“When the whole world is running headlong towards the precipice, one who walks in the opposite direction is looked at as being crazy.” ~ T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Discover the profound teachings of T. S. Eliot, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, as we embark on a journey of self-discovery, learning and growth.
His words resonate with beauty and truth even to this day, and will continue to do so for years to come, as every single one of his works are proof that he was indeed a literary master.
May these lessons be the key to unlocking the secret to living a more intentional and meaningful life, and finding meaning in the ordinary that surrounds us.
35 Life-Changing Lessons to Learn from T. S. Eliot
1. Only if you risk going too far you can find out how far you can go.
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”~ T. S. Eliot
2. Never cease exploring.
“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.” ~ T. S. Eliot
3. “If we really want to pray we must first learn to listen, for in the silence of the heart God speaks.” ~ T. S. Eliot
“To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man’s life.”
5. The journey matters more than the destination.
“The journey, Not the destination matters.” ~ T. S. Eliot
6. Allow people to show you who they are by observing and listening to them.
“I learn a great deal by merely observing you, and letting you talk as long as you please, and taking note of what you do not say.” ~ T. S. Eliot
7. At every meeting we are meeting a stranger.
“We die to each other daily. What we know of other people is only our memory of the moments during which we knew them. And they have changed since then. To pretend that they and we are the same is a useful and convenient social convention which must sometimes be broken. We must also remember that at every meeting we are meeting a stranger.” ~ T. S. Eliot
8. “Humility is the most difficult of all virtues to achieve; nothing dies harder than the desire to think well of self.” ~ T. S. Eliot
9. Be certain of everything you think, want and feel.
“Whatever you think, be sure it is what you think; whatever you want, be sure that is what you want; whatever you feel, be sure that is what you feel.” ~ T. S. Eliot
10. The end is where we start from.
“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.”
12. Have the strength to impose your own terms upon life.
“If you haven’t the strength to impose your own terms upon life, then you must accept the terms it offers you.”
13. When you want something bad enough it can become possible.
“Sometimes things become possible if we want them bad enough.”
14. Where is the life you lost in living?
“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?”
15. “We had the experience, but we missed the meaning.” ~ T. S. Eliot
16. Hell is a place where nothing connects with nothing.
“The definition of hell is a place where nothing connects with nothing.” ~ T. S. Eliot
17. While the music lasts, you are the music.
“You are the music while the music lasts.”~ T.S. Eliot
18. The progress of an artist is continual self-sacrifice.
“The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.”
19. Before you break a rule, observe it first.
“It’s not wise to violate rules until you know how to observe them.”
20. You cannot explain a passion to a person who never experienced it just like you cannot explain light to the blind.
“It is obvious that we can no more explain a passion to a person who has never experienced it than we can explain light to the blind.”
21. “Humankind cannot bear very much reality.”~ T.S. Eliot
22. Knowledge is invariably a matter of degree.
“Knowledge is invariably a matter of degree: you cannot put your finger upon even the simplest datum and say this we know.”
23. The dreamers is no more real than his dreams.
“Can we only love Something created in our own imaginations? Are we all in fact unloving and unloveable? Then one is alone, and if one is alone Then lover and beloved are equally unreal And the dreamer is no more real than his dreams.” ~ T. S. Eliot
24. “So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.”~ T.S. Eliot
25. You don’t know what hope is until you have lost it.
“You do not know what hope is, until you have lost it. You only know what it is not to hope: You do not know what it is to have hope taken from you Or to fling it away, to join the legion of the hopeless Unrecognized by other men, though sometimes by each other.” ~ T. S. Eliot
“Unreal friendship may turn to real. But real friendship, once ended, cannot be mended.”
27. Men dislike being awakened from their death in life.
“Men dislike being awakened from their death in life.“
28. You know you’ve reached your destination when you get there.
“The destination cannot be described; You will know very little until you get there; You will journey blind.” ~ T. S. Eliot
29. Half of the harm done in this world is due to people who want to feel important.
“Half 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.”
“All significant truths are private truths. As they become public they cease to become truths; they become facts, or at best, part of the public character; or at worst, catchwords.”
31. “People to whom nothing has ever happened cannot understand the unimportance of events.”~ T.S. Eliot
32. We know too much, and are convinced of too little.
“We know too much, and are convinced of too little. Our literature is a substitute for religion, and so is our religion.”
“There’s no vocabulary for love within a family, love that’s lived in but not looked at, love within the light of which All else is seen, the love within which All other love finds speech. This love is silent.” ~ T. S. Eliot
34. “If you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?” ~ T. S. Eliot
35. Learn from your experiences as they may never come again.
“We do not pass twice through the same door Or return to the door through which we did not pass.” ~ T. S. Eliot
Bonus:
“People are only influenced in the direction in which they want to go, and influence consists largely in making them conscious of their wishes to proceed in that direction.” ~ T. S. Eliot
“We shall not cease from exploring, And the end of our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.” ~ T. S. Eliot
“The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man” ~ T. S. Eliot
“Nothing pleases people more than to go on thinking what they have always thought, and at the same time imagine that they are thinking something new and daring: it combines the advantage of security and the delight of adventure.”
“The greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a man can logically analyze his reasons for believing, but how far in practice he will stake his life on his belief.” ~ T. S. Eliot
“The young feel tired at the end of an action, the old at the beginning.” ~ T. S. Eliot
“The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.” ~ T. S. Eliot
“I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.” ~ T. S. Eliot
“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.”
“O Lord, deliver me from the man of excellent intention and impure heart: for the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”
“Television is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome.”
“There is not a more repulsive spectacle than on old man who will not forsake the world, which has already forsaken him.”
“For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.”
