Quotes from Thomas Gray

No farther seek his merits to disclose,Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,(There they alike in trembling hope repose,)The bosom of his Father and his God.

Mindful of th' unhonor'd dead.

Iron sleet of arrowy showerHurtles in the darken'd air.

He pass'd the flaming bounds of place and time:The living throne, the sapphire-blaze,Where angels tremble, while they gaze,He saw; but blasted with excess of light,Closed his eyes in endless night.

Ye distant spires, ye antique towers,That crown the wat'ry glade.

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'rThe moping owl does to the moon complain.

Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,Or wak'd to ecstasy the living lyre.

A fav'rite has no friend!

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; Along the cool sequester'd vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear: Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise. - Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College

Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave Awaits alike the inevitable hour: The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Yet, ah! why should they know their fate, Since sorrow never comes too late, And happiness too swiftly flies? Thought would destroy their Paradise. No more;—where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise.

A FLOWER THAT SMILES TODAY , TOMORROW DIES. ALL THAT WE WISH TO STAY, TEMPTS AND THEN FILES

Here rests his head upon the lap of earth A youth to fortune and to fame unknown. Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth, And Melancholy marked him for her own.

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

From hence, ye Beauties, undeceiv'd, Know one false step is ne'er retriev'd, And be with caution bold. Not all that tempts your wand'ring eyes And heedless hearts, is lawful prize; Nor all, that glisters, gold.

Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth A youth to Fortune and Fame unknown.

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,/ The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,/ The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,/ And leaves the world to darkness and to me./

The generous spark extinct revive, Teach me to love and to forgive, Exact my own defects to scan, What others are, to feel, and to know myself a Man. - Hymn to Adversity

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learned to stray; Along the cool sequestered vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

Ah, happy hills, ah, pleasing shade, Ah, fields belov'd in vain, Where once my careless childhood stray'd, A stranger yet to pain! I feel the gales, that from ye blow, A momentary bliss bestow, As waving fresh their gladsome wing, My weary soul they seem to soothe, And, redolent of joy and youth, To breathe a second spring.