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Thomas Moore Quotes

Thomas Moore was an Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, now best remembered for the lyrics of "The Minstrel Boy" and "The Last Rose of Summer". As Lord Byron's named literary executor, along with John Murray, Moore was responsible for burning Lord Byron's memoirs after his death. In his lifetime he was often referred to as Anacreon Moore.From a relatively early age, Moore showed an interest in music and other performing arts. He sometimes appeared in musical plays with his friends, such as The Poor Soldier by John O'Keeffe , and at one point had ambitions to become an actor. Moore attended several Dublin schools including Samuel Whyte's English Grammar School in Grafton Street where he learned the English accent with which he spoke for the rest of his life. In 1795 he graduated from Trinity College, which had recently allowed entry to Catholic students, in an effort to fulfill his mother's dream of his becoming a lawyer. Moore was initially a good student, but he later put less effort into his studies. His time at Trinity came amidst the ongoing turmoil following the French Revolution, and a number of his fellow students such as Robert Emmet were supporters of the United Irishmen movement, although Moore himself never was a member. This movement sought support from the French government to launch a revolution in Ireland. In 1798 a rebellion broke out followed by a French invasion, neither of which succeeded.

Besides Emmet, another formative influence was Edward Hudson, also a fellow student at Trinity College, who played a crucial role in introducing Moore to Edward Bunting's A General Collection of the Ancient Irish Music , later one of the main sources of his own collection of Irish Melodies. Wikipedia  

✵ 28. May 1779 – 25. February 1852
Thomas Moore photo

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Lalla Rookh
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Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore: 108   quotes 9   likes

Famous Thomas Moore Quotes

“Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish;
Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.”

Thomas Moore Come

Come, ye Disconsolate.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“We need people in our lives with whom we can be as open as possible. To have real conversations with people may seem like such a simple, obvious suggestion, but it involves courage and risk.”

Thomas Moore

“Shall I ask the brave soldier who fights by my side
In the cause of mankind, if our creeds agree?”

Thomas Moore Come

Come, send round the Wine.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Fly not yet; 't is just the hour
When pleasure, like the midnight flower
That scorns the eye of vulgar light,
Begins to bloom for sons of night
And maids who love the moon.”

Thomas Moore

Fly not yet.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Thomas Moore Quotes about heart

“And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers
Is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns.”

Thomas Moore

Oh think not my Spirits are always as light.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“The harp that once through Tara's halls
The soul of music shed,
Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls
As if that soul were fled.
So sleeps the pride of former days,
So glory's thrill is o'er;
And hearts that once beat high for praise
Now feel that pulse no more.”

Thomas Moore

The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls, st. 1.
Irish Melodies http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moore.html (1807–1834)

“Life is a waste of wearisome hours
Which seldom the rose of enjoyment adorns;
And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers,
Is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns.”

Thomas Moore

O! think not my spirits are always as light, st. 1
Irish Melodies http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moore.html (1807–1834)

“I give thee all,—I can no more,
Though poor the off'ring be;
My heart and lute are all the store
That I can bring to thee.”

Thomas Moore

My Heart and Lute.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“No, the heart that has truly lov'd never forgets,
But as truly loves on to the close;
As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets
The same look which she turn'd when he rose.”

Thomas Moore

Believe me, if all those endearing young Charms.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Variant: No, the heart that has truly lov'd never forgets,
But as truly loves on to the close;
As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets
The same look which she turn'd when he rose.

“I knew, by the smoke that so gracefully curl'd
Above the green elms, that a cottage was near;
And I said, "If there's peace to be found in the world,
A heart that was humble might hope for it here."”

Thomas Moore

Ballad Stanzas.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Thomas Moore Quotes about love

“Socrates and Jesus, two teachers of virtue and love, were executed because of the unsettling, threatening power of their souls, which was revealed in their personal lives and in their words.”

Thomas Moore

Source: Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life

“It may help us, in those times of trouble, to remember that love is not only about relationship, it is also an affair of the soul.”

Thomas Moore

Source: Care of the Soul: Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life

“Love doesn't demand perfection, but it does ask you to give yourself with less reserve than you'd prefer.”

Thomas Moore

Source: A Life At Work: The Joy Of Discovering What You Were Born To Do

“A friendship that like love is warm;
A love like friendship, steady.”

Thomas Moore

How shall I woo?
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“If I speak to thee in friendship's name,
Thou think'st I speak too coldly;
If I mention love's devoted flame,
Thou say'st I speak too boldly.”

Thomas Moore

How shall I woo?
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“What though youth gave love and roses,
Age still leaves us friends and wine.”

Thomas Moore

National Airs, Spring and Autumn, st. 1 (1815).

Thomas Moore: Trending quotes

“Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.”

Thomas Moore

“The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.”

Thomas Moore
Home , Soul

Thomas Moore Quotes

“You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.”

Thomas Moore Irish Melodies

Farewell! But Whenever You Welcome the Hour, st. 3.
Source: Irish Melodies http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moore.html (1807–1834)

“A genuine odyssey is not about piling up experiences. It is a deeply felt, risky, unpredictable tour of the soul.”

Thomas Moore

Source: Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life

Soul

“The key to seeing the world's soul, and in the process wakening our own, is to get over the confusion by which we think that fact is real and imagination is illusion.”

Thomas Moore

Source: Original Self: Living with Paradox and Originality

World , Soul , Imagination , Thinking

“Take all the pleasures of all the spheres,
And multiply each through endless years,—
One minute of heaven is worth them all.”

Thomas Moore

Lalla Rookh http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/lallarookh/index.html (1817), Part IV: Paradise and the Peri

Pleasure

“Man for his glory
To ancestry flies;
But Woman's bright story
Is told in her eyes.”

Thomas Moore

Desmond's Song, st. 4
Irish Melodies http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moore.html (1807–1834)

“If thou would'st have me sing and play
As once I play'd and sung,
First take this time-worn lute away,
And bring one freshly strung.”

Thomas Moore

If Thou would'st have Me sing and play.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Singing , Time

“But Faith, fanatic Faith, once wedded fast
To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last.”

Thomas Moore

Part II.
Lalla Rookh http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/lallarookh/index.html (1817), Part I-III: The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan

Faith , Wedding

“There was a little man, and he had a little soul;
And he said, Little Soul, let us try, try, try!”

Thomas Moore

Little Man and Little Soul.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Soul

“As half in shade and half in sun
This world along its path advances,
May that side the sun's upon
Be all that e'er shall meet thy glances!”

Thomas Moore

Peace be around Thee.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

World , Sun

“Good at a fight, but better at a play;
Godlike in giving, but the devil to pay.”

Thomas Moore

On a Cast of Sheridan's Hand.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Fight

“Thus, when the lamp that lighted
The traveller at first goes out,
He feels awhile benighted,
And looks around in fear and doubt.
But soon, the prospect clearing,
By cloudless starlight on he treads,
And thinks no lamp so cheering
As that light which Heaven sheds.”

Thomas Moore

I'd mourn the Hopes.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Fear , Travel , Feeling , Thinking

“Where bastard Freedom waves
The fustian flag in mockery over slaves.”

Thomas Moore

To the Lord Viscount Forbes, written from the City of Washington.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Freedom

“The light that lies
In woman's eyes,
Has been my heart's undoing.”

Thomas Moore

The Time I've Lost in Wooing, st. 1.
Irish Melodies http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moore.html (1807–1834)

Light , Heart

“Believe me, if all those endearing young charms
Which I gaze on so fondly to-day,
Were to change by to-morrow and fleet in my arms,
Like fairy gifts fading away.
Thou wouldst still be adored as this moment thou art,
Let thy loveliness fade as it will,
And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart,
Would entwine itself verdantly still.”

Thomas Moore

Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms, st. 1.
Irish Melodies http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moore.html (1807–1834)

Art , Change , Heart

“"Come, come," said Tom's father, "at
your time of life,
There's no longer excuse for thus
playing the rake--
It is time you should think, boy, of
taking a wife."
"Why, so it is father--whose wife
shall I take?"”

Thomas Moore

A Joke Versified http://books.google.com/books?id=ENdgFkCgU3gC&pg=PA486&q=%22a+joke+versified%22#v=onepage

Life , Boy , Thinking , Time

“Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea!
Jehovah has triumphed—his people are free.”

Thomas Moore

Sacred Songs, Sound the Loud Timbrel, st. 1.

People , Sea

“Though an angel should write, still 't is devils must print.”

Thomas Moore

The Fudges in England, Letter iii.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Angels

“I know not, I ask not, if guilt 's in that heart,
I but know that I love thee whatever thou art.”

Thomas Moore Come

Come, rest in this Bosom.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Love , Art , Heart

“Ay, down to the dust with them, slaves as they are!
From this hour let the blood in their dastardly veins,
That shrunk at the first touch of Liberty's war,
Be wasted for tyrants, or stagnate in chains.”

Thomas Moore

On the Entry of the Austrians into Naples (1821).
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

War

“Beholding heaven, and feeling hell.”

Thomas Moore

Lalla Rookh http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/lallarookh/index.html (1817), Part V-VIII: The Fire-Worshippers

Feeling , Hell

“Oh, weep for the hour
When to Eveleen's bower
The lord of the valley with false vows came.”

Thomas Moore

Eveleen's Bower.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Falseness

“To live and die in scenes like this,
With some we 've left behind us.”

Thomas Moore

As slow our Ship.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“I feel like one,
Who treads alone
Some banquet-hall deserted,
Whose lights are fled,
Whose garlands dead,
And all but he departed!”

Thomas Moore

Oft in the Stilly Night, st. 2 (1815).

Feeling , Light , Dead

“No eye to watch, and no tongue to wound us
All earth forgot, and all heaven around us.”

Thomas Moore

Come O'er the Sea, st. 2.
Irish Melodies http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moore.html (1807–1834)

“And when once the young heart of a maiden is stolen,
The maiden herself will steal after it soon.”

Thomas Moore

Ill Omens.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Heart

“Farewell, farewell to thee, Araby's daughter!
Thus warbled a Peri beneath the dark sea.”

Thomas Moore

Lalla Rookh http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/lallarookh/index.html (1817), Part V-VIII: The Fire-Worshippers

Daughters , Sea

“Some flow'rets of Eden ye still inherit,
But the trail of the serpent is over them all.”

Thomas Moore

Part II.
Lalla Rookh http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/lallarookh/index.html (1817), Part I-III: The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan
Variant: But the trail of the serpent is over them all.

“This narrow isthmus 'twixt two boundless seas,
The past, the future,—two eternities!”

Thomas Moore

Part II.
Lalla Rookh http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/lallarookh/index.html (1817), Part I-III: The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan

Past , Future , Sea

“Ask a woman's advice, and, whate'er she advise,
Do the very reverse and you're sure to be wise.”

Thomas Moore

How To Make a Good Politician.
Irish Melodies http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moore.html (1807–1834)

“Rich and rare were the gems she wore,
And a bright gold ring on her wand she bore.”

Thomas Moore

Rich and Rare Were the Gems She Wore, st. 1.
Irish Melodies http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moore.html (1807–1834)

“My only books
Were woman's looks,
And folly's all they've taught me.”

Thomas Moore

The Time I've Lost in Wooing, st. 1.
Irish Melodies http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moore.html (1807–1834)

Books

“But there's nothing half so sweet in life
As love's young dream.”

Thomas Moore

Love's Young Dream', st. 1.
Irish Melodies http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moore.html (1807–1834)

For Him , Love , Life , Dreams

“Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast,
The rapids are near, and the daylight's past.”

Thomas Moore

A Canadian Boat-Song.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Past

“How shall we rank thee upon glory's page,
Thou more than soldier, and just less than sage?”

Thomas Moore

To Thomas Hume.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Faintly as tolls the evening chime,
Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time.”

Thomas Moore

Poems Relating to America. A Canadian Boat Song, st. 1.

Time

“Tis the last rose of Summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone.”

Thomas Moore The Last Rose of Summer

The Last Rose of Summer, st. 1.
Irish Melodies http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moore.html (1807–1834)

Love , Summer

“As down in the sunless retreats of the ocean
Sweet flowers are springing no mortal can see,
So deep in my soul the still prayer of devotion,
Unheard by the world, rises silent to Thee.

As still to the star of its worship, though clouded,
The needle points faithfully o'er the dim sea,
So dark when I roam in this wintry world shrouded,
The hope of my spirit turns trembling to Thee.”

Thomas Moore

The Heart's Prayer.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

World , Hope , Soul , Star

“There's a bower of roses by Bendemeer's stream,
And the nightingale sings round it all the day long;
In the time of my childhood 'twas like a sweet dream,
To sit in the roses and hear the bird's song.”

Thomas Moore

Part II.
Lalla Rookh http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/lallarookh/index.html (1817), Part I-III: The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan

Dreams , Bird , Singing , Time

“To sigh, yet feel no pain;
To weep, yet scarce know why;
To sport an hour with Beauty's chain,
Then throw it idly by.”

Thomas Moore

The Blue Stocking.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Pain , Beauty , Feeling , Sport

“When did morning ever break,
And find such beaming eyes awake?”

Thomas Moore

Fly not yet.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“T is sweet to think that where'er we rove
We are sure to find something blissful and dear;
And that when we 're far from the lips we love,
We've but to make love to the lips we are near.”

Thomas Moore

'T is sweet to think.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Love , Making love , Thinking

“There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet
As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet.”

Thomas Moore

The Meeting of the Waters.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

World , Water

“The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone,
In the ranks of death you'll find him;
His father's sword he has girded on,
And his wild harp slung behind him.”

Thomas Moore

The Minstrel Boy, st. 1.
Irish Melodies http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moore.html (1807–1834)

Death , War , Boy

“The bird let loose in Eastern skies,
Returning fondly home,
Ne'er stoops to earth her wing, nor flies
Where idle warblers roam;
But high she shoots through air and light,
Above all low delay,
Where nothing earthly bounds her flight,
Nor shadow dims her way.”

Thomas Moore

Oh that I had Wings.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Way , Home , Bird , Light

“Humility, that low, sweet root
From which all heavenly virtues shoot.”

Thomas Moore

The Loves of the Angels, The Third Angel's Story.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“T is believ'd that this harp which I wake now for thee
Was a siren of old who sung under the sea.”

Thomas Moore

The Origin of the Harp.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Sea

“The minds of some of our statesmen, like the pupil of the human eye, contract themselves the more, the stronger light there is shed upon them.”

Thomas Moore

Preface to Corruption and Intolerance.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Light

“Oft, in the stilly night,
Ere Slumber's chain has bound me,
Fond Memory brings the light
Of other days around me;
The smiles, the tears,
Of boyhood's years,
The words of love then spoken;
The eyes that shone,
Now dimm'd and gone,
The cheerful hearts now broken!”

Thomas Moore

National Airs, Oft in the Stilly Night http://www.james-joyce-music.com/song04_lyrics.html, st. 1 (1815).

Love , Smile , Tear , Light

“Alas! how light a cause may move
Dissension between hearts that love!
Hearts that the world in vain had tried,
And sorrow but more closely tied;
That stood the storm when waves were rough,
Yet in a sunny hour fall off,
Like ships that have gone down at sea
When heaven was all tranquillity.”

Thomas Moore

Lalla Rookh http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/lallarookh/index.html (1817), Part IX: The Light of the Harem

Love , World , Light , Heart

“Like Dead Sea fruits, that tempt the eye,
But turn to ashes on the lips.”

Thomas Moore

Lalla Rookh http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/lallarookh/index.html (1817), Part V-VIII: The Fire-Worshippers

Sea , Dead

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