“Then spoke the thunder
DA Datta: what have we given?
My friend, blood shaking my heart
The awful daring of a moment's surrender
Which an age of prudence can never retract
By this, and this only, we have existed.”
Variant: The awful daring of a moment's surrender
Which an age of prudence can never retract
By this, and this only, we have existed
Source: The Waste Land (1922)
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T.S. Eliot 270
20th century English author 1888–1965Related quotes

“But how can we know that dragons did not exist? We have never actually BEEN to the Dark Ages.”
Source: A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons

“In life we never lose friends. We only learn what are the real we have.”
Original: (it) Nella vita non perdiamo mai amici. Apprendiamo solo quali sono i veri che abbiamo.
Source: prevale.net

“Never, ever retract. The smell of weakness is like blood to sharks.”
"Pamela Geller speaks to the Sugar Land Tea Party in Sugar Land, Texas" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLzlQ7WrvfQ&t=0h20m41s, Sugar Land, Texas

“My friends, we have seen enough of this play.
We are going home, you can stay.”
Ilm Ul Kitab, p. 476
Poetry

Variant translation: I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude...
1930s, Mein Weltbild (My World-view) (1931)