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.
The soul is so far from being a monad that we have not only to interpret other souls to ourself but to interpret ourself to ourself.
The bad poet is usually unconscious where he ought to be conscious, and conscious where he ought to be unconscious.
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 last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.
A toothache, or a violent passion, is not necessarily diminished by our knowledge of its causes, its character, its importance or insignificance.
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.'
In my beginning is my end.
Longer Version:
In my beginning is my end. In succession Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended, Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass. Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires, Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth Which is already flesh, fur and faeces, Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf.
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.
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.
Longer Version:
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.
The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.
It is only in the world of objects that we have time and space and selves.
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.
Longer Version:
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..
Knowledge is invariably a matter of degree: you cannot put your finger upon even the simplest datum and say this we know.
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.
And they write innumerable books; being too vain and distracted for silence: seeking every one after his own elevation, and dodging his emptiness.
Our difficulties of the moment must always be dealt with somehow, but our permanent difficulties are difficulties of every moment.
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.
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
Longer Version:
I will show you fear in a handful of dust." t.s. eliot we don't actually fear death, we fear that no one will notice our absence, that we will disappear without a trace.
What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
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.
