Thomas Gray: Trending 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)

Waiting

“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)

“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

“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

Flowers

“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

Wise

“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

“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)

Soul , Knowledge , Rage , Time

“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

“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)

Light

“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)

Sadness , Light , Heart

“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

“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)

Soul , Singing , Animals

“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