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So far as we are human, what we do must be either evil or good: so far as we do evil or good, we are human: and it is better, in a paradoxical way, to do evil than to do nothing: at least we exist.

Evil, Good, Human, Moral Complexity, Existential Action, Philosophical Paradox

So far as we are human what we do must

So far as we are human what we do must

So far as we are human what we do must

T.S. Eliot’s Quotes On Topics

More T.S. Eliot Quotes

“Anecdote: It is by no means self-evident that human beings are most real when most violently excited; violent physical passions do not in themselves differentiate men from each other, but rather tend to reduce them to the same state.”

Excitement, Passion, Differentiation, Human Nature, Emotional Intensity, Philosophical Observation

“And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.”

Leisure, Conversation, Tranquility, Enjoyment, Companionship, Reflection

“It seems just possible that a poem might happen to a very young man: but a poem is not poetry -That is a life.”

Poetry, Life, Youth, Artistic Development, Poetic Insight, Creative Journey

“There is not a more repulsive spectacle than on old man who will not forsake the world, which has already forsaken him.”

Old, World, Forsake, Aging Critique, Social Observation, Existential Reflection

“No one can become really educated without having pursued some study in which he took no interest- for it is a part of education to learn to interest ourselves in subjects for which we have no aptitude.”

Education, Interest, Aptitude, Intellectual Growth, Personal Development, Learning Philosophy

“Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.”

Emotion, Expression, Introspection, Detachment, Creativity, Identity

“Men live by forgetting and woman live on memories.”

Men, Women, Memories, Gender Perspective, Psychological Insight, Life Philosophy

“Because I know that time is always time and place is always place and only place. And what is actual is actual only for one time. And only for one place. I rejoice that things are as they are.”

Time, Place, Actual, Temporal Specificity, Existential Acceptance, Philosophical Reflection

“A wrong attitude toward nature implies, somewhere, a wrong attitude toward God.”

Nature, God, Attitude, Spiritual Connection, Environmental Philosophy, Moral Insight

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

Cats, Learned, Similarity, Animal Nature, Human Comparison, Empathetic Understanding

“Someone said, 'The dead writers are remote from us because we know so much more than they did.' Precisely, and they are that which we know.”

Writers, Dead, Know, Literary Legacy, Cultural Knowledge, Historical Perspective

“If we take the widest and wisest view of a Cause, there is no such thing as a Lost Cause because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause. We fight for lost causes because we know that our defeat and dismay may be the preface to our successors’ victory, though that victory itself will be temporary; we fight rather to keep something alive than in the expectation that anything will triumph.”

Persistence, Struggle, Hope, Legacy, Defiance, Continuity

“The poet's mind is in fact a receptacle for seizing and storing up numberless feelings, phrases, images, which remain there until all the particles which can unite to form a new compound are present together.”

Poet, Mind, Receptacle, Creative Process, Poet’s Mind, Poetic Inspiration

“For you know only a heap of broken images.”

Disillusionment, Fragmentation, Confusion, Symbolism, Decay, Introspection

“This form, this face, this life living to live in a world of time beyond me; let me resign my life for this life, my speech for that unspoken, the awakened, lips parted, the hope, the new ships.”

Form, Face, Life, Temporal Existence, Spiritual Awakening, Poetic Transformation

“And would it have been worth it, after all, Would it have been worth while, After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets, After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor – And this, and so much more? -.”

Worth, Reflection, Memory, Beauty, Time, Simplicity

“The greatness of literature cannot be determined solely by literary standards though we must remember that whether it is literature or not can be determined only by literary standards.”

Literature, Greatness, Standards, Artistic Evaluation, Critical Perspective, Cultural Value

“Upon the glazen shelves kept watch Matthew and Waldo, guardians of the faith The army of unalterable law.”

Matthew, Waldo, Faith, Religious Imagery, Literary Allusion, Philosophical Metaphor

“The soul is so far from being a monad that we have not only to interpret other souls to ourself but to interpret ourself to ourself.”

Soul, Interpret, Monad, Self-understanding, Interpersonal Insight, Psychological Complexity

“Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea.”

Time, Indecisions, Visions, Poetic Repetition, Life’s Complexity, Daily Ritual