Thomas Gray Quotes

90 Sourced Quotes

It has been usual to catch a mouse or two (for form's sake) in public once a year.
On refusing the Laureateship

Thomas Gray
But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page
Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll;
Chill Penury repressed their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.

Thomas Gray
The applause of list'ning senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,
And read their hist'ry in a nation's eyes.

Thomas Gray
He passed 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.

Thomas Gray
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.

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

Thomas Gray
And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.

Thomas Gray
Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds.

Thomas Gray
From Helicon's harmonious springs
A thousand rills their mazy progress take.

Thomas Gray
To contemplation's sober eye,
Such is the race of man;
And they that creep, and they that fly,
Shall end where they began,
Alike the busy and the gay,
But flutter through life's little day.

Thomas Gray
Can storied urn, or animated bust
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of death?

Thomas Gray
T'was Spring, t'was Summer, all was gay
Now Autumn bears a cloud brow
The flowers of Spring are swept way
And Summer fruits desert the bough

Thomas Gray
Far from the sun and summer-gale,
In thy green lap was Nature's Darling laid.

Thomas Gray
No dolphin came, no Nereid stirred;
Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heard.
A favourite has no friend!

Thomas Gray
Yet hark, how through the peopled air The busy murmur glows! The insect-youth are on the wing, Eager to taste the honied spring And float amid the liquid noon: Some lightly o'er the current skim, Some show their gayly-gilded trim Quick-glancing to the sun.

Thomas Gray
Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'r
The moping owl does to the moon complain.

Thomas Gray
Dear, as the light that visits these sad eyes;
Dear, as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.

Thomas Gray
Iron sleet of arrowy shower
Hurtles in the darkened air.

Thomas Gray
E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,
E'en in our Ashes live their wonted Fires.

Thomas Gray
Any fool may write a most valuable book by chance, if he will only tell us what he heard and saw with veracity.

Thomas Gray