Thomas Gray Quotes (81 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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Thomas Gray

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Famous Thomas Gray Quotes

“The paths of glory lead but to the grave.”

Thomas Gray

Source: An Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard

“Ruin seize thee, ruthless King!
Confusion on thy banners wait,
Though fanned by Conquest's crimson wing
They mock the air with idle state.”

Thomas Gray The Bard

I. 1. lines 1-4
The Bard (1757)

“Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.”

Thomas Gray

St. 17
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

“Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”

Thomas Gray

St. 14
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)
Source: An Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard

“Hark, his hands the lyre explore!
Bright-eyed Fancy hovering o'er
Scatters from her pictured urn
Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.”

Thomas Gray

III. 3, Line 2
The Progress of Poesy http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?textpppo (1754)
Source: Selected Poems

“[…] where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.”

Thomas Gray

Thomas Gray Quotes about light

“Rich windows that exclude the light,
And passages that lead to nothing.”

Thomas Gray

A Long Story; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Dear, as the light that visits these sad eyes;
Dear, as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.”

Thomas Gray The Bard

I. 3. lines 39-40
The Bard (1757)

“O'er her warm cheek and rising bosom move
The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love.”

Thomas Gray

I. 3, Line 16
The Progress of Poesy http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=pppo (1754)

“From toil he wins his spirits light,
From busy day the peaceful night;
Rich, from the very want of wealth,
In heaven's best treasures, peace and health.”

Thomas Gray

Source: Ode on the Pleasure Arising from Vicissitude http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=oopv (1754), Line 93

“He passed the flaming bounds of place and time:
The living throne, the sapphire-blaze,
Where angels tremble, while they gaze,
He saw; but blasted with excess of light,
Closed his eyes in endless night.”

Thomas Gray

III. 2, Line 4
The Progress of Poesy http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=pppo (1754)

“When love could teach a monarch to be wise,
And gospel-light first dawn'd from Bullen's eyes.”

Thomas Gray

Education and Government; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Thomas Gray Quotes about the soul

“But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page
Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll;
Chill Penury repressed their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.”

Thomas Gray

St. 13
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

“Visions of glory, spare my aching sight,
Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul!”

Thomas Gray The Bard

III. 1. lines 107-108
The Bard (1757)

“Hear from the grave, great Taliessin, hear;
They breathe a soul to animate thy clay.
Bright Rapture calls, and soaring, as she sings,
Waves in the eye of Heav'n her many-colour'd wings.”

Thomas Gray The Bard

III. 2. lines 121-124
The Bard (1757)

“Helm nor hauberk's twisted mail,
Nor even thy virtues, tyrant, shall avail
To save thy secret soul from nightly fears,
From Cambria's curse, from Cambria's tears!”

Thomas Gray The Bard

I, 1. lines 5-8
The Bard (1757)

“Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heav'n did a recompense as largely send:
He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a tear,
He gained from Heav'n ('twas all he wished) a friend.”

Thomas Gray

The Epitaph, St. 2
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

Thomas Gray: Trending quotes

“Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learned to stray;
Along the cool sequestered vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.”

Thomas Gray

St. 19
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?textelcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

Madness

“To each his suff'rings: all are men,
Condemn'd alike to groan,
The tender for another's pain;
Th' unfeeling for his own.
Yet ah! why should they know their fate?
Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies.
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more; where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.”

Thomas Gray

St. 10
Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=odec (written 1742–1750)

Men , Pain , Fate , Happiness

“Behind the steps that Misery treads
Approaching Comfort view:
The hues of bliss more brightly glow
Chastised by sabler tints of woe,
And blended form, with artful strife,
The strength and harmony of life.”

Thomas Gray

Source: Ode on the Pleasure Arising from Vicissitude http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=oopv (1754), Line 35

Life , Art

Thomas Gray Quotes

“The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Await alike the inevitable hour:
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.”

Thomas Gray

St. 9
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

Beauty , Wealth

“While bright-eyed Science watches round.”

Thomas Gray

Ode for Music http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=ocmu (1769), Chorus, line 3

Science

“Her track, where'er the goddess roves,
Glory pursue, and gen'rous shame,
Th' unconquerable mind, 3 and freedom's holy flame.”

Thomas Gray

II. 2, Line 10
The Progress of Poesy http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=pppo (1754)

Freedom

“E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,
E'en in our Ashes live their wonted Fires.”

Thomas Gray

St. 23
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

Nature

“Now my weary lips I close;
Leave me, leave me to repose!”

Thomas Gray

Descent of Odin http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=dooo, Line 71 (1761)

“Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate,
Beneath the good how far,—but far above the great.”

Thomas Gray

III. 3, Line 16
The Progress of Poesy http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=pppo (1754)

Fate

“The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.”

Thomas Gray

St. 1
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

World , Way , Parting

“From Helicon's harmonious springs
A thousand rills their mazy progress take.”

Thomas Gray

I. 1, Line 3
The Progress of Poesy http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=pppo (1754)

Spring

“Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.”

Thomas Gray

St. 12
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

“No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
(There they alike in trembling hope repose,)
The bosom of his Father and his God.”

Thomas Gray

The Epitaph, St. 3
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)
Variant: No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
(There they alike in trembling hope repose,)
The bosom of his Father and his God.

God , Hope , Drawing

“Ah, tell them they are men!”

Thomas Gray

St. 6
Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=odec (written 1742–1750)

Men

“Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed,
Less pleasing when possest;
The tear forgot as soon as shed,
The sunshine of the breast.”

Thomas Gray

St. 5
Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=odec (written 1742–1750)

Hope , Tear

“Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame,
With many a foul and midnight murder fed.”

Thomas Gray The Bard

II. 3. lines 87-88
The Bard (1757)

“See the wretch that long has tost
On the thorny bed of pain,
At length repair his vigour lost,
And breathe and walk again:
The meanest floweret of the vale,
The simplest note that swells the gale,
The common sun, the air, the skies,
To him are opening paradise.”

Thomas Gray

Source: Ode on the Pleasure Arising from Vicissitude http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=oopv (1754), Line 41

Pain , Sun

“Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.”

Thomas Gray

III. 1, Line 12
The Progress of Poesy http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=pppo (1754)

Tear

“The applause of list'ning senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,
And read their hist'ry in a nation's eyes.”

Thomas Gray

St. 16
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

Pain , Smile , Reading

“Twas on a lofty vase's side,
Where China's gayest art had dyed
The azure flowers, that blow;
Demurest of the tabby kind,
The pensive Selima reclined,
Gazed on the lake below.”

Thomas Gray

St. 1
On the Death of a Favourite Cat http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?textodfc (1747)

Art , Flowers

“Not all that tempts your wandering eyes
And heedless hearts, is lawful prize;
Nor all that glisters gold.”

Thomas Gray

St. 7
On the Death of a Favourite Cat http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=odfc (1747)

Law , Heart

“In glittering arms and glory dressed,
High he rears his ruby crest.
There the thundering strokes begin,
There the press and there the din;
Talymalfra's rocky shore
Echoing to the battle's roar.”

Thomas Gray

"The Triumphs of Owen. A Fragment", from Mr. Evans's Specimens of the Welch Poetry (1764) http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=trow

“Alas, regardless of their doom,
The little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come,
Nor care beyond today.”

Thomas Gray

St. 6
Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=odec (written 1742–1750)

Sense

“I shall be but a shrimp of an author.”

Thomas Gray

Letter to Horace Walpole http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=tgal0527 (February 25, 1768)

“Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth
A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.
Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth.
And Melancholy marked him for her own.”

Thomas Gray

The Epitaph, St. 1
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

Youth , Birth , Science

“Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'r
The moping owl does to the moon complain.”

Thomas Gray

St. 3
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

“What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know,
And from her own she learned to melt at others' woe.”

Thomas Gray

Hymn to Adversity http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=otad, St. 2 (1742)

Learning

“Sweet is the breath of vernal shower,
The bee's collected treasures sweet,
Sweet music's melting fall, but sweeter yet
The still small voice of gratitude.”

Thomas Gray

Ode for Music http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=ocmu (1769), V, line 8

Music , Bee , Gratitude

“Ye distant spires, ye antique towers,
That crown the wat'ry glade.”

Thomas Gray

St. 1
Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=odec (written 1742–1750)

Distant

“Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune,
He had not the method of making a fortune.”

Thomas Gray

On His Own Character http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=skoc (1761)

“Far from the sun and summer-gale,
In thy green lap was Nature's Darling laid.”

Thomas Gray

III. 1, Line 1
The Progress of Poesy http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=pppo (1754)

Nature , Sun , Summer

“Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast
The little Tyrant of his fields withstood;
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.”

Thomas Gray

St. 15
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

Country

“And moody madness laughing wild
Amid severest woe.”

Thomas Gray

St. 8
Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=odec (written 1742–1750)

Madness

“Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.”

Thomas Gray

St. 10
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

“The social smile, the sympathetic tear.”

Thomas Gray

Education and Government; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Smile , Tear

“One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill,
Along the heath, and near his fav'rite tree:
Another came; nor yet beside the rill,
Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he.”

Thomas Gray

St. 28
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

Tree

“Brushing with hasty steps the dews away,
To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.”

Thomas Gray

St. 25
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

Sun

“To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay.”

Thomas Gray The Bard

I. 2. line 28
The Bard (1757)

“And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.”

Thomas Gray

St. 21
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

“Glance their many-twinkling feet.”

Thomas Gray

I. 3, Line 11
The Progress of Poesy http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=pppo (1754)

“Now as the Paradisiacal pleasures of the Mahometans consist in playing upon the flute and lying with Houris, be mine to read eternal new romances of Marivaux and Crebillon.”

Thomas Gray

To Mr. West, Letter iv, Third Series; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Pleasure , Lying , Reading

“Iron sleet of arrowy shower
Hurtles in the darkened air.”

Thomas Gray

The Fatal Sisters http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=fsio (1761), line 3

“And hie him home, at evening's close,
To sweet repast and calm repose.”

Thomas Gray

Source: Ode on the Pleasure Arising from Vicissitude http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=oopv (1754), Line 87

Home

“The breezy call of incense-breathing morn.”

Thomas Gray

St. 5
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

“Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows,
While proudly riding o'er the azure realm
In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes;
Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm;
Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway,
That, hushed in grim repose, expects his evening prey.”

Thomas Gray The Bard

II. 2. lines 71-76
The Bard (1757)

Pleasure , Youth

“Daughter of Jove, relentless power,
Thou tamer of the human breast,
Whose iron scourge and tort'ring hour
The bad affright, afflict the best!”

Thomas Gray

Hymn to Adversity http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=otad, St. 1 (1742)

Affliction , Daughters

“Comus and his midnight crew.”

Thomas Gray

Ode for Music http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=ocmu (1769), line 2

“Grim-visaged comfortless Despair.”

Thomas Gray

St. 7
Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=odec (written 1742–1750)

Despair

“Weave the warp, and weave the woof,
The winding sheet of Edward's race.
Give ample room and verge enough,
The Characters of hell to trace.”

Thomas Gray The Bard

II. 1. lines 49-52
The Bard (1757)

Hell

“T'was Spring, t'was Summer, all was gay
Now Autumn bears a cloud brow
The flowers of Spring are swept way
And Summer fruits desert the bough”

Thomas Gray

from Autumn

Way , Spring , Flowers , Autumn

“For who to dumb Forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing ling'ring look behind?”

Thomas Gray

St. 22
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

Forgetting

“The verse adorn again
Fierce War, and faithful Love,
And Truth severe, by fairy Fiction drest.”

Thomas Gray The Bard

III. 3. lines 125-127
The Bard (1757)

Love , War , Truth , Faith

“For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
Or busy housewife ply her evening care:
No children run to lisp their sire's return,
Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.”

Thomas Gray

St. 6
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

Children , Business , Kiss , Envy

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