Coventry Patmore Quotes

If you try to simplify or pare off the superfluous from the minds and speech of most men, you will find that nothing is left. There is no simplicity in them, for there is no truth; truth and simplicity being, as Aquinas says, the same thing.

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.

It is one thing to be blind, and another to be in darkness.

A man may read Plato without clearly comprehending much of what he means. He cannot read him without becoming, in some degree, a changed man.

Why, having won her, do I woo?
Because her spirit's vestal grace
Provokes me always to pursue,
But, spirit-like, eludes embrace.[…]
Because though free of the outer court
I am, this Temple keeps its shrine
Sacred to Heaven; because, in short,
She's not and never can be mine.

The dull and heavy hate of fools.

Toleration, as it is now widely preached, may be a very one-sided bargain. It will not do to let falsehood and moral idiocy say to truth and honesty, "I will tolerate you if you will tolerate me."

The bliss which woman's charms bespeak,
"I've sought in many, found in none!"
"In many 'tis in vain you seek
"What can be found in only one.

He is irrational, however well he may be able to reason, who does not clearly see that good is good and truth truth.

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

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.

Having my law the seventh time disobey'd,
I struck him, and dismiss'd
With hard words and unkiss'd,
—His Mother, who was patient, being dead.

Books are influential in proportion to their obscurity, provided that the obscurity be that of inexpressible Realities. The Bible is the most obscure book in the world. He must be a great fool who thinks he understands the plainest chapter of it.

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.

The enthusiasm for goodness which shows that it is not the habit of the mind.