If an historian be an unbeliever in all heroism, if he be a man who brings every thing down to the level of a common mediocrity, depend upon it, the truth is not found in such a writer.
MATTHEW ARNOLDIf an historian be an unbeliever in all heroism, if he be a man who brings every thing down to the level of a common mediocrity, depend upon it, the truth is not found in such a writer.
MATTHEW ARNOLDIt is a very great thing to be able to think as you like; but, after all, an important question remains: what you think.
MATTHEW ARNOLDAnd see all sights from pole to pole, And glance, and nod, and hustle by; And never once possess our soul Before we die.
MATTHEW ARNOLDThe true meaning of religion is thus not simply morality, but morality touched by emotion.
MATTHEW ARNOLDUse your gifts faithfully, and they shall be enlarged; practice what you know, and you shall attain to higher knowledge.
MATTHEW ARNOLDAh! two desires toss about The poet’s feverish blood; One drives him to the world without, And one to solitude.
MATTHEW ARNOLDCulture is properly described as the love of perfection; it is a study of perfection.
MATTHEW ARNOLDI do not believe today everything I believed yesterday I wonder will I believe tomorrow everything I believe today.
MATTHEW ARNOLDGreatness is a spiritual condition worthy to excite love, interest, and admiration; and the outward proof of possessing greatness is that we excite love, interest, and admiration.
MATTHEW ARNOLDBelow the surface stream, shallow and light, Of what we say and feel below the stream, As light, of what we think we feel, there flows With noiseless current, strong, obscure and deep, The central stream of what we feel indeed.
MATTHEW ARNOLDThe eternal not ourselves that makes for righteousness.
MATTHEW ARNOLDCulture is to know the best that has been said and thought in the world.
MATTHEW ARNOLDI am bound by my own definition of criticism : a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world.
MATTHEW ARNOLDBusiness could not make dull, nor passion wild; Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole.
MATTHEW ARNOLDAll knowledge is interesting to a wise man, and the knowledge of nature is interesting to all men.
MATTHEW ARNOLDHave something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret.
MATTHEW ARNOLD