T. S. Eliot Quotes

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.

- T. S. Eliot

Game, Career, Feel, Fundamentally

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.

- T. S. Eliot

Christmas, Rising, Fragrant, Eager

Art never improves, but... the material of art is never quite the same.

- T. S. Eliot

Art, Never, Same, Improves

I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

- T. S. Eliot

Will, Show, Dust, Handful

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.

- T. S. Eliot

Entertainment, Which, Lonesome

The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.

- T. S. Eliot

Reason, Last, Treason, Temptation

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.

- T. S. Eliot

Goes, Always, Means, Escapes

Let's not be narrow, nasty, and negative.

- T. S. Eliot

Negative, Narrow, Nasty

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.'

- T. S. Eliot

Desire, Young, Human Being, Drain

The Nobel is a ticket to one's own funeral. No one has ever done anything after he got it.

- T. S. Eliot

Own, Ticket, Ever, Nobel

O Lord, deliver me from the man of excellent intention and impure heart: for the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.

- T. S. Eliot

Excellent, Lord, Deliver, Wicked

There is no absolute point of view from which real and ideal can be finally separated and labelled.

- T. S. Eliot

View, Ideal, Which, Separated

It is only in the world of objects that we have time and space and selves.

- T. S. Eliot

Brainy, World, Selves

This love is silent.

- T. S. Eliot

Love, Silent, Love Is

And they write innumerable books; being too vain and distracted for silence: seeking every one after his own elevation, and dodging his emptiness.

- T. S. Eliot

Own, Vain, Elevation, Emptiness

A toothache, or a violent passion, is not necessarily diminished by our knowledge of its causes, its character, its importance or insignificance.

- T. S. Eliot

Violent, Insignificance, Toothache

Any poet, if he is to survive beyond his 25th year, must alter; he must seek new literary influences; he will have different emotions to express.

- T. S. Eliot

Emotions, New, Survive, Different Emotions

There is not a more repulsive spectacle than on old man who will not forsake the world, which has already forsaken him.

- T. S. Eliot

Spectacle, Which, Repulsive, Forsake

Where there is no temple there shall be no homes.

- T. S. Eliot

Shall, Where, Homes, Temple

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.

- T. S. Eliot

Poetry, Expression, Means, Loose

It's strange that words are so inadequate. Yet, like the asthmatic struggling for breath, so the lover must struggle for words.

- T. S. Eliot

Like, Lover, Inadequate, Asthmatic

So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

- T. S. Eliot

Light, Dancing, Shall, Stillness

Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.

- T. S. Eliot

Poetry, Communicate, Before, Understood

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.

- T. S. Eliot

Soul, Other, Far, Interpret

So the lover must struggle for words.

- T. S. Eliot

Romantic, Words, Lover, Struggle

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.

- T. S. Eliot

Private, Part, Truths, Best Part

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

- T. S. Eliot

Courage, Will, How Far, Possibly

My greatest trouble is getting the curtain up and down.

- T. S. Eliot

Up And Down, Getting, Up, Curtain

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.

- T. S. Eliot

Constant, Mostly, Our, From Time To Time

Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.

- T. S. Eliot

Some, Failed, Most, Editors

The business of the poet is not to find new emotions, but to use the ordinary ones and, in working them up into poetry, to express feelings which are not in actual emotions at all.

- T. S. Eliot

New, Which, Actual, Feelings

The bad poet is usually unconscious where he ought to be conscious, and conscious where he ought to be unconscious.

- T. S. Eliot

Bad, Poet, Unconscious, Ought

This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.

- T. S. Eliot

World, Way, Ends, Bang

If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?

- T. S. Eliot

Head, How, Over, Do You Know

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.

- T. S. Eliot

Blind, Never, Explain, Experienced

Poetry should help, not only to refine the language of the time, but to prevent it from changing too rapidly.

- T. S. Eliot

Help, Prevent, Too, Rapidly

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.

- T. S. Eliot

Age, Think, Grows, Early

The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first.

- T. S. Eliot

Work, Last, Discovers, Composing

It's not wise to violate rules until you know how to observe them.

- T. S. Eliot

Wise, Know, How, Violate

Playwriting gets into your blood and you can't stop it. At least not until the producers or the public tell you to.

- T. S. Eliot

Tell, Your, Least, Producers

Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity.

- T. S. Eliot

Creativity, Anxiety, Maiden, Hand

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.

- T. S. Eliot

Poetry, Mature, Steal, Poets

The most important thing for poets to do is to write as little as possible.

- T. S. Eliot

Important, Most, Poets

People to whom nothing has ever happened cannot understand the unimportance of events.

- T. S. Eliot

Nothing, Ever, Whom, Events

Knowledge is invariably a matter of degree: you cannot put your finger upon even the simplest datum and say this we know.

- T. S. Eliot

Graduation, Finger, Simplest, Invariably

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.

- T. S. Eliot

Very, Humankind, Cannot, Bear

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope, For hope would be hope for the wrong thing.

- T. S. Eliot

Hope, Wait, Still, Wrong

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.

- T. S. Eliot

Love, Waiting, Would, Wrong

Business today consists in persuading crowds.

- T. S. Eliot

Business, Today, Persuading, Crowds

Our difficulties of the moment must always be dealt with somehow, but our permanent difficulties are difficulties of every moment.

- T. S. Eliot

Difficulties, Always, Dealt

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought.

- T. S. Eliot

Thought, Wait, Without, Ready

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.

- T. S. Eliot

Life, My Life, Measured, Coffee

There is no method but to be very intelligent.

- T. S. Eliot

Intelligence, Very, Method, Intelligent

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.

- T. S. Eliot

Want, Harm, Half, Due

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.

- T. S. Eliot

Travel, Exploration, Will, Arrive

The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.

- T. S. Eliot

Personality, Extinction, Self-Sacrifice

The communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.

- T. S. Eliot

Communication, Dead, Living, Fire

April is the cruellest month.

- T. S. Eliot

Month, April

We know too much, and are convinced of too little. Our literature is a substitute for religion, and so is our religion.

- T. S. Eliot

Literature, Convinced, Too, Substitute

Home is where one starts from.

- T. S. Eliot

Home, Where, Starts

Our high respect for a well read person is praise enough for literature.

- T. S. Eliot

Literature, High, Read, Praise

The tiger springs in the new year. Us he devours.

- T. S. Eliot

New, Year, Springs, Tiger

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.

- T. S. Eliot

Beginning, Start, Call, Often

I am an Anglo-Catholic in religion, a classicist in literature and a royalist in politics.

- T. S. Eliot

I Am, Politics, Am, Literature

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.

- T. S. Eliot

Play, Think, Give, I See

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?

- T. S. Eliot

Knowledge, Living, Where, Lost

Where is all the knowledge we lost with information?

- T. S. Eliot

Knowledge, Where, Lost

I had seen birth and death but had thought they were different.

- T. S. Eliot

Death, Thought, Were, Birth

You are the music while the music lasts.

- T. S. Eliot

Music, You, While, Lasts

In my beginning is my end.

- T. S. Eliot

End, Beginning

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