The Hound of Heaven Quotes

“I fled Him down the nights and down the days
I fled Him down the arches of the years
I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind, and in the midst of tears
I hid from him, and under running laughter.”
― Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven

“Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee
Save Me, save only Me?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms.
But just that thou might'st seek it in my arms.
All which thy child's mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home;
Rise, clasp My hand, and come!”
― Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven

“And human love needs human meriting:
How has thou merited-
Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot?
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art!
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee
Save Me, save only Me?”
― Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven

“My freshness is spending its wavering shower in the dust.”
― Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven

“I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years.
I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind, and in the midst of tears
I hid from him, and under running laughter.”
― Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven

“Every new revelation of God's power and wisdom which science unfolds serves only to restore a balance in our mind between God's power and God's love. The more astronomical the heavens become, the closer they bring God to us.”
― Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven

“Let us always remember that telescope and microscope in all the range of their discoveries have not uncovered the existence of anything greater than man himself. The most massive star of the Milky Way is not so wonderful as the smallest human child. Moreover man's present entourage of illimitable space and countless circling suns and planets cannot be said to have cost an omnipotent God more trouble, so to speak, than a universe a million times smaller.”
― Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven

“A moral pursuit! What's that? What is God after?' "'He is after Thompson's love.”
― Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven

“But is not that a rather irreverent way for Thompson to be talking about God, calling Him a hound? What does he mean by comparing God to a hound?' "'Well, he means the pursuit of God.' "'Oh, I see, Thompson is pursuing God, is he?' "'Oh, no. He is rather running away from God.' "'Well, then, God is pursuing Thompson, is that it?' "'Yes, that's it.”
― Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven

“Yet ever and anon a trumpet sounds
From the hid battlements of Eternity”
― Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven

“On the rash lustihead of my young powers,
I shook the pillaring hours
And pulled my life down upon me; grimed with smears,
I stand amid the dust o' the mounded years-
My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap.”
― Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven