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Alfred, Lord Tennyson on Easter

1809–1892 England

← All quotes by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

18 quotes

To persecute
Makes a faith hated, and is furthermore
No perfect witness of a perfect faith
In him who persecutes.

Queen Mary: A Drama (1876)

In our windy world
What's up is faith, what's down is heresy.

Evolution ever climbing after some ideal good
And Reversion ever dragging Evolution in the mud.

Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886)

Faith and unfaith can ne'er be equal powers;
Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.

There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds.

In Memoriam A.H.H (1849)

Whose faith has centre everywhere,
Nor cares to fix itself to form.

In Memoriam A.H.H (1849)

But this main-miracle that thou art thou,
With power on thine own act and on the world.

How sweet to have a common faith!
To hold a common scorn of death!

Supposed Confessions (1830)

Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt,
And cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith.

The Ancient Sage (1885)

* * * But while
I breathe Heaven's air, and Heaven looks down on me,
And smiles at my best meanings, I remain
Mistress of mine own self and mine own soul.

What profits now to understand
The merits of a spotless shirt—
A dapper boot—a little hand—
If half the little soul is dirt.

The mighty hopes that make us men.

In Memoriam A.H.H (1849)

It may be that no life is found,
Which only to one engine bound
Falls off, but cycles always round.

Behold, we know not anything;
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last—far off—at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring.

In Memoriam A.H.H (1849)

What use to brood? This life of mingled pains
And joys to me,
Despite of every Faith and Creed, remains
The Mystery.

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

The Lord let the house of a brute to the soul of a man,
And the man said, "Am I your debtor?"
And the Lord—"Not yet: but make it as clean as you can,
And then I will let you a better."

By an Evolutionist; Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)

Ah, Christ, that it were possible,
For one short hour to see
The souls we loved, that they might tell us
What and where they be.

Maud; A Monodrama (1855)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Alfred, Lord Tennyson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.