When the Stranger says: "What is the meaning of this city? Do you huddle close together because you love each other?" What will you answer? "We all dwell together To make money from each other"? or "This is a community"? Oh my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger. Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions.
T. S. EliotWhat profession is more trying than that of author? After you finish a piece of work it only seems good to you for a few weeks; or if it seems good at all you are convinced that it is the last you will be able to write; and if it seems bad you wonder whether everything you have done isnโt poor stuff really; and it is one kind of agony while you are writing, and another kind when you arenโt.
T. S. EliotPoetry should help, not only to refine the language of the time, but to prevent it from changing too rapidly.
T. S. EliotThere is, it seems to us, At best, only a limited value In the knowledge derived from experience.
T. S. EliotOf lovers whose bodies smell of each other Who think the same thoughts without need of speech
T. S. EliotA good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest.
T. S. EliotNow that lilacs are in bloom She has a bowl of lilacs in her room And twists one in her fingers while she talks. "Ah, my friend, you do not know, you do not know What life is, you who hold it in your hands"; (slowly twisting the lilac stalks) "You let it flow from you, you let it flow, And youth is cruel, and has no remorse And smiles at situations which it cannot see." I smile, of course, And go on drinking tea.
T. S. Eliot