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T. S. Eliot Quotes - Page 23

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Destiny waits in the hand of God, not in the hands of statesmen.

Destiny waits in the hand of God, not in the hands of statesmen.

Destiny, Hands, Waiting

T. S. Eliot (2014). “Complete Poems and Plays, 1909-1950”, p.185, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

These are only hints and guesses, Hints followed by guesses; and the rest Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.

Prayer, Discipline, Hints

"The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volume I: Collected and Uncollected Poems".

Composing on the typewriter, I find that I am sloughing off all my long sentences which I used to dote upon. Short, staccato, like modern French prose. The typewriter makes for lucidity, but I am not sure that it encourages subtlety.

Typewriters, Long, Crafts

T. S. Eliot (2011). “The Letters of T. S. Eliot Volume 1: 1898-1922”, p.240, Faber & Faber

Mediocre writers borrow; great writers steal.

Crafts, Stealing, Mediocre

We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together...

Learning, Men, Together

I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river Is a strong brown god-sullen, untamed and intractable.

Strong, Thinking, Rivers

Four Quartets "The Dry Salvages" pt. 1 (1941)

We are not here to triumph by fighting, by strata gem, or by resistance, not to fight with beasts as men. We have fought the beast and have conquered. We have only to conquer now, by suffering. This is the easier victory.

Fighting, Men, Suffering

T.S. Eliot (2011). “The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot”, p.256, Faber & Faber

We must believe that "emotion recollected in tranquillity" is an inexact formula. For it is neither emotion, nor recollection, nor without distortion of meaning, tranquillity. It is a concentration, and a new thing resulting from the concentration of a very great number of experiences which to the practical and active person would not seem to be experiences at all; it is a concentration which does not happen consciously or of deliberation. These experiences are not "recollected" and they finally unite in an atmosphere which is "tranquil" only in that it is a passive attending upon the event.

Believe, Numbers, Atmosphere

"Reading Prose: An Introduction to Critical Study". Book by T. S. Eliot (p. 505), 1952.

I must say Bernard Shaw is greatly improved by music.

Bernard Shaw

The past and future / Are conquered, and reconciled.

Past, Quartets

T. S. Eliot (2014). “Complete Poems and Plays, 1909-1950”, p.145, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The chief danger about Paris is that it is such a strong stimulant.

Strong, Paris, Danger

T.S. Eliot (2011). “The Letters of T. S. Eliot Volume 1: 1898-1922”, p.537, Faber & Faber

A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I had not thought death had undone so many.

Bridges, Crowds, London

The Waste Land l. 60 (1922).

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.

Work, Book, Breathing

T.S. Eliot (2010). “The Waste Land and Other Poems”, p.84, Broadview Press

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.

Cat, Names, Stripes

T. S. Eliot, “The Old Gumbie Cat”

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be: am an attendant lord, one that will do to swell a progress, start a scene or two, advise the prince.

Two, Progress, Were Meant To Be

'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' (1917)

…Forgive us, O Lord, we acknowledge ourselves as type of the common man, Of the men and women who shut the door and sit by the fire; Who fear the blessing of God, the loneliness of the night of God, the surrender required, the deprivation inflicted; Who fear the injustice of men less than the justice of God; Who fear the hand at the window, the fire in the thatch, the fist in the tavern, the push into the canal, Less than we fear the love of God.

Loneliness, Blessing, Night

T. S. Eliot (2014). “The Complete Plays of T. S. Eliot”, p.55, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

I confess . . . that I am not myself very much concerned with the question of influence, or with those publicists who have impressed their names upon the public by catching the morning tide and rowing very vast in the direction in which the current was flowing; but rather that there should always be a few writers preoccupied in penetrating to the core of the matter, in trying to arrive at the truth and to set it forth, without too much hope, without ambition to alter the immediate course of affairs, and without being downcast or defeated when nothing appears to ensue.

Morning, Ambition, Names

Upon the glazen shelves kept watch Matthew and Waldo, guardians of the faith The army of unalterable law.

Army, Law, Watches

T. S. Eliot (2012). “The Waste Land, Prufrock and Other Poems”, p.21, Courier Corporation

The naming of cats is a difficult matter

Cat, Matter, Difficult

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats "The Naming of Cats" l. 1 (1939)

I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river is a strong brown god-sullen, untamed and intractable, Patient to some degree, at first recognized as a frontier; Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyor of commerce; Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges. The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten By the dwellers in cities-ever, however, implacable. Keeping his seasons, and rages, destroyer, reminder Of what men choose to forget. Unhonored, unpropitiated By worshippers of the machine, but waiting, watching and waiting.

Strong, Rain, Thinking

T. S. Eliot, “Four Quartets 3: The Dry Salvages”

The dripping blood our only drink, The bloody flesh our only food: In spite of which we like to think That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.

Friday, Jesus, Thinking

Four Quartets "East Coker" pt. 4 (1940)

Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation are directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry.

Appreciation, Editors, Criticism

"Selected Essays".

But it seems that something has happened that has never happened before; though we know not just when, or why, or how, or where. Men have left God not for gods, they say, but for no gods; and this has never happened before. That men both deny gods and worship gods, professing first Reason, and the money, and power, and what they call life, or race, or dialect.The church disowned, the tower overthrown, the bells upturned, what have we to do but stand with empty hands and palms upturned in an age which advances progressively backwards?

Religious, Men, Race

T.S. Eliot (2011). “The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot”, p.144, Faber & Faber

I shall not want Honor in Heaven For I shall meet Sir Philip Sidney And have talk with Coriolanus And other heroes of that kidney.

Hero, Heaven, Honor

T. S. Eliot (2012). “The Waste Land, Prufrock and Other Poems”, p.30, Courier Corporation

Although I do not hope to turn again Although I do not hope Although I do not hope to turn

Hope, Turns

T.S. Eliot (2015). “The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volume I: Collected and Uncollected Poems”, p.96, Faber & Faber

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