Alfred, Lord Tennyson on Spirituality
1809–1892 England
← All quotes by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
8 quotes
Evolution ever climbing after some ideal good
And Reversion ever dragging Evolution in the mud.
Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886)
But this main-miracle that thou art thou,
With power on thine own act and on the world.
* * * 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.
It may be that no life is found,
Which only to one engine bound
Falls off, but cycles always round.
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)