Matthew Arnold quotes - page 6

The translator of Homer should above all be penetrated by a sense of four qualities of his author: - that he is eminently rapid; that he is eminently plain and direct both in the evolution of his thought and in the expression of it, that is, both in his syntax and in his words; that he is eminently plain and direct in the substance of his thought, that is, in his matter and ideas; and, finally, that he is eminently noble. (Matthew Arnold)
Are ye too changed, ye hills? See, 'tis no foot of unfamiliar men Tonight from Oxford up your pathway strays! Here came I often, often, in old days; Thyrsis and I; we still had Thyrsis then. View quote
Matthew Arnold
The great apostle of the Philistines, Lord Macaulay. View quote
Matthew Arnold
How fair a lot to fill Is left to each man still. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Of these two literatures, as of the intellect of Europe in general, the main effort, for now many years, has been a critical effort; the endeavour, in all branches of knowledge - theology, philosophy, history, art, science - to see the object as in itself it really is. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Where great whales come sailing by, Sail and sail, with unshut eye, Round the world for ever and aye? When did music come this way? Children dear, was it yesterday? View quote
Matthew Arnold
Why faintest thou! I wander'd till I died. Roam on! The light we sought is shining still. Dost thou ask proof? Our tree yet crowns the hill, Our Scholar travels yet the loved hillside. View quote
Matthew Arnold
The whole scope of the essay is to recommend culture as the great help out of our present difficulties; culture being a pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all the matters which most concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the world; and through this knowledge, turning a stream of fresh and free thought upon our stock notions and habits, which we now follow staunchly but mechanically, vainly imagining that there is a virtue in following them staunchly which makes up for the mischief of following them mechanically. View quote
Matthew Arnold
There is the world of ideas and there is the world of practice; the French are often for suppressing the one and the English the other; but neither is to be suppressed. View quote
Matthew Arnold
At the present moment two things about the Christian religion must surely be clear to anybody with eyes in his head. One is, that men cannot do without it; the other, that they cannot do with it as it is. View quote
Matthew Arnold
A beautiful and ineffectual angel, beating in the void his luminous wings in vain. (Matthew Arnold)
Choose equality. View quote
Matthew Arnold
People think that I can teach them style. What stuff it all is! Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of style. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Because without order there can be no society, and without society there can be no human perfection. View quote
Matthew Arnold
But - if you cannot give us ease - Last of the race of them who grieve Here leave us to die out with these Last of the people who believe! Silent, while years engrave the brow; Silent - the best are silent now. Achilles ponders in his tent, The kings of modern thought are dumb, Silent they are though not content, And wait to see the future come. They have the grief men had of yore, But they contend and cry no more. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names, and impossible loyalties! View quote
Matthew Arnold
The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Culture is properly described as the love of perfection; it is a study of perfection. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Sad Patience, too near neighbour to despair. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Spare me the whispering, crowded room, the friends who come and gape and go, the ceremonious air of gloom - all, which makes death a hideous show. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Use your gifts faithfully, and they shall be enlarged; practice what you know, and you shall attain to higher knowledge. (Matthew Arnold)
Because thou must not dream, thou need not despair. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Poetry; a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty. View quote
Matthew Arnold
It is almost impossible to exaggerate the proneness of the human mind to take miracles as evidence, and to seek for miracles as evidence. View quote
Matthew Arnold
France, famed in all great arts, in none supreme. View quote
Matthew Arnold