T. S. Eliot Quotes
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I take as metaphysical poetry that in which what is ordinarily apprehensible only by thought is brought within the grasp of feeling, or that in which what is ordinarily only felt is transformed into thought without ceasing to be feeling.
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So far as we are human,
what we do must be either evil or good
so far as we do evil or good,
we are human and it is better,
in a paradoxical way,
to do evil than to do nothing at least we exist.
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This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
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Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important.
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April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory out of desire, stirring.
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in a forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
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The last temptation is the greatest treason
to do the right deed for the wrong reason.
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The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.
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And the wind shall say
Here were decent godless people.
Their only monument the asphalt road.
And a thousand lost golf balls.
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Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge,
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information.
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We do not quite say that the new is more valuable because it fits in but its fitting in is a test of its value -- a test, it is true, which can only be slowly and cautiously applied, for we are none of us infallible judges of conformity.
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It is impossible to design a system
so perfect that no one needs to be good.
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I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
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Human kind cannot bear much reality.
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Success is relative.
It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things.
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The more perfect the artist, the more completely separate in him will be the man who suffers and the mind which creates.
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Humankind cannot stand very much reality.
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Any religion is for ever in danger of petrifaction into mere ritual and habit,
though ritual and habit be essential to religion.
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Immature poets imitate mature poets steal.
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Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden.
My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
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Humor is also a way of saying something serious.
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We shall never cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
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What we call the beginning is often the end.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.
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We shall not cease from our exploration
And at the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
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We know too much, and are convinced of too little.
Our literature is a substitute for religion, and so is our religion.
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Only those who will risk going too far
Can possibly find out how far one can go.
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In a minute there is time for decision
and revisions that a minute will reverse.
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Genuine poetry can communicate
before it is understood.