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T.S. Eliot Quotes

Writer

T.S. Eliot is celebrated as one of the most influential poets of the 20th century, whose work explores the complexities of modern life, time, and human consciousness. His writing combines profound intellectual insight with rich imagery and emotional depth, challenging readers to reflect on existence and meaning. The following quotes capture his wisdom, lyrical mastery, and the timeless resonance of his literary vision.

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 sometimes be broken. We must also remember that at every meeting we are meeting a stranger.
From The Cocktail Party
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Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
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I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
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The dream crossed twilight between birth and dying.
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The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink.
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Destiny waits in the hand of god, shaping the still unshapen..
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Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
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Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.
From The Sacred Wood
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There is one who remembers the way to your door: Life you may evade, but Death you shall not.
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For I have known them all already, known them all—
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.
From T. S. Eliot Reading: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Others
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What the dead had no speech for, when living,
They can tell you, being dead: the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.
From Four Quartets
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The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man
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If you haven’t the strength to impose your own terms upon life, then you must accept the terms it offers you.
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In my end is my beginning.
From Four Quartets
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Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where St Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stock of nine.
There I saw one I knew, and stopped him crying: 'Stetson!
You, who were with me in the ships at Mylae!
That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!
You! hypocrite lecteur!-mon semblable,-mon frere!
From Selected Poems
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We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

- The Hollow Men
From Poems: 1909-1925
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There is shadow under this red rock // (Come in under the shadow of this red rock) // And I will show you something different from either // Your shadow at morning striding behind you // Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you // I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
From The Waste Land
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We had the experience but missed the meaning. And approach to the meaning restores the experience in a different form.
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Humor is also a way of saying something serious.
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Whatever you think, be sure it is what you think; whatever you want, be sure that is what you want; whatever you feel, be sure that is what you feel.
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Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity
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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 sometimes be broken. We must also remember that at every meeting we are meeting a stranger.
From The Cocktail Party
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The dream crossed twilight between birth and dying.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Destiny waits in the hand of god, shaping the still unshapen..
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.
From The Sacred Wood
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There is one who remembers the way to your door: Life you may evade, but Death you shall not.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
For I have known them all already, known them all—
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.
From T. S. Eliot Reading: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Others
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
What the dead had no speech for, when living,
They can tell you, being dead: the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.
From Four Quartets
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If you haven’t the strength to impose your own terms upon life, then you must accept the terms it offers you.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In my end is my beginning.
From Four Quartets
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where St Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stock of nine.
There I saw one I knew, and stopped him crying: 'Stetson!
You, who were with me in the ships at Mylae!
That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!
You! hypocrite lecteur!-mon semblable,-mon frere!
From Selected Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

- The Hollow Men
From Poems: 1909-1925
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There is shadow under this red rock // (Come in under the shadow of this red rock) // And I will show you something different from either // Your shadow at morning striding behind you // Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you // I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
From The Waste Land
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We had the experience but missed the meaning. And approach to the meaning restores the experience in a different form.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Humor is also a way of saying something serious.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Whatever you think, be sure it is what you think; whatever you want, be sure that is what you want; whatever you feel, be sure that is what you feel.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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 sometimes be broken. We must also remember that at every meeting we are meeting a stranger.
From The Cocktail Party
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The dream crossed twilight between birth and dying.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Destiny waits in the hand of god, shaping the still unshapen..
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.
From The Sacred Wood
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There is one who remembers the way to your door: Life you may evade, but Death you shall not.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
For I have known them all already, known them all—
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.
From T. S. Eliot Reading: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Others
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
What the dead had no speech for, when living,
They can tell you, being dead: the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.
From Four Quartets
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If you haven’t the strength to impose your own terms upon life, then you must accept the terms it offers you.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In my end is my beginning.
From Four Quartets
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where St Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stock of nine.
There I saw one I knew, and stopped him crying: 'Stetson!
You, who were with me in the ships at Mylae!
That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!
You! hypocrite lecteur!-mon semblable,-mon frere!
From Selected Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

- The Hollow Men
From Poems: 1909-1925
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There is shadow under this red rock // (Come in under the shadow of this red rock) // And I will show you something different from either // Your shadow at morning striding behind you // Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you // I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
From The Waste Land
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We had the experience but missed the meaning. And approach to the meaning restores the experience in a different form.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Humor is also a way of saying something serious.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Whatever you think, be sure it is what you think; whatever you want, be sure that is what you want; whatever you feel, be sure that is what you feel.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote