We have all our private terrors, our particular shadows, our secret fears. We are afraid in a fear which we cannot face, which none understands, and our hearts are torn from us, our brains unskinned like the layers of an onion, ourselves the last. T. S. Eliot More Quotes by T. S. Eliot More Quotes From T. S. Eliot All time is eternal, moving inexorably toward an end which we believe is a result of our actions, but over which our control is mere illusion. T. S. Eliot our-actions believe moving At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And do not all it fixity, Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance. T. S. Eliot silence would-be past With cats, some say, one rule is true: Don't speak till you are spoken to. T. S. Eliot cat speak Men dislike being awakened from their death in life. T. S. Eliot awakened dislike men A good half of the effort of understanding what the Indian philosophers were after - and their subtleties make most of the great European philosophers look like schoolboys. T. S. Eliot effort understanding philosophy But it seems that something has happened that has never happened before: though we know not just when, or why, or how, or where. T. S. Eliot happened mystery faith We fight for lost causes because we know that our defeat and dismay may be the preface to our successors' victory, though that victory itself will be temporary; we fight rather to keep something alive than in the expectation that anything will triumph. T. S. Eliot victory fighting expectations A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. Only 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. T. S. Eliot rocks fear morning It is generally a feminine eye that first detects the moral deficiencies hidden under the 'dear deceit' of beauty. T. S. Eliot deceit eye beauty O Lord, deliver me from the man of excellent intention and impure heart: for the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. T. S. Eliot hype heart men You do not know how much they mean to me, my friends, And how, how rare and strange it is, to find In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends, (For indeed I do not love it ... you knew? you are not blind! How keen you are!) To find a friend who has these qualities, Who has, and gives Those qualities upon which friendship lives. How much it means that I say this to you- Without these friendships-life, what cauchemar! T. S. Eliot odds giving mean Now that lilacs are in bloom She has a bowl of lilacs in her room And twists one in her fingers while she talks. "Ah, my friend, you do not know, you do not know What life is, you who hold it in your hands"; (slowly twisting the lilac stalks) "You let it flow from you, you let it flow, And youth is cruel, and has no remorse And smiles at situations which it cannot see." I smile, of course, And go on drinking tea. T. S. Eliot drinking tea hands It is self-evident that St. Louis affected me more deeply than any other environment has ever done. I feel that there is something in having passed one's childhood beside the big river, which is incommunicable to those people who have not. I consider myself fortunate to have been born here, rather than in Boston, or New York, or London. T. S. Eliot boston new-york self Bad poets imitate, good poets steal. T. S. Eliot stealing poet Fare forward, travellers! not escaping from the past T. S. Eliot escaping time past You gave me hyacinths first a year ago; They called me the hyacinth girl.' —Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden, Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. Od' und leer das Meer. T. S. Eliot girl eye heart Where is the Life we lost in living? T. S. Eliot lost A tradition without intelligence is not worth having. T. S. Eliot tradition We must always take risks. That is our destiny. T. S. Eliot our-destiny destiny risk History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors and issues. T. S. Eliot cunning issues history
