“As things are, and as fundamentally they must always be, poetry is not a career, but a mug's game. No honest poet can ever feel quite sure of the permanent value of what he has written: He may have wasted his time and messed up his life for nothing.”
Poetry
“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?”
KnowledgeAll Quotes by T. S. Eliot
“All significant truths are private truths. As they become public they cease to become truths they become facts, or at best, part of the public character or at worst, catchwords.”
Best“Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.”
Poetry“I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”
Fear“Knowledge is invariably a matter of degree: you cannot put your finger upon even the simplest datum and say this we know.”
Graduation“I had seen birth and death but had thought they were different.”
Death“It is only in the world of objects that we have time and space and selves.”
Time“Business today consists in persuading crowds.”
Business“We know too much, and are convinced of too little. Our literature is a substitute for religion, and so is our religion.”
Religion“The business of the poet is not to find new emotions, but to use the ordinary ones and, in working them up into poetry, to express feelings which are not in actual emotions at all.”
Business“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.”
Time“A play should give you something to think about. When I see a play and understand it the first time, then I know it can't be much good.”
Good“Where is all the knowledge we lost with information?”
Knowledge“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.”
Age“Home is where one starts from.”
Home“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?”
Knowledge“There is no method but to be very intelligent.”
Intelligence“The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first.”
Work“For love would be love of the wrong thing there is yet faith, But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.”
Faith“You are the music while the music lasts.”
Music