T. S. Eliot Quotes And Sayings

T. S. Eliot – Poet – United States – September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965
Thomas Stearns Eliot OM was a British essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic, and “one of the twentieth century’s major poets”. He moved from his native United States to England in 1914 at the age of 25, settling, working, and marrying there. He was eventually naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39, renouncing his American citizenship. Eliot attracted widespread attention for his poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. He was also known for his seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral . He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, “for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry”.

It's Not Wise To Violate Rules Until You Know How To Observe Them.

Half Of The Harm That Is Done In This World Is Due To People Who Want To Feel Important. They Don't Mean To Do Harm. But The Harm Does Not Interest Them.

Only Those Who Will Risk Going Too Far Can Possibly Find Out How Far One Can Go.

What We Call The Beginning Is Often The End. And To Make An End Is To Make A Beginning. The End Is Where We Start From.

It's Strange That Words Are So Inadequate. Yet, Like The Asthmatic Struggling For Breath, So The Lover Must Struggle For Words.

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.

As Things Are, And As Fundamentally They Must Always Be, Poetry Is Not A Career, But A Mug's Game. No Honest Poet Can Ever Feel Quite Sure Of The Permanent Value Of What He Has Written: He May Have Wasted His Time And Messed Up His Life For Nothing.

Poetry May Make Us From Time To Time A Little More Aware Of The Deeper, Unnamed Feelings Which Form The Substratum Of Our Being, To Which We Rarely Penetrate; For Our Lives Are Mostly A Constant Evasion Of Ourselves.

A Play Should Give You Something To Think About. When I See A Play And Understand It The First Time, Then I Know It Can't Be Much Good.

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.

Let's Not Be Narrow, Nasty, And Negative.

You Are The Music While The Music Lasts.

Anxiety Is The Hand Maiden Of Creativity.

If You Aren't In Over Your Head, How Do You Know How Tall You Are?

Immature Poets Imitate; Mature Poets Steal.

Genuine Poetry Can Communicate Before It Is Understood.

People To Whom Nothing Has Ever Happened Cannot Understand The Unimportance Of Events.

So The Lover Must Struggle For Words.

My Greatest Trouble Is Getting The Curtain Up And Down.

I Had Seen Birth And Death But Had Thought They Were Different.

This Love Is Silent.

Home Is Where One Starts From.

So The Darkness Shall Be The Light, And The Stillness The Dancing.

It Is Obvious That We Can No More Explain A Passion To A Person Who Has Never Experienced It Than We Can Explain Light To The Blind.

Knowledge Is Invariably A Matter Of Degree: You Cannot Put Your Finger Upon Even The Simplest Datum And Say This We Know.

The Soul Is So Far From Being A Monad That We Have Not Only To Interpret Other Souls To Ourself But To Interpret Ourself To Ourself.

April Is The Cruellest Month.

Some Editors Are Failed Writers, But So Are Most Writers.

Where Is All The Knowledge We Lost With Information?

The Last Temptation Is The Greatest Treason: To Do The Right Deed For The Wrong Reason.

I Will Show You Fear In A Handful Of Dust.

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.'

It Is Only In The World Of Objects That We Have Time And Space And Selves.

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.

There Is No Absolute Point Of View From Which Real And Ideal Can Be Finally Separated And Labelled.

The Tiger Springs In The New Year. Us He Devours.

O Lord, Deliver Me From The Man Of Excellent Intention And Impure Heart: For The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, And Desperately Wicked.

And They Write Innumerable Books; Being Too Vain And Distracted For Silence: Seeking Every One After His Own Elevation, And Dodging His Emptiness.

All Significant Truths Are Private Truths. As They Become Public They Cease To Become Truths; They Become Facts, Or At Best, Part Of The Public Character; Or At Worst, Catchwords.

A Toothache, Or A Violent Passion, Is Not Necessarily Diminished By Our Knowledge Of Its Causes, Its Character, Its Importance Or Insignificance.

Wait Without Thought, For You Are Not Ready For Thought.

For Love Would Be Love Of The Wrong Thing; There Is Yet Faith, But The Faith And The Love And The Hope Are All In The Waiting.

There Is Not A More Repulsive Spectacle Than On Old Man Who Will Not Forsake The World, Which Has Already Forsaken Him.

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?

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.

We Know Too Much, And Are Convinced Of Too Little. Our Literature Is A Substitute For Religion, And So Is Our Religion.

The Communication Of The Dead Is Tongued With Fire Beyond The Language Of The Living.

Humankind Cannot Bear Very Much Reality.

I Have Measured Out My Life With Coffee Spoons.

Poetry Should Help, Not Only To Refine The Language Of The Time, But To Prevent It From Changing Too Rapidly.