Matthew Arnold
Poet and cultural critic, 1822-1888
Cited as M. Arnold. — 77 quotations
Beat
For loveliness, it would be hard to beat that.
Blow
The grass blows from their graves to thy own.
Chair
A chair of philology.
Cloud
Nothing clouds men's minds and impairs their honesty like prejudice.
Date
In the countries of his jornal seems to have been written; parts of it are dated from them.
Deal
As an object of science it [the Celtic genius] may count for a good deal . . . as a spiritual power.
Declensional
Declensional and syntactical forms.
Dictum
A class of critical dicta everywhere current.
Differ
Davidson, whom on a former occasion we quoted, to differ from him.
Dirty
Storms of wind, clouds of dust, an angry, dirty sea.
Down
It the downs of life too much outnumber the ups.
Drive
The Murdstonian drive in business.
Educe
They want to educe and cultivate what is best and noblest in themselves.
Electorate
The middle-class electorate of Great Britain.
Enkerchiefed
That soft, enkerchiefed hair.
Enlarge
To enlarge upon this theme.
Era
The first century of our era.
Eternal
What are the eternal objects of poetry among all nations, and at all times?
Ever
To produce as much as ever they can.
Evocation
The evocation of that better spirit.
Expression
The imitators of Shakespeare, fixing their attention on his wonderful power of expression, have directed their imitation to this.
Expropriate
Expropriate these [bad landlords] as the monks were expropriated by Act of Parliament.
Expropriation
The expropriation of bad landlords.
Fable
He fables, yet speaks truth.
Felicitous
Felicitous words and images.
Figure
Sociable, hospitable, eloquent, admired, figuring away brilliantly.
fine
He gratified them with occasional . . . fine writing.
First-rate
Our only first-rate body of contemporary poetry is the German.
Flash
The object is made to flash upon the eye of the mind.
Furniture
The thoughts which make the furniture of their minds.
Further
Carries us, I know not how much further, into familiar company.
Gradualness
The gradualness of this movement.
Grand
They are the highest models of expression, the unapproached masters of the grand style.
Grandiose
The tone of the parts was to be perpetually kept down in order not to impair the grandiose effect of the whole.
Halve
So far apart their lives are thrown From the twin soul that halves their own.
Have
Science has, and will long have, to be a divider and a separatist.
Hebraism
The governing idea of Hebraism is strictness of conscience.
Humiliate
We stand humiliated rather than encouraged.
Industrial
The great ideas of industrial development and economic social amelioration.
Inwardness
What was wanted was more inwardness, more feeling.
Irk
It irketh him to be here.
Jewel
The long gray tufts . . . are jeweled thick with dew.
Latinization
The Germanization of Britain went far deeper than the Latinization of France.
Level
A very plain and level account.
Majestical
An older architecture, greater, cunninger, more majestical.
make-believe
To forswear self-delusion and make-believe.
Middle
The middle-class electorate of Great Britain.
Nervous
Our aristocratic class does not firmly protest against the unfair treatment of Irish Catholics, because it is nervous about the land.
Objectivity
The calm, the cheerfulness, the disinterested objectivity have disappeared [in the life of the Greeks].
Penetrate
The translator of Homer should penetrate himself with a sense of the plainness and directness of Homer's style.
Philistinism
On the side of beauty and taste, vulgarity; on the side of morals and feeling, coarseness; on the side of mind and spirit, unintelligence, -- this is Philistinism.
Prank
White houses prank where once were huts.
Racy
Our raciest, most idiomatic popular words.
Reck
Of me she recks not, nor my vain desire.
Renascence
The Renascence . . . which in art, in literature, and in physics, produced such splendid fruits.
Replace
With Israel, religion replaced morality.
Rhetorical
They permit him to leave their poetical taste ungratified, provided that he gratifies their rhetorical sense.
Rummage
What schoolboy of us has not rummaged his Greek dictionary in vain for a satisfactory account!
Score
A briar in that tangled wilderness Had scored her white right hand.
Sheer
It is not a sheer advantage to have several strings to one's bow.
Sniff
So ye grow squeamish, gods, and sniff at heaven.
Solidarity
The solidarity . . . of Breton and Welsh poetry.
Solidary
Men are solidary, or copartners; and not isolated.
Sophisticate
Yet Butler professes to stick to plain facts, not to sophisticate, not to refine.
Speechifying
The dinner and speechifying . . . at the opening of the annual season for the buckhounds.
Splay
Sonwthing splay, something blunt-edged, unhandy, and infelicitous.
Squeamish
So ye grow squeamish, Gods, and sniff at heaven.
Strow
A manner turbid . . . and strown with blemished.
Sweet
Mildness and sweet reasonableness is the one established rule of Christian working.
Tax
Fear not now that men should tax thine honor.
Teen
With public toil and private teen Thou sank'st alone.
Thrill
Vivid and picturesque turns of expression which thrill the eader with sudden delight.
Verge
But on the horizon's verge descried, Hangs, touched with light, one snowy sail.
Well-known
A church well known with a well-known rite.
Wide
Men of strongest head and widest culture.
Wimple
Then Vivian rose, And from her brown-locked head the wimple throws.
Wrestle
Difficulties with which he had himself wrestled.