"He that breaks a thing..."

Reviewing a new book about C.S. Lewis, but quoting from the work of another Inkling:

.... When Gandalf questions Saruman the White as to why he is now Saruman of Many Colors, he is gravely disturbed by Saruman’s reply.

“‘White!’” he sneered. ‘It serves as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white light can be broken.’” Gandalf responds in turn, rebuking Saruman’s Enlightenment understanding of wisdom: “In which case it is no longer white … and he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.”

Louis Markos, "C.S. Lewis Was a Modern Man Who Breathed Medieval Air," Christianity Today, March 10, 2022.