T. S. Eliot Quotes
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And they write innumerable books; being too vain and distracted for silence: seeking every one after his own elevation, and dodging his emptiness.
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Our high respect for a well read person is praise enough for literature.
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To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life.
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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.
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I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river Is a strong brown god-sullen, untamed and intractable.
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April is the cruellest month.
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And I have known the arms already, known them all - Arms that are braceleted and white and bare But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!It is perfume from a dress That makes me so digress?Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. And should I then presume?
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A woman drew her long black hair out tight, And fiddled whisper music on those strings, And bats with baby faces in the violet light Whistled, and beat their wings, And crawled head downward down a blackened wall.
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They say that all the Cats whose wicked deeds are widely known (I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone) Are nothing more than agents for the Cat who all the time Just controls their operations: the Napoleon of Crime!
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The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first.
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They constantly try to escape From the darkness outside and within By dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good. But the man that is shall shadow The man that pretends to be.
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When war is not just it is subsequently justified; so it becomes many things. In reality, an unjust war is merely piracy. It consists of piracy, ego and, more than anything, money. War is our century's prostitution.
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Light Light The visible reminder of Invisible Light.
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Where the bricks are fallen We will build with new stone Where the beams are rotten We will build with new timbers Where the word is unspoken We will build with new speech There is work together A Church for all And a job for each Every man to his work.
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And we all say: OH! Well I never! Was there ever A Cat so clever As Magical Mr. Mistoffelees!
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Much to cast down, much to build, much to restore.
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Our age is an age of moderate virtue And moderate vice
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This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.
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Ambition fortifies the will of man to become ruler over other men: it operates with deception, cajolery, and violence, it is the action of impurity upon impurity.
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It's harder to confess the sin that no one believes in Than the crime that everyone can appreciate. For the crime is in relation to the law And the sin is in relation to the sinner.
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Not less of love, but expanding Of love beyond desire, and so liberation From the Future as well as the past.
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And indeed there will be time To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?" Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair.
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Neither way is better. / Both ways are necessary. / It is also necessary / To make a choice between them.
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When comparing works of art, it is important that the art itself, and not the artists, be considered.