T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot OMwas an American-born British essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic and "one of the twentieth century's major poets". He moved to England in 1914 at age 25, settling, working and marrying there. He was eventually naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39, renouncing his American citizenship...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth26 September 1888
CountryUnited States of America
past silence would-be
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.
inspiring risk
You have to risk going too far to discover just how far you can really go.
drinking hands tea
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.
fall essence shadow
Between the desire And the spasm, Between the potency And the existence, Between the essence And the descent, Falls the Shadow.
heart men hype
O Lord, deliver me from the man of excellent intention and impure heart: for the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
education emotional intelligence
It is in fact a part of the function of education to help us escape, not from our own time - for we are bound by that - but from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our time.
art writing reading-poetry
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.
stealing poet
Bad poets imitate, good poets steal.
witty humorous writing
Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.
real views point-of-view
There is no absolute point of view from which real and ideal can be finally separated and labelled.
air wings dry
Because these wings are no longer wings to fly But merely vans to beat the air The air which is now thoroughly small and dry Smaller and dryer than the will Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still
purification motive wells
And all shall be well and/ All manner of thing shall be well/ By the purification of the motive/ In the ground of our beseeching
funny mom mother
If you desire to drain to the dregs the fullest cup of scorn and hatred that a fellow human being can pour out for you, let a young mother hear you call dear baby 'it.'
care ash-wednesday teach
Teach us to care and not to care