Life is not having and getting, but being and becoming Matthew Arnold More Quotes by Matthew Arnold More Quotes From Matthew Arnold I knew the mass of men conceal'd Their thoughts, for fear that if reveal'd They would by other men be met With blank indifference. Matthew Arnold mets indifference men Style ... is a peculiar recasting and heightening, under a certain condition of spiritual excitement, of what a man has to say, in such a manner as to add dignity and distinction to it. Matthew Arnold style spiritual men 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 trying long Fate gave, what Chance shall not control, His sad lucidity of soul. Matthew Arnold fate chance soul Business could not make dull, nor passion wild; Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole. Matthew Arnold saws passion dull 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 worthy hurt comfort 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 pain stars grief Know, man hath all which Nature hath, but more, And in that more lie all his hopes of good. Matthew Arnold good-man men lying Culture is properly described as the love of perfection; it is a study of perfection. Matthew Arnold swag perfection culture 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 greatness spiritual life 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 poetry character inspire 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 discipline self mean Art still has truth. Take refuge there. Matthew Arnold refuge stills art The true meaning of religion is thus not simply morality, but morality touched by emotion. Matthew Arnold ethics religious religion 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 perfection mean culture Whoever sets himself to see things as they are will find himself one of a very small circle but it is only by this small circle resolutely doing its own work that adequate ideas will ever get current at all. Matthew Arnold adequate circles ideas Say, has some wet bird-haunted English lawn Lent it the music of its trees at dawn? Matthew Arnold dawn tree bird The sophist sneers: Fool, take Thy pleasure, right or wrong! The pious wail: Forsake A world these sophists throng! Be neither saint nor sophist-led, but be a man. Matthew Arnold saint men world Years hence, perhaps, may dawn an age, More fortunate, alas! than we, Which without hardness will be sage, And gay without frivolity. Matthew Arnold gay age years It is - last stage of all When we are frozen up within, and quite The phantom of ourselves To hear the world applaud the hollow ghost Which blamed the living man Matthew Arnold frozen men world
