Quotes by T. S. Eliot

I take as metaphysical poetry that in which what is ordinarily apprehensible only by thought is brought within the grasp of feeling, or that in which what is ordinarily only felt is transformed into thought without ceasing to be feeling.


The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.


Whatever you think, be sure it is what you think; whatever you want, be sure that is what you want; whatever you feel, be sure that is what you feel.


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.


Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow


Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow


This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.