There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.
People to whom nothing has ever happened cannot understand the unimportance of events.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that those who have not experienced significant events in their lives may fail to grasp their true insignificance.
T. S. Eliot's quote reflects on the nature of human experience, implying that individuals who have led uneventful lives may not appreciate the degree to which events can affect our perception of importance. In essence, it highlights how personal experiences shape our understanding and valuation of events, revealing that many occurrences may actually hold little significance in the grander scheme of life.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the value of life experiences, this quote could illustrate the differing perspectives of individuals based on their personal histories.
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.
I am an Anglo-Catholic in religion, a classicist in literature and a royalist in politics.
If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?
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.
In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
Similar quotes
I know that, as night and shadows are good for flowers, and moonlight and dews are better than a continual sun, so is Christ's absence of special use, and that it hath some nourishing virtue in it, and giveth sap to humility, and putteth an edge on hunger, and funisheth a fairfield to faith to put forth itself, and to exercise its fingers in gripping it seeth not what.
It is almost impossible to state what one in fact believes, because it is almost impossible to hold a belief and to define it at the same time.
As nonhuman animals, plants, and even 'inanimate' rivers once spoke to our oral ancestors, so the ostensibly βinertβ letters on the page now speak to us! This is a form of animism that we take for granted, but it is animism nonetheless - as mysterious as a talking stone.
If gold rusts, what then can iron do?
I'm ex-player, ex-technical director, ex-coach, ex-manager, ex-honorary president. A nice list that once again shows that everything comes to an end.
Scandal sells books; fidelity does not.