Quote by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"Ah my God, What might I not have made of thy fair world, Had I but loved thy highest creature here? It was my duty to have loved the highest: It surely was my profit had I known: It would have been my pleasure had I seen. We needs must love the highest when we see it, Not Lancelot, nor another."

— Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from Guinevere

1 like

More quotes by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"The yule-clog sparkled keen with frost, No wing of wind the region swept, But over all things brooding slept The quiet …" from Canto LXXVI

"I built my soul a lordly pleasure-house, Wherein at ease for aye to dwell. I said, "O Soul, make merry and carouse, Dea…" from The Palace Of Art

"But there is more than I can see, And what I see I leave unsaid, Nor speak it, knowing Death has made His darkness beau…" from Canto LXXII

"Break, break, break, On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! And I would that my tongue could utter The thoughts that arise in …" from Break, Break, Break,

"As shines the moon in clouded skies, She in her poor attire was seen: One praised her ancles, one her eyes, One her dar…" from The Beggar Maid

"Then fell on Merlin a great melancholy; He walk'd with dreams and darkness, and he found A doom that ever poised itself…" from Merlin and Vivien

"And moving thro' a mirror clear That hangs before her all the year, Shadows of the world appear. There she sees the hi…" from Part II

"But thou and I have shaken hands, Till growing winters lay me low; My paths are in the fields I know, And thine in undi…" from Canto XXXIX

""This madness has come on us for our sins."" from The Holy Grail

"And what I seem beheld again What is, and no man understands; And out of darkness came the hands That reach thro' natur…" from Canto CXXII

All quotes by Alfred, Lord Tennyson →

Read the full poem →

Read this quote by Alfred, Lord Tennyson from "Guinevere". Discover more inspiring quotes and poetry on The Poet's Place.