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Thomas Hardy
155 quotes
“I saw a dead man’s finer part Shining within each faithful heart Of those bereft. Then said I: 'This must be His immortality.'”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thou should’st have learnt that Not to Mend For Me could mean but Not to Know.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It surely is far sweeter and more wise To water love, than toil to leave anon A name whose glory-gleam will but advise Invidious minds to quench it with their own.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A shaded lamp and a waving blind, And the beat of a clock from a distant floor: On this scene enter—winged, horned, and spined— A longlegs, a moth, and a dumbledore; While ’mid my page there idly stands A sleepy fly, that rubs its hands...”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And feign like truth, for one mad day, That Earth is Paradise?”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When shall the saner softer polities Whereof we dream, have play in each proud land, And patriotism, grown Godlike, scorn to stand Bondslave to realms, but circle earth and seas?”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The world-imprinting power of perished Rome.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) first seen 1887 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In the Old Theatre, Fiesole", st. 3 (April 1887)
“Time’s central city, Rome.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) first seen 1887 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rome", st. 1 (April 1887)
“My ardours for emprize nigh lost Since Life has bared its bones to me, I shrink to seek a modern coast Whose riper times have yet to be; Where the new regions claim them free From that long drip of human tears Which peoples old in tragedy Have left upon the centuried years.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Con the dead page as ’twere live love: press on! Cold wisdom’s words will ease thy track for thee.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) first seen 1867 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Her Reproach", st. 1 (1867)
“O memory, where is now my youth, Who used to say that life was truth?”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It works unconsciously, as heretofore, Eternal artistries in Circumstance.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why doth IT so and so, and ever so, This viewless, voiceless Turner of the Wheel?”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What of the Immanent Will and its designs? It works unconsciously as heretofore, External artistries in circumstance.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A local thing called Christianity.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Aggressive Fancy working spells Upon a mind o’erwrought.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ere systemed suns were globed and lit The slaughters of the race were writ.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My argument is that War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The victors and the vanquished then the storm it tossed and tore, As hard they strove, those worn-out men, upon that surly shore; Dead Nelson and his half-dead crew, his foes from near and far, Were rolled together on the deep that night at Trafalgar.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here by the baring bough Raking up leaves, Often I ponder how Springtime deceives,— I, an old woman now, Raking up leaves.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Autumn in King's Hintock Park" (1901), lines 1-6
“Yes; quaint and curious war is! You shoot a fellow down You'd treat if met where any bar is, Or help to half-a-crown.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) first seen 1902 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Man He Killed" (1902), lines 17-20
“Let me enjoy the earth no less Because the all-enacting Might That fashioned forth its loveliness Had other aims than my delight.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I set out for Lyonnesse, A hundred miles away, The rime was on the spray, And starlight lit my lonesomeness When I set out for Lyonnesse A hundred miles away.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) first seen 1870 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dated (1870) in Collected Poems (1932)
“We two kept house, the Past and I, The Past and I; I tended while it hovered nigh, Leaving me never alone.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In a solitude of the sea Deep from human vanity, And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she. Steel chambers, late the pyres Of her salamandrine fires, Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres. Over the mirrors meant To glass the opulent The sea-worm crawls — grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Convergence of the Twain (Lines on the loss of the Titanic)", ll. 1-9 (1912)
“The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And as the smart ship grew In stature, grace, and hue, In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too. Alien they seemed to be; No mortal eye could see The intimate welding of their later history, Or sign that they were bent By paths coincident On being anon twin halves of one august event, Till the Spinner of the Years Said "Now!" And each one hears, And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why did you give no hint that night That quickly after the morrow's dawn, And calmly, as if indifferent quite, You would close your term here, up and be gone Where I could not follow With wing of swallow To gain one glimpse of you ever anon!”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Going", ll. 1-6 (1912)
“I seem but a dead man held on end To sink down soon.... O you could not know That such swift fleeing No soul foreseeing — Not even I — would undo me so!”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me, Saying that now you are not as you were When you had changed from the one who was all to me, But as at first, when our day was fair.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Voice", ll. 1-4 (1912)
“That night your great guns, unawares, Shook all our coffins as we lay, And broke the chancel window-squares, We thought it was the Judgement Day.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Channel Firing", ll. 1-4 (1914)
“It's gunnery practice out at sea Just as before you went below; The world is as it used to be.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Again the guns disturbed the hour, Roaring their readiness to avenge, As far inland as Stourton Tower, And Camelot, and starlit Stonehenge.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the third-class seat sat the journeying boy, And the roof-lamp's oily flame Played down on his listless form and face, Bewrapt past knowing to what he was going, Or whence he came.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Midnight on the Great Western", from Moments of Vision (1917)
“What of the faith and fire within us Men who march away Ere the barn-cocks say Night is growing gray, To hazards whence no tears can win us; What of the faith and fire within us Men who march away!”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Men Who March Away", ll. 1-7 (1914)
“Only a man harrowing clods In a slow silent walk With an old horse that stumbles and nods Half asleep as they stalk. Only thin smoke without flame From the heaps of couch-grass; Yet this will go onward the same Though Dynasties pass. Yonder a maid and her wight Come whispering by: War's annals will cloud into night Ere their story die.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Time of 'The Breaking of Nations'", ll. 1-12 (1915)
“I am the family face; Flesh perishes, I live on, Projecting trait and trace Through time to times anon, And leaping from place to place Over oblivion.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The years-heired feature that can In curve and voice and eye Despise the human span Of durance—that is I; The eternal thing in man, That heeds no call to die.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ah, no; the years, the years; Down their carved names the raindrop plows.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When the Present has latched its postern behind my tremulous stay, And the May month flaps its glad green leaves like wings, Delicate-filmed as new-spun silk, will the neighbours say, "He was a man who used to notice such things"?”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The bower we shrined to Tennyson, Gentlemen, Is roof-wrecked; damps there drip upon Sagged seats, the creeper-nails are rust, The spider is sole denizen; Even she who read those rhymes is dust, Gentlemen!”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A radiant stranger, who saw not me. I queried, "Get out to her do I dare?" But I kept my seat in my search for a plea, And the wheels moved on. O could it but be That I had alighted there!”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is the weather the cuckoo likes, And so do I; When showers betumble the chestnut spikes, And nestlings fly; And the little brown nightingale bills his best, And they sit outside at "The Traveller's Rest", And maids come forth sprig-muslin drest, And citizens dream of the south and west, And so do I.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is the weather the shepherd shuns, And so do I.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And meadow rivulets overflow, And drops on gate bars hang in a row, And rooks in families homeward go, And so do I.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A star looks down at me, And says: "Here I and you Stand each in our degree: What do you mean to do,— Mean to do?”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Peace upon earth!' was said. We sing it And pay a million priests to bring it. After two thousand years of mass We’ve got as far as poison-gas.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Christmas: 1924
“Well, World, you have kept faith with me, Kept faith with me; Upon the whole you have proved to be Much as you said you were.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Since as a child I used to lie Upon the leaze and watch the sky, Never, I own, expected I That life would all be fair.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To find beauty in ugliness is the province of the poet.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) first seen 1840 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement (5 August 1888), as quoted in The Life of Thomas Hardy 1840-1928 (1962) by Florence Emily Hardy