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Robert Southey Quotes

Poet

Robert Southey, born on August 12, 1774, and died on March 21, 1843, was an influential English Romantic poet. Known for his poetry and literary criticism, Southey is considered one of the significant figures in the history of English literature.

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Famous Robert Southey Quotes

“Let us depart! the universal sun Confines not to one land his blessed beams; Nor is man rooted, like a tree, whose seed, the winds on some ungenial soil have cast there, where it cannot prosper.”

Men Sun Tree Land Wind Universal Blessed Casts Seeds Soil Rooted Beam Emigration

Author:Robert Southey

“It is not for man to rest in absolute contentment.”

Men Absolutes Contentment

Author:Robert Southey

“Easier were it To hurl the rooted mountain from its base, Than force the yoke of slavery upon men Determin'd to be free.”

Men Force Freedom Easier Mountain Slavery Rooted Yoke

Book:Joan of Arc, Ballads, Lyrics, and Minor Poems

Source: Joan of Arc, Ballads, Lyrics, and Minor Poems

“Man hath a weary pilgrimage, As through the word he wends; On every stage, from youth to age, Still discontent attends.”

Men Stills Age Stage Youth Weary Discontent Pilgrimage

Book:The Poetical Works of Robert Southey: Complete in One Volume

Source: The Poetical Works of Robert Southey: Complete in One Volume

“The disappointed man turns his thoughts toward a state of existence where his wiser desires may be fixed with the certainty of faith; the successful man feels that the objects which he has ardently pursued fail to satisfy the cravings of an immortal spirit; the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness, that he may save his soul alive.”

Source: On Sir Francis Burdett's motion for parliamentary reform.-On the conduct of the war.-On the cry of the Whigs for peace, 1810.-Army and navy reforms, 1810.-On the economical reformers, 1811.-On the state of the poor.-The principle of Mr. Malthus's essay on population.-The manufacturing system, 1812.-On the state of the poor.-On the accounts of England by foreign travellers and the state of public opinion, 1816.-On the state of public opinion and the political reformers, 1816.-v.2 A letter to Will

“Faith in the hereafter is as necessary for the intellectual as the moral character; and to the man of letters, as well as to the Christian, the present forms but the slightest portion of his existence.”

Men Wells Character Christian Form Existence Moral He Man Intellectual Letters Immortality Portions Hereafter Moral Character

Author:Robert Southey

“Beasts, birds, and insects, even to the minutest and meanest of their kind, act with the unerring providence of instinct; man, the while, who possesses a higher faculty, abuses it, and therefore goes blundering on.”

Men Kind Higher Bird Abuse Instinct Beast Faculty Providence Insects

Book:Sir Thomas Marc Or Colloquies on the Progress und Prospects of Sceuly, 1

Source: Sir Thomas Marc Or Colloquies on the Progress und Prospects of Sceuly, 1

“A man may be cheerful and contented in celibacy, but I do not think he can ever be happy; it is an unnatural state, and the best feelings of his nature are never called into action.”

Thinking Men May States Feelings Action Marriage Cheerful Unnatural Celibacy

Book:Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey

Source: Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey

“There was a time when I believed in the persuadability of man, and had the mania of man-mending. Experience has taught me better. The ablest physician can do little in the great lazar-house of society. He acts the wisest part who retires from the contagion.”