How we cite our quotes: (line)
Quote #1
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! (lines 3-4)
The Hollow Men have the same problem as the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz: they have straw for brains. Because they lack intelligence (or at least the kind of intelligence that matters in the spiritual world), they also lack the ability to fully understand their condition. They can only cry out "Alas!" to express a general dissatisfaction.
Quote #2
Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone. (lines 45-51)
The Hollow Men's dissatisfaction expresses itself as curiosity about whether things are just as bad in Heaven. Specifically, they Hollow Men have natural feelings of love and "tenderness" but can't act on them.
Quote #3
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river (lines 57-60)
In addition to missing out on the joys of love, the Hollow Men do not have a true community. They "grope together" on the river so as not to be alone, but they don't even talk to one another. As self-interested individuals, they have no concern for others.
Quote #4
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow (lines 84-89)
The Hollow Men suffer from moral paralysis – the inability to act or follow through on any of their natural feelings and capabilities. Have you ever experienced this problem in some area of your life?
Quote #5
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper. (lines 97-98)
Because the Hollow Men can never act, except on behalf of their own narrow interests, their lives just fizzle out into a meaningless moan of unhappiness. You could think of the whole poem as their "whimper" of complaint.