Quote

Like driftwood spares which meet and pass Upon the boundless ocean-plain, So on the sea of life, alas! Man nears man, meets, and leaves again.

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
Life
Plain
Like
Leaves
Pass
Nears
Sea
Driftwood
Ocean
Meets
Meet
Boundless
Upon
Spares
Men
Alas

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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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God's Wisdom and God's Goodness!--Ah, but fools Mis-define thee, till God knows them no more. Wisdom and goodness they are God!--what schools Have yet so much as heard this simpler lore. This no Saint preaches, and this no Church rules: 'Tis in the desert, now and heretofore.
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To the Bible men will return and why? Because they cannot do without it.
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Ah, love, let us be true To one another!
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Calm's not life's crown, though calm is well.
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ForTime, not Corydon, hath conquered thee.
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The future of poetry is immense, because in poetry, where it is worthy of its high destinies, our race, as time goes on, will find an ever surer and surer stay ... More and more mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us.
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O strong soul, by what shore Tarriest thou now? For that force, Surely, has not been left vain!
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Force and right are the governors of this world force till right is ready.
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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.
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Good poetry does undoubtedly tend to form the soul and character it tends to beget a love of beauty and of truth in alliance together, it suggests, however indirectly, high and noble principles of action, and it inspires the emotion so helpful in making principles operative.
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The heart less bounding at emotion new, The hope, once crushed, less quick to spring again.
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English civilization the humanizing, the bringing into one harmonious and truly humane life, of the whole body of English society that is what interests me.
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The hairy quadruped furnished with a tail and, pointed ears, probably arboreal in his habits, this good fellow carried hidden in his nature, apparently, something destined to develop into a necessity for humane letters.
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Joy comes and goes, hope ebbs and flows Like the wave Change doth unknit the tranquil strength of men. Love tends life a little grace, A few sad smiles and then, Both are laid in one cold place, In the grave.
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Coleridge: poet and philosopher wrecked in a mist of opium.
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Greatness is a spiritual condition.
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Waiting for the spark from heaven to fall.
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The brave, impetuous heart yields everywhere to the subtle, contriving head.
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Say, has some wet bird-haunted English lawn Lent it the music of its trees at dawn?
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