Inspirational Quotes by Charles Kingsley
“Qualis Natura formatrix, si talis formata? Oh my God, how fair must be Thy real world, if even Thy phantoms are so fair!”
― Charles Kingsley ,
“See now, God made all these things; and never a man, perhaps, set eyes on them till fifty years agone; and yet they were as pretty as they are now, ever since the making of the world. And why do you think God could have put them here, then, but to please Himself"—and Amyas took off his hat—"with the sight of them? Now, I say, brother Frank, what's good enough to please God, is good enough to please you and me.”
― Charles Kingsley ,
“Why should we long for the next world, before we are fit even for this one?”
― Charles Kingsley ,
“around which pigs and barefoot children grunted in loving communion of dirt.”
― Charles Kingsley ,
“For Nature, which has peopled the land with rational souls, may not have left the sea altogether barren of them”
― Charles Kingsley ,
“They had slipped past the southern point of Grenada in the night, and were at last within that fairy ring of islands, on which nature had concentrated all her beauty, and man all his sin.”
― Charles Kingsley ,
“For when all things were made, none was made better than this: to be a lone man's companion, a sad man's cordial, a chilly man's fire. . . . There is no herb like it under the canopy of heaven.”
― Charles Kingsley ,
topics: marriage
“Beware o’ Bonie Ann (Song) YE gallants bright, I rede you right, Beware o’ bonie Ann; Her comely face sae fu’ o’ grace, Your heart she will trepan: Her een sae bright, like stars by night, 5 Her skin sae like the swan; Sae jimply lac’d her genty waist, That sweetly ye might span.”
“A gaudy dress and gentle air May slightly touch the heart; But it’s innocence and modesty That polishes the dart.”
“It is a very old and widely spread superstition that when a dog howls at night someone not far away is dying or will soon die. Many people are uncomfortable when they hear a dog howling after dark, not because they believe that dogs have any knowledge that death is present or coming, but because their ancestors for many centuries believed that the howling of a dog was ominous,”
“For to be discontented with the divine discontent, and to be ashamed with the noble shame, is the very germ and first upgrowth of all virtue.”
“Except a living man there is nothing more wonderful than a book! A message to us from the dead--from human souls we never saw, who lived perhaps thousands of miles away. And yet these, in those little sheets of paper, speak to us, arouse us, terrify us, teach us, comfort us, open their hearts to us as brothers.”
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As a young man, Kingsley was influenced by The Kingdom of Christ (1838) by Frederick Denison Maurice. Originally intended for the legal profession, he changed his mind and chose to pursue a ministry in the church.
In 1850 Kingsley novel Alton Locke was published. The book attempted to expose the social injustice suffered by agricultural labourers and workers in the clothing trade. In Alton Locke Kingsley also describes the Chartist campaign that he was involved with in the 1840s.
Kingsley's life was written by his widow in 1877, entitled Charles Kingsley, his Letters and Memories of his Life, and presents a very touching and beautiful picture of her husband, but perhaps hardly does justice to his humour, his wit, his overflowing vitality and boyish fun.
Charles Kingsley was born in Holne (Devon), the son of a vicar. His brother, Henry Kingsley, also became a novelist. He spent his childhood in Clovelly, Devon and was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, before choosing to pursue a ministry in the church. From 1844, he was rector of Eversley in Hampshire, and in 1860, he was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge.
Kingsley's interest in history spilled over into his writings, which include The Heroes (1856), a children's book about Greek mythology, and several historical novels, of which the best known are Hypatia (1853), Hereward the Wake (1865), and Westward Ho! (1855).
In 1872 Kingsley accepted the Presidency of the Birmingham and Midland Institute and became its 19th President.
Kingsley died in 1875 and was buried in St Mary's Churchyard in Eversley.