Frases de Thomas Stearns Eliot

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“Solo aquellos que se arriesgan a ir demasiado lejos sabrán lo lejos que pueden llegar.”

“Y te enseñaré algo que no es
ni la sombra tuya que te sigue por la mañana
ni tu sombra que al atardecer sale a tu encuentro;
te mostraré el miedo en un puñado de polvo.”

“Hay épocas en que uno siente que ha caído a pedazos y a la vez se ve a sí mismo en mitad de la carretera estudiando las piezas sueltas, preguntándose si será capaz de montarlas otra vez y qué especie de artefaco saldrá.”

“La experiencia me ha enseñado que, a la hora de valorar la poesía, cuanto menos se sepa acerca de un poeta y su obra, antes de empezar a leerlo, mejor.”

“No dejaremos de explorar y el fin de nuestra exploración sera encontrar el punto de partida y conocer el lugar por primera vez.”

“No tememos a la muerte, tememos que nadie note nuestra ausencia; que desaparezcamos sin dejar rastro.”

“Los poetas inmaduros imitan; los poetas maduros roban; los malos estropean lo que roban, y los buenos lo convierten en algo mejor.”

“La mayor parte de los problemas del mundo se deben a la gente que quiere ser importante.”

“Las palabras del año pasado pertenecen al lenguaje del año pasado. Las palabras del próximo año esperan otra voz.”

“Hacer lo útil, decir lo justo y contemplar lo bello es bastante para una vida de hombre.”

“Algunos periodistas son escritores fallidos; pero también lo son muchos escritores.”

“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. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead. I mean this as a principle of æsthetic, not merely historical, criticism.”

“In the vacant places
We will build with new bricks”

“I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.”

“The work of creation is never without travail”

“The tiger springs in the new year. Us he devours. Think at last
We have not reached conclusion, when I
Stiffen in a rented house. Think at last
I have not made this show purposelessly
And it is not by any concitation
Of the backward devils.
I would meet you upon this honestly.
I that was near your heart was removed therefrom
To lose beauty in terror, terror in inquisition.
I have lost my passion: why should I need to keep it
Since what is kept must be adulterated?”

“He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime — Macavity's not there!”

“Jellicle Cats come out tonight,
Jellicle Cats come one come all:
The Jellicle Moon is shining bright —
Jellicles come to the Jellicle Ball.”

“Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.”

“No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous —
Almost, at times, the Fool.”

“Yes the Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat —
And there isn't any call for me to shout it:
For he will do
As he do do
And there's no doing anything about it!”

“It is certain that a book is not harmless merely because no one is consciously offended by it.”

“And we all say: OH!
Well I never!
Was there ever
A Cat so clever
As Magical Mr. Mistoffelees!”

“Here I am, an old man in a dry month,
Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain.”

“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?”

“What have we to do but stand with empty hands and palms turned upwards in an age which advances progressively backwards?”

“We see the light but see not whence it comes.
O Light Invisible, we glorify Thee!”

“Webster was much possessed by death
And saw the skull beneath the skin”

“Out of the meaningless practical shapes of all that is living or lifeless
Joined with the artist's eye, new life, new form, new colour.
Out of the sea of sound the life of music,
Out of the slimy mud of words, out of the sleet and hail of verbal imprecisions,
Approximate thoughts and feelings, words that have taken the place of thoughts and feelings,
There spring the perfect order of speech, and the beauty of incantation.”

“We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw.”

“Atheism should always be encouraged (i. e. rationalistic not emotional atheism) for the sake of the Faith.”

“Signs are taken for wonders. “We would see a sign!”
The word within a word, unable to speak a word,
Swaddled with darkness.”

“Mr. Aldous Huxley, who is perhaps one of those people who have to perpetrate thirty bad novels before producing a good one, has a certain natural — but little developed — aptitude for seriousness.”

“This is the land which ye
Shall divide by lot. And neither division nor unity
Matters. This is the land. We have our inheritance.”

“And I have known the arms already, known them all —
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
[But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair! ]
It is perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And should I then presume?
:And how should I begin?

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.”

“Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice”

“A penny for the Old Guy”

“Long ago I studied the ancient Indian languages, and while I was chiefly interested at that time in philosophy, I read a little poetry too; and I know that my own poetry shows the influence of Indian thought and sensibility.”

“Signs are taken for wonders. “We would see a sign!””

“Old Deuteronomy's lived a long time;
He's a Cat who has lived many lives in succession.
He was famous in proverb and famous in rhyme
A long while before Queen Victoria's accession.”