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28 Timeless Quotes By Matthew Arnold

Famous As: Poet
Born On: December 24, 1822
Died On: April 15, 1888
Born In: Laleham, United Kingdom
Died At Age: 65

Matthew Arnold was a well-known English poet and cultural critic. His notable works include ‘Dover Beach’, ‘The Scholar-Gipsy’ and ‘Thyrsis’. He is classified as a sage writer who reprimands and commands the reader on social issues prevalent in society. Arnold was later elected as a Professor of Poetry at Oxford, where he was the first one to deliver lectures in English rather than Latin. In the years to come, he began his work as a critic on literary, social, cultural, journalistic and religious issues. Harold Bloom believed that his credentials in the field of literary and social criticism remained unmatched till the 20th century, despite his derivative class of poetry. Matthew Arnold once stated that, "Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive, and widely effective mode of saying things." We have collected some of his quotes and sayings from his works and observations. Here are some other beautiful excerpts from his works which has remained eternal through the ages.

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Come to me in my dreams, and then
By day I shall be well again.
For then the night will more than pay
The hopeless longing of the day.

Come to me in my dreams, and then By day I shall be well again. For then the night will more than pay The hopeless longing of the day.

Matthew Arnold
Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.

Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.

Matthew Arnold
We are here on earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I do not know.

We are here on earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I do not know.

Matthew Arnold
Journalism is literature in a hurry.

Journalism is literature in a hurry.

Matthew Arnold
The free thinking of one age is the common sense of the next.

The free thinking of one age is the common sense of the next.

Matthew Arnold
And we forget because we must and not because we will.

And we forget because we must and not because we will.

Matthew Arnold
If there ever comes a time when the women of the world come together purely and simply for the benefit of mankind, it will be a force such as the world has never known.

If there ever comes a time when the women of the world come together purely and simply for the benefit of mankind, it will be a force such as the world has never known.

Matthew Arnold
Weary of myself, and sick of asking 
What I am, and what I ought to be, 
At this vessel's prow I stand, which bears me 
Forwards, forwards, o'er the starlit sea.

Weary of myself, and sick of asking What I am, and what I ought to be, At this vessel's prow I stand, which bears me Forwards, forwards, o'er the starlit sea.

Matthew Arnold
Truth sits upon the lips of dying men.

Truth sits upon the lips of dying men.

Matthew Arnold
Art still has truth. Take refuge there.

Art still has truth. Take refuge there.

Matthew Arnold
Resolve to be thyself; and know, that he who finds himself, loses his misery.

Resolve to be thyself; and know, that he who finds himself, loses his misery.

Matthew Arnold
Wandering between two worlds, one dead, The other powerless to be born.

Wandering between two worlds, one dead, The other powerless to be born.

Matthew Arnold
Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.

Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.

Matthew Arnold
The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits;- on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits;- on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

Matthew Arnold
Wandering between two worlds, one dead
The other powerless to be born,
With nowhere yet to rest my head
Like these, on earth I wait forlorn.

Wandering between two worlds, one dead The other powerless to be born, With nowhere yet to rest my head Like these, on earth I wait forlorn.

Matthew Arnold
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Matthew Arnold
To see the object as in itself it really is

To see the object as in itself it really is

Matthew Arnold
And each day brings it's pretty dust,
Our soon-choked souls to fll
And we forget because we must,
And not because we will.

And each day brings it's pretty dust, Our soon-choked souls to fll And we forget because we must, And not because we will.

Matthew Arnold
And we forget because we must

And we forget because we must

Matthew Arnold
Choose equality.

Choose equality.

Matthew Arnold
Alas, is even Love too weak to unlock the heart and let it speak? Are even lovers powerless to reveal To one another what indeed they feel?

Alas, is even Love too weak to unlock the heart and let it speak? Are even lovers powerless to reveal To one another what indeed they feel?

Matthew Arnold
To have the sense of creative activity is the great happiness and the great proof of being alive.

To have the sense of creative activity is the great happiness and the great proof of being alive.

Matthew Arnold
Culture is the endeavour to know the best and to make this knowledge prevail for the good of all humankind.

Culture is the endeavour to know the best and to make this knowledge prevail for the good of all humankind.

Matthew Arnold
But now I only hear
It's melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath 
Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

But now I only hear It's 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
The strongest part of a religion today is its unconscious poetry

The strongest part of a religion today is its unconscious poetry

Matthew Arnold
We mortal millions live alone.

We mortal millions live alone.

Matthew Arnold
The sterner self of the Populace likes bawling, hustling, and smashing; the lighter self, beer.

The sterner self of the Populace likes bawling, hustling, and smashing; the lighter self, beer.

Matthew Arnold
The man who to untimely death is doomed Vainly would hedge him in from the assault of harm; He bears the seed of ruin in himself.

The man who to untimely death is doomed Vainly would hedge him in from the assault of harm; He bears the seed of ruin in himself.

Matthew Arnold