361 Quotes by Matthew Arnold


  • Author Matthew Arnold
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    Spells? Mistrust them.Mind is the spell which governs earth and heaven.Man has a mind with which to plan his safety.Know that, and help thyself.Empedocles on Etna: Act I, Scene II

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  • Author Matthew Arnold
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    The Sea of FaithWas once, too, at the full, and round earth's shoreLay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.But now I only hearIts melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,Retreating, to the breathOf the night-wind, down the vast edges drearAnd naked shingles of the world.

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  • Author Matthew Arnold
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    For rigorous teachers seized my youth, And purged its faith, and trimm'd its fire, Show'd me the high, white star of Truth, There bade me gaze, and there aspire. Even now their whispers pierce the gloom: What dost thou in this living tomb?

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  • Author Matthew Arnold
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    Is it so small a thingTo have enjoy'd the sun,To have liv'd light in the spring,To have lov'd, to have thought, to have done;To have advanc'd true friends, and beat down baffling foes;That we must feign a blissOf doubtful future date,And while we dream on thisLose our present state,And relegate to worlds yet distant our repose?Empedocles on Etna: Act I, Scene II

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  • Author Matthew Arnold
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    And these, all labouring for a lord,Eat not the fruit of their own hands:Which is the heaviest of all plagues,To that man's mind, who understands.- The Sick King in Bokhara

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