T. S. Eliot quotes - page 9

Because these wings are no longer wings to fly But merely vans to beat the air The air which is now thoroughly small and dry Smaller and dryer than the will Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still. Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death Pray for us now and at the hour of our death. (T. S. Eliot)
That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all. View quote
T. S. Eliot
The dream crossed twilight between birth and dying. View quote
T. S. Eliot
Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison. View quote
T. S. Eliot
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. View quote
T. S. Eliot
All time is unreedemable. View quote
T. S. Eliot
But the Church cannot be, in any political sense, either conservative or liberal, or revolutionary. Conservatism is too often conservation of the wrong things: liberalism a relaxation of discipline; revolution a denial of the permanent things. View quote
T. S. Eliot
Now that the lilacs are in bloom She has a bowl of lilacs in her room. View quote
T. S. Eliot
If we all were judged according to the consequences Of all our words and deeds, beyond the intention And beyond our limited understanding Of ourselves and others, we should all be condemned. View quote
T. S. Eliot
The majority of mankind is lazy-minded, incurious, absorbed in vanities, and tepid in emotion, and is therefore incapable of either much doubt or much faith; and when the ordinary man calls himself a sceptic or an unbeliever, that is ordinarily a simple pose, cloaking a disinclination to think anything out to a conclusion. View quote
T. S. Eliot
O Light Invisible, we praise Thee! Too bright for mortal vision. (T. S. Eliot)
It is not the "greatness," the intensity, of the emotions, the components, but the intensity of the artistic process, the pressure, so to speak, under which the fusion takes place, that counts. View quote
T. S. Eliot
When the day's hustle and bustle is done, Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun. View quote
T. S. Eliot
The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do more, and you are not yet decrepit enough to turn them down. View quote
T. S. Eliot
Weave the wind. I have no ghosts, An old man in a draughty house Under a windy knob. View quote
T. S. Eliot
What is that sound high in the air Murmur of maternal lamentation Who are those hooded hordes swarming Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth Ringed by the flat horizon only What is the city over the mountains Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air Falling towers Jerusalem Athens Alexandria Vienna London Unreal. View quote
T. S. Eliot
Then it seemed as if men must proceed from light to light, in the light of the Word, Through the Passion and Sacrifice saved in spite of their negative being; Bestial as always before, carnal, self seeking as always before, selfish and purblind as ever before, Yet always struggling, always reaffirming, always resuming their march on the way that was lit by the light; Often halting, loitering, straying, delaying, returning, yet following no other way. View quote
T. S. Eliot
No verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job.... Poetry.. remains one person talking to another.... no poet can write a poem of amplitude unless he is the master of the prosaic. View quote
T. S. Eliot
A dangerous person to disagree with. View quote
T. S. Eliot
What happens is a continual surrender of himself as he is at the moment to something which is more valuable. The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality. View quote
T. S. Eliot
Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity, For he's a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity. You may meet him in a by-street, you may see him in the square - But when a crime's discovered, then Macavity's not there! (T. S. Eliot)
No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead. I mean this as a principle of æsthetic, not merely historical, criticism. View quote
T. S. Eliot
In the vacant places We will build with new bricks. View quote
T. S. Eliot
Jellicle Cats come out tonight, Jellicle Cats come one come all: The Jellicle Moon is shining bright - Jellicles come to the Jellicle Ball. View quote
T. S. Eliot
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! View quote
T. S. Eliot