What is this life so full of care,
We don't have time to stand and stare.
W.H. DAVIES What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand ...
W.H. DAVIES Now shall I walk or shall I ride?
'Ride,' Pleasure said;
'Walk,' Joy replied.
W.H. DAVIES No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No ti...
W.H. DAVIES This man has talent, that man genius
And here's the strange and cruel difference:
Talent g...
W.H. DAVIES Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and star...
W.H. DAVIES What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?
W.H. DAVIES We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know.
W.H. AUDEN A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.
W.H. AUDEN If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.
W.H. AUDEN To make one, there must be two.
W.H. AUDEN The way to read a fairy tale is to throw yourself in.
W.H. AUDEN A child's reading is guided by pleasure, but his pleasure is undifferentiated; he cannot distinguish...
W.H. AUDEN And none will hear the postman’s knock
Without a quickening of the heart.
For who can be...
W.H. AUDEN Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.
W.H. AUDEN Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.
W.H. AUDEN Christmas and Easter can be subjects for poetry, but Good Friday, like Auschwitz, cannot. The realit...
W.H. AUDEN Concerning all acts of iniative and creation, there is one elementary truth- that the moment one def...
W.H. MURRAY Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I ...
W.H. AUDEN Every man carries with him through life a mirror, as unique and impossible to get rid of as his shad...
W.H. AUDEN Funeral Blues

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog fro...
W.H. AUDEN Every autobiography is concerned with two characters, a Don Quixote, the Ego, and a Sancho Panza, th...
W.H. AUDEN Laziness acknowledges the relation of the present to the past but ignores its relation to the future...
W.H. AUDEN For poetry makes nothing happen.
W.H. AUDEN What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed li...
W.H. AUDEN Among those whom I like, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all o...
W.H. AUDEN I know nothing, except what everyone knows - if there when Grace dances, I should dance.
W.H. AUDEN The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews
Not to be born is the best for man
T...
W.H. AUDEN A dead man who never caused others to die seldom rates a statue.
W.H. AUDEN In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.
W.H. AUDEN Every autobiography is concerned with two characters, a Don Quixote, the Ego, and a Sancho Panza, th...
W.H. AUDEN The friends who met here and embraced are gone,
Each to his own mistake;
W.H. AUDEN Truth, like love and sleep, resents approaches that are too intense.
W.H. AUDEN The slogan of Hell: Eat or be eaten. The slogan of Heaven: Eat and be eaten.
W.H. AUDEN Base words are uttered only by the base
And can for such at once be understood;
But noble ...
W.H. AUDEN Follow, poet, follow right
To the bottom of the night,
With your unconstraining voice
W.H. AUDEN He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, ...
W.H. AUDEN No poet or novelist wishes he was the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were the o...
W.H. AUDEN Without art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without science, we should always worship false...
W.H. AUDEN Attacking bad books is not only a waste of time but also bad for the character. If I find a book rea...
W.H. AUDEN I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps ov...
W.H. AUDEN A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us.
W.H. AUDEN Thank God for books as an alternative to conversation.
W.H. AUDEN The basic stimulus to the intelligence is doubt, a feeling that the meaning of an experience is not ...
W.H. AUDEN SEPTEMBER 1, 1939

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain an...
W.H. AUDEN The More Loving One

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all ...
W.H. AUDEN The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
P...
W.H. AUDEN Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings.
W.H. AUDEN In the detective story, as in its mirror image, the Quest for the Grail, maps (the ritual of space) ...
W.H. AUDEN We must love one another or die
W.H. AUDEN Thoughts on his own death, like the distant roll of thunder at a picnic.
W.H. AUDEN A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep
W.H. AUDEN There are good books which are only for adults.
There are no good books which are only for chil...
W.H. AUDEN What is peculiar and novel to our age is that the principal goal of politics in every advanced socie...
W.H. AUDEN A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good ...
W.H. AUDEN There must always be two kinds of art: escape-art, for man needs escape as he needs food and deep sl...
W.H. AUDEN You need not see what someone is doing to know if it is his vocation, you have only to watch his eye...
W.H. AUDEN In the nightmare of the dark
All the dogs of Europe bark,
And the living nations wait,
W.H. AUDEN It's perseverance that's the key. It's persevering for long enough to achieve your poten...
LYNN DAVIES Once, the world was full of mysteries, some of them frightening, some of them wonderful, some of the...
NICK DAVIES Things changed with the discovery of neutron stars and black holes - objects with gravitational fiel...
PAUL DAVIES As an individual, I think you have to find your own path. I like the simplicity and purity of Hindui...
DAVE DAVIES When people get disillusioned and get insecure and content about the future, they tend to brood abou...
DAVE DAVIES Bulgaria was the only Axis country to deflect insistent German demands for the deportation of its Je...
NORMAN DAVIES He had a fool proof plan for not getting a job - In the event of an interview wear flip-flops.
ALAN DAVIES The E.U. is an organization that was created after the Second World War for calming down the nationa...
NORMAN DAVIES A smoke-free environment will be beneficial for club members, visitors and staff.
ALAN DAVIES I see myself as a comic but the acting helps sell tickets for gigs.
ALAN DAVIES I could not get far enough down the food chain to talk to him... I had to grunt like an ape to keep ...
ALAN DAVIES There's a lot to do when you're a kid - spiders to catch, girls to poke in the eye - stuff to be get...
ALAN DAVIES I was hugely disappointed that 'Whites' was cancelled.
ALAN DAVIES Bristol International will continue to carry out a strategic review of car parking options, so that ...
ALAN DAVIES The BBC provides the commentary on our lives, the soundtrack of the nation. It is one of the most po...
GAVYN DAVIES Without the BBC, the proliferation of television and radio channels by the private sector would simp...
GAVYN DAVIES The BBC is part of the glue which binds the United Kingdom together. At those times of national mome...
GAVYN DAVIES The BBC should not have a cheerleader. It should have somebody who runs the organisation in the inte...
GAVYN DAVIES Inflation is not always the main problem, or indeed a problem at all. Sometimes, though rarely, defl...
GAVYN DAVIES Other than marriage, she doesn't control me and I don't control her.
GAVYN DAVIES I want the BBC to be a mass market public service broadcaster still funded by the licence fee... and...
GAVYN DAVIES Almost everyone will find something in our services worth paying for.
GAVYN DAVIES Over the last decade, economists seemed to share a broad consensus about economic policy, with the o...
GAVYN DAVIES As long as the appointment process is transparent and there is a broad mix of political views among ...
GAVYN DAVIES There is an honourable tradition in British public life that those charged with authority at the top...
GAVYN DAVIES Normally I would not recommend a book that tells you how to make money in the stock market. Most of ...
GAVYN DAVIES The BBC must never be all about ratings - or even mainly about ratings. In the past year, we have ma...
GAVYN DAVIES It was an interesting question as to whether the BBC had a future in the digital world, and what for...
GAVYN DAVIES When I wrote the song, I had the sea near Bombay in mind. We stayed at a hotel by the sea, and the f...
RAY DAVIES A universe that came from nothing in the big bang will disappear into nothing at the big crunch. Its...
PAUL DAVIES Most actors hate readthroughs - they're exposing themselves before they're ready to, and bef...
ANDREW DAVIES In the years of the Red Terror that followed the Bolshevik Revolution, the voice of dissent was stif...
NORMAN DAVIES Cancer cells come pre-programmed to execute a well-defined cascade of changes, seemingly designed to...
PAUL DAVIES There is a real danger of the United Kingdom breaking up. There is a loss of common identity.
NORMAN DAVIES I happen to belong to that group opinion which holds the break-up of the United Kingdom to be immine...
NORMAN DAVIES I can just remember the blitz of Manchester, or perhaps my father's tales about the blitz of Man...
NORMAN DAVIES Scientists are slowly waking up to an inconvenient truth - the universe looks suspiciously like a fi...
PAUL DAVIES Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it...
ROBERTSON DAVIES The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
ROBERTSON DAVIES Many a promising career has been wrecked by marrying the wrong sort of woman. The right sort of woma...
ROBERTSON DAVIES Comparatively few people know what a million dollars actually is. To the majority it is a gaseous co...
ROBERTSON DAVIES The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to an ideali...
ROBERTSON DAVIES It is not always easy to diagnose. The simplest form of stupidity - the mumbling, nose-picking, stol...
ROBERTSON DAVIES The people of the United States, perhaps more than any other nation in history, love to abase themse...
ROBERTSON DAVIES Motivation is like food for the brain. You cannot get enough in one sitting. It needs continual and ...
PETER DAVIES Somebody told me I should put a pebble in my mouth to cure my stuttering. Well, I tried it, and duri...
MARION DAVIES I think of an author as somebody who goes into the marketplace and puts down his rug and says, I wil...
ROBERTSON DAVIES A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine bu...
ROBERTSON DAVIES The greatest gift that Oxford gives her sons is, I truly believe, a genial irreverence toward learni...
ROBERTSON DAVIES The love of truth lies at the root of much humor.
ROBERTSON DAVIES He was a genius - that is to say, a man who does superlatively and without obvious effort something ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES Few people can see genius in someone who has offended them.
ROBERTSON DAVIES Pornography is rather like trying to find out about a Beethoven symphony by having somebody tell you...
ROBERTSON DAVIES Intolerance has been the curse of every age and state.
SAMUEL DAVIES We are now in the third stage of the industrial revolution. The first involved machines which extend...
OWEN DAVIES What we call luck is the inner man externalized. We make things happen to us.
ROBERTSON DAVIES A Librettist is a mere drudge in the world of opera.
ROBERTSON DAVIES He types his labored column -- weary drudge! Senile fudge and solemn: spare, editor, to condemn thes...
ROBERTSON DAVIES The eyes see only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
ROBERTSON DAVIES Too much traffic with a quotation book begets a conviction of ignorance in a sensitive reader. Not o...
ROBERTSON DAVIES I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppres...
ROBERTSON DAVIES Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for th...
ROBERTSON DAVIES Although there may be nothing new under the sun, what is old is new to us and so rich and astonishin...
ROBERTSON DAVIES The world is burdened with young fogies. Old men with ossified minds are easily dealt with. But men ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES If I had my way books would not be written in English, but in an exceedingly difficult secret langua...
ROBERTSON DAVIES Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.
ROBERTSON DAVIES The pace of progress will accelerate so that even engineers and technical managers will find it nece...
OWEN DAVIES "I worked for men," my Lord will say, When we meet at the end of the King's highway; "I walked...
ROBERT DAVIES Fanaticism is . . . overcompensation for doubt.
ROBERTSON DAVIES Fanaticism is overcompensation for doubt.
ROBERTSON DAVIES There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES 'Affinity' is beautiful and intense, with no laughs. It's a rather delicate and emotiona...
ANDREW DAVIES I got quite cross when I heard about Emma Thompson adapting 'Sense and Sensibility.' It was ...
ANDREW DAVIES Is there anything science should not try to explain? Science is knowledge and knowledge is power - p...
PAUL DAVIES If you have a coach helping you, developing your skills alongside you, that's when you're on...
LYNN DAVIES I still do cardiovascular exercises, aerobic exercises, and then strength training, as it's impo...
LYNN DAVIES Being alone on the moors is scary; as the rain clouds settle in, it makes you realise your place in ...
DAVE DAVIES Serenity is the balance between good and bad, life and death, horrors and pleasures. Life is, as it ...
NORMAN DAVIES I do not 'get' ideas; ideas get me.
ROBERTSON DAVIES I got that idea from being in India. I always like the chanting.
RAY DAVIES Do not suppose, however, that I intend to urge a diet of classics on anybody. I have seen such diets...
ROBERTSON DAVIES Wales is delighted to be partnering with the state of Michigan, who we consider to be a leader in th...
ANDREW DAVIES Bleak House is a great baggy thing, the plot doesn't work in all sorts of parts, so you've got to ti...
ANDREW DAVIES They also said they woke better and seemed to have a bit more energy during the day.
ANDREW DAVIES Our scheme guaranteeing free travel for elderly and disabled people on local bus services continues ...
ANDREW DAVIES I've got some good news for you.
ANDREW DAVIES For much of the 20th century people left Wales, but today the old adage 'You have to get out to get ...
ANDREW DAVIES It is a fascinating period, but people are expecting miracles - and miracles just don't happen, ... ...
ANDREW DAVIES I am delighted with this appointment. Gareth is a proven operator at a senior strategy and operation...
ANDREW DAVIES When you win, suddenly this celebrity status is hoisted upon you.
LYNN DAVIES Not only does this software detect activity, it starts making its own measurements before researcher...
ASHLEY DAVIES We were short-dollar as our core view is that the Fed ended its tightening cycle on Jan. 31.
ASHLEY DAVIES Given the market is looking for another rate hike at the end-March FOMC meeting, it seems likely tha...
ASHLEY DAVIES On the upside, we think that 112.50 could be a key level to watch, beyond which foreign investors ma...
ASHLEY DAVIES On the upside, we think that 112.50 could be a key level to watch, beyond which foreign investors ma...
ASHLEY DAVIES A catalyst for a higher Australian dollar versus New Zealand's dollar could be relative monetary pol...
ASHLEY DAVIES With the Charles Schumer bill possibly being voted on by the end of this month, now may be a good ti...
ASHLEY DAVIES The market is taking the very superficial view that the Fed is about to stop lifting rates and hence...
ASHLEY DAVIES A catalyst for a higher Australian dollar versus New Zealand's dollar could be relative monetary pol...
ASHLEY DAVIES Well, something's got to give. Otherwise Germany will be back to the polls in a few weeks' time.
ASHLEY DAVIES Cancer is such a ruthless adversary because it behaves as if it has its own fiendishly cunning agend...
PAUL DAVIES There are a lot of kids coming in to athletics, but there is also a big drop-out rate. We've got...
LYNN DAVIES Astronauts have been stuck in low-Earth orbit, boldly going nowhere. American attempts to kick-start...
PAUL DAVIES Clearly, some creative thinking is badly needed if humans are to have a future beyond Earth. Returni...
PAUL DAVIES The one certainly for anyone in the path of an avalanche is this: standing still is not an option.
NORMAN DAVIES Historical change is like an avalanche. The starting point is a snow-covered mountainside that looks...
NORMAN DAVIES Novels often have leisurely openings; a TV drama needs an arresting opening.
ANDREW DAVIES No planet is more earth-like than Earth itself, so if life really does pop up readily in earth-like ...
PAUL DAVIES A permanent base on Mars would have a number of advantages beyond being a bonanza for planetary scie...
PAUL DAVIES The birth of science as we know it arguably began with Isaac Newton's formulation of the laws of...
PAUL DAVIES I was an art student at the time, like thousands of others.
RAY DAVIES Money and corruption are ruining the land, crooked politicians betray the working man, pocketing the...
RAY DAVIES What I try to do probably doesn't come out. What I've worked out what I do - I might not be ...
RAY DAVIES You're stuck with being yourself, so the important thing is to find people who like that.
ANDREW DAVIES It is no longer my moral duty as a human being to achieve an integrated and unitary set of explanati...
BRONWYN DAVIES One of our problems is our sense of discipline - dancers have an extraordinary sense of self-discipl...
SIOBHAN DAVIES I'm quite a curious person. I don't mind being the one who doesn't know things, a role I...
ALAN DAVIES I can't stand tribute bands. It's nice, bless 'em, but it's not right. They can'...
DAVE DAVIES A boy is a man in miniature, and though he may sometimes exhibit notable virtue, as well as characte...
ROBERTSON DAVIES I hear Glenn Hoddle has found God. That must have been one hell of a pass.
BOB DAVIES We have a track record of not disappointing the market's expectations... We expect strong growth to ...
BOB DAVIES We expect strong growth to continue through acquisitions and tendering opportunities.
BOB DAVIES When people see our logo on the side of buses, it will reinforce that we are one of Europe's biggest...
BOB DAVIES We've tried to make it as user and customer friendly as possible, ... I want something going on that...
BOB DAVIES I think we are reasonably well positioned in the second half, we are moving along with confidence,
BOB DAVIES It's a major concern, ... We've spent a year doing the legwork trying to get a title sponsor. This y...
BOB DAVIES There's a lot of money out here (in San Diego), ... We've talked to casinos, beer guys ... it's one ...
BOB DAVIES We have been told that Stephen is not for sale and we'll now have to look to make progress on other ...
BILLY DAVIES He's just stupid, to be honest. He's got to learn. He's a young lad who's full of fun. That's the an...
BILLY DAVIES It was a nice performance but a disappointing result. To come here and control the game the way we d...
BILLY DAVIES For the majority of the second-half we controlled the game and we didn't get what we deserved,
BILLY DAVIES As yet they are still doing tests and they are still trying to find out what it is.
BILLY DAVIES I asked the referee to look at the video of the game and assess his own performance, because his dec...
BILLY DAVIES We made the enquiry and now we've made the move. Maybe, with the appearances he's made for Celtic, t...
BILLY DAVIES The second half was better. We looked more compact and controlled it.
BILLY DAVIES Jones is a player we admire and like and we have been making lots of phone calls concerning him.
BILLY DAVIES It's a great boost for Patrick to maybe get a chance to play in a World Cup.
BILLY DAVIES Notoriously, in 1975, Murdoch abused his position as a newspaper owner to support a plot that ousted...
NICK DAVIES The idea that historians write the definitive version of something that will last for all time is le...
NORMAN DAVIES Fifty years would seem to be time enough to prepare a definitive history of the Second World War. In...
NORMAN DAVIES In the 21st century, there will probably be a reflex against the disintegration of traditional Europ...
NORMAN DAVIES A bad historian is even more dangerous than dead documentary wood.
NORMAN DAVIES