Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnoldwas an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator. Matthew Arnold has been characterised as a sage writer, a type of writer who chastises and instructs the reader on contemporary social issues...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth24 December 1822
becoming life-is
Life is not having and getting, but being and becoming
inspirational wisdom common-sense
The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next.
memories forget
And we forget because we must and not because we will.
two world born
Wandering between two worlds, one dead, The other powerless to be born.
life beautiful dream
Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.
hope impossible standing-alone
Still bent to make some port he knows not where, still standing for some false impossible shore.
air whispering rooms
Spare me the whispering, crowded room, the friends who come and gape and go, the ceremonious air of gloom - all, which makes death a hideous show.
rose yew quiet
Strew on her roses, roses, And never a spray of yew! In quiet she reposes; Ah, would that I did too!
teacher stars white
For eager teachers seized my youth, pruned my faith and trimmed my fire. Showed me the high, white star of truth, there bade me gaze and there aspire.
book perfect speech
He will find one English book and one only, where, as in the "Iliad" itself, perfect plainness of speech is allied with perfect nobleness; and that book is the Bible.
book wish poor
But so many books thou readest, But so many schemes thou breedest, But so many wishes feedest, That thy poor head almost turns.
nature writing hands
Nature herself seems, I say, to take the pen out of his hand, and to write for him with her own bare, sheer, penetrating power.
culture bishops reason
There is no better motto which it [culture] can have than these words of Bishop Wilson, "To make reason and the will of God prevail."
art knowledge toppings
Others abide our question. Thou art free. We ask and ask. Thou smilest and art still, Out-topping knowledge.