Quote #103

What is the course of the life Of mortal men on the earth?- Most men eddy about Here and there-eat and drink, Chatter and love and hate, Gather and squander, are raised Aloft, are hurl'd in the dust, Striving blindly, achieving Nothing; and, then they die- Perish; and no one asks Who or what they have been, More than he asks what waves In the moonlit solitudes mild Of the midmost Ocean, have swell'd, Foam'd for a moment, and gone.

More from Matthew Arnold

  1. O strong soul, by what shore Tarriest thou now? For that force, Surely, has not been left vain!
  2. Therefore to thee it was given Many to save with thyself; And, at the end of thy day, O faithful shepherd! to come, Bringing thy sheep in t…
  3. Coldly, sadly descends The autumn evening. The Field Strewn with its dank yellow drifts Of wither'd leaves, and the elms, Fade into dimness…
  4. Radiant with ardour divine! Beacons of Hope ye appear! Languor is not in your heart, Weakness is not in your word, Weariness not on your br…
  5. Charge once more, then, and be dumb! Let the victors, when they come, When the forts of folly fall, Find thy body by the wall.
  6. The whole scope of the essay is to recommend culture as the great help out of our present difficulties; culture being a pursuit of our tota…
  7. Let the long contention cease! Geese are swans, and swans are geese.
  8. Our society distributes itself into Barbarians, Philistines, and Populace; and America is just ourselves, with the Barbarians quite left ou…

All Matthew Arnold quotes