T. S. Eliot Quotes - Page 23

Quotes about:

• 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.

  T. S. Eliot

  Typewriters, Long, Crafts

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

  4 Copy quote

• Mediocre writers borrow; great writers steal.

  T. S. Eliot

  Crafts, Stealing, Mediocre

  4 Copy quote

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

  T. S. Eliot

  Appreciation, Editors, Criticism

  "Selected Essays".

  16 Copy quote

• 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.

  T. S. Eliot

  Fighting, Men, Suffering

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

  7 Copy quote

• The past and future / Are conquered, and reconciled.

  T. S. Eliot

  Past, Quartets

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

  6 Copy quote

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

  T. S. Eliot

  Bridges, Crowds, London

  The Waste Land l. 60 (1922).

  9 Copy quote

• They don't understand what it is to be awake, / To be living on several planes at once / Though one cannot speak with several voices at once.

  T. S. Eliot

  Voice, Speak, Awareness

  T. S. Eliot (2014). “The Complete Plays of T. S. Eliot”, p.97, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  10 Copy quote

• After such knowledge, what forgiveness? Think now History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions Guides us by vanities.

  T. S. Eliot

  Lying, Ambition, Knowledge

  "Gerontion" l. 33 (1920)

  7 Copy quote

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

  T. S. Eliot

  Strong, Paris, Danger

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

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  T. S. Eliot

  Believe, Numbers, Atmosphere

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

  10 Copy quote

• The hippopotamus's day Is passed in sleep; at night he hunts; God works in a mysterious way- The Church can sleep and feed at once.

  T. S. Eliot

  Sleep, Night, Church

  T.S. Eliot (2015). “The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volume I: Collected and Uncollected Poems”, p.43, Faber & Faber

  4 Copy quote

• We do not quite say that the new is more valuable because it fits in; but its fitting in is a test of its value - a test, it is true, which can only be slowly and cautiously applied, for we are none of us infallible judges of conformity.

  T. S. Eliot

  Judging, Tests, Novelty

  T. S. Eliot (1998). “The Sacred Wood and Major Early Essays”, p.29, Courier Corporation

  7 Copy quote

• But at my back from time to time I hear The sound of horns and motors, which shall bring Sweeney to Mrs. Porter in the spring. O the moon shone bright on Mrs. Porter And on her daughter They wash their feet in soda water.

  T. S. Eliot

  Daughter, Time, Spring

  The Waste Land l. 196 (1922)

  4 Copy quote

• Turning Wearily, as one would turn to nod goodbye to Rochefoucauld, If the street were time and he as the end of the street.

  T. S. Eliot

  Goodbye, Time, Ends

  T. S. Eliot (2012). “The Waste Land, Prufrock and Other Poems”, p.20, Courier Corporation

  4 Copy quote

• Each venture Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate With shabby equipment always deteriorating In the general mess of imprecision of feeling.

  T. S. Eliot

  New Beginnings, Feelings, Venture

  Four Quartets "East Coker" pt. 5 (1940)

  7 Copy quote

• I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids Sprouting despondently at area gates.

  T. S. Eliot

  Soul, Gates, Housemaids

  'Morning at the Window' (1917)

  9 Copy quote

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

  T. S. Eliot

  Army, Law, Watches

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

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  T. S. Eliot

  Two, Progress, Were Meant To Be

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

  8 Copy quote

• The Civil War is not ended: I question whether any serious civil war ever does end.

  T. S. Eliot

  Peace, War, Doe

  4 Copy quote

• When the Stranger says: "What is the meaning of this city? Do you huddle close together because you love each other?" What will you answer? "We all dwell together To make money from each other"? or "This is a community"? Oh my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger. Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions.

  T. S. Eliot

  Cities, Community, Soul

  "The Rock". Play by T. S. Eliot, 1934.

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  T. S. Eliot

  Morning, Ambition, Names

  8 Copy quote

• The naming of cats is a difficult matter

  T. S. Eliot

  Cat, Matter, Difficult

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

  6 Copy quote

• The end is in the beginning.

  T. S. Eliot

  Ends

  4 Copy quote

• In the end is my beginning.

  T. S. Eliot

  Ends

  4 Copy quote

• I must say Bernard Shaw is greatly improved by music.

  T. S. Eliot

  Bernard Shaw

  4 Copy quote

Page 23 of 24

First

← Prev

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin