An editor should tell the author his writing is better than it is. Not a lot better, a little better.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Authors & Writing, Writing
The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Right, Goodness, Deeds, Good Deeds
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.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Poetry, Poets
Poetry should help, not only to refine the language of the time, but to prevent it from changing too rapidly.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Language, Poetry
We must believe that “emotion recollected in tranquility” is an inexact formula. For it is neither emotion, nor recollection, nor without distortion of meaning, tranquility. 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.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Poetry
It is only in the world of objects that we have time and space and selves.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Space
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.
—T. S. Eliot
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory out of desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in a forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Seasons
A book is not harmless merely because no one is consciously offended by it.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Books
For I have known them all already, know them all: have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons; I have measured out my life with coffee spoons … .
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Life, Futility
Think not forever of yourselves, O Chiefs, nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families, think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Peace
So far as we are human, what we do must be either evil or good: so far as we do evil or good, we are human: and it is better, in a paradoxical way, to do evil than to do nothing: at least we exist.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Reason, Evil, Thought
Liberty is a different kind of pain from prison.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Liberty, Freedom
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
Topics: Authors & Writing
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, Though I have seen my head grown slightly bald brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Fear
It is impossible to design a system so perfect that no one needs to be good.
—T. S. Eliot
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Words
When we read of human beings behaving in certain ways, with the approval of the author, who gives his benediction to this behavior by his attitude towards the result of the behavior arranged by himself, we can be influenced towards behaving in the same way.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Literature, Books
Whatever you think, be sure it is what you think; whatever you want, be sure that is what you want; whatever you feel, be sure that is what you feel.
—T. S. Eliot
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
Topics: Family, Babies
It is not necessarily those lands which are the most fertile or most favored in climate that seem to me the happiest, but those in which a long struggle of adaptation between man and his environment has brought out the best qualities of both.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Acceptance, Happiness
Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Pride
If you haven’t the strength to impose your own terms upon life, then you must accept the terms it offers you.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Power
Hell is oneself, hell is alone, the other figures in it merely projections. There is nothing to escape from and nothing to escape to. One is always alone.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Hell
There are men whose presence infuses trust and reverence.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Men
To each individual the world will take on a different connotation of meaning-the important lies in the desire to search for an answer.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Knowledge
Those who say they give the public what it wants begin by underestimating public taste and end by debauching it.
—T. S. Eliot
In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Culture
Friendship should be more than biting time can sever.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Friends and Friendship
In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
—T. S. Eliot
Topics: Decision, Decisions, Indecision
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Henry James American-born British Novelist
- Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor British Politician
- Dorothy L. Sayers English Novelist, Playwright
- Robert Penn Warren American Novelist, Poet
- Bertrand A. Russell British Philosopher, Mathematician
- Rudyard Kipling British Children’s Books Writer
- W. H. Auden British-born American Poet
- Edith Sitwell British Poet
- William Butler Yeats Irish Poet
- Louis Leo Snyder American-born German Scholar
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