Four Quartets Time Quotes

People of the past had a healthier relationship to time than modern people. They were connected to the land because they were mostly farmers, and this connected them to the changing of the seasons, which happened in a constant circle. Compared to the dead emptiness of clock time, the seasons are "living," and throughout this passage, you can see how a connection to the natural world is connected to a more natural type of time, which is controlled by when the cows need milking, not some lame alarm on your bedside clock.

The image of a tolling bell pops up throughout the later stages of "Four Quartets," always reminding us of the reality that death will one day come for all of us. It also signals a type of time that is way older than the clock-time ("the time of chronometers") we tend to think of in the modern world. There's nothing natural about the seconds and hours that clocks tick off. These are totally arbitrary segments of time that humans just made up. The changing of the seasons, though, is a natural way for the Earth to track the passing of time, and we need to get back to relating to the Earth in a more natural way if we're going to be happy.

There's just no getting around it. You can't think of time without seeing a massive void that's littered with the waste and crumbling ruins of human history. Further, you can't think of a future or past that's actually heading somewhere in a progressive way. The past and the future don't have any destination; this is just something that we humans like to believe because we think it makes life more meaningful. The truth is, though, that life can only be meaningful if you let go of this need for progress and just start living for the present moment.