#d

Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods. ↗

— W. H. Auden

#almost #barter #begin #both #continue

It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it. ↗

— W. H. Auden

#art #culture #earn #fact #his

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

— W. H. Auden

#asked #could #die #man #now

History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology. ↗

— W. H. Auden

#anthropology #belongs #history #questions #sociology

A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become. ↗

— W. H. Auden

#become #goes #immediate #like #music

God bless the USA, so large, so friendly, and so rich. ↗

— W. H. Auden

#friendly #god #god bless #large #rich

Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness; it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest. ↗

— W. H. Auden

#behalf #crime #demand #direct #forgiveness

It may be impossible to have a revolution without crimes but that does not make revolution a crime. ↗

— Jose Bergamin

#crimes #does #impossible #make #may

In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag. ↗

— W. H. Auden

#joy #possessed #tail #times #us

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. ↗

— W. H. Auden

#anything #back #commit #doing #drink