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We do not quite say that the new is more valuable because it fits in but its fitting in is a test of its value - a test, it is true, which can only be slowly and cautiously applied, for we are none of us infallible judges of conformity.

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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We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Till human voices wake us... and we drown.
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The dripping blood our only drink, The bloody flesh our only food: In spite of which we like to think That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.
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Time present and time past / are both perhaps present in time future.
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In a world of fugitives the one who stays home will seem to be running away
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No generation is interested in art in quite the same way as any other each generation, like each individual, brings to the contemplation of art its own categories of appreciation, makes its own demands upon art, and has its own uses for art.
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Accident is design / And design is accident / In a cloud of unknowing.
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If you desire to drain to the dregs the fullest cup of scorn and hatred that a fellow human being can pour out for you, let a young mother hear you call dear baby 'it.'
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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 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.
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We ask only to be reassured About the noises in the cellar And the window that should not have been open
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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.
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It is worth while dying, to find out what life is.
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Words strain, crack, and sometime break, under the burden.
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Webster was much possessed by death And saw the skull beneath the skin.
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Whatever you do, don't whimper, but take the consequences.
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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.
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I do not approve the extermination of the enemy the policy of exterminating or, as it is barbarously said, liquidating enemies, is one of the most alarming developments of modern war and peace, from the point of view of those who desire the survival
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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.
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The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started.
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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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