T. S. Eliot Quotes
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The majority of mankind is lazy-minded, incurious, absorbed in vanities, and tepid in emotion, and is therefore incapable of either much doubt or much faith; and when the ordinary man calls himself a sceptic or an unbeliever, that is ordinarily a simple pose, cloaking a disinclination to think anything out to a conclusion.
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Maturing as a poet means maturing as the whole man, experiencing new emotions appropriate to one's age, and with the same intensity as the emotions of youth.
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A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest.
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If you desire to drain to the dregs the fullest cup of scorn and hatred that a fellow human being can pour out for you, let a young mother hear you call dear baby 'it.'
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He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair: For when they reach the scene of crime - Macavity's not there!
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O Lord, deliver me from the man of excellent intention and impure heart: for the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
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Today, you're halfway to 100! Here's to optimism, whether it is realistic or not. Happy 50th birthday!
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Playwriting gets into your blood and you can't stop it. At least not until the producers or the public tell you to.
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The bad poet is usually unconscious where he ought to be conscious, and conscious where he ought to be unconscious.
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Here I am, an old man in a dry month, Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain.
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Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.
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Those who have crossedWith direct eyes, to death's other KingdomRemember us - if at all - not as lostViolent souls, but onlyAs the hollow menThe stuffed men.
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And I have known the eyes already, known them all - The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,Then how should I beginTo spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
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Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
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I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;Her coat is one of the tabby kind,with tiger stripes and lepard spots.
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We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
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Whoever has approved this idea of order, of the form of European, of English literature, will not find it preposterous that the past should be altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past. And the poet who is aware of this will be aware of great difficulties and responsibilities.
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A national culture, if it is to flourish, should be a constellation of cultures, the constitutes of which, benefiting each other, benefit the whole.
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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.
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Weave the wind. I have no ghosts,An old man in a draughty houseUnder a windy knob.
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So I find words I never thought to speak In streets I never thought I should revisit When I left my body on a distant shore.
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I don't believe one grows older. I think that what happens early on in life is that at a certain age one stands still and stagnates.
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Moving between the legs of tables and of chairs, rising or falling, grasping at kisses and toys, advancing boldly, sudden to take alarm, retreating to the corner of arm and knee, eager to be reassured, taking pleasure in the fragrant brilliance of the Christmas tree.
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The broad-backed hippopotamusRests on his belly in the mud;Although he seems so firm to usHe is merely flesh and blood.