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Quotes by T S Eliot

'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.'

'No poet, no artist of any art has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists.'

'The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do more, and you are not yet decrepit enough to turn them down.'

'No poet, no artist of any art has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists.'

‘The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do more, and you are not yet decrepit enough to turn them down.'

'The majority of poems one outgrows and outlives, as one outgrows and outlives the majority of human passions.'

'The majority of poems one outgrows and outlives, as one outgrows and outlives the majority of human passions.'

'No poet, no artist of any art has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists.'

'Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.'

'Poetry is not an assertion of truth, but the making of that truth more fully real to us.'

'We learn what poetry is - if we ever learn - by reading it.'

'Asked if editors were no more than failed writers: 'Perhaps - but so are most writers.'

'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.'

'Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.'

'Poetry is not a career, but a mug's game. No honest poet can ever feel quite sure of the permanent value of what he has written, he may have wasted his time and messed up his life for nothing.'

'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.'

'The majority of poems one outgrows and outlives, as one outgrows and outlives the majority of human passions.'

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