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The sea of faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

— Matthew Arnold New Poems (1867)

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Faith

More quotes by Matthew Arnold

Nature, with equal mind,
Sees all her sons at play
Sees man control the wind,
The wind sweep man away.

Empedocles on Etna (1852)

And that sweet city with her dreaming spires,
She needs not June for beauty’s heightening.

Thyrsis (1866)

Everything in our political life tends to hide from us that there is anything wiser than our ordinary selves.

Culture and Anarchy (1869)

Hither and thither spins
The wind-borne mirroring soul,
A thousand glimpses wins,
And never sees a whole.

Empedocles on Etna (1852)

Peace, peace is what I seek, and public calm,
Endless extinction of unhappy hates.

Merope (1858)

All Matthew Arnold quotes →

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Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

William James The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)

Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.

Thomas Jefferson Letter to Peter Carr (1787)

I had never doubted my own abilities, but I was quite prepared to believe that "the world" would decline to recognize them.

Colin Wilson Postscript to the Outsider (1967)

Love is the active, working principle in all true faith. It is its very soul, without which it is dead. "Faith works by love."

Jonathan Edwards Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Matthew Arnold (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.