T. S. Eliot Quotes
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It is not the 'greatness,' the intensity, of the emotions, the components, but the intensity of the artistic process, the pressure, so to speak, under which the fusion takes place, that counts.
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Every experience is a paradox in that it means to be absolute, and yet is relative; in that it somehow always goes beyond itself and yet never escapes itself.
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I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope, For hope would be hope for the wrong thing.
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I learn a great deal by merely observing you, and letting you talk as long as you please, and taking note of what you do not say.
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The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.
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so the countess passed on until she came through the little park, where Niobe presented her with a cabinet, and so departed.
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It is only in the world of objects that we have time and space and selves.
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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.
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Writing every day is a way of keeping the engine running, and then something good may come out of it.
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O you who turn the wheel and look to windward, Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.
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Turning Wearily, as one would turn to nod goodbye to Rochefoucauld, If the street were time and he as the end of the street.
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Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.
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I shall not want Honor in Heaven For I shall meet Sir Philip Sidney And have talk with Coriolanus And other heroes of that kidney.
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Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
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When a great poet has lived, certain things have been done once for all, and cannot be achieved again.
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Ash on an old man's sleeve / Is all the ash the burnt roses leave, / Dust in the air suspended / Marks the place where a story ended.
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Grishkin is nice: herRussian eye is underlined for emphasis;Uncorseted, her friendly bustGives promise of pneumatic bliss.
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If time and space, as sages say, Are things which cannot be, The sun which does not feel decay No greater is than we. So why, Love, should we ever pray To live a century? The butterfly that lives a day Has lived eternity.
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I say to you: Make perfect your will. / I say: take no thought of the harvest, / But only of proper sowing.
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No scheme for a change of society can be made to appear immediately palatable, except by falsehood, until society has become so desperate that it will accept any change.
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Those who talk of the bible as a monument of English prose are merely admiring it as a monument over the grave of Christianity.
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If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?
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We can at least try to understand our own motives, passions, and prejudices, so as to be conscious of what we are doing when we apeal to those of others. This is very difficult, because our own prejudice and emotional bias always seems to us so rational.
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We know too much, and are convinced of too little. Our literature is a substitute for religion, and so is our religion.