Quotes by T.S. Eliot

A martyrdom is always the design of God, for His love of men, to warn them and to lead them, to bring them back to His ways. It is never the design of man; for the true martyr is he who has become the instrument of God, who has lost his will in the will of God, and who no longer desires anything for himself, not even the glory of being a martyr.

About anyone so great as Shakespeare, it is probable that we can never be right; and if we can never be right, it is better that we should from time to time change our way of being wrong.

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

This is the way the world endsThis is the way the world endsThis is the way the world endsNot with a bang but a whimper.

Thus with most careful devotionThus with precise attentionTo detail, interfering preparationOf that which is already preparedMen tighten the knot of confusionInto perfect misunderstanding.

There is nothing at all to be done about it, There is nothing to do about anything.

Streets that follow like a tedious argumentOf insidious intentTo lead you to an overwhelming question...

“Sometimes things become possible if we want them bad enough.”

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

“No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead.”

“Till Human voices wake us, and we drown.”

“As she laughed I was aware of becoming involved in her laughter and being part of it, until her teeth were only accidental stars with a talent for squad-drill.”

“Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotion know what it means to want to escape from these.”

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

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

“Poetry may make us from time to time a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves.”

“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.”

“The dream crossed twilight between birth and dying.”

“There is one who remembers the way to your door: Life you may evade, but Death you shall not.”