Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold Quotes

“But often, in the world’s most crowded streets,
But often, in the din of strife,
There rises an unspeakable desire
After the knowledge of our buried life;
A thirst to spend our fire and restless force
In tracking out our true, original course;
A longing to inquire
Into the mystery of this heart which beats
So wild, so deep in us—to know
Whence our lives come and where they go.”
― Matthew Arnold, The Complete Poems

“THE THOUGHTS that rain their steady glow Like stars on life’s cold sea, Which others know, or say they know — They never shone for me.   Thoughts light, like gleams, my spirit’s sky,   5 But they will not remain. They light me once, they hurry by, And never come again.”
― Matthew Arnold, Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold

“The slightest deviation from the line of clear conviction — the least turning to left or right in order to cocker a prejudice or please an audience or flatter a class, showed a want of delicacy — a preference of present popularity to permanent self-respect — which he could never have indulged in himself, and with difficulty tolerated in others. He had nothing but contempt for “philosophical politicians with a turn for swimming with the stream, and philosophical divines with the same turn.”
― Matthew Arnold, Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold

“Man must begin, know this, where Nature ends; Nature and man can never be fast friends. Fool, if thou canst not pass her, rest her slave!”
― Matthew Arnold, Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold