The Waste Land and Other Poems Quotes

“You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
They called me the hyacinth girl.'
—Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
Od' und leer das Meer.”
― T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Writings

“And indeed there will be time for the yellow smoke that slides along the street rubbing its back upon the window-panes; there will be time , there will be time to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; there will be time to murder and create, and time for all the works and days of hands that lift and drop a question on your plate; 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 toast and tea.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.

Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
The worlds revolve like ancient women
Gathering fuel in vacant lots.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“O perpetual revolution of configured stars, o perpetual recurrence of determined seasons, o world of spring and autumn, birth and dying! The endless cycle of idea and action, endless invention, endless experiment, brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; knowledge of speech, but not of silence; knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance, all our ignorance brings us nearer to death, but nearness to death no nearer to God. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“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;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?

And I have known the eyes already, known them all -
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?”
― T.S. Eliot, T.S. Eliot Reads: The Wasteland, Four Quartets and Other Poems

“Fading, fading: strength beyond hope and despair climbing the third stair. Lord, I am not worthy Lord, I am not worthy but speak the word only.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“Datta, dayadhvam, damyata
(Give, sympathize, control)”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“Think neither fear nor courage saves us.
Unnatural vices are fathered by our heroism.
Virtues are forced upon us by our impudent crimes.
These tears are shaken from the wrath-bearing tree.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“After such knowledge, what forgiveness? Think now
History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors
And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions,
Guides us by vanities. Think now
She gives when our attention is distracted
And what she gives, gives with such supple confusions
That the giving famishes the craving. Gives too late
What’s not believed in, or if still believed,
In memory only, reconsidered passion. Gives too soon
Into weak hands, what’s thought can be dispensed with
Till the refusal propagates a fear. Think
Neither fear nor courage saves us. Unnatural vices
Are fathered by our heroism. Virtues
Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes.
These tears are shaken from the wrath-bearing tree.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“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.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.
Where is the life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices in the lost lilac and the lost sea voices and the weak spirit quickens to rebel for the bent golden-rod and the lost sea smell quickens to recover.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“I that was near your heart was removed therefrom”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“We see the light but see not whence it comes. O Light Invisible, we glorify Thee!”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“He, the young man carbuncular, arrives,
A small house agent's clerk, with one bold stare,
One of the low on whom assurance sits
As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.”
― T. S. Eliot, Four Quarters, the Waste Land and Other Poems

“Who is the third who walks always beside you?”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“Although I do not hope to turn again
Although I do not hope
Although I do not hope to turn”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“There is no water, so things are bad. If there were water, it would be better. But there is no water.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“... I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
Oed’ und leer das Meer.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
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.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“I am no prophet – and here's no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land And Other Poems

“The conscience of a blackened street
Impatient to assume the world.

I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“IV. Death by Water

Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell
And the profit and loss.
A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.
Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems