Alfred Tennyson quotes
Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892): British Poet Laureate. The library holds 320 quotes by Alfred Tennyson, drawn from In Memoriam, The Princess, Locksley Hall and other works. The 60 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: life, faith, love, nature, time, change
The best-known Alfred Tennyson quotes
-
’Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all.
In Memoriam A. H. H, XXVII -
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Ulysses, Poems -
Whose faith has centre everywhere, Nor cares to fix itself to form.
In Memoriam. xxxiii, Stanza 1 -
Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change.
Locksley Hall, Line 182 -
One God, one law, one element, And one far-off divine event To which the whole creation moves.
In Memoriam. Conclusion, Stanza 36 -
So careful of the type she seems, So careless of the single life.
In Memoriam. lv, Stanza 2 -
Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might; Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, pass’d in music out of sight.
Locksley Hall, Line 33 -
Broad based upon her people’s will, And compassed by the inviolate sea.
To the Queen -
Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widen’d with the process of the suns.
Locksley Hall, Line 137 -
More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of.
Morte d’Arthur, Line 247 -
I held it truth, with him who sings To one clear harp in divers tones, That men may rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to higher things.
In Memoriam. i, Stanza 1 -
And grasps the skirts of happy chance, And breasts the blows of circumstance.
In Memoriam. lxiv, Stanza 2 -
I do but sing because I must, And pipe but as the linnets sing.
In Memoriam. xxi, Stanza 6 -
There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds.
In Memoriam. xcvi, Stanza 3 -
Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.
Locksley Hall, Line 184 -
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.
Locksley Hall, Line 141 -
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean. Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy autumn-fields, And thinking of the days that are no more.
The Princess, Part iv. Line 21 -
That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies; That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright; But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.
The Grandmother, Stanza 8 -
I, the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time.
Locksley Hall, Line 178 -
And lives to clutch the golden keys, To mould a mighty state’s decrees, And shape the whisper of the throne.
In Memoriam. lxiv, Stanza 3 -
Short swallow-flights of song, that dip Their wings in tears, and skim away.
In Memoriam. xlviii, Stanza 4 -
Men at most differ as heaven and earth, But women, worst and best, as heaven and hell.
-
Oh yet we trust that somehow good Will be the final goal of ill.
In Memoriam. liv, Stanza 1 -
What was once to me Mere matter of the fancy, now has grown The vast necessity of heart and life.
-
Men may rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to higher things.
-
In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish’d dove; In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.
Locksley Hall, Line 19 -
Ah, Christ, that it were possible For one short hour to see The souls we loved, that they might tell us What and where they be.
Maud, Part ii. iv. Stanza 3 -
God gives us love. Something to love He lends us; but when love is grown To ripeness, that on which it throve Falls off, and love is left alone.
To J. S -
With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans, And sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair.
The Princess, Prologue. Line 141 -
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles whom we knew.
Ulysses -
Dowered with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, The love of love.
The Poet -
What are men better than sheep or goats, That nourish a blind life within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
-
It is the little rift within the lute That by and by will make the music mute, And ever widening slowly silence all.
Idylls of the King. Merlin and Vivien -
Not once or twice in our rough-island story The path of duty was the way to glory.
Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, Stanza 8 -
From yon blue heaven above us bent, The grand old gardener and his wife Smile at the claims of long descent.
Lady Clara Vere de Vere, Stanza 7 -
Rich in saving common-sense, And, as the greatest only are, In his simplicity sublime.
Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, Stanza 4 -
And thus he bore without abuse The grand old name of gentleman, Defamed by every charlatan, And soil’d with all ignoble use.
In Memoriam. cxi, Stanza 6 -
So dear a life your arms enfold, Whose crying is a cry for gold.
The Daisy, Stanza 24 -
We are ancients of the earth, And in the morning of the times.
L’Envoi -
And statesmen at her council met Who knew the seasons, when to take Occasion by the hand, and make The bounds of freedom wider yet.
To the Queen -
And from his ashes may be made The violet of his native land.
In Memoriam. xviii, Stanza 1 -
Read my little fable: He that runs may read. Most can raise the flowers now, For all have got the seed.
The Flower -
A daughter of the gods, divinely tall, And most divinely fair.
A Dream of Fair Women, Stanza xxii -
Mastering the lawless science of our law,—That codeless myriad of precedent, That wilderness of single instances.
Aylmer’s Field -
How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use,—As tho’ to breathe were life!
Ulysses -
Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow!
In Memoriam. cv, Stanza 2 -
A rosebud set with little wilful thorns, And sweet as English air could make her, she.
The Princess, Part i. Line 153 -
Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart, the kindlier hand! Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be!
In Memoriam. cv, Stanza 8 -
And Thought leapt out to wed with Thought Ere Thought could wed itself with Speech.
In Memoriam. xxiii, Stanza 4 -
Howe’er it be, it seems to me, ’Tis only noble to be good. Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood.
Lady Clara Vere de Vere, Stanza 7 -
The old order changeth, yielding place to new; And God fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
The Passing of Arthur -
O love! O fire! once he drew With one long kiss my whole soul through My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.
Fatima, Stanza 3 -
Never morning wore To evening, but some heart did break.
-
For men may come and men may go, But I go on forever.
The Brook -
Hold thou the good; define it well; For fear divine Philosophy Should push beyond her mark, and be Procuress to the Lords of Hell.
In Memoriam. liii, Stanza 4 -
Oh good gray head which all men knew!
Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, Stanza 4 -
It is the flash that murders; the poor thunder never harm’d head.
-
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,—These three alone lead life to sovereign power.
OEnone -
The great world spins forever down the ringing grooves of change.
-
Kind hearts are more than coronets, and simple faith than Norman blood.
Where these quotes come from
- In Memoriam (41 quotes)
- The Princess (18 quotes)
- Locksley Hall (13 quotes)
- Ulysses (5 quotes)
- Maud (5 quotes)
- Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington (4 quotes)
- To the Queen (3 quotes)
- To J. S (3 quotes)
Every quote comes from a public-domain edition. How the library was made .