It seems to me it is only noble to be good.—Kind hearts are more than coronets.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Goodness
That man’s the true Conservative who lops the moldered branch away.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Conservatives
So many worlds, so much to do,
So little done, such things to be.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Possibilities, Ambition
I myself must mix with action lest I wither by despair.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Inaction, Procrastination, Getting Going
Because right is right, to follow right were wisdom, in the scorn of consequence.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Consequences
I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Action
Better not be at all than not be noble.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Honor
My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Truth, Integrity, Strength, Heart, Character
A louse in the locks of literature.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Criticism, Critics
Trust me not at all, or all in all.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Trust
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
Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Commitment, Dedication, Success
No rock so hard but that a little wave may beat admission in a thousand years.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Perseverance, Persistence
After-dinner talk Across the walnuts and the wine.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Wine, One liners
The jingling of the guinea helps the hurt that Honor feels.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Corruption
A sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier times.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Sadness, Sorrow, Grief, Misfortune
Ours not to reason why
Ours but to do and die.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Duty
One still strong man in a blatant land,
whatever they call him, what care I,
Aristocrat, democrat, autocrat – one
Who can rule and dare not lie.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Honesty, Government
The mighty hopes that make us men.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Hope
Death is the end of life; ah why
Should life all labour be?… .
All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave
In silence – ripen, fall, and cease;
Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Death
What rights are those that dare not resist for them?
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Conflict
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
Jewels five words long, that on the stretched forefinger of all time sparkle forever.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Proverbs
In time there is no present, In eternity no future, In eternity no past.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Eternity
Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
There’s no glory like those who save their country.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Glory
A truth looks freshest in the fashions of the day.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Truth
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
Nor is it wiser to weep a true occasion lost, but trim our sails, and let old bygones be.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Shape your heart to front the hour, but dream not that the hours will last.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Planning, Preparation
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- A. E. Housman English Scholar, Poet
- John Dryden English Poet
- Charles Darwin British Naturalist
- Enoch Powell British Politician
- Edith Sitwell British Poet
- William Wordsworth English Poet
- Samuel Johnson British Essayist
- Rudyard Kipling British Children’s Books Writer
- T. S. Eliot American-born British Poet
- Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) British Anglican Author
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