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Thomas Traherne Quotes

d. 1674 England

Thomas Traherne (1636 or 1637 – c. September 27 1674) was an English clergyman, mystical writer and poet, sometimes seen as belonging to the Metaphysical school though he belonged to a later generation than most of its other members.

England
Poets

Random Thomas Traherne quote

12 quotes

Order the beauty even of beauty is,
It is the rule of bliss,
The very life and form and cause of pleasure.

To think the world therefore a general Bedlam, or place of madmen, and oneself a physician, is the most necessary point of present wisdom.

As nothing is more easy than to think, so nothing is more difficult than to think well.

An empty book is like an infant's soul, in which anything may be written. It is capable of all things, but containeth nothing.

The corn was orient and immortal wheat, which never should be reaped, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from everlasting to everlasting.

Some unknown joys there be
Laid up in store for me.

Had we not loved ourselves at all, we could never have been obliged to love anything. So that self-love is the basis of all love.

The world is a mirror of infinite beauty, yet no man sees it. It is a Temple of Majesty, yet no man regards it. It is a region of Light and Peace, did not man disquiet it. It is the Paradise of God.

You never enjoy the world aright, till the Sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars: and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world.

A stranger here
Strange things doth meet, strange glories see;
Strange treasures lodg'd in this fair world appear,
Strange all and new to me;
But that they mine should be who nothing was,
That strangest is of all; yet brought to pass.

Strange is the vigour in a brave man's soul. The strength of his spirit and his irresistible power, the greatness of his heart and the height of his condition, his mighty confidence and contempt of danger, his true security and repose in himself, his liberty to dare and do what he pleaseth, his alacrity in the midst of fears, his invincible temper, are advantages which make him master of fortune.

Christian Ethicks (1675)

By this you may see who are the rude and barbarous Indians: For verily there is no savage nation under the cope of Heaven, that is more absurdly barbarous than the Christian World. They that go naked and drink water and live upon roots are like Adam, or Angels in comparison of us.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Thomas Traherne (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.