T. S. Eliot was a famous poet who lived from 1888 to 1965. He is considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. His poetry is often associated with the modernist movement.
His poetry has influenced generations of writers and artists. Below are some of T. S. Eliot’s famous quotes to inspire you.
The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink.
– T. S. Eliot
T.S. Eliot Quotes
1. “If you do not push the boundaries, you will never know where they are.” – T.S. Eliot
2. “Whatever you think, be sure it is what you think; whatever you want, be sure that is what you want; whatever you feel, be sure that is what you feel.” – T.S. Eliot
3. “If we really want to pray we must first learn to listen, for in the silence of the heart God speaks.” – T.S. Eliot
4. “Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right; decide on what you think is right and stick to it.” – T.S. Eliot
5. “Sometimes things become possible if we want them bad enough.” – T.S. Eliot
6. “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T.S. Eliot
7. “The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man.” – T.S. Eliot
8. “To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man’s life.” – T.S. Eliot
9. “If you haven’t the strength to impose your own terms upon life, then you must accept the terms it offers you.” – T.S. Eliot
10. “Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important.” – T.S. Eliot
Remarkable Quotes By T. S. Eliot
11. “The remarkable thing about television is that it permits several million people to laugh at the same joke and still feel lonely.” – T.S. Eliot
12. “I don’t believe one grows older. I think that what happens early on in life is that at a certain age one stands still and stagnates.” – T.S. Eliot
13. “It is not enough to understand what we ought to be, unless we know what we are; and we do not understand what we are, unless we know what we ought to be.” – T.S. Eliot
14. “Those who arrive at the end of the journey are not those who began.” – T.S. Eliot
15. “We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” – T.S. Eliot
16. “We had the experience but missed the meaning. And approach to the meaning restores the experience in a different form.” – T.S. Eliot
17. “For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.” – T.S. Eliot
18. “Only by acceptance of the past, can you alter it.” – T.S. Eliot
19. “It is impossible to design a system so perfect that no one needs to be good.” – T.S. Eliot
20. “Poetry consists in so rendering concrete objects that the emotions produced by the objects shall arise in the reader.” – T.S. Eliot
Deep Quotes of T. S. Eliot
21. “Poetry should help, not only to refine the language of the time, but to prevent it from changing too rapidly.” – T.S. Eliot
22. “If you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?” – T.S. Eliot
23. “People to whom nothing has ever happened cannot understand the unimportance of events.” – T.S. Eliot
24. “There is no absolute point of view from which real and ideal can be finally separated and labelled.” – T.S. Eliot
25. “Humankind cannot bear very much reality.” – T.S. Eliot
26. “The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.” – T.S. Eliot
27. “It’s not wise to violate rules until you know how to observe them.” – T.S. Eliot
28. “The communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.” – T.S. Eliot
29. “It is obvious that we can no more explain a passion to a person who has never experienced it than we can explain light to the blind.” – T.S. Eliot
30. “Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity.” – T.S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot Quotes About Life
31. “Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” – T.S. Eliot
32. “We know too much, and are convinced of too little. Our literature is a substitute for religion, and so is our religion.” – T.S. Eliot
33. “The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first.” – T.S. Eliot
34. “No one can become really educated without having pursued some study in which he took no interest- for it is a part of education to learn to interest ourselves in subjects for which we have no aptitude.” – T.S. Eliot
35. “Men dislike being awakened from their death in life.” – T.S. Eliot
36. “Unreal friendship may turn to real But real friendship, once ended, cannot be mended.” – T.S. Eliot
37. “I can connect Nothing with nothing.” – T.S. Eliot
38. “For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.” – T.S. Eliot
39. “Knowledge is invariably a matter of degree: you cannot put your finger upon even the simplest datum and say this we know.” – T.S. Eliot
40. “Every experience is a paradox in that it means to be absolute, and yet is relative; in that it somehow always goes beyond itself and yet never escapes itself.” – T.S. Eliot
41. “Business today consists in persuading crowds.” – T.S. Eliot
42. “Our high respect for a well read person is praise enough for literature.” – T.S. Eliot
43. “Between the idea And the reality Between the motion And the act Falls the Shadow.” – T.S. Eliot
44. “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.” – T.S. Eliot
45. “Light Light The visible reminder of Invisible Light.” – T.S. Eliot
46. “Where does one go from a world of insanity? Somewhere on the other side of despair.” – T.S. Eliot
47. “We do not pass through the same door twice Or return to the door through which we did not pass.” – T.S. Eliot
48. “Humor is also a way of saying something serious.” – T.S. Eliot
49. “We don’t actually fear death, we fear that no one will notice our absence, that we will disappear without a trace.” – T.S. Eliot
50. “Our difficulties of the moment must always be dealt with somehow, but our permanent difficulties are difficulties of every moment.” – T.S. Eliot
51. “Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.” – T.S. Eliot
