Thomas Gray Quotes - Page 2

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• Can storied urn, or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust, Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death?

  Thomas Gray

  Dust, Voice, Fleeting

  'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' (1751) l. 41

  12 Copy quote

• Each in his narrow cell forever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

  Thomas Gray

  Death, Sleep, Cells

  "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" l. 13 (1751

  6 Copy quote

• There are certain scenes that would awe an atheist into belief, without the help of other argument.

  Thomas Gray

  Atheist, Religion, Helping

  6 Copy quote

• Ah, happy hills! ah, pleasing shade! Ah, fields beloved in vain! Where once my careless childhood stray'd, A stranger yet to pain! I feel the gales that from ye blow A momentary bliss bestow.

  Thomas Gray

  Happiness, Pain, Blow

  Thomas Campbell, Oliver Goldsmith, Thomas Gray (1872). “The Poetical Works of Campbell, Goldsmith and Gray: With Memoirs of the Authors”, p.391

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• Here rests his head upon the lap of earth, A youth to fortune and to fame unknown: Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth, And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.

  Thomas Gray

  Humble, Earth, Lap

  "ElegyWritten in a Country Churchyard" l. 117 (1751)

  8 Copy quote

• Any fool may write a most valuable book by chance, if he will only tell us what he heard and saw with veracity.

  Thomas Gray

  Book, Writing, Fool

  Letter to Horace Walpole, 25 February 1768, in H. W. Starr (ed.) 'Correspondence of Thomas Gray' (1971) vol. 3, letter 471

  11 Copy quote

• The different steps and degrees of education may be compared to the artificer's operations upon marble; it is one thing to dig it out of the quarry, and another to square it, to give it gloss and lustre, call forth every beautiful spot and vein, shape it into a column, or animate it into a statue.

  Thomas Gray

  Beautiful, Education, Squares

  Thomas Gray, William Mason (1820). “The poems and letters of Thomas Gray, with memoirs of his life and writings by W. Mason”, p.198

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• Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust, or flattery soothe the dull, cold ear of death?

  Thomas Gray

  Dust, Voice, Honor

  1751 Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, l.41-4.

  4 Copy quote

• Ruin seize thee, ruthless king! Confusion on thy banners wait! Though fann'd by Conquest's crimson wing, They mock the air with idle state.

  Thomas Gray

  Kings, Air, Wings

  'The Bard' (1757) l. 1

  17 Copy quote

• T'was Spring, t'was Summer, all was gay Now Autumn bears a cloud brow The flowers of Spring are swept way And Summer fruits desert the bough

  Thomas Gray

  Summer, Spring, Flower

  7 Copy quote

• We frolic while 'tis May.

  Thomas Gray

  May

  Thomas Gray, Thomas PARK (F.S.A.) (1808). “The poetical works of Thomas Gray, etc. With a separate titlepage bearing the imprint of John Sharpe, London, dated 1805”, p.11

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• Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, While proudly rising o'er the azure realm In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes, Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm.

  Thomas Gray

  Blow, Laughing, Rising

  'The Bard' (1757) l. 71

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• The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Awaits alike th' inevitable hour. The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

  Thomas Gray

  Beauty, Path, Wealth

  'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' (1751) l. 29

  8 Copy quote

• Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife.

  Thomas Gray

  Solitude, Crowds, Strife

  "Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard" l. 73 (1751)

  11 Copy quote

• Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear.

  Thomas Gray

  Ocean, Dark, Rays

  "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" l. 53 (1751)

  11 Copy quote

• I shall be but a shrimp of an author.

  Thomas Gray

  Shrimp

  Letter to Horace Walpole, 25 February 1768, in H. W. Starr (ed.) 'Correspondence of Thomas Gray' (1971) vol. 3, letter 471

  72 Copy quote

• The language of the age is never the language of poetry, except among the French, whose verse, where the thought or image does not support it, differs in nothing from prose.

  Thomas Gray

  Support, Age, Doe

  Letter to West, 8 April 1742, in H. W. Starr (ed.) 'Correspondence of Thomas Gray' (1971) vol. 1, letter 103

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• Some bold adventurers disdain The limits of their little reign, And unknown regions date descry.

  Thomas Gray

  Adventure, Littles, Reign

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• The applause of list'ning senates to command, The threats of pain and ruin to despise, To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, And read their history in a nation's eyes.

  Thomas Gray

  Pain, Eye, Land

  Thomas Gray, John Mitford (1816). “The poems, with critical notes; a life of the author; and an essay on his poetry; by the Rev. John Mitford”, p.116

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• Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate, Beneath the good how far,-but far above the great.

  Thomas Gray

  Fate, Limits, Vulgar

  'The Progress of Poesy' (1757) l. 122

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• To contemplation's sober eye,
  Such is the race of man;
  And they that creep, and they that fly,
  Shall end where they began,
  Alike the busy and the gay,
  But flutter through life's little day.

  Thomas Gray

  Eye, Gay, Men

  John Milton, Edward Young, Thomas Gray, James Beattie, William Collins (1836). “The Poetical Works of Milton, Young, Gray, Beattie, and Collins”, p.251

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• Man's feeble race what ills await!
  Labour, and Penury, the racks of Pain,
  Disease, and Sorrow's weeping train,
  And Death, sad refuge from the storms of Fate!

  Thomas Gray

  Life, Pain, Fate

  Thomas Gray (1836). “The works of Thomas Gray (ed. by J. Mitford).”, p.28

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• In buskined measures move Pale Grief and pleasing Pain, With Horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast.

  Thomas Gray

  Pain, Grief, Moving

  1757 The Bard. A Pindaric Ode, l.128-30.

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• And weep the more, because I weep in vain.

  Thomas Gray

  Vain

  Thomas Gray (1836). “The works of Thomas Gray (ed. by J. Mitford).”, p.91

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• Along the cool sequestered vale of life,
  They kept the noiseless tenour of their way.

  Thomas Gray

  Life, Way

  Thomas Gray, “Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard”

  4 Copy quote

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