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In their own words

T. S. Eliot quotes

9 quotations, each verified against its source and credited to the work it comes from — the wording as T. S. Eliot wrote or said it, not as the internet passes it around.

Illustrated portrait of T. S. Eliot
April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain.
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922)
This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.
T. S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men,” in Poems 1909–1925 (1925)
For I have known them all already, known them all: / Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, / I have measured out my life with coffee spoons
J. Alfred Prufrock · T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” in Prufrock and Other Observations (1917)
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922)
Do I dare / Disturb the universe?
J. Alfred Prufrock · T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” in Prufrock and Other Observations (1917)
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.
T. S. Eliot, “Philip Massinger,” The Sacred Wood (1920)
In the room the women come and go / Talking of Michelangelo.
T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” in Prufrock and Other Observations (1917)
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.
T. S. Eliot, “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” The Sacred Wood (1920)
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. / I do not think that they will sing to me.
J. Alfred Prufrock · T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” in Prufrock and Other Observations (1917)

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