“music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but
you are the music
While the music lasts.”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962
“You do not know how much they mean to me, my friends,
And how, how rare and strange it is, to find
In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends,
(For indeed I do not love it ... you knew? you are not blind! How keen you are!)
To find a friend who has these qualities,
Who has, and gives
Those qualities upon which friendship lives.
How much it means that I say this to you-
Without these friendships-life, what cauchemar!”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962
“Now that the lilacs are in bloom
She has a bowl of lilacs in her room”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962
“Yet with these April sunsets, that somehow recall
My buried life, and Paris in the spring,
I feel immeasurably at peace, and find the world
To be wonderful and youthful afterall”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962
“The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962
“And what you thought you came for
is only a shell, a husk of meaning
from which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled
if at all. Either you had no purpose
or the purpose is beyond the end you figured
And is altered in fulfillment.”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962
“Honest criticism and sensible appreciation are directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry.”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962
“Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word...
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?”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962
“I decided that if the shaking of her breasts could be stopped, some of the fragments of the afternoon might be collected, and I concentrated my attention with careful subtlety to this end.”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962
“And in short, I was afraid.”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962
“Daffodil bulbs instead of balls
Stared from the sockets of the eyes!
He knew that thought clings round dead limbs
Tightening its lusts and luxuries.”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962
“I could see nothing behind that child’s eye. 40
I have seen eyes in the street
Trying to peer through lighted shutters,
And a crab one afternoon in a pool,
An old crab with barnacles on his back,
Gripped the end of a stick which I held him.”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962
“Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962
“Under the penitential gates
Sustained by staring Seraphim
Where the souls of the devout
Burn invisible and dim.”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962
“Words strain, Crack and sometimes break, under the burden, Under the tension, slip, slide, perish, Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place, Will not stay still.”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962
“Time and the bell have buried the day,
The black cloud carries the sun away.
Will the sunflower turn to us, will the clematis
Stray down, bend to us; tendril and spray
Clutch and cling?
Chill
Fingers of yew be curled
Down on us? After the kingfisher's wing
Has answered light to light, and is silent, the light is still
At the still point of the turning world.”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962
T.S. Eliot
Born place: in St. Louis, Missouri, The United States
Born date September 26, 1888
See more on GoodReads
“Beneath me lay the Lake of Oblivion, above me loomed Insanity.”
― Walter Moers, quote from The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear
“This is a massive world, I think, and in each centimeter of it, a different drama unfolds every second of the day. But we live on as if the next moment in our lives will be no different than the last. How foolish we all are.”
― Mahbod Seraji, quote from Rooftops of Tehran
“Sometimes agents were so influenced by one another that they lost track of their goal and did something else instead. In that sense, the program was very childlike, unpredictable and easily distracted. As one programmer put it - trying to program distributed intelligence is like telling a five year old kid to go to his room and change his clothes. He may do that, but he is equally likely to do something else and never return.”
― Michael Crichton, quote from Prey
“There can be no progress nor achievement without sacrifice, and a man's worldly success will be by the measure that he sacrifices his confused animal thoughts, and fixes his mind on the development of his plans, and the strengthening of his resolution and self-reliance.”
― James Allen, quote from As a Man Thinketh
“But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.”
― O. Henry, quote from The Gift of the Magi
Smog City
I Crawl Through It
The First and Last F...
Always
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
