T. S. Eliot Quotes

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Of lovers whose bodies smell of each other
Who think the same thoughts without need of speech.

T. S. Eliot (A Dedication to My Wife)

Every moment is a fresh beginning.

T. S. Eliot (The Cocktail Party, 1949)

Weave the wind.

T. S. Eliot (Gerontion, 1920)

I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

T. S. Eliot (The Waste Land, 1922)

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.

T. S. Eliot

We must always take risks. That is our destiny...

T. S. Eliot (The Cocktail Party, 1949)

War among men defiles this world.

T. S. Eliot (Murder in the Cathedral, 1935)

Ash on an old man's sleeve
Is all the ash the burnt roses leave.

T. S. Eliot (Four Quartets - Little Gidding, 1939)

Death has a hundred hands and walks by a thousand ways.

T. S. Eliot (Murder in the Cathedral, 1935)

I don't belong to any generation.

T. S. Eliot (The Family Reunion, 1939)

They speak better than they know, and beyond your understanding.

T. S. Eliot (Murder in the Cathedral, 1935)

There is another way, if you have the courage.

T. S. Eliot (The Cocktail Party, 1949)

The lot of man is ceaseless labor,
Or ceaseless idleness, which is still harder.

T. S. Eliot (The Rock, 1934)

Human kind cannot bear very much reality.

T. S. Eliot (Murder in the Cathedral, 1935)

The soul of Man must quicken to creation.

T. S. Eliot (The Rock, 1934)

It will do you no harm to find yourself ridiculous. 
Resign yourself to be the fool you are... 

T. S. Eliot (The Cocktail Party, 1949)

From such ground springs that which forever renews the earth
Though it is forever denied.

T. S. Eliot (Murder in the Cathedral, 1935)

Neither way is better. Both ways are necessary. 

T. S. Eliot (The Cocktail Party, 1949)

What life have you, if you have not life together?

T. S. Eliot (The Rock, 1934)

War is not a life: it is a situation,
One which may neither be ignored nor accepted.

T. S. Eliot (A Note on War Poetry)

Only by acceptance of the past will you alter its meaning.

T. S. Eliot (The Cocktail Party, 1949)

The work of creation is never without travail.

T. S. Eliot (The Rock, 1934)

All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance.

T. S. Eliot (The Rock, 1934)

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

T. S. Eliot (Transit of Venus)

Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness.

T. S. Eliot (The Rock, 1934)

In my beginning is my end... In my end is my beginning.

T. S. Eliot (Four Quartets - East Coker, 1939)

Only the fool, fixed in his folly, may think
He can turn the wheel on which he turns.

T. S. Eliot (Murder in the Cathedral, 1935)

The circle of our understanding Is a very restricted area.

T. S. Eliot (The Family Reunion, 1939)

Saints are not made by accident.

T. S. Eliot (Murder in the Cathedral, 1935)

Men tighten the knot of confusion
Into perfect misunderstanding.

T. S. Eliot (The Family Reunion, 1939)

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T. S. Eliot Biography

Born: September 26, 1888
Died: January 4, 1965

Thomas Stearns Eliot was a US-born British literary critic, playwright, dramatist and poet. He was a succesful English-langauge poet during his time and is still to this day widely popular.

Notable Works

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)
Prufrock and Other Observations
(1917)
Gerontion
(1920)
Tradition and the Individual Talent (1920)
The Waste Land (1922)
The Hollow Men
(1925)
Ash Wednesday
(1930)
Selected Essays, 1917 - 1932
(1932)
The Rock
(1934)
Murder in the Cathedral (1935)
The Family Reunion (1939)
Four Quartets (1939)
The Cocktail Party (1949)
The Frontiers of Criticism (1956)
Signature

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