Quotes about glory
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Harriet Beecher Stowe photo
Simone de Beauvoir photo
John Piper photo
Megan Whalen Turner photo

“Always there is something worth saying
about glory, about gratitude.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Source: What Do We Know

John Steinbeck photo
William Wordsworth photo

“What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

Variant: Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be...
Source: Ode: Intimations Of Immortality From Recollections Of Early Childhood

Brandon Sanderson photo

“Onward, then! To glory and some such nonsense.”

Source: Words of Radiance

Richard Matheson photo
Donna Tartt photo
Gabriel García Márquez photo

“There is no greater glory than to die for love.”

Variant: There's no greater misfortune than dying alone.
Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

Lois McMaster Bujold photo
John Piper photo
Czeslaw Milosz photo

“Irony is the glory of slaves.”

Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004) Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator
Louie Giglio photo

“The man whose eye is single for the glory of Another can be trusted.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Source: Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot

Edward Gibbon photo

“… as long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters.”

Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) English historian and Member of Parliament

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume I

John Keats photo
Thomas Hobbes photo
Harriet Tubman photo
James Joyce photo

“Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.”

Dubliners (1914)
Variant: One by one they were all becoming shades. Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.
Source: "The Dead"

Donna Tartt photo
Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Guy De Maupassant photo
John Calvin photo
Michel Foucault photo

“there is no glory in punishing”

Source: Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison

Roald Dahl photo

“We all have our moments of brilliance and glory, and this was mine.”

Source: Boy: Tales of Childhood

Borís Pasternak photo
Sue Monk Kidd photo
Seamus Heaney photo

“I shall gain glory or die.”

Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) Irish poet, playwright, translator, lecturer

Source: Beowulf

Richard Baxter photo
John Piper photo
Stephen Chbosky photo

“Maybe this are my glory days, and I'm not even realizing it…”

Variant: Maybe these are my glory days, and I'm not ever realizing it because they involve a ball.
Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Philip Pullman photo
Drew Karpyshyn photo
Richard Rohr photo
F. Scott Fitzgerald photo
Carl Sagan photo
Clive Barker photo
Derek Landy photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Walt Whitman photo
Steven Erikson photo
Marcus Tullius Cicero photo
Paul Tillich photo
Maya Angelou photo
Chuck Palahniuk photo
Oliver Goldsmith photo

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) Irish physician and writer

Variant: Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Source: The Citizen of the World, Or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, Residing in London, to His Friends in the Country, by Dr. Goldsmith

Seamus Heaney photo
Brandon Sanderson photo
Rick Riordan photo
Plutarch photo

“It is a desirable thing to be well descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.”

8
Moralia, Of the Training of Children

Sylvia Plath photo

“God, is this all it is, the ricocheting down the corridor of laughter and tears? Of self-worship and self-loathing? Of glory and disgust?”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Walt Whitman photo
Brian Greene photo
William Wordsworth photo
Cassandra Clare photo

“Glory?…. Glory belongs to God alone.”

Source: City of Glass

William Wordsworth photo
Joseph Murphy photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Agnes de Mille photo
Francois Rabelais photo

“That's all the glory my heart is after,
Seeing how sorrow eats you, defeats you.
I'd rather write about laughing than crying,
For laughter makes men human, and courageous.”

Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564)
Context: Readers, friends, if you turn these pages
Put your prejudice aside,
For, really, there's nothing here that's outrageous,
Nothing sick, or bad — or contagious.
Not that I sit here glowing with pride
For my book: all you'll find is laughter:
That's all the glory my heart is after,
Seeing how sorrow eats you, defeats you.
I'd rather write about laughing than crying,
For laughter makes men human, and courageous.

Marianne Williamson photo
John Hope Franklin photo
Anthony Burgess photo
Silius Italicus photo

“He took his way to the abode of sacred Loyalty, seeking to discover her hidden purpose. It chanced that the goddess, who loves solitude, was then in a distant region of heaven, pondering in her heart the high concerns of the gods. Then he who gave peace to Nemea accosted her thus with reverence: "Goddess more ancient than Jupiter, glory of gods and men, without whom neither sea nor land finds peace, sister of Justice…"”
Ad limina sanctae contendit Fidei secretaque pectora temptat. arcanis dea laeta polo tum forte remoto caelicolum magnas uoluebat conscia curas. quam tali adloquitur Nemeae pacator honore: 'Ante Iouem generata, decus diuumque hominumque, qua sine non tellus pacem, non aequora norunt, iustitiae consors...'

Book II, lines 479–486
Punica

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“Strength, power, and majesty, belong to man;
They make the glory native to his life;
But sweetness is a woman's attribute —
By that she has reigned, and by that will reign.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

The London Literary Gazette (24th January 1835) Versions from the German (Fourth Series.) 'The Empire of Woman' — Schiller.
Translations, From the German

Charlotte Brontë photo
Glen Cook photo
George Horne photo

“Human learning, with the blessing of God upon it, introduces us to divine wisdom; and while we study the works of nature the God of nature will manifest himself to us; since, to a well-tutored mind, “The heavens,” without a miracle, “declare his glory, and the firmament showeth his handy-work.””

George Horne (1730–1792) English churchman, writer and university administrator

George Horne (bp. of Norwich.) (1799). Discourses on several subjects and occasions. Vol. 1,2, p. 357; As quoted in Allibone (1880)

William Blake photo

“The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), Proverbs of Hell, Line 22

James Finlay Weir Johnston photo

“Among the friends and patrons of the society at York who paid kind and hospitable attention to those whom the love of science had brought to the meeting, the clergy must not be passed over in silence. They had been the zealous promoters of the meeting; had done much towards facilitating the preliminary arrangements; and exerted themselves by their influence and example to secure to the association that respect and general attention which it deserved, and which at York it amply received. To the church, therefore, the British Association is deeply indebted; and convinced, as I am, that true religion and true science ever lead to the same great end, manifesting and exalting the glory and goodness of the great object of our common worship, I trust that the firmer the association is established, and the more influential it becomes, the more willing and the more efficient an ally it will prove in the cause of religion. While in former times science was said to lead to infidelity, because then it was less profoundly studied, or with less zeal for truth, it is one of the happy characters of the science of this day that it renders men more devout; and it is a pleasing evidence that such is the received opinion, when discerning and educated men — the friends and teachers of religion — of all ranks, step forward not only to patronize science, but to enlist themselves among its cultivators, and to distinguish those who have most successfully advanced it.”

James Finlay Weir Johnston (1796–1855) Scottish agricultural chemist

Report of the First Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at York in September 1831. By James F. W. Johnston, A. M. &c. &c. As found in David Brewster's The Edinburgh Journal Of Science. Vol. 8 https://archive.org/stream/edinburghjourna09brewgoog#page/n29/mode/2up, p. 29.

Jagadish Chandra Bose photo
Thomas Gray photo

“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 (1716–1771) English poet, historian

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

James A. Garfield photo

“Let us learn wisdom from this illustrious example. We have passed the Red Sea of slaughter; our garments are yet wet with its crimson spray. We have crossed the fearful wilderness of war, and have led our four hundred thousand heroes to sleep beside the dead enemies of the Republic. We have heard the voice of God amid the thunders of battle commanding us to wash our hands of iniquity, to 'proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.' When we spurned his counsels we were defeated, and the gulfs of ruin yawned before us. When we obeyed his voice, he gave us victory. And now at last we have reached the confines of the wilderness. Before us is the land of promise, the land of hope, the land of peace, filled with possibilities of greatness and glory too vast for the grasp of the imagination. Are we worthy to enter it? On what condition may it be ours to enjoy and transmit to our children's children? Let us pause and make deliberate and solemn preparation. Let us, as representatives of the people, whose servants we are, bear in advance the sacred ark of republican liberty, with its tables of the law inscribed with the 'irreversible guaranties' of liberty. Let us here build a monument on which shall be written not only the curses of the law against treason, disloyalty, and oppression, but also an everlasting covenant of peace and blessing with loyalty, liberty, and obedience; and all the people will say, Amen.”

James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)

1860s, Speech in the House of Representatives (1866)

Leonard Cohen photo

“If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game
If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame
If thine is the glory then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame

Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name
Vilified, crucified, in the human frame
A million candles burning for the help that never came
You want it darker

Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my Lord”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

"You Want It Darker" ·  Full text online http://genius.com/Leonard-cohen-you-want-it-darker-lyrics ·  YouTube audio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0nmHymgM7Y
You Want It Darker (2016)

Catherine the Great photo
A.E. Housman photo
Umberto Eco photo
T.S. Eliot photo
Jacques Ellul photo
Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston photo

“Is it wise to say to men of rank and property, who, from old lineage or present possessions have a deep interest in the common weal, that they live indeed in a country where, by the blessings of a free constitution, it is possible for any man, themselves only excepted, by the honest exertions of talents and industry, in the avocations of political life, to make him-self honoured and respected by his countrymen, and to render good service, to the slate; that they alone can never be permitted to enter this career? That they may indeed usefully employ themselves, in the humbler avocations of private life, but that public service they never can perform, public honour they never shall attain? What we have lost by the continuance of this system, it is not for man to know. What we may have lost can more easily be imagined. If it had unfortunately happened that by the circumstances of birth and education, a Nelson, a Wellington, a Burke, a Fox, or a Pitt, had belonged to this class of the community, of what honours and what glory might not the page of British history have been deprived? To what perils and calamities might not this country have been exposed? The question is not whether we would have so large a part of the population Catholic or not. There they are, and we must deal with them as we can. It is in vain to think that by any human pressure, we can stop the spring which gushes from the earth. But it is for us to consider whether we will force it to spend its strength in secret and hidden courses, undermining our fences, and corrupting our soil, or whether we shall, at once, turn the current into the open and spacious channel of honourable and constitutional ambition, converting it into the means of national prosperity and public wealth.”

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) British politician

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1813/mar/01/mr-grattans-motion-for-a-committee-on in the House of Commons in favour of Catholic Emancipation (1 March 1813).
1810s

William the Silent photo

“We may see how miraculously God defends our people, and makes us hope that, in spite of the malice of our enemies, He will bring our cause to a good and happy end, to the advancement of His glory and the deliverance of so many Christians from unjust oppression.”

William the Silent (1533–1584) stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, leader of the Dutch Revolt

On his second invasion of the Netherlands, to his brother John (1572), as quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, p. 62

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi photo