There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.
T. S. EliotRead
It takes so many years to learn that one is dead.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the realization of one's own existence and the inevitability of mortality.
T. S. Eliot's quote encapsulates a profound contemplation of life and death, suggesting that the journey of understanding oneβs own mortality is long and fraught with complexities. It implies that throughout life, individuals may live in denial of their own finitude, often unaware of the deeper truths about existence until much later, if at all. This dawning realization can lead to greater insights about the nature of life and the human condition.
Themes
MortalityExistenceSelf-AwarenessPhilosophyTime
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the human experience, one might say, 'As T. S. Eliot notes, it takes so many years to learn that one is dead, highlighting the importance of embracing life fully.'
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.
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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?
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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.
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In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
T. S. EliotRead
Similar quotes
When I think of all the books I have read, and of the wise words I have heard spoken, and of the anxiety I have given to parents and grandparents, and of the hopes that I have had, all life weighed in the scales of my own life seems to me a preparation for something that never happens.
William Butler YeatsRead
I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
Once we see an aspect of what we or someone else does as something that happens, we lose our grip on the idea that it has been done and that we can judge the doer and not just the happening.
Thomas NagelRead
We oppose the death penalty not just for what it does to those guilty of heinous crimes, but for what it does to all of us: It offers the tragic illusiion that we can defend life by taking life.
Joseph FiorenzaRead
Surely, nothing can be more dangerous than the doctrine that the moral obligations of men change with the latitude and longitude of a place.
William Lloyd GarrisonRead
No matter what the world thinks about religious experience, the one who has it possesses a great treasure, a thing that has become for him a source of life, meaning, and beauty, and that has given a new splendor to the world and to mankind.
Carl JungRead