from "East Coker" | T.S. Eliot
And what there is to conquerBy strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate—but there is no competition—
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.
Trite, perhaps. But true. Often, the “tried and true” is trite. But, so what? The truth is the point.