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The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light.

Matthew Arnold

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Matthew Arnold
Age: 65 †
Born: 1822
Born: December 24
Died: 1888
Died: April 15
Journalist
Literary Critic
Poet
School Inspector
University Teacher
Writer
Laleham
Surrey
Perfectionist
Sweetness
Pursuit
Perfection
Light
Perfectionism

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In our English popular religion the common conception of a future state of bliss is that of ... a kind of perfected middle-class home, with labour ended, the table spread, goodness all around, the lost ones restored, hymnody incessant.
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Calm's not life's crown, though calm is well.
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Style ... is a peculiar recasting and heightening, under a certain condition of spiritual excitement, of what a man has to say, in such a manner as to add dignity and distinction to it.
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Know, man hath all which Nature hath, but more, And in that more lie all his hopes of good.
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Eutrapelia . A happy and gracious flexibility, Pericles calls this quality of the Athenians...lucidity of thought, clearness and propriety of language, freedom from prejudice and freedom from stiffness, openness of mind, amiability of manners.
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And we forget because we must and not because we will.
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Grey time-worn marbles Hold the pure Muses. In their cool gallery, By yellow Tiber, They still look fair.
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The brave, impetuous heart yields everywhere to the subtle, contriving head.
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Not a having and a resting, but a growing and a becoming, is the character of perfection as culture conceives it.
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Alas! is even love too weak To unlock the heart, and let it speak?
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Culture is properly described as the love of perfection it is a study of perfection.
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All the live murmur of a summer's day.
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Inequality has the natural and necessary effect, under the present circumstances, of materializing our upper class, vulgarizing our middle class, and brutalizing our lower class.
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But there remains the question: what righteousness really is. The method and secret and sweet reasonableness of Jesus.
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The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next.
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For this is the true strength of guilty kings, When they corrupt the souls of those they rule.
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Oxus, forgetting the bright speed he had In his high mountain cradle in Pamere, A foiled circuitous wanderertill at last The longed-for dash of waves is heard, and wide His luminous home of waters opens, bright And tranquil, from whose floor the new-bathed stars Emerge, and shine upon the Aral Sea.
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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.
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Nature's great law, and the law of all men's minds? To its own impulse every creature stirs: Live by thy light, and Earth will live by hers.
Matthew Arnold
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The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light.... He who works for sweetness and light united, works to make reason and the will of God prevail.
Matthew Arnold