T. S. Eliot Quotes

No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience.

There are two modes of knowledge: through argument and through experience. Argument brings conclusions and compels us to concede them, but it does not cause certainty nor remove doubts that the mind may rest in truth, unless this is provided by experience.

Nothing can be found in the intellect if previously has not been found in the senses.

A gram of experience is worth a ton of theory.

Ultimately all knowing, from the highest to the lowest, is the result of experience; it arises on the way of experiences.

Knowledge can only be got in one way, the way of experience; there is no other way to know.

Even after the observation of the frequent conjunction of objects, we have no reason to draw any inference concerning any object beyond those of which we have had experience.

There are two modes of acquiring knowledge, namely by reasoning and experience. Reasoning draws a conclusion and makes us grant the conclusion, but does not make the conclusion certain, nor does it remove doubt so that the mind may rest on the intuition of truth, unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience.

In one word, to draw the rule from experience, one must generalize; this is a necessity that imposes itself on the most circumspect observer.

For, strictly considered, what is all Knowledge too but recorded Experience, and a product of History; of which, therefore, Reasoning and Belief, no less than Action and Passion, are essential materials?

Seeing something once is better than hearing about it a hundred times. Doing something once is better than seeing it a hundred times.

Only so much of life do I know as I have lived.

The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight experience, and those who are experienced have feeble imaginations.

Experience teaches us only one thing at a time - and hardly that, in my case.

Generally speaking, there are two kinds of learning: experience, which is gained from your own mistakes, and wisdom, which is learned from the mistakes of others.

Long experience has taught me not always to believe in the limitations indicated by purely theoretical considerations. These, as we well know, are based on insufficient knowledge of all the relevant factors.

Knowledge gained through experience is far superior and many times more useful than bookish knowledge.

No amount of reading and intelligent deduction could supplant the direct experience.

I have no use for knowledge that has not been preceded by a sensation

All inferences from experience... are effects of custom, not of reasoning.

The only way to know something absolutely is to experience it for yourself; anything less is theory, speculation, and belief. .

Imagination is a poor substitute for experience.

Knowledge must come through action. You can have no test which is not fanciful, save by trial.

I believe there is no philosophical high-road in science, with epistemological signposts. No, we are in a jungle and find our way by trial and error, building our road behind us as we proceed.

Knowledge is to be acquired only by a corresponding experience. How can we know what we are told merely? Each man can interpret another's experience only by his own.