There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.
T. S. EliotRead
Liberty is a different kind of pain from prison.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Liberty comes with its own challenges and burdens, differing from the constraints of imprisonment.
In this quote, T. S. Eliot suggests that while liberty is often viewed as a positive state, it also entails a unique set of struggles and responsibilities that can be just as painful as being confined. Unlike the physical limitations of prison, the pain of liberty could stem from the emotional, moral, and ethical dilemmas that come with freedom, illustrating the complexity of human existence.
Themes
LibertyPainFreedomStrugglesResponsibility
In practice
Example use cases
During a graduation speech, to emphasize the bittersweet nature of newfound freedom.
More from T. S. Eliot
All quotes βHalf of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm. But the harm does not interest them.
T. S. EliotRead
I am an Anglo-Catholic in religion, a classicist in literature and a royalist in politics.
T. S. EliotRead
If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?
T. S. EliotRead
For I have known them all already, known them allβ Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.
T. S. EliotRead
In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
T. S. EliotRead
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That was interesting, to find that it wasn't hunger that caused children to become bullies on the street. The bulliness was already in the child, and whatever the stakes were, they would find a way to act as they needed to act. β¦ Intelligence and education, which all these children had, apparently didn't make any important difference in human nature.
Orson Scott CardRead
It is because you have the typical American habit of seeing everything as a test. You see the mountain as your enemy and you set out to defeat it. So, naturally, the mountain fights back and it is stronger than you are. We do not see the mountain as our enemy to be conquered. The purpose of our climb is to become one with the mountain and so it lifts us up and carries us along.
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In every author let us distinguish the man from his works.
VoltaireRead