To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life.The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism, 1932-33 lecture series
Author · 13 quotes
T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) was an American-born British poet, essayist, playwright, and literary critic. He is best known for his works such as "The Waste Land" and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," which revolutionized modernist poetry and had a profound influence on 20th-century literature. Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 for his outstanding contribution to poetry.
1888–1965·lived 76 years
To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life.The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism, 1932-33 lecture series
Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important.The Cocktail Party, 1949
Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important.The Cocktail Party, 1949
Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.The Sacred Wood, 1920
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.
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.The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism, p. 24, 1933
Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity.
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.Little Gidding, Four Quartets, 1943
I had seen birth and death but had thought they were different.Journey of the Magi, 1927
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.The New York Times, 21 September 1958
I am the family face; flesh perishes, I live on.Heredity, by Thomas Hardy
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.Preface to Transit of Venus: Poems, by Harry Crosby, Black Sun Press, 1931
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?The Rock, 1934
That’s all 13 quotes by T.S. Eliot.