T. S. Eliot citations

Page 3

“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.”

“I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.”

“Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.”

“Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity”

“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.”

“Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotion know what it means to want to escape from these.”

“These fragments I have shored against my ruins
Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo's mad againe.
Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.
Shantih shantih shantih”

“Books. Cats. Life is good.”

“Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.”

“Distracted from distraction by distraction”

“Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past.”

“It will do you no harm to find yourself ridiculous.
Resign yourself to be the fool you are…
… We must always take risks. That is our destiny…”

“The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink.”

“I learn a great deal by merely observing you, and letting you talk as long as you please, and taking note of what you do not say.”

“Light
Light
The visible reminder of Invisible Light.”

“Words strain,
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,
Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,
Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,
Will not stay still.”

“I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.”

“Do I dare Disturb the universe?”

“Where does one go from a world of insanity? Somewhere on the other side of despair.”

“We don't actually fear death, we fear that no one will notice our absence, that we will disappear without a trace.”

“There is one who remembers the way to your door:
Life you may evade, but Death you shall not.
You shall not deny the Stranger.”

“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.”

“So I find words I never thought to speak

In streets I never thought I should revisit

When I left my body on a distant shore.”

“Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care”

“We do not pass through the same door twice
Or return to the door through which we did not pass”

“I love reading another reader’s list of favorites. Even when I find I do not share their tastes or predilections, I am provoked to compare, contrast, and contradict. It is a most healthy exercise, and one altogether fruitful.”

“An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.”

“We had the experience but missed the meaning. And approach to the meaning restores the experience in a different form.”

“There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.”