T. S. Eliot Quotes - Page 23

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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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• Mediocre writers borrow; great writers steal.

  T. S. Eliot

  Crafts, Stealing, Mediocre

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• 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

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• 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)

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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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• 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.

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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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• 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)

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• 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).

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• 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

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

  T. S. Eliot

  Bernard Shaw

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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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• 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

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• 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

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• 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)

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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.

  T. S. Eliot

  New Beginnings, Feelings, Venture

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

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• 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

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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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• 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)

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• 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

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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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• 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

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• 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)

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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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• The end is in the beginning.

  T. S. Eliot

  Ends

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