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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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

More quotes by Matthew Arnold

Image
The brave, impetuous heart yields everywhere to the subtle, contriving head.
Matthew Arnold
Image
We cannot kindle when we will The fire which in the heart resides, The spirit bloweth and is still, In mystery our soul abides: But tasks in hours of insight will'd Can be through hours of gloom fulfill'd.
Matthew Arnold
Image
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.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Thought and science follow their own law of development they are slowly elaborated in the growth and forward pressure of humanity, in what Shakespeare calls ...The prophetic soul, Of the wide world dreaming on things to come.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Now the great winds shoreward blow Now the salt tides seaward flow Now the wild white horses play Champ and chafe and toss in the spray.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Who hesitate and falter life away, and lose tomorrow the ground won today.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Poetry a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Sanity -- that is the great virtue of the ancient literature the want of that is the great defect of the modern, in spite of its variety and power.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Coleridge: poet and philosopher wrecked in a mist of opium.
Matthew Arnold
Image
The power of the Latin classic is in character , that of the Greek is in beauty . Now character is capable of being taught, learnt, and assimilated: beauty hardly.
Matthew Arnold
Image
The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Because thou must not dream, thou need not despair.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Thou waitest for the spark from heaven! and we, Light half-believers in our casual deeds . . . Who hesitate and falter life away, And lose tomorrow the ground won today- Ah, do not we, Wanderer, await it too?
Matthew Arnold
Image
Six years-six little years-six drops of time.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Religion--that voice of the deepest human experience.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Let the long contention cease! / Geese are swans, and swans are geese.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Creep into thy narrow bed, Creep, and let no more be said!
Matthew Arnold
Image
Is it so small a thing to have enjoyed the sun, to have lived light in the sky, to have loved, to have thought, to have done?
Matthew Arnold
Image
For what wears out the life of mortal men? 'Tis that from change to change their being rolls Tis that repeated shocks, again, again, Exhaust the energy of strongest souls And numb the elastic powers.
Matthew Arnold
Image
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.
Matthew Arnold