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Quotes by Matthew Arnold
What is it to grow old? Is it to lose the glory of the form, The lustre of the eye? Is it for Beauty to forego her wreath? Yes; but not this alone.— filed under Affliction
I must not say that she was true, Yet let me say that she was fair; And they, that lovely face who view, They should not ask if truth be there.— filed under Beauty
Winged mimic of the woods! thou motley fool! Who shall thy gay buffoonery describe? Thine ever-ready notes of ridicule Pursue thy fellows still with jest and jibe: Wit, sophist, songster, Yorick of thy tribe Thou sportive satirist of Nature's school; To thee the palm of scoffing we ascribe, Arch-mocker and mad abbot of misrule! ROBERT WILDE, D.D.-Sonnet. To the Mocking-Bird. Nightingale. Hark! ah, the nightingale- The tawny-throated! Hark from that moonlit cedar what a burst! What triumph! hark!-what pain! * * * * * * Listen, Eugenia- How thick the bursts come crowding through the leaves! Again-thou hearest? Eternal passion! Eternal pain!— filed under Birds-Nightingale
Joy comes and goes, hope ebbs and flows Like the wave; Change doth unknit the tranquil strength of men. Love lends life a little grace, A few sad smiles; and then, Both are laid in one cold place, In the grave.— filed under Change
Then gazing up 'mid the dim pillars high, The foliaged marble forest where ye lie, Hush, ye will say, it is eternity! This is the glimmering verge of heaven, and there The columns of the heavenly palaces.— filed under Eternity
God's wisdom and God's goodness!-Ay, but fools Mis-define thee, till God knows them no more. Wisdom and goodness they are God!-what schools Have yet so much as heard this simpler lore. This no Saint preaches, and this no Church rules: 'Tis in the desert, now and heretofore.— filed under God
No, no! The energy of life may be Kept on after the grave, but not begun; And he who flagg'd not in the earthly strife, From strength to strength advancing-only he His soul well-knit, and all his battles won, Mounts, and that hardly, to eternal life.— filed under Immortality
With aching hands and bleeding feet We dig and heap, lay stone on stone; We bear the burden and the heat Of the long day, and wish 'twere done. Not till the hours of light return All we have built do we discern.— filed under Life
Nature's great law, and law of all men's minds?- To its own impulse every creature stirs; Live by thy light, and earth will live by hers!— filed under Nature
I met a preacher there I knew, and said, Ill and overworked, how fare you in this scene? Bravely! said he; for I of late have been Much cheered with thoughts of Christ, the living bread.— filed under Occupations-Post
Odin, thou whirlwind, what a threat is this Thou threatenest what transcends thy might, even thine, For of all powers the mightiest far art thou, Lord over men on earth, and Gods in Heaven; Yet even from thee thyself hath been withheld One thing-to undo what thou thyself hast ruled.— filed under Archimedes
Children of men! the unseen Power, whose eye Forever doth accompany mankind, Hath look'd on no religion scornfully That men did ever find.— filed under Religion
On Sundays, at the matin-chime, The Alpine peasants, two and three, Climb up here to pray; Burghers and dames, at summer's prime, Ride out to church from Chamberry, Dight with mantles gay, But else it is a lonely time Round the Church of Brou.— filed under Sabbath
Others abide our question. Thou art free. We ask and ask-Thou smilest and art still, Out-topping knowledge.— filed under Shakespeare
The kings of modern thought are dumb.— filed under Thought
August. Woman. On one she smiled, and he was blest; She smiles elsewhere-we make a din! But 'twas not love which heaved her breast, Fair child!-it was the bliss within.— filed under Woman
Wandering between two worlds, one dead, The other powerless to be born, With nowhere yet to rest my head, Like these, on earth I wait forlorn.— filed under Work
Youth dreams a bliss on this side death. It dreams a rest, if not more deep, More grateful than this marble sleep; It hears a voice within it tell : Calm's not life's crown, though calm is well. 'Tis all perhaps which man acquires, But 'tis not what our youth desires.— filed under Youth