T.S. Eliot: Trending quotes (page 12)

“Yes the Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat —
And there isn't any call for me to shout it:
For he will do
As he do do
And there's no doing anything about it!”

T.S. Eliot book Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

The Rum Tum Tugger
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939)

Cats

“It is certain that a book is not harmless merely because no one is consciously offended by it.”

T.S. Eliot

Religion and Literature (1935)

Books

“And we all say: OH!
Well I never!
Was there ever
A Cat so clever
As Magical Mr. Mistoffelees!”

T.S. Eliot book Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Mr. Mistoffelees
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939)

Cats

“Here I am, an old man in a dry month,
Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain.”

T.S. Eliot book Poems

"Gerontion"
Poems (1920)

Boy , Waiting , Reading

“And I have known the eyes already, known them all —
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?”

T.S. Eliot The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

Way

“What have we to do but stand with empty hands and palms turned upwards in an age which advances progressively backwards?”

T.S. Eliot

Choruses from The Rock (1934)

Age

“We see the light but see not whence it comes.
O Light Invisible, we glorify Thee!”

T.S. Eliot

Choruses from The Rock (1934)

Light

“Webster was much possessed by death
And saw the skull beneath the skin”

T.S. Eliot book Poems

"Whispers of Immortality"
Poems (1920)

Death

“Out of the meaningless practical shapes of all that is living or lifeless
Joined with the artist's eye, new life, new form, new colour.
Out of the sea of sound the life of music,
Out of the slimy mud of words, out of the sleet and hail of verbal imprecisions,
Approximate thoughts and feelings, words that have taken the place of thoughts and feelings,
There spring the perfect order of speech, and the beauty of incantation.”

T.S. Eliot

Choruses from The Rock (1934)

Life , Beauty , Music , Feeling

“We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw.”

T.S. Eliot book The Hollow Men

The Hollow Men (1925)

Men

“Atheism should always be encouraged (i. e. rationalistic not emotional atheism) for the sake of the Faith.”

T.S. Eliot

Letter to Richard Aldington (24 February, 1927). The Letters of T.S. Eliot: 1926-1927 p. 424

Faith

“Signs are taken for wonders. “We would see a sign!”
The word within a word, unable to speak a word,
Swaddled with darkness.”

T.S. Eliot book Poems

"Gerontion"
Poems (1920)

“Mr. Aldous Huxley, who is perhaps one of those people who have to perpetrate thirty bad novels before producing a good one, has a certain natural — but little developed — aptitude for seriousness.”

T.S. Eliot

The Contemporary English Novelist, La Nouvelle Revue française (1 May 1927)

People , Nature

“This is the land which ye
Shall divide by lot. And neither division nor unity
Matters. This is the land. We have our inheritance.”

T.S. Eliot

Ash-Wednesday (1930)

“And I have known the arms already, known them all —
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
[But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair! ]
It is perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And should I then presume?
:And how should I begin?

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.”

T.S. Eliot The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

Lie , Light , Sea

“Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice”

T.S. Eliot

Ash-Wednesday (1930)

Hope

“A penny for the Old Guy”

T.S. Eliot book The Hollow Men

A quotation of a traditional Guy Fawkes Night saying
The Hollow Men (1925)

Guy

“Long ago I studied the ancient Indian languages, and while I was chiefly interested at that time in philosophy, I read a little poetry too; and I know that my own poetry shows the influence of Indian thought and sensibility.”

T.S. Eliot

Source: Notes Towards the Definition of Culture, T.S. Eliot. Quoted from Gewali, Salil (2013). Great Minds on India. New Delhi: Penguin Random House.

Study , Reading , Time

“Signs are taken for wonders. “We would see a sign!””

T.S. Eliot book Poems

The word within a word, unable to speak a word,
Swaddled with darkness.

"Gerontion"
Poems (1920)

“Old Deuteronomy's lived a long time;
He's a Cat who has lived many lives in succession.
He was famous in proverb and famous in rhyme
A long while before Queen Victoria's accession.”

T.S. Eliot book Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Old Deuteronomy
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939)

Cats , Time , Success