Coventry Patmore quotes

Ah, wasteful woman, she who may On her sweet self set her own price, Knowing man cannot choose but pay, How has she cheapen'd paradise; How given for nought her priceless gift, How spoil'd the bread and spill'd the wine, Which, spent with due, respective thrift, Had made brutes men, and men divine. (Coventry Patmore)
I drew my bride, beneath the moon,Across my threshold; happy hour!But, ah, the walk that afternoonWe saw the water-flags in flower! View quote
Coventry Patmore
It is one thing to be blind, and another to be in darkness. View quote
Coventry Patmore
A woman is a foreign land. View quote
Coventry Patmore
Kind souls, you wonder why, love you, When you, you wonder why, love none We love, Fool, for the good we do, Not that which unto us is done! View quote
Coventry Patmore
Life is not life at all without delight. View quote
Coventry Patmore
None thrives for long upon the happiest dream. View quote
Coventry Patmore
To have nought Is to have all things without care or thought! View quote
Coventry Patmore
For want of me the world's course will not fail; When all its work is done the lie shall rot; The truth is great and shall prevail When none cares whether it prevail or not. View quote
Coventry Patmore
The sunshine dreaming upon Salmon's height Is not so sweet and white As the most heretofore sin-spotted Soul That darts to its delight Straight from the absolution of a faithful fight. View quote
Coventry Patmore
Love wakes men, once a lifetime each; They lift their heavy lids, and look; And, lo, what one sweet page can teach, They read with joy, then shut the book. (Coventry Patmore)
Life's warp of Heaven and woof of Hell. View quote
Coventry Patmore
As the Word of God is God's image, so the word of man is his image, and "a man is known by his speech." View quote
Coventry Patmore
To one who waits, all things reveal themselves so long as you have the courage not to deny in the darkness what you have seen in the light. View quote
Coventry Patmore
The more wild and incredible your desire, the more willing and prompt God is in fulfilling it, if you will have it so. View quote
Coventry Patmore
The cloud that is light to Israel is darkness to Egypt. View quote
Coventry Patmore
Nothingness is capacity, and night the opportunity of light. View quote
Coventry Patmore
Good people and religious are the first to say, "He hath a devil" of any one whose way is widely different from and maybe greatly higher than their own. View quote
Coventry Patmore
Ther are not two sides to any question that really concerns a man, but only one, and this side only a fool can fail to see if he tries. View quote
Coventry Patmore
If you try to simplify or pare off the superfluous from the minds and speech of most men, you will find that nothing is left. There is no simplicity in them, for there is no truth; truth and simplicity being, as Aquinas says, the same thing. View quote
Coventry Patmore
The Catholic Church itself has been nearly killed by the infection of the puritanism of the Reformation. (Coventry Patmore)
Toleration, as it is now widely preached, may be a very one-sided bargain. It will not do to let falsehood and moral idiocy say to truth and honesty, "I will tolerate you if you will tolerate me." View quote
Coventry Patmore
God is the only reality, and we are real only so far as we are in His order, and He is in us. View quote
Coventry Patmore
The difference between a commonly well-behaved woman and a high-bred lady consists in very small things-but what a difference it is! View quote
Coventry Patmore
What seems to us for us is true. The planet has no proper light, And yet when Venus is in view, No primal star is half so bright. View quote
Coventry Patmore