Quotes by T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot

British essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic

Lived from: 1888 - 1965

Category: Media | Writers (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited States

Born: 26 september 1888 Died: 4 january 1965

  • What we know of other people's only our memory of the moments during which we knew 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • It's not wise to violate rules until you know how to observe them.
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Quotes 1 till 20 of 79.

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  • 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.
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  • A tradition without intelligence is not worth having.
    ― T. S. Eliot
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  • All cases are unique and very similar to others.
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  • An editor should tell the author his writing is better than it is. Not a lot better, a little better.
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  • And what the dead had no speech for, when living, they can tell you, being dead: the communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.
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  • April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.
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  • Art never improves, but the material of art is never quite the same.
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  • Birth, copulation and death. That's all the facts when you come to the brass tacks.
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  • Culture is the only thing that we cannot deliberately aim at.
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  • Each venture is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate with shabby equipment always deteriorating in the general mess of imprecision of feeling.
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  • Footfalls echo in the memory Down the passage which we did not take Towards the door we never opened Into the rose-garden. My words echo Thus, in your mind.
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  • For every life and every act consequence of good and evil can be shown and as in time results of many deeds are blended so good and evil in the end become confounded.
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  • For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice.
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  • Friendship should be more than biting time can sever.
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  • Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.
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  • 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
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  • 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.
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  • Home is where one starts from.
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  • Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
    ― T. S. Eliot
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  • 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
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Questions and Answers

What are the most famous quotes from T. S. Eliot?

The two most famous quotes from T. S. Eliot are:

  • "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."
  • "A tradition without intelligence is not worth having."

When did T. S. Eliot live?

T. S. Eliot was born in 1888 and died in the year 1965.