“Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," — that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

— John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn

Stanza 5. The final lines of this poem have been rendered in various ways in different editions, some placing the entire last two lines within quotation marks, others only the statement "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," and others without any quotation marks. The poet's final intentions upon the matter before his death are unclear.
Poems (1820), Ode on a Grecian Urn

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral! When old age shall this generation w…" by John Keats?

John Keats photo

John Keats211

English Romantic poet 1795–1821

Related quotes

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Source: The Complete Poems

“Spirit of BEAUTY, that dost consecrate
With thine own hues all thou dost shine upon
Of human thought or form, where art thou gone?”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet

St. 2
Hymn to Intellectual Beauty (1816)
Context: Spirit of BEAUTY, that dost consecrate
With thine own hues all thou dost shine upon
Of human thought or form, where art thou gone?
Why dost thou pass away and leave our state,
This dim vast vale of tears, vacant and desolate?
Ask why the sunlight not for ever
Weaves rainbows o'er yon mountain-river,
Why aught should fail and fade that once is shown,
Why fear and dream and death and birth
Cast on the daylight of this earth
Such gloom, why man has such a scope
For love and hate, despondency and hope?

“He saith: Accuse not self overdone much, deeming that thy tribulation and thy woe is all for thy fault; for I will not that thou be heavy or sorrowful indiscreetly. For I tell thee, howsoever thou do, thou shalt have woe. And therefore I will that thou wisely know thy penance; and shalt see in truth that all thy living is penance profitable.”

Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress

The Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 77
Variant: Accuse not thyself overmuch, deeming that thy tribulation and thy woe is all thy fault...

“My mother Earth!
And thou fresh breaking Day, and you, ye Mountains,
Why are ye beautiful? I cannot love ye.
And thou, the bright eye of the universe,
That openest over all, and unto all
Art a delight—thou shin'st not on my heart.”

George Gordon Byron book Manfred

Act I, scene ii.
Manfred (1817)

“Thou through such a mist dost show us,
That our best friends do not know us.”

Charles Lamb (1775–1834) English essayist

A Farewell to Tobacco (1805)

“If thou dost love a Something, Man,
Thou lovest naught that doth abide.
God is not This nor That—do thou
Leave Somethings utterly aside”

Angelus Silesius (1624–1677) German writer

The Cherubinic Wanderer

“This word: Thou shalt not be overcome, was said full clearly and full mightily, for assuredness and comfort against all tribulations that may come. He said not: Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be afflicted; but He said: Thou shalt not be overcome. God willeth that we take heed to these words, and that we be ever strong in sure trust, in weal and woe. For He loveth and enjoyeth us, and so willeth He that we love and enjoy Him and mightily trust in Him; and all shall be well.
And soon after, all was close and I saw no more.”

Julian of Norwich book Revelations of Divine Love

The Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 68
Source: Revelations of Divine Love

“When with all thy heart thou strivest to live with truth and love, couldst thou do anything better? … If this be thy life, thou shalt not deem it a misfortune to lack the things men most crave and toil for.”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 276

“Man know thyself; then thou shalt know the Universe and God.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

As quoted in Fragments of Reality: Daily Entries of Lived Life (2006) by Peter Cajander, p. 109

“Whoe'er thou art, thy Lord and master see,
Thou wast my Slave, thou art, or thou shalt be.”

George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne (1666–1735) 1st Baron Lansdowne

Inscription for a Figure representing the God of Love. See Genuine Works. (1732) I. 129. Version of a Greek couplet from the Greek Anthology.

Related topics