must do is the same as what they most want to do.

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

What the mass media offer is not popular art but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food forgotten and replaced by a new dish.

Choice of attention ... is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences whatever they may be.

Choice of attention to pay attention to this and ignore that is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer.

Let us humour if we can The vertical man Though we value none But the horizontal one.

Cathedrals Luxury liners laden with souls Holding to the east their hulls of stone.

Some books are undeservedly forgotten none are undeservedly remembered.