T. S. Eliot Quotes

The highest fulfillment of religion requires a giving up of all possessions.

Pray to God that your attachment to such transitory things as wealth, name, and creature comforts may become less and less every day.

In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.

It is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.

The older I get, the more beauty I see in the word renunciation.

Let go of everything. That is how you get everything; you let go of everything.

This world is nothing. It is at best only a hideous caricature, a shadow of the Real. We must go to the Real. Renunciation will take us to It. Renunciation is the very basis of our true life; every moment of goodness and real life that we enjoy is when we do not think of ourselves.

The secret of happiness is renunciation.

Knowledge and devotion, to be true, have to stand the test of renunciation of the fruits of action.

How desirable is this simplicity! Who will give it to me? I will quit all else; it is the pearl of great price.

Cut out the love of self, like an autumn lotus with thy hand!

He who gives up action falls. He who gives up the reward rises. But renunciation of fruit in no way means indifference to the result.

Renunciation means absence of hankering after fruit.

Renunciation is the central sun, round which devotion, knowledge and the rest revolve like planets.

A religious person is a desireless person.

The noblest people are those despising wealth, learning, pleasure and life; esteeming above them poverty, ignorance, hardship and death.

Just after I dedicated my life to service, I felt that I could no longer accept more than I need while others in the world have less than they need. This moved me to bring my life down to need level. I thought it would be difficult. I thought it would entail a great many hardships, but I was quite wrong. Instead of hardships, I found a wonderful sense of peace and joy, and a conviction that unnecessary possessions are only unnecessary burdens.

All desires and egoism will have to be banished from the being.

The sacrifice which causes sorrow to the doer of the sacrifice is no sacrifice. Real sacrifice lightens the mind of the doer and gives him a sense of peace and joy. The Buddha gave up the pleasures of life because they had become painful to him.

How seek the way which leadeth to our wishes? By renouncing our wishes. The crown of excellence is renunciation.

Resignation is a quality of the saintly souls.

I gave up what I can't keep for something I can never lose.

To attain Buddhahood ... we must scatter this life's aims and objects to the wind.

The sage seeks freedom from desire. He does not collect precious things. He learns not to hold on to ideas. He brings men back to what they have lost.