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We do not what we ought What we ought not, we do And lean upon the thought That chance will bring us through But our own acts, for good or ill, are mightier powers.

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
Bring
Chance
Upon
Mightier
Thought
Lean
Good
Ill
Acts
Powers
Ought

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Sand-strewn caverns, cool and deep, Where the winds are all asleep Where the spent lights quiver and gleam Where the salt weed sways in the stream.
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Calm's not life's crown, though calm is well.
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The true meaning of religion is thus not simply morality, but morality touched by emotion.
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Greatness is a spiritual condition.
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Nature, with equal mind, Sees all her sons at play, Sees man control the wind, The wind sweep man away.
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For poetry the idea is everything the rest is a world of illusion.
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And we forget because we must and not because we will.
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Coleridge: poet and philosopher wrecked in a mist of opium.
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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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There is no better motto which it [culture] can have than these words of Bishop Wilson, To make reason and the will of God prevail.
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Mind is a light which the Gods mock us with, To lead those false who trust it.
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Use your gifts faithfully, and they shall be enlarged practice what you know, and you shall attain to higher knowledge.
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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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Six years-six little years-six drops of time.
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If an historian be an unbeliever in all heroism, if he be a man who brings every thing down to the level of a common mediocrity, depend upon it, the truth is not found in such a writer.
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The best poetry will be found to have a power of forming, sustaining, and delighting us, as nothing else can.
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