T. S. Eliot

A play should give you something to think about. When I see a play and understand it the first time, then I know it can't be much good.

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

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.

For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.

It is impossible to design a system so perfect that no one needs to be good.

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

We know too much, and are convinced of too little. Our literature is a substitute for religion, and so is our religion.

Radio is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome.

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.

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.

The Nobel is a ticket to one's own funeral. No one has ever done anything after he got it.
- All from T. S. Eliot, 1888 - 1965

About:
Thomas Stearns Eliot was born at St. Louis, Missouri on 26 Sep in 1888. After attending Smith Academy at Saint Louis he went on to Harvard, graduated, earned his Master's, and prepared for a PhD but failed to defend his thesis. He was continuing his education in Europe when WW I broke out. At that point it all gets rather over my head. He became one of the most important poets of the last century as well as one of the most important literary critics. It is from his criticism and personal correspondence that today's quotes are drawn.