Thomas Stearns Eliot citáty

strana 8

„Lidstvo nedokáže snášet krutou realitu.“

„Dělat užitečnou věc, říkat odvážnou věc, přemýšlet o krásné věci: to stačí pro život jednoho člověka.“

„Někdy se věci stanou možnými, pokud je dostatečně chceme.“

„Samotná existence knihoven poskytuje nejlepší důkaz, že ještě můžeme mít naději pro budoucnost člověka.“

„Většinu zla na tomto světě páchají lidé s dobrými úmysly.“

„Rány v srdci, i když se časem zahojí, jsou na člověku po celý život znatelné.“

„Životu se lze vyhnout, smrti však ne.“

„Světlo, viditelná upomínka na neviditelné světlo.“

„Když nepřesáhneš sám sebe, odkud zjistíš, jak jsi vysoký?“

„Lidstvo nesnese příliš mnoho reality.“

„Milovat se s ženou v duchu je to nejideálnější milostné spojení dvou vyhraněných individualit.“

„Pohlavní vzdechy jsou součástí nesmrtelných myšlenek.“

„Nesmíme přestat hledat. Na konci našeho hledání dospějeme tam, kde jsme začínali, a bude to, jako kdybychom tam byli poprvé.“

„Někdy se věci, které šíleně chceme, stanou možnými.“

„Já ho nečtu, na to ho mám příliš rád.“

„Nezralí básníci napodobují, zralí básníci kradou.“

„Organizace je právě tak nutná jako inspirace.“

„Nezralí básníci napodobují, zkušení kradou. Ti špatní znetvoří, co si vezmou, zatímco dobří z toho udělají něco lepšího, nebo alespoň jiného. Skutečný básník zvládne svou kořist naroubovat do jedinečné koruny pocitů, zcela odlišné od té, ze které si svůj roub uštípl.“

„Dokud hudba trvá, jste hudbou vy.“

„Pokud toho nemáš až nad hlavu, jak vlastně víš, jak vysoký jsi?“

„Pravá poezie dokáže komunikovat dříve, než je pochopena.“

„Ukážu ti strach v hrsti prachu.“

„Svět se točí a svět se mění, ale jedna věc se nemění. Jedna věc se za všechna ta léta nezměnila. Ať už to maskujete jakkoli, tato věc se nemění: věčný boj Dobra a Zla.“

“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.”