T.S. Eliot Quotes

"There are men whose presence infuses trust and reverence."

"When a poet's mind is perfectly equipped for its work, it is constantly amalgamating disparate experiences."

"When we read of human beings behaving in certain ways, with the approval of the author, who gives his benediction to this behavior by his attitude towards the result of the behavior arranged by himself, we can be influenced towards behaving in the same way."

"Humankind cannot bear very much reality."

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

"Friendship should be more than biting time can sever."

"A tradition without intelligence is not worth having."

"People exercise an unconscious selection in being influenced."

"Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important."

"We must believe that ''emotion recollected in tranquillity'' is an inexact formula. For it is neither emotion, nor recollection, nor without distortion of meaning, tranquillity. It is a concentration, and a new thing resulting from the concentration of a very great number of experiences which to the practical and active person would not seem to be experiences at all; it is a concentration which does not happen consciously or of deliberation. These experiences are not ''recollected'' and they finally unite in an atmosphere which is ''tranquil'' only in that it is a passive attending upon the event."

"So the lover must struggle for words."

"What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?"

"Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world."

"What do we live for; if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?"

"I like not only to be loved, but to be told I am loved."

"Our high respect for a well read person is praise enough for literature."

"Pray for us now and at the hour of our birth."

"The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down."

"Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood."

"If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?"