"Any human scheme for society is realised only when the great mass of humanity has become adapted to it; but this adaptation becomes also, insensibly, an adaptation of the scheme itself to the mass on which it operates: the overwhelming pressure of mediocrity, sluggish and indomitable as a glacier, will mitigate the most violent, and depress the most exalted revolution, and what is realised is so unlike the end that enthusiasm conceived, that foresight would weaken the effort."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from EnglandAcademics from the United StatesPoets from the United StatesPoets from EnglandPeople from St. Louis
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Ch. IV, pp. 59–60
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"Thus with most careful devotion Thus with precise attention To detail, interfering preparation Of that which is alrea…"
"Like Huckleberry Finn, the River itself has no beginning or end. In its beginning, it is not yet the River; in its en…"
"Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper-tree In the cool of the day."
"I have given you the power of choice, and you only alternate Between futile speculation and unconsidered action."
"Because I know that time is always time And place is always and only place And what is actual is actual only for one …"
"Because I cannot hope to turn again Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something Upon which to rejoice"
"Much to cast down, much to build, much to restore."
"Because I do not hope to turn again Because I do not hope Because I do not hope to turn Desiring this man's gift and …"
"Let these words answer For what is done, not to be done again May the judgement not be too heavy upon us"
"Because I do not hope to know The infirm glory of the positive hour Because I do not think Because I know I shall not…"