Arthur Hugh Clough > Quotes

“Ah yet, when all is thought and said,
The heart still overrules the head;
Still what we hope we must believe,
And what is given us receive;

Must still believe, for still we hope
That in a world of larger scope,
What here is faithfully begun
Will be completed, not undone.

My child, we still must think, when we
That ampler life together see,
Some true result will yet appear
Of what we are, together, here.”
― Arthur Hugh Clough, The Poems of Arthur Hugh Clough

“For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light;
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!
But westward, look, the land is bright!”
― Arthur Hugh Clough, Say not the Struggle Naught Availeth

“O let me love my love unto myself alone,
And know my knowledge to the world unknown,
No witness to the vision call,
Beholding, unbeheld of all...”
― Arthur Hugh Clough

“Ah yet, when all is thought and said,
The heart still overrules the head.”
― Arthur Hugh Clough

“Better a crust of black bread than a mountain of paper confections,
Better a daisy in earth than a dahlia cut and gathered,
Better a cowslip with root than a prize carnation without it”
― Arthur Hugh Clough, The Poems of Arthur Hugh Clough

“Thou shalt have one God only; who
Would be at the expense of two?
No graven images may be
Worshipped, except the currency:
Swear not at all; for, for thy curse
Thine enemy is none the worse:
At church on Sunday to attend
Will serve to keep the world thy friend:
Honour thy parents; that is all
From whom advancement may befall:
Thou shalt not kill; but need'st not strive
Officiously to keep alive:
Do not adultery commit;
Advantage rarely comes of it:
Thou shalt not steal; an empty feat,
When it's so lucrative to cheat:
Bear not false witness; let the lie
Have time on its own wings to fly:
Thou shalt not covet, but tradition
Approves all forms of competition.”
― Arthur Hugh Clough

“For it is beautiful only to do the thing we are meant for”
― Arthur Hugh Clough, The Poems of Arthur Hugh Clough

“That out of sight is out of mind is true of most we leave behind”
― Arthur Hugh Clough

“So I have seen a man killed! An experience that, among others!
Yes, I suppose I hav; although I can hardly be certain,
And in a court of justice could never declare I had seen it.
But a man was killed, I am told, in a place where I saw
Something: a man was killed, I am told, and I saw something.”
― Arthur Hugh Clough, Amours de Voyage

“My wind is turned to bitter north,
That was so soft a south before.”
― Arthur Hugh Clough