“Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.”
Poetry
“Knowledge is invariably a matter of degree: you cannot put your finger upon even the simplest datum and say this we know.”
GraduationAll Quotes by T. S. Eliot
“There is no method but to be very intelligent.”
Intelligence“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“Where is all the knowledge we lost with information?”
Knowledge“Art never improves, but... the material of art is never quite the same.”
Art“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.”
Experience“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“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“Moving between the legs of tables and of chairs, rising or falling, grasping at kisses and toys, advancing boldly, sudden to take alarm, retreating to the corner of arm and knee, eager to be reassured, taking pleasure in the fragrant brilliance of the Christmas tree.”
Christmas“Business today consists in persuading crowds.”
Business“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 emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.”
Poetry“It is only in the world of objects that we have time and space and selves.”
Time“This love is silent.”
Love“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“Poetry should help, not only to refine the language of the time, but to prevent it from changing too rapidly.”
Poetry“Television is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome.”
Time“I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”
Fear“We know too much, and are convinced of too little. Our literature is a substitute for religion, and so is our religion.”
Religion“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“The communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.”
Communication