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
knowledge knowing bent
The bent of our time is towards science, towards knowing things as they are ...
christian eye men
At the present moment two things about the Christian religion must surely be clear to anybody with eyes in his head. One is, that men cannot do without it; the other, that they cannot do with it as it is.
ideas profound noble
Life is the application of noble and profound ideas to life.
poet wide
Not deep the poet sees, but wide.
strong children light
Philistine must have originally meant, in the mind of those who invented the nickname, a strong, dogged, unenlightened opponent of the chosen people, of the children of the light.
philosophy incomplete replaced
Without poetry our science will appear incomplete, and most of what now passes with us for religion and philosophy will be replaced by poetry.
heart fire soul
We cannot kindle when we will The fire which in the heart resides, The spirit bloweth and is still, In mystery our soul abides: But tasks in hours of insight will'd Can be through hours of gloom fulfill'd.
heart tears lap
He spoke, and loos'd our heart in tears. He laid us as we lay at birth On the cool flowery lap of earth.
home lost-ones class
In our English popular religion the common conception of a future state of bliss is that of ... a kind of perfected middle-class home, with labour ended, the table spread, goodness all around, the lost ones restored, hymnody incessant.
strength kings soul
For this is the true strength of guilty kings, When they corrupt the souls of those they rule.
loyalty home names
Home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names, and impossible loyalties!
america barbarians our-society
Our society distributes itself into Barbarians, Philistines and Populace; and America is just ourselves with the Barbarians quite left out, and the Populace nearly.
believe yesterday today
I do not believe today everything I believed yesterday I wonder will I believe tomorrow everything I believe today.
three concern our-lives
Conduct is three-fourths of our life and its largest concern.