Inspirational Quotes by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (British Poet)

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809–92) was Victorian England’s favorite poet. He drew from traditional myth and Celtic legend to compose allegorical narratives about the ideals and failings of his society.

Born in Lincoln in England’s East Midlands, Tennyson studied at Cambridge and published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830,) his first solo anthology at 21. His second collection was met with such condemnation that he did not publish for ten years. However, his third collection of poems was successful and included his famous poem “Ulysses.”

In 1850, Tennyson published his most significant literary work, In Memoriam, a long poem about immortality, change, and evolution. Dedicated to his late friend, the poet Arthur Henry Hallam, it was Queen Victoria’s favorite—she said the book helped to comfort after Albert’s death.

With Victoria’s patronage, Tennyson came to be celebrated as the most important literary voice of his age and was selected Poet Laureate in 1850, succeeding William Wordsworth. Tennyson relocated to the Isle of Wight in 1853, where he wrote Maud, and Other Poems (1855,) “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (1854,) and Idylls of the King (1859.) He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

That loss is common would not make My own less bitter, rather more: Too common! Never morning wore To evening, but some heart did break.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Loss, Sorrow

He will hold thee, when his passion shall have spent its novel force, something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Wives, Marriage

Till last by Philip’s farm I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Silence, beautiful voice.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: One liners, Silence

I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Action

A lie that is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Lying

Faith lives in honest doubt.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Faith

A smile abroad is often a scowl at home.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Smile

Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace;
Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul,
While the stars burn, the moons increase,
And the great ages onward roll.
Sleep till the end, true soul and sweet.
Nothing comes to thee new or strange.
Sleep full of rest from head to feet;
Lie still, dry dust, secure of change.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson

It becomes no man to nurse despair, but, in the teeth of clenched antagonisms, to follow up the worthiest till he die.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Anger

So much to do, so little done, such things to be.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Achievement, Success & Failure

He makes no friends who never made a foe.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Friends and Friendship

If thou shouldst never see my face again,
Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Prayer

I myself must mix with action lest I wither by despair.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Inaction, Procrastination, Getting Going

What was once to me mere matter of the fancy, now has grown to be the necessity of heart and life.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Necessity

We cannot be kind to each other here for even an hour. We whisper, and hint, and chuckle and grin at our brother’s shame; however you take it we men are a little breed.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Kindness

Because right is right, to follow right were wisdom, in the scorn of consequence.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Consequences

We trust, that somehow, good will be the final goal of ill.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Optimism

Morn in the white-wake of the morning star, came furrowing all the Orient into gold.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Morning

No rock so hard but that a little wave may beat admission in a thousand years.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Perseverance, Persistence

The older order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The lawless science of the law, that codeless myriad of precedent, that wilderness of single instances.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson

A lie that is half-truth is the darkest of all lies.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Knowledge, Wisdom

The mighty hopes that make us men.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Hope

Sin is too stupid to see beyond itself.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Sin

I am a part of all that I have met.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Part of The Whole, Discovery

As the husband is, the wife is; if mated with a clown, the grossness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Marriage

Faith is believing where we cannot prove.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Faith, Belief

I can but trust that good shall fall
At last—far off—at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Trust

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Inspirational Quotes by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (British Poet)

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