QuoteProject
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.
T. S. Eliot
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects on the passage of time and the mundanity of life, suggesting a sense of awareness of life's routine moments.

In this quote, T. S. Eliot expresses a deep familiarity with life's daily rhythms, emphasizing how ordinary experiences, such as the moments marked by coffee spoons, make up the essence of existence. It underscores the idea that time is measured not just by grand events but also by the seemingly trivial routines that fill our days, hinting at a contemplative relationship with life and mortality.

Themes

LifeTimeRoutineReflectionAwareness

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of appreciating everyday moments.

More from T. S. Eliot

There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.
T. S. EliotRead
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.
T. S. EliotRead
I am an Anglo-Catholic in religion, a classicist in literature and a royalist in politics.
T. S. EliotRead
If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?
T. S. EliotRead
In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
T. S. EliotRead
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.
T. S. EliotRead

Similar quotes

But the people who took the bus didn't experience the city as we experienced the city. The pain made the city more beautiful. The story made us different characters than we would have been if we had skipped the story and showed up at the ending an easier way.
Donald MillerRead
It will take all your heart, it will take all your breath It will be short, it will not be simple
Adrienne RichRead
After a life deprived of everything from romantic love to the choice of when to wake up in the morning, after 29 years without the ability to have a career or even to be alone at toilet, the Bijani sisters are not symbols but women who have had to live a shared life of constant, quotidian sacrifice.
Darin StraussRead
There is no complete life. There are only fragments. We are born to have nothing, to have it pour through our hands. And yet, this pouring, this flood of encounters, struggles, dreams...
James SalterRead
I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don't make that mistake yourself. Life's too damn short.
Armistead MaupinRead
So you can't dance? Not at all? Not even one step? How can you say that you've taken any trouble to live when you won't even dance?
Hermann HesseRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.