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Immature poets imitate mature poets steal bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.

T. S. Eliot

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T. S. Eliot
Age: 76 †
Born: 1888
Born: September 26
Died: 1965
Died: January 4
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Thomas Stearns Eliot
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T S Eliot
Thomas Eliot
T.S. Eliot
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More quotes by T. S. Eliot

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From a purely external point of view there is no will and to find will in any phenomenon requires a certain empathy we observe aman's actions and place ourselves partly but not wholly in his position or we act, and place ourselves partly in the position of an outsider.
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In order to possess what you do not possess, you must go by the way of dispossession.
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The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an objective correlative in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula for that particular emotion such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked.
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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.
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My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me. 'Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak. 'What are you thinking of? What thinking? What? 'I never know what you are thinking. Think.
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We are not here to triumph by fighting, by strata gem, or by resistance, not to fight with beasts as men. We have fought the beast and have conquered. We have only to conquer now, by suffering. This is the easier victory.
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We know too much, and are convinced of too little. Our literature is a substitute for religion, and so is our religion.
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Cats must have three names-an everyday name, such as Peter a more particular, dignified name, such as Quaxo, Bombalurina, or Jellylorum and, thirdly, the name the cat thinks up for himself, his deep and inscrutable singular Name.
T. S. Eliot
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I am glad you have a Cat, but I do not believe it is So remarkable a cat as My Cat. My Cat is a Lilliecat Hubvously. What a lilliecat it is. There never was such a Lilliecat. Its Name is JELLYORUM and its one Idea is to be Usefull!!
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Upon the glazen shelves kept watch Matthew and Waldo, guardians of the faith The army of unalterable law.
T. S. Eliot
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Teach us to care and not to care
T. S. Eliot
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Because I know that time is always time and place is always place and only place. And what is actual is actual only for one time. And only for one place. I rejoice that things are as they are.
T. S. Eliot
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Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
T. S. Eliot
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I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.
T. S. Eliot
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Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought.
T. S. Eliot
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There is no escape from metre there is only mastery.
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The bad poet is usually unconscious where he ought to be conscious, and conscious where he ought to be unconscious.
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When the Stranger says: What is the meaning of this city? Do you huddle close together because you love each other? What will you answer? We all dwell together To make money from each other? or This is a community? Oh my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger. Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions.
T. S. Eliot
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You gave me hyacinths first a year ago They called me the hyacinth girl.' —Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden, Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. Od' und leer das Meer.
T. S. Eliot
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I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids Sprouting despondently at area gates.
T. S. Eliot