Top 60 Thomas Gray Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “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.”

— Thomas Gray

2. “The time will come, when thou shalt lift thine eyes To watch a long-drawn battle in the skies. While aged peasants, too amazed for words, Stare at the flying fleets of wondrous birds.”

— Thomas Gray

3. “Commerce changes the fate and genius of nations.”

— Thomas Gray

4. “The paths of glory lead but to the grave.”

— Thomas Gray

5. “Hell is full of good intentions.”

— Thomas Gray

6. “Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.”

— Thomas Gray

7. “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.”

— Thomas Gray

8. “Can storied urn, or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Can Honour’s voice provoke the silent dust, Or Flatt’ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death?”

— Thomas Gray

9. “Daughter of Jove, relentless power, Thou tamer of the human breast, Whose iron scourge and tort’ring hour The bad affright, afflict the best!”

— Thomas Gray

10. “Here rests his head upon the lap of earth, A youth to fortune and to fame unknown: Fair Science frown’d not on his humble birth, And Melancholy mark’d him for her own.”

— Thomas Gray

11. “The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd winds slowly o’er the lea, The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me.”

— Thomas Gray

12. “The still small voice of gratitude.”

— Thomas Gray

13. “England, so long mistress of the sea, Where winds and waves confess her sovereignty, Her ancient triumphs yet on high shall bear And reign the sovereign of the conquered air.”

— Thomas Gray

14. “Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife.”

— Thomas Gray

15. “The language of the age is never the language of poetry, except among the French, whose verse, where the thought or image does not support it, differs in nothing from prose.”

— Thomas Gray

16. “Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, While proudly rising o’er the azure realm In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes, Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm.”

— Thomas Gray

17. “E’en from the tomb the voice of nature cries, E’en in our ashes live their wonted fires.”

— Thomas Gray

18. “Ah, happy hills! ah, pleasing shade! Ah, fields beloved 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.”

— Thomas Gray

19. “If the best man’s faults were written on his forehead, he would draw his hat over his eyes.”

— Thomas Gray

20. “For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, This pleasing anxious being e’er resign’d, Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, Nor cast one longing ling’ring look behind?”

— Thomas Gray

21. “Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.”

— Thomas Gray

22. “Behind the steps that Misery treads Approaching Comfort view: The hues of bliss more brightly glow Chastised by sabler tints of woe, And blended form, with artful strife, The strength and harmony of life.”

— Thomas Gray

23. “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.”

— Thomas Gray

24. “They hear a voice in every wind, And snatch a fearful joy.”

— Thomas Gray

25. “Youth smiles without any reason. It is one of its chiefest charms.”

— Thomas Gray

26. “Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast The little tyrant of his fields withstood, Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country’s blood.”

— Thomas Gray

27. “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

28. “And moody madness laughing wild Amid severest woe.”

— Thomas Gray

29. “What female heart can gold despise? What cat ’s averse to fish?”

— Thomas Gray

30. “Each in his narrow cell forever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.”

— Thomas Gray

31. “Ruin seize thee, ruthless king! Confusion on thy banners wait! Though fann’d by Conquest’s crimson wing, They mock the air with idle state.”

— Thomas Gray

32. “Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile The short and simple annals of the poor.”

— Thomas Gray

33. “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 history in a nation’s eyes.”

— Thomas Gray

34. “The Attic warbler pours her throat, Responsive to the cuckoo’s note, The untaught harmony of spring.”

— Thomas Gray

35. “We frolic while ’tis May.”

— Thomas Gray

36. “Visions of glory, spare my aching sight! Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul!”

— Thomas Gray

37. “Thought would destroy their paradise.”

— Thomas Gray

38. “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

39. “Ye towers of Julius, London’s lasting shame, With many a foul and midnight murder fed.”

— Thomas Gray

40. “Alas, regardless of their doom, the little victims play! No sense have they of ills to come nor care beyond today.”

— Thomas Gray

41. “Rich with the spoils of time.”

— Thomas Gray

42. “Sorrow’s faded form, and solitude behind.”

— Thomas Gray

43. “To brisk notes in cadence beating, glance their many-twinkling feet.”

— Thomas Gray

44. “Hands that the rod of empire might have sway’d, Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.”

— Thomas Gray

45. “And hie him home, at evening’s close, To sweet repast and calm repose.”

— Thomas Gray

46. “Scatter plenty o’er a smiling land.”

— Thomas Gray

47. “Some bold adventurers disdain The limits of their little reign, And unknown regions date descry.”

— Thomas Gray

48. “From Helicon’s harmonious springs A thousand rills their mazy progress take.”

— Thomas Gray

49. “And truth severe, by fairy fiction drest.”

— Thomas Gray

50. “And weep the more, because I weep in vain.”

— Thomas Gray