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T. S. Eliot Quotes - Page 15

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We have all our private terrors, our particular shadows, our secret fears. We are afraid in a fear which we cannot face, which none understands, and our hearts are torn from us, our brains unskinned like the layers of

We have all our private terrors, our particular shadows, our secret fears. We are afraid in a fear which we cannot face, which none understands, and our hearts are torn from us, our brains unskinned like the layers of an onion, ourselves the last.

Heart, Secret, Brain

T.S. Eliot (2011). “The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot”, p.226, Faber & Faber

Signs are taken for wonders. / 'We would see a sign!' / The word within a word, unable to speak a word, / Swaddled with darkness.

Taken, Darkness, Wonder

"Gerontion" l. 17 (1920)

Taking the question in general, I should say, in the case of many poets, that the most important thing for them to do ... is to write as little as possible

Writing, Important, Littles

"Letters of T. S. Eliot. Volume 7: 1934–1935".

Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

Inspirational, Time, Poetry

T.S. Eliot (2015). “The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volume I: Collected and Uncollected Poems”, p.6, Faber & Faber

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

Funny, Work, Reading

The endless cycle of idea and action, Endless invention, endless experiment, Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; Knowledge of speech, but not of silence; Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance, All our ignorance brings us nearer to death, But nearness to death no nearer to God. 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? The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries Bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.

Ignorance, Dust, Ideas

T.S. Eliot (2011). “The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot”, p.129, Faber & Faber

When lovely woman stoops to folly and Paces about her room again, alone, She smooths her hair with automatic hand, And puts a record on the gramophone.

Hair, Hands, Lovely

The Waste Land l. 253 (1922)

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And do not all it fixity, Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.

Past, Silence, Would Be

Collected Poems (1936) "Burnt Norton" pt. 2

Yeats was the greatest poet of our times . . . certainly the greatest in this language, and so far as I am able to judge, in any language.

Time, Judging, Able

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me.

Loneliness, Thinking, Poetry

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" l. 122 (1917)

A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. Only There is shadow under this red rock, (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

Morning, Fear, Rocks

The Waste Land l. 25 (1922)

April is the cruellest month.

Months, April, Classic

The Waste Land l. 1 (1922)

If we all were judged according to the consequences Of all our words and deeds, beyond the intention And beyond our limited understanding Of ourselves and others, we should all be condemned.

Understanding, Our Words, Deeds

T. S. Eliot (2014). “Complete Poems and Plays, 1909-1950”, p.394, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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.

Butterfly, Space, Doe

T.S. Eliot (2015). “The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volume I: Collected and Uncollected Poems”, p.223, Faber & Faber

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

Catholic, Literature, Classicists

Bad poets imitate, good poets steal.

Stealing, Poet

Now that lilacs are in bloom She has a bowl of lilacs in her room And twists one in her fingers while she talks. "Ah, my friend, you do not know, you do not know What life is, you who hold it in your hands"; (slowly twisting the lilac stalks) "You let it flow from you, you let it flow, And youth is cruel, and has no remorse And smiles at situations which it cannot see." I smile, of course, And go on drinking tea.

Drinking, Hands, Tea

T. S. Eliot (2012). “The Waste Land, Prufrock and Other Poems”, p.13, Courier Corporation

You do not know how much they mean to me, my friends, And how, how rare and strange it is, to find In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends, (For indeed I do not love it ... you knew? you are not blind! How keen you are!) To find a friend who has these qualities, Who has, and gives Those qualities upon which friendship lives. How much it means that I say this to you- Without these friendships-life, what cauchemar!

Mean, Odds, Giving

T.S. Eliot (2011). “The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot”, p.12, Faber & Faber

I am glad you have a Cat, but I do not believe it is So remarkable a cat as My Cat. My Cat is a Lilliecat Hubvously. What a lilliecat it is. There never was such a Lilliecat. Its Name is JELLYORUM and its one Idea is to be Usefull!!

Believe, Cat, Ideas

John Haffenden, T.S. Eliot, Valerie Eliot (2014). “The Letters of T. S. Eliot Volume 5: 1930-1931”, p.628, Faber & Faber

Because I know that time is always time and place is always place and only place. And what is actual is actual only for one time. And only for one place. I rejoice that things are as they are.

Rejoice, One Time, Knows

T.S. Eliot (2011). “The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot”, p.78, Faber & Faber

Dayodhuam: I have heard the key Turn in the door once and turn once only We think of the key, each in his prison Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison.

Thinking, Keys, Doors

The Waste Land l. 412 (1922)

The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is incarnation. Here the impossible union of spheres of existence is actual. Here the past and future are conquered and reconciled.

Past, Hints, Half

1941 Four Quartets,'The Dry Salvages', pt.5.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?

Hair, Flannels, Peaches

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" l. 122 (1917)

And indeed there will be time to wonder, 'Do I dare?', and 'Do I dare?

Wonder, Dare

T. S. Eliot (2014). “The Waste Land and Other Poems”, p.10, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

At the violet hour, when the eyes and back Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits Like a taxi throbbing waiting I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives.

Life, Eye, Two

'The Waste Land' (1922) pt. 3

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