A review by theologiaviatorum
Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot

medium-paced

4.0

I first read T.S. Eliot in 2013 (?) and I wasn’t very impressed. Regardless, I could not ignore the consistent praise for his Four Quartets. So I gave him another try and I enjoyed this much more than my previous go at him. I wouldn’t know how to offer an intelligent epitome of the work so instead I’ll share some of my favorite quotes. • “Words, after speech, reach into the silence.” • “Words strain, crack and sometimes break, under the burden, under the tension, slip, slide, perish, decay with imprecision, will not stay in place, will not stay still.” • “The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.” • “To arrive where you are, to get where you are not, you must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy. In order to arrive at what you do not know you must go by a way which is the way of ignorance. In order to posses what you do not possess you must go by the way of dispossession. In order to arrive at what you are not you must go through the way in which you are not.” • “For us, there is only trying. The rest is not our business.” • “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. Through the unknown, remembered gate when the last of earth left to discover is that which was the beginning.”