4 Alfred (Lord) Tennyson Quotes on Philosophy

Alfred (Lord) Tennyson quotes on philosophy

35. For nothing worthy proving can be proven, Nor yet disproven: wherefore thou be wise, Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt, And cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith!

63. 'Why, if man rot in dreamless ease, Should that plain fact, as taught by these, Not make him sure that he shall cease? 'Who forged that other influence, That heat of inward evidence, By which he doubts against the sense? 'He owns the fatal gift of eyes, That read his spirit blindly wise, Not simple as a thing that dies. 'Here sits he shaping wings to fly: His heart forebodes a mystery: He names the name Eternity. 'That type of Perfect in his mind In Nature can he nowhere find. He sows himself in every wind. 'He seems to hear a Heavenly Friend, And thro' thick veils to apprehend A labour working to an end. 'The end and the beginning vex His reason: many things perplex, With motions, checks, and counterchecks. 'He knows a baseness in his blood At such strange war with something good, He may not do the thing he would. 'Heaven opens inward, chasms yawn. Vast images in glimmering dawn, Half shown, are broken and withdrawn. 'Ah! sure within him and without, Could his dark wisdom find it out, There must be answer to his doubt.

65. 'But, if I lapsed from nobler place, Some legend of a fallen race Alone might hint of my disgrace; 'Some vague emotion of delight In gazing up an Alpine height, Some yearning toward the lamps of night. 'Or if thro' lower lives I came - Tho' all experience past became Consolidate in mind and frame - 'I might forget my weaker lot; For is not our first year forgot? The haunts of memory echo not. 'And men, whose reason long was blind, From cells of madness unconfined, Oft lose whole years of darker mind. 'Much more, if first I floated free, As naked essence, must I be Incompetent of memory: 'For memory dealing but with time, And he with matter, could she climb Beyond her own material prime?

68. 'Whatever crazy sorrow saith, No life that breathes with human breath Has ever truly long'd for death. ''Tis life, whereof our nerves are scant, Oh life, not death, for which we pant; More life, and fuller, that I want.'