Eliot was born in Saint Louis, Missouri and moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 (at age 25). He became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39. Of his nationality and its role in his work, Eliot said: “[My poetry] wouldn’t be what it is if I’d been born in England, and it wouldn’t be what it is if I’d stayed in America. It’s a combination of things. But in its sources, in its emotional springs, it comes from America.”

Sayings by T. S. Eliot

1. 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.

2. I don’t believe one grows older. I think that what happens early on in life is that at a certain age one stands still and stagnates.

3. It is obvious that we can no more explain a passion to a person who has never experienced it than we can explain light to the blind.

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

5. 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.

6. Let’s not be narrow, nasty, and negative.

7. People to whom nothing has ever happened cannot understand the unimportance of events.

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

9. We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.