T. S. Eliot Quotes - Page 22

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• The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence

  T. S. Eliot

  Past, Historical, Perception

  T.S. Eliot (2015). “The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volume I: Collected and Uncollected Poems”, p.478, Faber & Faber

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• Most contemporary novels are not really "written." They obtain what reality they have largely from an accurate rendering of the noises that human beings currently make in their daily simple needs of communication; and what part of a novel is not composed of these noises consists of a prose which is no more alive than that of a competent newspaper writer or government official. A prose that is altogether alive demands something of the reader that the ordinary novel-reader is not prepared to give.

  T. S. Eliot

  Communication, Simple, Reality

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• Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?'/Let us go and make our visit.

  T. S. Eliot

  Serious, Sawdust, Muttering

  T. S. Eliot (2015). “The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volume I: Collected and Uncollected Poems”, p.5, Faber & Faber

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• What have we given? My friend, blood shaking my heart The awful daring of a moment's surrender Which an age of prudence can never retract By this, and this only, we have existed.

  T. S. Eliot

  Heart, Blood, Age

  The Waste Land l. 404 (1922)

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• …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.

  T. S. Eliot

  Loneliness, Blessing, Night

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

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• 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.

  T. S. Eliot

  Cat, Names, Stripes

  T. S. Eliot, “The Old Gumbie Cat”

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

  T. S. Eliot

  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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• 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?

  T. S. Eliot

  Religious, Men, Race

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

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• 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.

  T. S. Eliot

  Work, Book, Breathing

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

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

  T. S. Eliot

  Learning, Men, Together

  94 Copy quote

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

  T. S. Eliot

  Prayer, Discipline, Hints

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

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• 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.

  T. S. Eliot

  Friday, Jesus, Thinking

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

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

  T. S. Eliot

  Strong, Thinking, Rivers

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

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• So first, your memory I'll jog, And say: A CAT IS NOT A DOG

  T. S. Eliot

  Dog, Memories, Cat

  T. S. Eliot (2014). “Complete Poems and Plays, 1909-1950”, p.178, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The eastern light our spires touch at morning, The light that slants upon our western doors at evening, The twilight over stagnant pools at batflight, Moon light and star light, owl and moth light, Glow-worm glowlight on a grassblade. O Light Invisible, we worship Thee!

  T. S. Eliot

  Morning, Stars, Twilight

  T. S. Eliot (2015). “The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volume I: Collected and Uncollected Poems”, p.175, Faber & Faber

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

  T. S. Eliot

  Destiny, Hands, Waiting

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

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• Think neither fear nor courage saves us. Unnatural vices are fathered by our heroism. Virtues are forced upon us by our impudent crimes. These tears are shaken from the wrath-bearing tree.

  T. S. Eliot

  Fear, Thinking, Wrath

  1919 'Gerontion'.

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• Because I do not hope to turn again Because I do not hope Because I do not hope to turn Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope I no longer strive to strive towards such things (Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?) Why should I mourn The vanished power of the usual reign?

  T. S. Eliot

  Hope, Men, Eagles

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

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• Fading, fading: strength beyond hope and despair climbing the third stair. Lord, I am not worthy Lord, I am not worthy but speak the word only.

  T. S. Eliot

  Climbing, Despair, Fading

  T.S. Eliot (2015). “The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volume I: Collected and Uncollected Poems”, p.91, Faber & Faber

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• My mind may be American but my heart is British.

  T. S. Eliot

  Heart, Mind, May

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• And through the spaces of the dark Midnight shakes the memory As a madman shakes a dead geranium.

  T. S. Eliot

  Memories, Dark, Space

  Prufrock (1917) "Rhapsody on a Windy Night"

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• The name that no human research can discover-- But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess. When you notice a cat in profound meditation, The reason, I tell you, is always the same: His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name: His ineffable effable Effanineffable Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

  T. S. Eliot

  Cat, Names, Profound

  Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats "The Naming of Cats" l. 25 (1939)

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• The Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat: If you offer him pheasant he would rather have grouse. If you put him in a house he would much prefer a flat, If you put him in a flat then he'd rather have a house. If you set him on a mouse then he only wants a rat, If you set him on a rat then he'd rather chase a mouse. Yes the Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat - And there isn't any call for me to shout it: For he will do As he do do And there's no doing anything about it!

  T. S. Eliot

  Cat, House, Want

  T. S. Eliot (2014). “Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats: with illustrations by Rebecca Ashdown”, p.18, Faber & Faber

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• It is impossible to say just what I mean!

  T. S. Eliot

  Mean, Impossible

  T.S. Eliot (2015). “The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volume I: Collected and Uncollected Poems”, p.395, Faber & Faber

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• 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.

  T. S. Eliot

  Strong, Rain, Thinking

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

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