It takes little talent to see what lies under one's nose, a good deal to know in what direction to point that organ.
More Quotes from W. H. Auden:
One cannot walk through an assembly factory and not feel that one is in Hell.W. H. Auden
The nightingales are sobbing in; The orchards of our mothers, And hearts that we broke long ago; Have long been breaking others.
W. H. Auden
Rhymes, meters, stanza forms, etc., are like servants. If the master is fair enough to win their affection and firm enough to command their respect, the result is an orderly happy household. If he is too tyrannical, they give notice . . .
W. H. Auden
Christmas and Easter can be subjects for poetry, but Good Friday, like Auschwitz, cannot. The reality is so horrible, it is not surprising that people should have found it a stumbling block to faith.
W. H. Auden
Drama is based on the Mistake. I think someone is my friend when he really is my enemy, that I am free to marry a woman when in fact she is my mother, that this person is a chambermaid when it is a young nobleman in disguise. . .
W. H. Auden
God bless the USA, so large, so friendly, and so rich.
W. H. Auden
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They say that shadows of deceased ghosts Do haunt the houses and the graves about, Of such whose life's lamp went untimely out, Delighting still in their forsaken hosts.Joshua Sylvester
I did tests on small stones before collecting and committing myself to the larger ones.
Andy Goldsworthy
The corals do not look much worn, but still appear to have been dead. There are some delicate shells of molluscs from depths beyond 500 fathoms, where they were certainly living.
Edward Forbes