Coventry Patmore Quotes

The difference between a commonly well-behaved woman and a high-bred lady consists in very small things—but what a difference it is!

Ah, wasteful woman, she who may
On her sweet self set her own price,
Knowing man cannot choose but pay,
How has she cheapen'd paradise;
How given for nought her priceless gift,
How spoil'd the bread and spill'd the wine,
Which, spent with due, respective thrift,
Had made brutes men, and men divine.

For want of me the world’s course will not fail;
When all its work is done the lie shall rot;
The truth is great and shall prevail
When none cares whether it prevail or not.

Ninety-nine men in a hundred are natural men, that is, beasts of prey; and it is mere insanity, in business matters, to deal with a stranger upon any other assumption than that he is a natural man, though we should veil our knowledge of the actual fact by a courteous recognition in words and manners of his better possibilities.

Grant me the power of saying things
Too simple and too sweet for words!

Woman is the sum and complex of all nature, and is the visible glory of God.[…] The "Word made Flesh" [John 1:14] is the word made Woman.

The Catholic Church itself has been nearly killed by the infection of the puritanism of the Reformation.

The sunshine dreaming upon Salmon’s height
Is not so sweet and white
As the most heretofore sin-spotted Soul
That darts to its delight
Straight from the absolution of a faithful fight.

To have nought
Is to have all things without care or thought!

Man, when he is in health and order of soul and body, is Mount Olympus, and in him, so long as he confesses that he is nothing in himself, are sensibly apparent the powers and majesties, beauties and beatitudes of all Gods and Goddesses.

How amiable and innocent
Her pleasure in her power to charm!

Love wakes men, once a lifetime each;
They lift their heavy lids, and look;
And, lo, what one sweet page can teach,
They read with joy, then shut the book.

Ther are not two sides to any question that really concerns a man, but only one, and this side only a fool can fail to see if he tries.

All reasoning ends in an appeal to self-evidence.

Religion is not religion until it has become, not only natural, but so natural that nothing else seems natural in its presence.