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Quotes: Little Gidding

Mon 28 December 2015 by yaniv

Couple of weeks ago I was vacationing with my family at the Dominican Republic. One night, at about midnight, while I was lying half asleep in-front of the TV, watching a show about Vietnam on the Discovery Channel (the only English channel), I caught this quote:

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.

This line stirred me, and I had to find the source. It was taken from T.S Eliot's poem - Little Gidding.

The next day, I read the entire poem. It wasn't an easy read1, but several more parts of it moved me just as much. Here are couple of them:

... last year's words belong to last year's language And next year's words await another voice.

Let me disclose the gifts reserved for age ... Second, the conscious impotence of rage At human folly, and the laceration Of laughter at what ceases to amuse.

Mysterious are the ways of knowledge and inspiration... one should always be willing and ready to absorb more of them...


  1. Here are some analyses and commentary, in case you would like to get deeper.