Matthew Arnold Quotes - Page 3

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• Consider these people, then, their way of life, their habits, their manners, the very tones of their voice; look at them attentively; observe the literature they read, the things which give them pleasure, the words which come forth out of their mouths, the thoughts which make the furniture of their minds; would any amount of wealth be worth having with the condition that one was to become just like these people by having it?

  Matthew Arnold

  Voice, People, Giving

  Matthew Arnold, Stefan Collini (1993). “Arnold: 'Culture and Anarchy' and Other Writings”, p.65, Cambridge University Press

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

  Matthew Arnold

  Light, Perfection, Pursuit

  Culture and Anarchy ch. 1 (1869) See Swift 1

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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.

  Matthew Arnold

  Character, Poetry, Inspire

  Matthew Arnold, Gillian Sutherland (1973). “Matthew Arnold on education”, Penguin Books

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• Journalism is literature in a hurry.

  Matthew Arnold

  Inspirational, Reality, Literature

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• And long we try in vain to speak and act Our hidden self, and what we say and do Is eloquent, is well -- but 'tis not true!

  Matthew Arnold

  Self, Long, Trying

  Matthew Arnold (2013). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold (Illustrated)”, p.168, Delphi Classics

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• Greatness is a spiritual condition worthy to excite love, interest, and admiration; and the outward proof of possessing greatness is that we excite love, interest, and admiration.

  Matthew Arnold

  Life, Spiritual, Greatness

  Matthew Arnold, J. Dover Wilson (1932). “Culture and Anarchy: Landmarks in the History of Education”, p.51, Cambridge University Press

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• If one were searching for the best means to efface and kill in a whole nation the discipline of self-respect, the feeling for what is elevated, he could do no better than take the American newspapers.

  Matthew Arnold

  Mean, Self, Discipline

  "Civilization in the United States" by Matthew Arnold, (p. 177), 1888.

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• Dreams dawn and fly: friends smile and die, Like spring flowers. Our vaunted life is one long funeral. Men dig graves, with bitter tears, For their dead hopes; and all, Mazed with doubts, and sick with fears, Count the hours.

  Matthew Arnold

  Life, Dream, Spring

  Matthew Arnold, Miriam Farris Allott, Robert Henry Super (1986). “Matthew Arnold”, Oxford University Press, USA

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• They... who await. No gifts from Chance, have conquered Fate.

  Matthew Arnold

  Fate, Chance

  'Resignation' (1849) l. 247

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• O born in days when wits were fresh and clear, And life ran gaily as the sparkling Thames; Before this strange disease of modern life, With its sick hurry, its divided aims, Its heads o'ertax'd, its palsied hearts, was rife.

  Matthew Arnold

  Heart, Sick, Modern Life

  'The Scholar-Gipsy' (1853) l. 201

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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.

  Matthew Arnold

  Mean, Perfection, Culture

  Culture and Anarchy preface (1869)

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• Only--but this is rare--
  When a beloved hand is laid in ours,
  When, jaded with the rush and glare
  Of the interminable hours,
  Our eyes can in another's eyes read clear,
  When our world-deafen'd ear
  Is 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 sees
  The meadows where it glides, the sun, the breeze.

  Matthew Arnold

  Lying, Heart, Mean

  Matthew Arnold (1994). “Dover Beach and Other Poems”, p.25, Courier Corporation

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• What actions are the most excellent? Those, certainly, which most powerfully appeal to the great primary human affections: to those elementary feelings which subsist permanently in the race, and which are independent of time. These feelings are permanent and the same; that which interests them is permanent and the same also.

  Matthew Arnold

  Independent, Race, Feelings

  Matthew Arnold, Robert Henry Super (1960). “On the Classical Tradition”, p.4, University of Michigan Press

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• It is a very great thing to be able to think as you like; but, after all, an important question remains: what you think.

  Matthew Arnold

  Thinking, Important, Able

  "Democracy" (1861)

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• A wanderer is man from his birth. He was born in a ship On the breast of the river of Time.

  Matthew Arnold

  Time, Men, Rivers

  Matthew Arnold (2013). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold (Illustrated)”, p.197, Delphi Classics

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• Know, man hath all which Nature hath, but more, And in that more lie all his hopes of good.

  Matthew Arnold

  Lying, Men, Good Man

  Matthew Arnold (2013). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold (Illustrated)”, p.43, Delphi Classics

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• 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

  Horse, Blow, Wind

  'The Forsaken Merman' (1849) l. 4

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• However, if I shall live to be eighty I shall probably be the only person left in England who reads anything but newspapers and scientific publications.

  Matthew Arnold

  England, Newspapers, Persons

  Matthew Arnold (1912). “Thoughts on Education: Chosen from the Writings of Matthew Arnold”

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• Culture is properly described as the love of perfection; it is a study of perfection.

  Matthew Arnold

  Swag, Perfection, Culture

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• For this is the true strength of guilty kings, When they corrupt the souls of those they rule.

  Matthew Arnold

  Strength, Kings, Soul

  Matthew Arnold (2013). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold (Illustrated)”, p.366, Delphi Classics

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• To thee only God granted A heart ever new: To all always open; To all always true.

  Matthew Arnold

  Heart, Granted, Thee

  Matthew Arnold (1857). “Poems ... A new edition”, p.185

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• All the biblical miracles will at last disappear with the progress of science.

  Matthew Arnold

  Religious, Atheist, Biblical

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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.

  Matthew Arnold

  Hurt, Comfort, Worthy

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• And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know, Self-school'd, self-scann'd, self-honour'd, self-secure, Didst tread on earth unguess'd at. Better so! All pains the immortal spirit must endure, All weakness which impairs, all griefs which bow, Find their sole speech in that victorious brow.

  Matthew Arnold

  Stars, Pain, Grief

  Matthew Arnold (1889). “Selected Poems of Matthew Arnold”

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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.

  Matthew Arnold

  Thinking, Ideas, Differences

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