T. S. Eliot

We might remind ourselves that criticism is as inevitable as breathing, and that we should be none the worse for articulating what passes in our minds when we read a book and feel an emotion about it, for criticizing our own minds in their work of criticism.

Any religion is forever in danger of petrifaction into mere ritual and habit, though ritual and habit be essential to religion.

Humankind can't stand too much reality.

You have to risk going too far to discover just how far you can really go.

You have learned enough to see that cats are much like you and me.

You will find that you survive humiliation. And that's an experience of incalculable value.

A woman drew her long black hair out tight, And fiddled whisper music on those strings, And bats with baby faces in the violet light Whistled, and beat their wings, And crawled head downward down a blackened wall.

Shall I part my hair behind Do I dare to eat a peach I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me.

Good poets borrow, great poets steal

The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion.

They don't understand what it is to be awake, / To be living on several planes at once / Though one cannot speak with several voices at once.

A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I had not thought death had undone so many.

A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.

The greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a man can logically analyze his reasons for believing, but how far in practice he will stake his life on his belief.

We do not quite say that the new is more valuable because it fits in; but its fitting in is a test of its value - a test, it is true, which can only be slowly and cautiously applied, for we are none of us infallible judges of conformity.

All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance.

The chief danger about Paris is that it is such a strong stimulant.

After such knowledge, what forgiveness? Think now History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions Guides us by vanities.

The fool,fixed in his folly,may think He can turn the wheel on which he turns.

No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone.

After such knowledge, what forgiveness?