224 Quotes by T.S. Eliot

These fragments I have shored against my ruins

I grow old … I grow old … I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,But nearness to death no nearer to God.Where is the life we have lost in living?Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

The general ethos of the people they have to govern determines the behaviour of politicians.

The only wisdom we can hope to acquireIs the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.

Now that lilacs are in bloomShe has a bowl of lilacs in her roomAnd twists one in her fingers while she talks."Ah, my friend, you do not know, you do not knowWhat 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 remorseAnd smiles at situations which it cannot see."I smile, of course,And go on drinking tea.

Time present and time pastAre both perhaps present in time futureAnd time future contained in time past.If all time is eternally presentAll time is unredeemable.What might have been is an abstractionRemaining a perpetual possibilityOnly in a world of speculation.What might have been and what has beenPoint to one end, which is always present.

Someone said, 'The dead writers are remote from us because we know so much more than they did.' Precisely, and they are that which we know.

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.