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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

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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
Perfection
Works
United
Light
Reason
Make
Prevail
Sweetness
Pursuit

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The true meaning of religion is thus not simply morality, but morality touched by emotion.
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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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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?
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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.
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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.
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To the Bible men will return and why? Because they cannot do without it.
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But thou, my son, study to make prevail One colour in thy life, the hue of truth.
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One has often wondered whether upon the whole earth there is anything so unintelligent, so unapt to perceive how the world is really going, as an ordinary young Englishman of our upper class.
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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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Once read thy own breast right, And thou hast done with fears.
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Bald as the bare mountain tops are bald, with a baldness full of grandeur.
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Where great whales come sailing by, Sail and sail, with unshut eye, Round the world for ever and aye.
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Physician of the Iron Age, Goethe has done his pilgrimage. He took the suffering human race, He read each wound, each weakness clear -- And struck his finger on the place, And said -- Thou ailest here, and here.
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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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The uppermost idea with Hellenism is to see things as they really are the uppermost ideas with Hebraism is conduct and obedience.Nothing can do away with this ineffaceable difference. The Greek quarrel with the body and its desires is, that they hinder right thinking the Hebrew quarrel with them is, that they hinder right acting.
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With aching hands and bleeding feet We dig and heap, lay stone on stone We bear the burden and the heat Of the long day, and wish 'twere done. Not till the hours of light return All we have built do we discern.
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Weep bitterly over the dead, for he is worthy, and then comfort thyself drive heaviness away: thou shall not do him good, but hurt thyself.
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For poetry the idea is everything the rest is a world of illusion.
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The governing idea of Hellenism is spontaneity of consciousness that of Hebraism, strictness of conscience .
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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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