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John Armstrong

John Armstrong Quotes

British writer/philosopher

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Famous John Armstrong Quotes

“There is a moment in conversation - and I wish it came more often - when we change gear; it is usually getting late, and somebody takes a risk. Gradually, intimate trust and relaxation have met; perhaps we have had a few glasses of wine ... We lean forward: ‘Here's how I *really* see life’; ‘To be completely honest, this is what I think.’ We have cut loose from complaint , from defence, from the clever display of information. Now it's what we love, what we hold dear; what it is like to be you. In pursuit of romance, this would be the moment when flirtation has succeeded: it is no longer a question of teasing and probing while keeping one eye on the exit. We know we do not need the getaway car any more. One life opens to another life.”

PhilosophyRiskHonestyCommunicationCivilizationConversationAnxietyBraveryMannersTransparency
Book:In Search of Civilization
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“The tragic sense of life has its origin in our determination to carry off two incompatible, but equally serious, ambitions: to search for meaning and to face reality. An intense, unceasing demand for meaning - the longing for life to make benevolent, beautiful sense - is coupled with the dawning, appalling fact that it does not, in the end, make sense in that way. Tragedy is the name for horror seen against the backdrop of love. This is an area in which civilization does not reduce our suffering - does not make life more pleasing or comfortable. What is the achievement of tragedy? It is to present the deepest sorrows of the human condition: what we love is terribly vulnerable; each life is a brief, scarring moment in the wastes of eternity; our transient existence will be marked by depression, confusion, and fear ... The ambition of tragedy is to hold such intelligent fears in a ceremonial act endowed with splendour and grace. The ceremony does not overcome our fears. But, unlike horror, it does not seek to stoke anxiety. The tragic view is, really, a determination to hold on to nobility, love and beauty - even while knowing the worst about ourselves.”

PhilosophyHumanityExistenceSadnessComfortCivilizationTragedyMeaningMeaning Of LifeThe Human Condition
Book:In Search of Civilization
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“Virtue, the strength and beauty of the soul, Is the best gift of Heaven: a happiness That even above the smiles and frowns of fate Exalts great Nature's favourites: a wealth That ne'er encumbers, nor can be transferr'd.”

SoulHeavenWealthVirtueFateBest GiftStrength And Beauty
Book:John Armstrong's The Art of Preserving Health: Eighteenth-century Sensibility in Practice
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“There are, while human miseries abound, A thousand ways to waste superfluous wealth, Without one fool or flatterer at your board, Without one hour of sickness or disgust.”

WayHumansHoursWealthFoolThousandWasteMiseryBoardsSicknessDisgustingSuperfluousOne HourFlatterer
Book:John Armstrong's The Art of Preserving Health: Eighteenth-century Sensibility in Practice
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“Ye who amid this feverish world would wear A body free of pain, of cares a mind, Fly the rank city, shun its turbid air; Breathe not the chaos of eternal smoke And volatile corruption, from the dead, The dying, sickening, and the living world Exhal'd, to sully heaven's transparent dome With dim mortality.”

WorldMindBodyCarePainHeavenCitiesAirDyingEternalChaosCorruptionBreatheSmokeMortalityTransparentDomes
Book:The Poems of Armstrong and Johnson
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“We know great Nature's pow'r, Mother of things, whose vast unbounded sway From the deep centre all around extends Wide to the flaming barriers of the world. We feel her power; we strive not to repress (Vainly repress'd, or to deformity) Her lawful growth: ours be the task alone To check her rude excrescencies, to prune Her wanton overgrowth, and where she strays In uncouth shapes, to lead her gently back, With prudent hand, to form and better use.”

KnowsWorldFeelsUseHandsFormMotherGrowthNatureShapesTasksStriveWideChecksBarriersRudeCentrePrudentWantonDeformityPowPrunesUncouth
Author:John Armstrong
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“Ye youths and virgins, when your generous blood Has drunk the warmth of fifteen summers, now The loves invite; now to new rapture wakes The finish'd sense: while stung with keen desire The madd'ning boy his bashful fetters bursts; And, urg'd with secret flames, the riper maid, Conscious and shy, betrays her smarting breast.”

DesireSecretBoysBloodYouthSummerConsciousDrunkFlamesGenerousBreastsShyWarmthInvitesBetrayFifteenVirginsMaidsRaptureFettersBashful
Author:John Armstrong
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“For wisest ends this universal Power Gave appetites, from whose quick impulse life Subsists, by which we only live, all life Insipid else, unactive, unenjoy'd. Hence to this peopled earth, which, that extinct, That flame for propagation, soon would roll A lifeless mass, and vainly cumber heaven.”

EndsEarthHeavenMassUniversalImpulseFlamesAppetiteWisestLifelessInsipidPropagation
Book:The forced marriage, a tragedy. Sketches: or, Essays on various subjects, by Launcelot Temple, Esq
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“For pale and trembling anger rushes in With faltering speech, and eyes that wildly stare, Fierce as the tiger, madder than the seas, Desperate and armed with more than human strength.”

HumansEyeSeaSpeechAngerStaringDesperateFiercePaleTigersTremblingHuman StrengthFaltering
Book:The Poetical Works of Armstrong, Dyer, and Green: With Memoirs, and Critical Dissertations
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“What avails it that indulgent Heaven From mortal eyes has wrapt the woes to come, If we, ingenious to torment ourselves, Grow pale at hideous fictions of our own? Enjoy the present; nor which needless cares Of what may spring from blind misfortune's womb, Appal the surest hour that life bestows. Serence, and master of yourself, prepare For what may come; and leave the rest to Heaven.”

IfsMayEyeCareHeavenGrowsEnjoyHoursFictionMastersSpringBlindMortalsMisfortunesPaleWoeTormentWombHideousIngenious
Book:John Armstrong's The Art of Preserving Health: Eighteenth-century Sensibility in Practice
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“Riches are oft by guilt and baseness earn'd; Or dealt by chance to shield a lucky knave, Or throw a cruel sunshine on a fool. But for one end, one much-neglected use, Are riches worth your care; (for nature's wants Are few, and without opulence supplied;) This noble end is, to produce the soul; To show the virtues in their fairest light; To make humanity the minister Of bounteous Providence; and teach the breast The generous luxury the gods enjoy.”

WantSoulEndsUseShowsLightCareHumanityEnjoyChanceTeachVirtueProduceFoolLuckyGuiltRichesNobleLuxuryMinistersGenerousBreastsSunshineProvidenceNeglectedShieldsKnavesBasenessOpulence
Author:John Armstrong
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“He knows enough, the mariner, who knows Where lurk the shelves, and where the whirlpools boil, What signs portend the storm: to subtler minds He leaves to scan, from what mysterious cause Charybdis rages in the Ionian wave; Whence those impetuous currents in the main Which neither oar nor sail can stem; and why The roughening deep expects the storm, as sure As red Orion mounts the shrouded heaven.”

KnowsMindEnoughHeavenCausesSeaRedWaveCurrentsStormRageMysteriousSailStemShelvesOarMarinersWhirlpoolsOrionImpetuousCharybdis
Book:The Poetical Works of Armstrong, Dyer, and Green: With Memoirs, and Critical Dissertations
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“There is, they say, (and I believe there is), A spark within us of th' immortal fire, That animates and moulds the grosser frame; And when the body sinks, escapes to heaven; Its native seat, and mixes with the gods.”

BelieveSoulBodyI BelieveHeavenFireSeatsNativeImmortalSparksMould
Book:John Armstrong's The Art of Preserving Health: Eighteenth-century Sensibility in Practice
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“One’s relationship with money is lifelong, it colors one’s sense of identity, it shapes one’s attitude to other people, it connects and splits generations; money is the arena in which greed and generosity are played out, in which wisdom is exercised and folly committed. Freedom, desire, power, status, work, possession: these huge ideas that rule life are enacted, almost always, in and around money.”

PeopleIdeasDesireAttitudeGenerationsIdentityColorHugeShapesGreedCommittedPossessionGenerosityFollySplitsArenaLifelong
Author:John Armstrong
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“When the tribal groups of december trade Seated in the figure of crocodile And songs are sung and deals discussed, are made Real. All... For more than one reason they smile. These codes are writ in secret, feeling fine To keep what's private to my self since we All must face our maker in our own ryhme And reasons for being ( from regrets) free So let the memory of your glory Be the tenderness heartfelt love starkly In the sky of my mind vast and pretty Evermore glittering simplicity Where in the truth of country grows sober And sunshines through fog to radiate wonder”

MindMadeRealSelfCountryReasonFeelingsFacesSongGrowsNatureMemoriesDealsSecretWonderGroupsSkyFiguresRegretFineGloryTradeSimplicityCodeSunshineMakersTendernessSoberFogDecemberHeartfeltOf My MindCrocodilesEvermore
Author:John Armstrong
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