W.H. Auden

He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

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

How happy the lot of the mathematician. He is judged solely by his peers, and the standard is so high that no colleague or rival can ever win a reputation he does not deserve.

What all schoolchildren learn: those to whom evil is done do evil in return.

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

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.

Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.

Thou shalt not answer questionnaires Or quizzes upon world affairs, Nor with compliance Take any test. Thou shalt not sit with statisticians nor commit A social science.

Adjectives are the potbelly of poetry.

Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.