25 Thomas Moore Quotes for the Rebel Poet In You

Step up your knowledge of famous Irish poets with our intriguing Thomas Moore quotes. 

Thomas Moore remains one of the most influential poets to come out of Ireland. 

Check out our Thomas Moore quotes below to learn more. 

Who was Thomas Moore?

Thomas Moore was a man of many hats. 

He was an Irish poet, satirist, political propagandist, and composer. 

Moore was an idealist and revolutionary in his own right. 

Here are some interesting facts about Thomas Moore below:

• Moore’s poetry earned him an annual salary of about $600. 
• Thomas Moore was close friends with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe.
• Moore studied law in London and graduated from Trinity College in 1799. 

Thomas Moore is remembered as one of the most influential artists to come from Ireland. 

His work reignited the passion for Irish folktales, traditions, and culture. 

Some of his most famous published works are Irish Melodies, The Spirit of the Age, and The Biography of Lord Byron. 

What is Thomas Moore known for? 

People remember Thomas Moore for his poetry, which centers on love, loss, and understanding the soul. 

However, Moore affected Irish and British politics and public opinion. 

Thomas Moore was born May 28, 1779, near Dublin, Ireland. 

He was the son of working-class parents who taught him the value of idealism and revolution at a young age. 

Acting, music, poetry, and the arts inspired Thomas. 

He was quite the linguist and could fluently speak English, French, Latin, and Greek. 

Moore was a rebellious youth who grew to be a rebel as an adult.  

While his parents wanted him to pursue a white-collar job, he had other ideas. 

More did well as a scholar and studied law. 

However, he was kicked out of school because of his political affiliations with the Society of United Irishman. 

This group focused on politically organizing themselves to advocate for equal treatment of everyone by the government. 

The British-ruled government quickly acted to resist this group and quell their political movement. 

How did Thomas Moore inspire Ireland?

Ireland, like many countries that the British Empire overtook, saw their language, culture, and other aspects of its heritage threatened or destroyed by the English. 

Moore was an advocate for Irish rights and the maintenance of Irish culture. 

His poems, writings, books, and plays inspired Irish people to work harder to preserve and live their culture. 

His work also inspired others to reach back to the indigenous Irish language of Gaelic. 

For more super cool content, check out our Thomas Moore quotes below. 

Short Thomas Moore Quotes to Remind You Why His Poetry Is Loved

Thomas Moore did not need many words to make beautiful observations. 

1. “Fond memory brings the light of other days around me.” — Thomas Moore

2. “Humility, that low, sweet root, from which all heavenly virtues shoot.” — Thomas Moore

3. “Go where we may rest where we will; Eternal London haunts us still.” — Thomas Moore

4. “A pretty wife is something for the fastidious vanity of a roue to retire upon.” — Thomas Moore

5. “And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers is always the first to be touched by the thorns.” — Thomas Moore 

Thomas Moore Quotes About Love

Moore was a master at expressing what makes our connections unique. 

6. “A friendship that like love is warm; A love like friendship, steady.” — Thomas Moore

7. “Love doesn’t demand perfection, but it does ask you to give yourself with less reserve than you’d prefer.” — Thomas Moore

8. “Disappointments in love, even betrayals and losses, serve the soul at the very moment they seem in life to be tragedies.” — Thomas Moore 

9. “It may help us, in those times of trouble, to remember that love is not only about relationship, it is also an affair of the soul.” — Thomas Moore

10. “Romantic love is an illusion. Most of us discover this truth at the end of a love affair or else when the sweet emotions of love lead us into marriage and then turn down their flames.” — Thomas Moore

You will also enjoy our article on Arthur Rimbaud quotes.

Thomas Moore Quotes about the Soul and Eternity

Moore loved to opine about the virtues of the soul. 

Here are some of his best soul quotes.

11. “It is only through mystery and madness that the soul is revealed.” — Thomas Moore

12. “When we relate to our bodies as having soul, we attend to their beauty, their poetry, and their expressiveness.” — Thomas Moore 

13. “How many times do we lose an occasion for soul work by leaping ahead to final solutions without pausing to savor the undertones?” — Thomas Moore

14. “It’s important to be heroic, ambitious, productive, efficient, creative, and progressive, but these qualities don’t necessarily nurture soul.” — Thomas Moore

15. “The soul is partly in time and partly in eternity. We might remember the part that resides in eternity when we feel despair over the part that is in life.” — Thomas Moore

Thomas Moore Quotes about the Healing Power of Love 

Moore believed that love conquered all, and these quotes remind us he was correct. 

16. “Usually, the main problem with life conundrums is that we don’t bring to them enough imagination” — Thomas Moore

17. “You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will, But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.” — Thomas Moore

18. “Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish; Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.” — Thomas Moore

19. “All that’s bright must fade, the brightest still the fleetest; All that’s sweet was made but to be lost when sweetest.” — Thomas Moore

20. “A genuine odyssey is not about piling up experiences. It is a deeply felt, risky, unpredictable tour of the soul.” — Thomas Moore

Thomas Moore Quotes about Teaching and Authentic Learning

Moore was passionate about education, as these quotes prove.

21. “One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled, but few are educated.” — Thomas Moore

22. “The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.” — Thomas Moore

23. “The key to seeing the world’s soul, and in the process wakening our own, is to get over the confusion by which we think that fact is real and imagination is illusion.” — Thomas Moore

24. “Education is not the piling on of learning, information, data, facts, skills, or abilities, that’s training or instruction, but is rather a making visible what is hidden as a seed.” — Thomas Moore

25. “To be educated, a person doesn’t have to know much or be informed, but he or she does have to have been exposed vulnerably to the transformative events of an engaged human life.” — Thomas Moore

We can all learn from Thomas Moore

Some critics feel Moore’s poetry was too gloomy. 

Any reader would see many of his poems are full of dark imagery and profound observations based on loss. 

Yet, all loss is a part of life. 

We can only appreciate the sweet aspects of life if we know the sour flavor life can offer. 

Moore was pushing for holistic education before that was a term people used. 

He believed authentic education included literacy, numeracy, and a deep understanding of the soul. 

Moore wrote extensively about the soul and was a proponent of doing the inner work necessary to connect with the self. 

He once beautifully captured the essence of the soul, noting:

“The soul has different concerns of equal value: downtime for reflection, conversation, and reverie; beauty that is captivating and pleasuring; relatedness to the environs and people; and any animal’s rhythm of rest and activity.” 

It is no wonder so many poetry fans love and respect the work of Thomas Moore. 

If you love poetry or enjoyed these quotes, you will also like our JM Storm quotes.

Do you have a favorite Thomas Moore quote?

If so, please, be sure to let us know in the comments below.