Matthew Arnold quotes - page 8

It is not in my nature, some of my critics would rather say, not in my power, to dispute on behalf of any opinion, even my own, very obstinately. (Matthew Arnold)
A poetry of revolt against moral ideas is a poetry of revolt against life; a poetry of indifference towards moral ideas is a poetry of indifference towards life. View quote
Matthew Arnold
We are here on earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I do not know. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Only, from the long line of spray. View quote
Matthew Arnold
What actions are the most excellent? Those, certainly, which most powerfully appeal to the great primary human affections: to those elementary feelings which subsist permanently in the race, and which are independent of time. View quote
Matthew Arnold
The poet's matter being the hitherto experience of the world, and his own, increases with every century. View quote
Matthew Arnold
We cannot kindle when we will The fire that in the heart resides. View quote
Matthew Arnold
For both were faiths, and both are gone. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Yes, thou art gone! and round me too the night In ever-nearing circle weaves her shade. View quote
Matthew Arnold
We mortal millions live alone. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Things and actions are what they are, and the consequences of them will be what they will be: why, then, should we desire to be deceived? (Matthew Arnold)
Hear it, O Thyrsis, still our tree is there! View quote
Matthew Arnold
Steeped in sentiment as she lies, spreading her gardens to the moonlight, and whispering from her towers the last enchantments of the Middle Age, who will deny that Oxford, by her ineffable charm, keeps ever calling us nearer to the true goal of all of us, to the ideal, to perfection, - to beauty, in a word, which is only truth seen from another side? View quote
Matthew Arnold
The power of the Latin classic is in character, that of the Greek is in beauty. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Alas! is even love too weak To unlock the heart, and let it speak? Are even lovers powerless to reveal To one another what indeed they feel? I knew the mass of men conceal'd Their thoughts, for fear that if reveal'd They would by other men be met With blank indifference, or with blame reproved; I knew they lived and moved Trick'd in disguises, alien to the rest Of men, and alien to themselves - and yet The same heart beats in every human breast! View quote
Matthew Arnold
What actions are the most excellent? Those, certainly, which most powerfully appeal to the great primary human affections: to those elementary feelings which subsist permanently in the race, and which are independent of time. These feelings are permanent and the same; that which interests them is permanent and the same also. View quote
Matthew Arnold
For poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of illusion, of divine illusion. Poetry attaches its emotion to the idea; the idea is the fact. The strongest part of our religion today is its unconscious poetry. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Thou waitest for the spark from heaven! and we, Light half-believers of our casual creeds, Who never deeply felt, nor clearly will'd, Whose insight never has borne fruit in deeds, Whose vague resolves never have been fulfill'd; For whom each year we see Breeds new beginnings, disappointments new; Who hesitate and falter life away, And lose to-morrow the ground won to-day- Ah! do not we, wanderer! await it too? View quote
Matthew Arnold
Greatness is a spiritual condition. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Culture, then, is a study of perfection, and perfection which insists on becoming something rather than in having something, in an inward condition of the mind and spirit, not in an outward set of circumstances. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Not deep the poet sees, but wide. (Matthew Arnold)
Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. View quote
Matthew Arnold
Force and right are the governors of this world force till right is ready. View quote
Matthew Arnold
A wanderer is man from his birth. He was born in a ship On the breast of the river of Time. View quote
Matthew Arnold
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. View quote
Matthew Arnold