There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.
T. S. EliotRead
It's strange that words are so inadequate. Yet, like the asthmatic struggling for breath, so the lover must struggle for words.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the difficulty of expressing deep feelings through words, comparing it to a struggle for breath.
T. S. Eliot's quote highlights the inadequacy of language when it comes to conveying profound emotions, specifically love. Just as a person with asthma faces a struggle to breathe, a lover often finds it challenging to articulate their innermost feelings, emphasizing the gap between experience and expression.
Themes
WordsLoveExpressionInadequateStruggle
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote during a wedding speech to illustrate the beauty and challenge of expressing love.
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.
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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
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Just like that. Gone forever. They will not grow old together. They will never live on a beach by the sea, their hair turned white, dancing in a living room to Billie Holiday or Nat Cole. They will not enter a New York club at midnight and show the poor hip-hop fools how to dance. They will not chuckle together over the endless folly of the world, its vanities and stupid ambitions. They will not hug each other in any chilly New York dawn. Oh, Mary Lou. My baby. My love.
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She loved him absolutely, perhaps for half an hour.
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We cannot love something solely because it has been ignored. It must also be worthy of our attention.
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