Quotes by T.S. Eliot

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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.

T.S. Eliot

Between the desire And the spasm, Between the potency And the existence, Between the essence And the descent, Falls the Shadow.

T.S. Eliot

We die to each other daily. What we know of other people is only our memory of the moments during which we knew them. And they have changed since then. To pretend that they and we are the same is a useful and convenient social convention which must s...

T.S. Eliot

What was to be the value of the long looked forward to, Long hoped for calm, the autumnal serenity And the wisdom of age? Had they deceived us Or deceived themselves, the quiet-voiced elders, Bequeathing us merely a receipt for deceit? The serenity o...

T.S. Eliot

The dove descending breaks the air With flame of incandescent terror Of which the tongues declare The one discharge from sin and error. The only hope, or else despair Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre- To be redeemed from fire by fire. Who then devi...

T.S. Eliot

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

T.S. Eliot

For last year's words belong to last year's language And next year's words await another voice.

T.S. Eliot

Footfalls echo in the memory down the passage we did not take towards the door we never opened into the rose garden. My words echo thus, in your mind

T.S. Eliot

There are three conditions which often look alike Yet differ completely, flourish in the same hedgerow: Attachment to self and to things and to persons, detachment From self and from things and from persons; and, growing between them, indifference, ....

T.S. Eliot

Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future And time future contained in time past.

T.S. Eliot

A condition of complete simplicity (Costing not less than everything)

T.S. Eliot

And the end and the beginning were always there Before the beginning and after the end. And all is always now.

T.S. Eliot

We ask only to be reassured About the noises in the cellar And the window that should not have been open

T.S. Eliot

In this brief transit where the dreams cross The dreamcrossed twilight between birth and dying (Bless me father) though I do not wish to wish these things From the wide window towards the granite shore The white sails still fly seaward, seaward flyin...

T.S. Eliot

You do not know how much they mean to me, my friends, And how, how rare and strange it is, to find In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends, (For indeed I do not love it ... you knew? you are not blind! How keen you are!) To find a friend...

T.S. Eliot

music heard so deeply That it is not heard at all, but you are the music While the music lasts.

T.S. Eliot

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

T.S. Eliot

Truth on our level is a different thing from truth for the jellyfish.

T.S. Eliot

With Cats, some say, one rule is true: Don’t speak till you are spoken to. Myself, I do not hold with that — I say, you should ad-dress a Cat. But always keep in mind that he Resents familiarity. I bow, and taking off my hat, Ad-dress him in this...

T.S. Eliot

Gus is the Cat at the Theatre Door. His name, as I ought to have told you before, Is really Asparagus. That's such a fuss To pronounce, that we usually call him just Gus. His coat's very shabby, he's thin as a rake, And he suffers from palsy that mak...

T.S. Eliot