237 quotes
Philistine must have originally meant, in the mind of those who invented the nickname, a strong, dogged, unenlightened opponent of the children of the light.
Essays in Criticism (1865)
The grand style arises in poetry, when a noble nature, poetically gifted, treats with simplicity or with severity a serious subject.
On Translating Homer (1861)
Is it so small a thing
To have enjoy’d the sun,
To have lived light in the spring,
To have loved, to have thought, to have done;
To have advanc’d true friends, and beat down baffling foes?
Empedocles on Etna (1852)
On the breast of that huge Mississippi of falsehood called History, a foam-bell more or less is no consequence.
Essays in Criticism (1865)
Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive and widely effective mode of saying things, and hence its importance.
Essays in Criticism (1865)
Culture is "To know the best that has been said and thought in the world."
Literature and Dogma (1873)
The most eloquent voice of our century uttered, shortly before leaving the world, a warning cry against the "Anglo-Saxon contagion."
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
Man cannot, though he would, live chance's fool.
Radiant with ardour divine!
Beacons of Hope ye appear!
Languor is not in your heart,
Weakness is not in your word,
Weariness not on your brow.
Rugby Chapel (1867)
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.
On the Study of Celtic Literature (1867)
The best poetry will be found to have a power of forming, sustaining, and delighting us, as nothing else can.
Essays in Criticism, second series (1888)
That which in England we call the middle class is in America virtually the nation.
A Word More About America (1885)
The stream of tendency in which all things seek to fulfil the law of their being.
used also by Emerson; Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)
It is a very great thing to be able to think as you like; but, after all, an important question remains: what you think.
Democracy (1861)
The World in which we live and move
Outlasts aversion, outlasts love:
Outlasts each effort, interest, hope,
Remorse, grief, joy.
The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems (1849)
The Celts certainly have it in a wonderful measure.
On the Study of Celtic Literature (1867)
Thou waitest for the spark from heaven!
The Scholar-Gipsy (1853)
Hath man no second life? — Pitch this one high!
For both were faiths, and both are gone.
Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse (1855)
A poetry of revolt against moral ideas is a poetry of revolt against life; a poetry of indifference towards moral ideas is a poetry of indifference towards life.
Essays in Criticism, second series (1888)