Matthew Arnold

Poet

1822-12-24

Quotes by Matthew Arnold

• Nor does the being hungry prove that we have bread.

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• Come to me in my dreams, and thenBy day I shall be well again!For so the night will more than payThe hopeless longings of the day.

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• Only--but this is rare--When a beloved hand is laid in ours,When, jaded with the rush and glareOf the interminable hours, Our eyes can in another's eyes read clear,When our world-deafen'd earIs by the tones of a loved voice caress'd--A bolt is shot back somewhere in our breast,And a lost pulse of feeling stirs again.The eye sinks inward, and the heart lies plain,And what we mean, we say, and what we would, we know.A man becomes aware of his life's flow,And hears its winding murmur; and he seesThe meadows where it glides, the sun, the breeze.

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• But often, in the world's most crowded streets,But often, in the din of strife,There rises an unspeakable desireAfter the knowledge of our buried life;A thirst to spend our fire and restless forceIn tracking out our true, original course;A longing to inquireInto the mystery of this heart which beatsSo wild, so deep in us— to knowWhence our lives come and where they go.

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• Weary of myself, and sick of asking What I am, and what I ought to be, At this vessel's prow I stand, which bears me Forwards, forwards, o'er the starlit sea.

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• Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.

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• Nor does the being hungry prove that we have bread.

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• Come to me in my dreams, and thenBy day I shall be well again!For so the night will more than payThe hopeless longings of the day.

  Read quote

• Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.

  Read quote

• But often, in the world's most crowded streets,But often, in the din of strife,There rises an unspeakable desireAfter the knowledge of our buried life;A thirst to spend our fire and restless forceIn tracking out our true, original course;A longing to inquireInto the mystery of this heart which beatsSo wild, so deep in us— to knowWhence our lives come and where they go.

  Read quote

• Only--but this is rare--When a beloved hand is laid in ours,When, jaded with the rush and glareOf the interminable hours, Our eyes can in another's eyes read clear,When our world-deafen'd earIs by the tones of a loved voice caress'd--A bolt is shot back somewhere in our breast,And a lost pulse of feeling stirs again.The eye sinks inward, and the heart lies plain,And what we mean, we say, and what we would, we know.A man becomes aware of his life's flow,And hears its winding murmur; and he seesThe meadows where it glides, the sun, the breeze.

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• Weary of myself, and sick of asking What I am, and what I ought to be, At this vessel's prow I stand, which bears me Forwards, forwards, o'er the starlit sea.

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• The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next.

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

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• Because thou must not dream, thou need not despair.

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• Resolve to be thyself: and know that he who finds himself, loses his misery.

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• Bald as the bare mountain tops are bald, with a baldness full of grandeur.

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• The true meaning of religion is thus, not simply morality, but morality touched by emotion.

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• Home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names, and impossible loyalties!

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