T. S. Eliot

“For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice.”

“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.”

“This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.”

“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.”

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

“We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.”

“April is the cruellest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.”

“Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.”

“Humankind cannot bear very much reality.”

“If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?”

“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.”

“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.”

“Do I dare / Disturb the universe?”

“Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity.”

“Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.”

“The journey, not the destination matters.”

“To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life.”

“Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future, and time future contained in time past.”

“The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man.”

“There will be time, there will be time / To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet.”