TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Quotes


A tradition without intelligence is not worth having. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Tradition 141
The dream crossed twilight between birth and dying. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Life 133
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be: am an attendant lord, one that will do to swell a progress, start a scene or two, advise the prince. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Futility 116
The young feel tired at the end of an action, the old at the beginning. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Youth 108
Friendship should be more than biting time can sever. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Friends 102
And what the dead had no speech for, when living, they can tell you, being dead: the communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Death 94
I take as metaphysical poetry that in which what is ordinarily apprehensible only by thought is brought within the grasp of feeling, or that in which what is ordinarily only felt is transformed into thought without ceasing to be feeling. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Poetry 92
In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Culture 91
For every life and every act consequence of good and evil can be shown and as in time results of many deeds are blended so good and evil in the end become confounded. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Consequences 88
So far as we are human, what we do must be either evil or good: so far as we do evil or good, we are human: and it is better, in a paradoxical way, to do evil than to do nothing: at least we exist. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Evil 88
It cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labor. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Tradition 86
An editor should tell the author his writing is better than it is. Not a lot better, a little better. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Authors 86
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind Cannot bear very much reality.Time past and time futureWhat might have been and what has beenPoint to one end, which is always present. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Reality 86
In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Decisions 84
I suppose some editors are failed writers; but so are most writers. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Authors 84
Television is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Television 83
Only by acceptance of the past, can you alter it. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Past 81
War is not a life: it is a situation, one which may neither be ignored nor accepted. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot War 79
We might remind ourselves that criticism is as inevitable as breathing, and that we should be none the worse for articulating what passes in our minds when we read a book and feel an emotion about it, for criticizing our own minds in their work of criticism. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Criticism 79
This is the way the world endsThis is the way the world endsThis is the way the world endsNot with a bang but a whimper. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Literary 75
Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Success 72
We are not here to triumph by fighting, by strata gem, or by resistance, not to fight with beasts as men. We have fought the beast and have conquered. We have only to conquer now, by suffering. This is the easier victory. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Martyr 69
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Information 65
I will show you fear in a handful of dust. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Fear 64
Any power must be an enemy of mankind which enslaves the individual by terror and force, whether it arises under the Fascist or the Communist flag. All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded to the individual. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Tyranny 61
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Journeys 59
Each venture is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate with shabby equipment always deteriorating in the general mess of imprecision of feeling. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Poetry 58
When we read of human beings behaving in certain ways, with the approval of the author, who gives his benediction to this behavior by his attitude towards the result of the behavior arranged by himself, we can be influenced towards behaving in the same way. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Books 58
We do not quite say that the new is more valuable because it fits in; but its fitting in is a test of its value -- a test, it is true, which can only be slowly and cautiously applied, for we are none of us infallible judges of conformity. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Fashion 55
Love is most nearly itself when here and now cease to matter. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Love 54
People exercise an unconscious selection in being influenced. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Leadership 52
There are flood and drought over the eyes and in the mouth, dead water and dead sand contending for the upper hand. The parched eviscerate soil gapes at the vanity of toil, laughs without mirth. This is the death of the earth. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Food 51
Where does one go from a world of insanity? Somewhere on the other side of despair. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Insanity 48
Hell is oneself, hell is alone, the other figures in it merely projections. There is nothing to escape from and nothing to escape to. One is always alone. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Hell 48
What a poem means is as much what it means to others as what it means to the author; and indeed, in the course of time a poet may become merely reader in respect to his own works, forgetting his original meaning. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Poetry 44
Think not forever of yourselves, O Chiefs, nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families, think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Peace 41
Footfalls echo in the memoryDown the passage which we did not takeTowards the door we never openedInto the rose-garden.My words echoThus, in your mind. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Love 41
Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Authors 40
All cases are unique and very similar to others. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Innovation 40
Our emotions are only incidents in the effort to keep day and night together. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Emotions 40
April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Seasons 39
It seems just possible that a poem might happen to a very young man: but a poem is not poetry --That is a life. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Poetry 39
Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Pride 38
Liberty is a different kind of pain from prison. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Freedom 33
The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Goodness 33
The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always asked to do things, and you are not yet decrepit enough to turn them down. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Age 32
April is the cruellest month, breedingLilacs out of the dead land, mixingMemory out of desire, stirringDull roots with spring rain.Winter kept us warm, coveringEarth in a forgetful snow, feedingA little life with dried tubers. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Seasons 28
The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality. TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Art 27

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TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot Quotes

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