How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
Descend lower, descend only
Into the world of perpetual solitude,
World not world, but that which is not world,
Internal darkness, deprivation. (117-120)
The speaker wants us all to find our inner spiritual light; but in order to do this, he pretty much says we'll have to totally strip down everything we know and love about ourselves. We have to go into a realm of "Internal darkness, deprivation" before we can come out on the side of spiritual fulfillment. Sheesh, maybe that's why Eliot's work is usually so dreary.
Quote #2
O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark,
The vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant,
The captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters. (280-283)
Who's going to die eventually? The answer is everybody, no matter how rich or famous they become. It doesn't matter if you're a captain, merchant banker, or (like T.S. Eliot) an eminent man of letters. Everyone dies eventually, and the sooner we all accept that we're all alike in this way, the sooner we can get down to the business of leading better, more humble lives.
Quote #3
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance (318-319)
Spiritual fulfillment is something we haven't found yet, and if we plan on achieving it, we're not going to get there by trying to "master" our spirits. We can't just force enlightenment on ourselves. We have to adopt and attitude of submission, of passivity. We have to become humble and allow something beyond ourselves to take over. This might be God or it might be nature. The most important part of this passage, though, is that we have to admit our own ignorance before we can start to learn.