Coventry Patmore Quotes

The woman is the man’s glory, and she naturally delights in the praises which are assurances that she is fulfilling her function; and she gives herself to him who succeeds in convincing her that she, of all others, is best able to discharge it for him. A woman without this kind of “vanity” is a monster.

The ardour chills us which we do not share.

The more wild and incredible your desire, the more willing and prompt God is in fulfilling it, if you will have it so.

One fool will deny more truth in half an hour than a wise man can prove in seven years.

Great is his faith who dares believe his own eyes.

It is one thing to be blind, and another to be in darkness.

Then sleep the seasons, full of might; While slowly swells the pod, And rounds the peach, and in the night The mushroom bursts the sod. The winter comes: the frozen rut Is bound with silver bars; the white drift heaps against the hut; and night is pierced with stars.

Creation differs from subsistence only as the first leap of a fountain differs from its continuance.

The modern Agnostic improves upon the ancient by adding “I don’t care” to “I don’t know.

The moods of love are like the wind,
And none knows whence or why they rise.

What a Lover sees in the Beloved is the projected shadow of his own potential beauty in the eyes of God.

A saint is a person who does almost everything any other decent person does, only somewhat better and with a totally different motive.

Uncommon things must be said in common words.

O, Heart, remember thee That Man is none, Save One.

Books are influential in proportion to their obscurity, provided that the obscurity be that of inexpressible Realities. The Bible is the most obscure book in the world. He must be a great fool who thinks he understands the plainest chapter of it.

A woman is a foreign land.

They who ask for no sign shall have many.

The promises of God are samples of what is promised; as a handful of wheat is of the barn.

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.

Ask abundantly, for the measure of your asking shall be that of your receiving.

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!

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.

To him that waits all things reveal themselves, provided that he has the courage not to deny, in the darkness, what he has seen in the light.

To have noughtIs to have all things without care or thought!

Those who know God know that it is quite a mistake to suppose that there are only five senses.

Fortunately for themselves and the world, nearly all men are cowards and dare not act on what they believe. Nearly all our disasters come of a few fools having the “courage of their convictions.”