Alfred the Great Quotes

• I desire to leave to the men that come after me a remembrance of me in good works.

  Alfred the Great

  Men, Remembrance, Desire

  75 Copy quote

• The saddest thing about any man is that he be ignorant, and the most exciting thing is that he knows.

  Alfred the Great

  Men, Ignorant, Exciting

  95 Copy quote

• For in prosperity a man is often puffed up with pride, whereas tribulations chasten and humble him through suffering and sorrow. In the midst of prosperity the mind is elated, and in prosperity a man forgets himself; in hardship he is forced to reflect on himself, even though he be unwilling. In prosperity a man often destroys the good he has done; amidst difficulties he often repairs what he long since did in the way of wickedness.

  Alfred the Great

  Humble, Pride, Men

  81 Copy quote

• For man is man and master of his fate.

  Alfred the Great

  Fate, Men, Masters

  'Idylls of the King' (1842-85) 'The Marriage of Geraint' (1859) l. 355

  47 Copy quote

• One God, one law, one element,
  And one far-off divine event,
  To which the whole creation moves.

  Alfred the Great

  Moving, Destiny, Law

  In Memoriam epilogue, st. 36 (1850)

  52 Copy quote

• I am a part of all whom I have met.

  Alfred the Great

  Teaching, Mets

  36 Copy quote

• I embrace the purpose of God and the doom assigned.

  Alfred the Great

  Destiny, Purpose, Embrace

  'Maud' (1855) pt. 3, sect. 6, st. 5

  27 Copy quote

• Ah, what shall I be at fifty,
  should nature keep me alive,
  if I find the world so bitter
  when I am but twenty-five?

  Alfred the Great

  Nature, Twenties, Alive

  50 Copy quote

• Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the common love of good. Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace.

  Alfred the Great

  New Year, War, Pride

  'In Memoriam A. H. H.' (1850) canto 106

  43 Copy quote

• The greater the man the greater the courtesy.

  Alfred the Great

  Men, Courtesy, He Man

  31 Copy quote

• It becomes no man to nurse despair, but, in the teeth of clenched antagonisms, to follow up the worthiest till he die.

  Alfred the Great

  Men, Nurse, Despair

  29 Copy quote

• All the youth now in England of free men, who are rich enough to be able to devote themselves to it, be set to learn as long as they are not fit for any other occupation, until they are able to read English writing well.

  Alfred the Great

  Education, Writing, Men

  42 Copy quote

• The vow that binds too quickly snaps itself.

  Alfred the Great

  Vow, Snaps

  22 Copy quote

• For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
  Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;
  Saw the heavens fill with commerce, Argosies of magic sails,
  Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales;
  Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain'd a ghastly dew,
  From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue.

  Alfred the Great

  Rain, Twilight, Eye

  "Locksley Hall" l. 123 (1842)

  60 Copy quote

• Food over flame burns, food over heat cooks

  Alfred the Great

  Flames, Heat, Cooks

  22 Copy quote

• Science moves, but slowly, slowly, creeping on from point to point.

  Alfred the Great

  Moving, Science

  'Locksley Hall' (1842) l. 134

  32 Copy quote

• ...For the unquiet heart and brain,
  A use in measured language lies.

  Alfred the Great

  Lying, Heart, Brain

  'In Memoriam A. H. H.' (1850) canto 5

  15 Copy quote

• O hard, when love and duty clash!

  Alfred the Great

  Duty, Clash, Hard

  26 Copy quote

• He promoted the education of the parish clergy and wrote: He seems to me a very foolish man, and very wretched, who will not increase his understanding while he is in the world, and ever wish and long to reach that endless life where all shall be made clear.

  Alfred the Great

  Life, Education, Men

  29 Copy quote

• Doom very evenly! Do not doom one doom to the rich; another to the poor! Nor doom one doom to your friend; another to your foe!

  Alfred the Great

  Rich, Poor, Doom

  The Doom Book (Legal Code of Ælfred the Great), 893.

  23 Copy quote

• Ah, why should life all labor be?

  Alfred the Great

  Should, Labor

  22 Copy quote

• Time [is] flowing in the middle of the night.

  Alfred the Great

  Night, Middle Of The Night, Middle

  21 Copy quote

• All things have rest: why should we toil alone, We only toil, who are the first of things.

  Alfred the Great

  Toil, Firsts, Should

  19 Copy quote

• A life that moves to gracious ends
  Thro' troops of unrecording friends,
  A deedful life, a silent voice.

  Alfred the Great

  Life, Moving, Voice

  14 Copy quote

• When the Sun Clearest shineth Serenest in the heaven, Quickly are obscured All over the earth Other stars.

  Alfred the Great

  Stars, Heaven, Earth

  15 Copy quote

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