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If we may credit certain hints contained in the lives of the saints, love raises the spirit above the sphere of reverence and worship into one of laughter and dalliance: a sphere in which the soul says: 'Shall I, a gnat which dances in Thy ray, Dare to be reverent?'

Coventry Patmore

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Coventry Patmore
Age: 73 †
Born: 1823
Born: July 23
Died: 1896
Died: November 26
Literary Critic
Poet
Writer
Redbridge
Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore
Lives
Saint
Dances
Spirit
Raises
Hints
Certain
Dare
Contained
May
Credit
Sphere
Soul
Laughter
Saints
Love
Worship
Spheres
Gnat
Says
Rays
Gnats
Shall
Reverence
Reverent

More quotes by Coventry Patmore

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The midge's wing beats to and fro A thousand times ere one can utter O.
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All the love and joy that a man has ever received in perception is laid up in him as the sunshine of a hundred years is laid up in the bole of the oak.
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Let me love Thee so that the honour, riches, and pleasures of the world may seem unworthy even of hatred - may not even be encumbrances.
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The more wild and incredible your desire, the more willing and prompt God is in fulfilling it, if you will have it so.
Coventry Patmore
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The ardour chills us which we do not share.
Coventry Patmore
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Ah, whither shall a maiden flee, When a bold youth so swift pursues, And siege of tenderest courtesy, With hope perseverant, still renews!
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The Spirit of man is like a kite, which rises by means of those very forces which seem to oppose its rise the tie that joins it to the earth, the opposing winds of temptation, and the weight of earth-born affections which it carries with it into the sky.
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To have noughtIs to have all things without care or thought!
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It is one thing to be blind, and another to be in darkness.
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Every evil is some good spelt backwards, and in it the wise know how to read Wisdom.
Coventry Patmore
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Ask abundantly, for the measure of your asking shall be that of your receiving.
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What a Lover sees in the Beloved is the projected shadow of his own potential beauty in the eyes of God.
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They who ask for no sign shall have many.
Coventry Patmore
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Life is not life at all without delight.
Coventry Patmore
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The modern Agnostic improves upon the ancient by adding I don't care to I don't know.
Coventry Patmore
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Uncommon things must be said in common words.
Coventry Patmore
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The promises of God are samples of what is promised as a handful of wheat is of the barn.
Coventry Patmore
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A saint is a person who does almost everything any other decent person does, only somewhat better and with a totally different motive.
Coventry Patmore
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The woman is the man's glory, and she naturally delights in the praises which are assurances that she is fulfilling her function and she gives herself to him who succeeds in convincing her that she, of all others, is best able to discharge it for him. A woman without this kind of vanity is a monster.
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Then sleep the seasons, full of might While slowly swells the pod, And rounds the peach, and in the night The mushroom bursts the sod. The winter comes: the frozen rut Is bound with silver bars the white drift heaps against the hut and night is pierced with stars.
Coventry Patmore