The whole scope of the essay is to recommend culture as the great help out of our present difficulties; culture being a pursuit of our total perfecti… - Matthew Arnold

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The whole scope of the essay is to recommend culture as the great help out of our present difficulties; culture being a pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all the matters which most concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the world; and through this knowledge, turning a stream of fresh and free thought upon our stock notions and habits, which we now follow staunchly but mechanically, vainly imagining that there is a virtue in following them staunchly which makes up for the mischief of following them mechanically.

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About Matthew Arnold

Matthew Arnold (December 24 1822 – April 15 1888) was an English poet, essayist and cultural critic. He also pursued a career as an inspector of schools.

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Additional quotes by Matthew Arnold

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Dover Beach and Other Poems · May 17, 2012 Verified in 2 sources · 1 more available Sign up to see the complete provenance
faith modernity secularization
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One must, I think, be struck more and more the longer one lives, to find how much in our present society a man's life of each day depends for its solidity and value upon whether he reads during that day, and far more still on what he reads during it.
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