Alfred Lord Tennyson Quotes

Forgive my grief for one removed Thy creature whom I found so fair I trust he lives in Thee and there I find him worthier to be loved. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

When you meet triumph or disaster, treat these imposters alike. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright, But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

What the sunshine is to the flower, the Lord Jesus Christ is to my soul. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

The wind sounds like a silver wire, And from beyond the noon a fire Is pour'd upon the hills, and nigher The skies stoop down in their desire; And, isled in sudden seas of light, My heart, pierced thro' with fierce delight, Bursts into blossom in his sight. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

One so small Who knowing nothing knows but to obey. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

He that wrongs his friend, wrongs himself more. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Current among men, Like coin, the tinsel clink of compliment. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Those who depend on the merits of their ancestors may be said to search in the roots of the tree for those fruits which the branches ought to produce. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

I grow in worth, and wit, and sense, Unboding critic-pen, Or that eternal want of pence, Which vexes public men. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

The still affection of the heart Became an outward breathing type, That into stillness past again, And left a want unknown before; Although the loss had brought us pain, That loss but made us love the more. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

The time draws near the birth of Christ;
The moon is hid; the night is still;
The Christmas bells from hill to hill
Answer each other in the mist. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

That loss is common would not make My own less bitter, rather more: Too common! Never morning wore To evening, but some heart did break. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Come, Time, and teach me many years,
I do not suffer in dream;
For now so strange do these things seem,
Mine eyes have leisure for their tears. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Be near me when my light is low ... And all the wheels of being slow. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

The world which credits what is done is cold to all that might have been. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Her court was pure, her life serene; God gave her peace; her land reposed; A thousand claims to reverence closed ... ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Sweet is true love, though given in vain. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

And statesmen at her council met Who knew the seasons, when to take Occasion by the hand, and make The bounds of freedom wider yet. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

For every worm beneath the moon Draws different threads, and late and soon Spins, toiling out his own cocoon. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

France had shown a light to all men, preached a Gospel, all men's good; Celtic Demos rose a Demon, shriek'd and slaked the light with blood. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

So many worlds, so much to do, so little done, such things to be. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Live and lie reclined On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind. For they lie beside their nectar, and the bolts are hurled Far below them in the valleys, and the clouds are lightly curled Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming world. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

You, methinks you think you love me well;
For me, I love you somewhat; rest: and Love
Should have some rest and pleasure in himself,
Not ever be too curious for a boon,
Too prurient for a proof against the grain
Of him ye say ye love: but Fame with men,
Being but ampler means to serve mankind,
Should have small rest or pleasure in herself,
But work as vassal to the larger love,
That dwarfs the petty love of one to one. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new, That which they have done but earnest of the things which they shall do. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Of happy men that have the power to die, And grassy barrows of the happier dead. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

And blessings on the falling out That all the more endears, When we fall out with those we love And kiss again with tears! ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

The folly of all follies is to be love sick for a shadow. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Nature is one with rapine, a harm no preacher can heal; The Mayfly is torn by the swallow, the sparrow speared by the shrike, And the whole little wood where I sit is a world of plunder and prey. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Blow trumpet, for the world is white with May. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

The vow that binds too strictly snaps itself. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

It's better to have tried and failed than to live life wondering what would've happened if I had tried ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

I can't sleep without knowing there's hope. Half the night I waste in sighs. In a wakeful doze I sorrow. For the hands, for the lips ... the eyes. For the meeting of tomorrow. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

We are self-uncertain creatures, and we may Yea, even when we know not, mix our spites And private hates with our defence of Heaven. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

How many a father have I seen, A sober man, among his boys, Whose youth was full of foolish noise. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

What rights are those that dare not resist for them? ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Let knowledge grow from more to more, But more of reverence in us dwell; That mind and soul, according well, May make one music as before, But vaster. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

He will hold thee, when his passion shall have spent its novel force, Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Dowered with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, The love of love. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

There is sweet music here that softer falls Than petals from blown roses on the grass, ... ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Ah, when shall all men's good
Be each man's rule, and universal peace
Lie like a shaft of light across the land,
And like a lane of beams athwart the sea,
Thro' all the circle of the golden year? ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Love's too precious to be lost,
A little grain shall not be spilt. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

My office walls are covered with autographs of famous writers - it's what my children call my 'dead author wall.' I have signatures from Mark Twain, Earnest Hemingway, Jack London, Harriett Beecher Stowe, Pearl Buck, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, to name a few. ~ Debbie Macomber

Faith and unfaith can ne'er be equal powers;
Unfaith is aught is want of faith in all. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Thou madest man, he knows not why, he thinks he was not made to die. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

There is no land like England,
Where'er the light of day be;
There are no hearts like English hearts,
Such hearts of oak as they be;
There is no land like England,
Where'er the light of day be:
There are no men like Englishmen,
So tall and bold as they be!
And these will strike for England,
And man and maid be free
To foil and spoil the tyrant
Beneath the greenwood tree. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Call me Mac," he said.
Mackadocious is more like it.
"For the next month, I will be your writing instructor..."
Lip Macking Good.
"It was Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who said, 'Words, like Nature, half reveal and half conceal the Soul within...'"
Big Mac Attack.
"Here, in the next five weeks, I hope you do more revealing than concealing..."
Oh, I'll reveal more than that if you want me to, Mac Daddy. ~ Megan McCafferty

I am half-sick of shadows,' said The Lady of Shalott. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

I loved you, and my love had no return,
And therefore my true love has been my death. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

A simple maiden in her flower, Is worth a hundred coats of arms. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

For why is all around us here As if some lesser god had made the world, But had not force to shape it as he would? Alfred Lord Tennyson: Idylls of the King ~ K.H. Rennie

We cannot be kind to each other here for even an hour. We whisper, and hint, and chuckle and grin at our brother's shame; however you take it we men are a little breed. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Rich in saving common-sense, And, as the greatest only are, In his simplicity sublime. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Through the ages one increasing purpose runs. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

The dirty nurse, Experience, in her kind Hath fouled me. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles whom we knew. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Rain, rain, and sun! A rainbow in the sky! ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Who loves not Knowledge? Who shall rail
Against her beauty? May she mix
With men and prosper! Who shall fix
Her pillars? Let her work prevail. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Oh that it were possible, After long grief and pain, To find the arms of my true love, Around me once again ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

There she weaves by night and day, A magic web with colors gay. She has heard a whisper say, A curse is on her if she stay, To look down to Camelot. She knows not what the curse may be, And so she weaveth steadily, And little other care hath she, The Lady of Shalott. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

I do but sing because I must; and pipe but as the linnets sing. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

If you don't concentrate on what you are doing then the thing that you are doing is not what you are thinking. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

But the churchmen fain would kill their church, As the churches have kill'd their Christ. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Only reapers, reaping early In among the bearded barley, Hear a song that echoes cheerly From the river winding clearly, Down to towered Camelot. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

I waited for the train at Coventry; I hung with grooms and porters on the bridge, To watch the three tall spires; and there I shaped The city's ancient legend into this. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower-but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, all in all,
I should know what God and man is. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Too much wit makes the world rotten. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Yonder cloud That rises upward always higher, And onward drags a laboring breast, And topples round the dreary west, A looming bastion fringed with fire. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

She left the web, she left the loom, She made three paces through the room ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Ah! well away! Seasons flower and fade. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

We love but while we may;
And therefore is my love so large for thee,
Seeing it is not bounded save by love. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

This truth within thy mind rehearse, That in a boundless universe Is boundless better, boundless worse. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace;Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul,While the stars burn, the moons increase,And the great ages onward roll. Sleep till the end, true soul and sweet. Nothing comes to thee new or strange. Sleep full of rest from head to feet;Lie still, dry dust, secure of change. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

He is all fault who has no fault at all. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

I falter where I firmly trod, And falling with my weight of cares Upon the great world's altar-stairs That slope thro' darkness up to God, I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope, And gather dust and chaff, and call To what I feel is Lord of all, And faintly trust the larger hope. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Montenegro (1877)

THEY rose to where their sovereign eagle sails,
They kept their faith, their freedom, on the height,
Chaste, frugal, savage, arm'd by day and night
Against the Turk; whose inroad nowhere scales
Their headlong passes, but his footstep fails,
And red with blood the Crescent reels from fight
Before their dauntless hundreds, in prone flight
By thousands down the crags and thro' the vales.
O smallest among peoples! rough rock-throne
Of Freedom! warriors beating back the swarm
Of Turkish Islam for five hundred years,
Great Tsernogora! never since thine own
Black ridges drew the cloud and brake the storm
Has breathed a race of mightier mountaineers.
Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1880 ~ Alfred Tennyson

As she fled fast through sun and shade The happy winds upon her play'd, Blowing the ringlet from the braid. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

That which we are, we are, and if we are ever to be any better, now is the time to begin. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

I will love thee to the death,
And out beyond into the dream to come. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

All is well, tho' faith and form
Be sunder'd in the night of fear. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

The golden guess is morning-star to the full round of truth. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

That tower of strength Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

In time there is no present, In eternity no future, In eternity no past. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

And down I went to fetch my bride: But, Alice, you were ill at ease; This dress and that by turns you tried, Too fearful that you should not please. I loved you better for your fears, I knew you could not look but well; And dews, that would have fall'n in tears, I kiss'd away before they fell. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

The bearing and the training of a child Is woman's wisdom. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

But for the unquiet heart and brain
A use in measured language lies;
The sad mechanic exercise
Like dull narcotics numbing pain. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

O love, O fire! once he drew With one long kiss my whole soul through My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Let Love clasp Grief lest both be drown'd, Let darkness keep her raven gloss: Ah, sweeter to be drunk with loss, To dance with death, to beat the ground. - Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H. ~ Cassandra Clare

All Life needs for life is possible to will. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Theirs is not to make reply: Theirs is not to reason why: Theirs is but to do and die. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Love lieth deep; Love dwells not in lip-depths;
Love laps his wings on either side the heart
Absorbing all the incense of sweet thoughts,
So that they pass not to the shrine of sound. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

What was once to me mere matter of the fancy now has grown the vast necessity of heart and life. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Music that gentlier on the spirit lies, Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Man is man, and master of his fate. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Our little systems have their day; They have their day and cease to be ... And thou, O Lord, art more than they. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Strong Son of God, immortal Love, Whom we, that have not seen thy face, By faith, and faith alone, embrace, Believing where we cannot prove. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

For this is England's greatest son, He that gain'd a hundred fights, And never lost an English gun. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

The old order changes yielding place to new. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

I would read poetry, hoping for solace in knowing that I wasn't the only one to feel this exquisitely exhausting and overwhelming pain. Alfred Lord Tennyson had no idea of what a woman could feel when he wrote 'Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.'


There were times I wished I'd never met Darius at all. ~ Janet Kelly