There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.
T. S. EliotRead
It takes so many years to learn that one is dead.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the realization of one's own existence and the inevitability of mortality.
T. S. Eliot's quote encapsulates a profound contemplation of life and death, suggesting that the journey of understanding oneβs own mortality is long and fraught with complexities. It implies that throughout life, individuals may live in denial of their own finitude, often unaware of the deeper truths about existence until much later, if at all. This dawning realization can lead to greater insights about the nature of life and the human condition.
Themes
MortalityExistenceSelf-AwarenessPhilosophyTime
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the human experience, one might say, 'As T. S. Eliot notes, it takes so many years to learn that one is dead, highlighting the importance of embracing life fully.'
More from T. S. Eliot
All quotes βHalf 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
For I have known them all already, known them allβ Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.
T. S. EliotRead
In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
T. S. EliotRead
Similar quotes
Monks, when ignorance is abandoned, and knowledge arises in the monk, with the ending of ignorance and the arising of knowledge he clings neither to sense-pleasures, nor does he cling to views, nor to precepts and vows, nor to a Self-doctrine. Not clinking, he is not disturbed; not disturbed, he attains individually nibbana.
Gautama BuddhaRead
No one who errs unwillingly is evil.
SophoclesRead
Light-skinned privilege is largely through a white lens. It is exploited by oppressive forces... It was always a facade.
Kendrick SampsonRead
To every object there correspond an ideally closed system of truths that are true of it and, on the other hand, an ideal system of possible cognitive processes by virtue of which the object and the truths about it would be given to any cognitive subject.
Edmund HusserlRead
Everything in the world is beautiful, but Man only recognizes beauty if he sees it either seldom or from afar. Listen, today we are gods! Our blue shadows are enormous! We move in a gigantic, joyful world!
Vladimir NabokovRead
They believe themselves Lucifer's equals, Cain, all these pitiful little gnats. But there is only one that we have ever owned to be our superior. There is but one greater than us, and to him... to him we no longer speak.
Neil GaimanRead