Richard Chenevix Trench Quotes

• For we must share, if we would keep, that blessing from above; ceasing to give, we cease to have; such is the law of love.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Love, Army, Blessing

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• Prayer is not getting man's will done in heaven, but getting God's will done on earth. It is not overcoming God's reluctance but laying hold of God's willingness.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Prayer, Men, Heaven

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• None but God can satisfy the longings of an immortal soul; that as the heart was made for Him, so He only can fill it.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Heart, Soul, Longing

  richard chenevix trench (1862). “notes of the parables of our lord”, p.325

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• The present is only intelligible in the light of the past.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Past, Light

  Richard Chenevix Trench (1855). “English, Past and Present: Five Lectures”, p.7

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• The sin of pride is the sin of sins; in which all subsequent sins are included, as in their germ; they are but the unfolding of this one.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Pride, Germs, Sin

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• We live not in our moments or our years:
  The present we fling from us like the rind
  Of some sweet future, which we after find
  Bitter to taste.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Life, Sweet, Years

  Richard Chenevix Trench (1874). “Poems”, p.135

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• Speak but little and well, if you would be esteemed as a man of merit.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Men, Would Be, Speech

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• Nothing is true but Love, nor aught of worth; Love is the incense which doth sweeten earth.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Love, Love Is, Earth

  Richard Chenevix Trench (1865). “Poems: Collected and Arranged Anew”, p.33

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• Grammar is the logic of speech, even as logic is the grammar of reason.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Writing, Editing, English Grammar

  Richard Chenevix Trench (1867). “On the Study of Words Lectures Addressed (originally) to the Pupils at the Diocesan Training-school, Winchester by Richard Chenevix Trench”, p.22

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• Language is the close-fitting dress of thought.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Inspirational, Dresses, Language

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• Sin may be clasped so close, we cannot see its face.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  May, Faces, Sin

  Richard Chenevix Trench (1874). “Poems”, p.120

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• There is hardly a mistake which in the course of our lives we have committed, but some proverb, had we known and attended to its lesson, might have saved us from it.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Mistake, Lessons, Might

  Richard Chenevix Trench (1856). “On the lessons in Proverbs: being the substance of lectures delivered to young men's societies at Portsmouth and elsewhere; from the Second London edition, rev. and enlarged”, p.89

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• Best friends might loathe us, if what things perverse we know of our own selves they also knew.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Self, Might, Knows

  Richard Chenevix Trench (1862). “The Story of Justin Martyr: And Other Poems”, p.265

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• We kneel, how weak; we rise, how full of power! Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong, Or others — that we are not always strong, That we are ever overborne with care, That we should ever weak or heartless be, Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer, And joy and strength and courage are with Thee?

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Strong, Prayer, Joy

  Richard Chenevix Trench (1844). “The Story of Justin Martyr : Sabbation and Other Poems”, p.250

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• All beautiful things bring sadness, nor alone Sweet music, as our wisest Poet spake, Because in us keen longings they awake.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Beauty, Beautiful, Sweet

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• We speak of persons as jovial, as being born under the planet Jupiter or Jove, which was the joyfullest star and the happiest augury of all. A gloomy person was said to be saturnine, as being born under the planet Saturn, who was considered to make those who owned his influence, and were born when he was in the ascendant, grave and stern as himself.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Stars, Astrology, Jupiter

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• Oh seize the instant time; you never will
  With water once passed by impel the mill.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Past, Water, Mills

  Richard Chenevix Trench (1865). “Poems: Collected and Arranged Anew”, p.303

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• Language is the amber in which a thousand precious and subtle thoughts have been safely embedded and preserved.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Design, Amber, Language

  Richard Chenevix Trench (1867). “On the Study of Words Lectures Addressed (originally) to the Pupils at the Diocesan Training-school, Winchester by Richard Chenevix Trench”, p.24

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• The love of our own language, what is it, in fact, but the love of our country expressing itself in one particular direction?

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Country, Facts, Language

  Richard Chenevix Trench (1858). “On the English Language: Past and Present”, p.11

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• Language is the amber in which a thousand precious and subtle thoughts have been safely embedded and preserved. It has arrested ten thousand lightning flashes of genius, which, unless thus fixed and arrested, might have been as bright, but would have also been as quickly passing and perishing, as the lightning.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Communication, Lightning, Genius

  Richard Chenevix Trench (1867). “On the Study of Words Lectures Addressed (originally) to the Pupils at the Diocesan Training-school, Winchester by Richard Chenevix Trench”, p.24

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• Not all who seem to fail have failed indeed,Not all who fail have therefor worked in vain.There is no failure for the good and brave.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Failure, Brave, Failing

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• If we with earnest effort could succeed To make our life one long, connected prayer, As lives of some, perhaps, have been and are; If, never leaving Thee, we have no need Our wandering spirits back again to lead Into Thy presence, but continued there Like angels standing on the highest stair Of the Sapphire Throne: this were to pray indeed!

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Prayer, Angel, Long

  Richard Chenevix Trench (1838). “Sabbation: Honor Neale : and Other Poems”, p.168

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• "The best is oftentimes the enemy of the good;" and without claiming for an instant that title of good for my book, I do not doubt that many a good book has remained unwritten, or, perhaps, being written, has remained unpublished, because there floated before the mind's eye of the author, or possible author, the ideal of a better or a best, which has put him out of all conceit with his good.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Book, Writing, Eye

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• Common sense meant once something very different from that plain wisdom, the common heritage of men, which we now call by this name.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Men, Names, Common Sense

  Richard Chenevix Trench (1873). “A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present”, p.49

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• As shadows attend substances, so words follow upon things.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Shadow, Substance

  Richard Chenevix Trench (1911). “The Study of Words”

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