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T.S. Eliot Quotes
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Thomas Stearns Eliot, was a British essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic, and "one of the twentieth century's major poets". He moved from his native United States to England in 1914 at the age of 25, settling, working, and marrying there. He eventually became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39, renouncing his American citizenship.

Eliot attracted widespread attention for his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" , which was seen as a masterpiece of the Modernist movement. It was followed by some of the best-known poems in the English language, including The Waste Land , "The Hollow Men" , "Ash Wednesday" , and Four Quartets . He was also known for his seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party . He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry".

✵ 26. September 1888 – 4. January 1965   •   Other names Thomas S. Eliot, టి ఎస్ ఎలియట్
T.S. Eliot photo
T.S. Eliot: 270   quotes 46   likes

T.S. Eliot Quotes

“The tiger springs in the new year. Us he devours. Think at last
We have not reached conclusion, when I
Stiffen in a rented house. Think at last
I have not made this show purposelessly
And it is not by any concitation
Of the backward devils.
I would meet you upon this honestly.
I that was near your heart was removed therefrom
To lose beauty in terror, terror in inquisition.
I have lost my passion: why should I need to keep it
Since what is kept must be adulterated?”

T.S. Eliot book Poems

"Gerontion"
Poems (1920)

Beauty , Spring , Thinking , Passion

“He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime — Macavity's not there!”

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

Macavity: The Mystery Cat
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939)

Flying , Despair

“Jellicle Cats come out tonight,
Jellicle Cats come one come all:
The Jellicle Moon is shining bright —
Jellicles come to the Jellicle Ball.”

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

The Song of the Jellicles
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939)

Cats

“Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.”

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

Macavity: The Mystery Cat
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939)

Law

“No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous —
Almost, at times, the Fool.”

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

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

Fools , Time

“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

“In spite of all the dishonour,
the broken standards, the broken lives,
The broken faith in one place or another,
There was something left that was more than the tales
Of old men on winter evenings.”

T.S. Eliot

Choruses from The Rock (1934)

Faith , Winter , Men

“There came one who spoke of the shame of Jerusalem
And the holy places defiled;
Peter the Hermit, scourging with words.
And among his hearers were a few good men,
Many who were evil,
And most who were neither,
Like all men in all places.”

T.S. Eliot

Choruses from The Rock (1934)

Evil , Men

“But it seems that something has happened that has never happened before: though we know not just when, or why, or how, or where.
Men have left GOD not for other gods, they say, but for no God; and this has never happened before
That men both deny gods and worship gods, professing first Reason,
And then Money, and Power, and what they call Life, or Race, or Dialectic.”

T.S. Eliot

Choruses from The Rock (1934)

Money , God , Life , Men

“They constantly try to escape
From the darkness outside and within
By dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good.
But the man that is shall shadow
The man that pretends to be.”

T.S. Eliot

Choruses from The Rock (1934)

Perfection , Dreams

“When the Stranger says: "What is the meaning of this city ?
Do you huddle close together because you love each other?"”

T.S. Eliot

What will you answer? "We all dwell together
To make money from each other"? or "This is a community"?
Choruses from The Rock (1934)

Love , Making love

“What life have you, if you have not life together?
There is not life that is not in community,
And no community not lived in praise of GOD.”

T.S. Eliot

Choruses from The Rock (1934)

God , Life , Communication

“Where the bricks are fallen
We will build with new stone
Where the beams are rotten
We will build with new timbers
Where the word is unspoken
We will build with new speech
There is work together
A Church for all
And a job for each
Every man to his work.”

T.S. Eliot

Choruses from The Rock (1934)

“You neglect and belittle the desert.
The desert is not remote in southern tropics
The desert is not only around the corner,
The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you,
The desert is in the heart of your brother.”

T.S. Eliot

Choruses from The Rock (1934)

Training , Heart

“The lot of man is ceaseless labor,
Or ceaseless idleness, which is still harder,
Or irregular labour, which is not pleasant.
I have trodden the winepress alone, and I know
That it is hard to be really useful, resigning
The things that men count for happiness, seeking
The good deeds that lead to obscurity, accepting
With equal face those that bring ignominy,
The applause of all or the love of none.
All men are ready to invest their money
But most expect dividends.
I say to you: Make perfect your will.
I say: take no thought of the harvest,
But only of proper sowing.”

T.S. Eliot

Choruses from The Rock (1934)

Money , Happiness , Perfection , Love

“And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices
In the lost lilac and the lost sea voices
And the weak spirit quickens to rebel
For the bent golden-rod and the lost sea smell
Quickens to recover
The cry of quail and the whirling plover
And the blind eye creates
The empty forms between the ivory gates
And smell renews the salt savour of the sandy earth
This is the time of tension between dying and birth
The place of solitude where three dreams cross
Between blue rocks
But when the voices shaken from the yew-tree drift away
Let the other yew be shaken and reply.”

T.S. Eliot

Ash-Wednesday (1930)

Sea , Tree , Time , Dreams

“If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
If the unheard, unspoken
Word is unspoken, unheard;
Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
The Word without a word, the Word within
The world and for the world;
And the light shone in darkness and
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.

O my people, what have I done unto thee.

Where shall the word be found, where will the word
Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence”

T.S. Eliot

Ash-Wednesday (1930)

World , Silence , People , Light

“Lady of silences
Calm and distressed
Torn and most whole
Rose of memory
Rose of forgetfulness
Exhausted and life-giving
Worried reposeful
The single Rose
Is now the Garden
Where all loves end
Terminate torment
Of love unsatisfied
The greater torment
Of love satisfied
End of the endless
Journey to no end
Conclusion of all that
Is inconclusible
Speech without word and
Word of no speech
Grace to the Mother
For the Garden
Where all love ends.”

T.S. Eliot

Ash-Wednesday (1930)

Forgetting , Silence , Memory , Love

“Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow .”

T.S. Eliot book The Hollow Men

The Hollow Men (1925)
Variant: Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow.

“This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
[...]
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
[http://aduni.org/~heather/occs/honors/Notesonpoem.htm#fiftysevensixty In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
]Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
[http://aduni.org/~heather/occs/honors/Notesonpoem.htm#sixtyonesixtytwo Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear]
[http://aduni.org/~heather/occs/honors/Notesonpoem.htm#sixtyfoursixtythree As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose]
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.”

T.S. Eliot book The Hollow Men

The Hollow Men (1925)

Dead , Star , Hope , Death

“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 book The Waste Land

Source: The Waste Land (1922), Line 25 et seq.

Fear

“After such knowledge, what forgiveness? Think now
History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors
And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions,
Guides us by vanities. Think now
She gives when our attention is distracted
And what she gives, gives with such supple confusions
That the giving famishes the craving. Gives too late
What's not believed in, or if still believed,
In memory only, reconsidered passion. Gives too soon
Into weak hands, what's thought can be dispensed with
Till the refusal propagates a fear. Think
Neither fear nor courage saves us. Unnatural vices
Are fathered by our heroism. Virtues
Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes.
These tears are shaken from the wrath-bearing tree.”

T.S. Eliot book Poems

"Gerontion"
Poems (1920)

Forgiveness , Courage , Tree , History

“I grow old … I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.”

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

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

Singing , Girl , Water , Thinking

“It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while If one, settling a
Pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
"That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all."”

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

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

“I am no prophet — and here's no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.”

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

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

“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?”

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

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

Light , Lie , Making love

“Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
For I have known them all already, known them all: —
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?”

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

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

Time , Music , Universe , Coffee

“There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands,
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.”

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

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

Question , Time , Indecision , Tea

“Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us”

T.S. Eliot book The Hollow Men

if at all — not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
The Hollow Men (1925)

Death

“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?”

T.S. Eliot

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

Light , Lie , Making love

“The 'greatness' of literature cannot be determined solely by literary standards; though we must remember that whether it is literature or not can be determined only by literary standards.”

T.S. Eliot

"Religion and Literature" (1935), in Essays Ancient and Modern (1936)

Literature