“The character of an age, as of a man, is often rather in the voice than…” — Sydney Dobell | V2Melody

“The character of an age, as of a man, is often rather in the voice than in the words.”

Suggesting that tone can reveal character more deeply than literal statements · Letter to his parents, Beaumaris, 1857

About Sydney Dobell

Sydney Dobell

5 April 1824–22 August 1874

Sydney Thompson Dobell was born on 5 April 1824 at Cranbrook in Kent, into a family whose circumstances placed him close to the commercial and dissenting middle-class culture of provincial England rather than to the aristocratic literary world. His father, Thomas Dobell, was a wine merchant, and the business of…

More by Sydney Dobell

Poems by Sydney Dobell

More remarks by Sydney Dobell

“Modern philosophy is thankful for the facts, and waits till they make a bed for themselves.”

Arguing that evidence should be allowed to shape theory rather than being forced into it · Notes of an Address to Medical Students, 1856

Nature
Truth

“The great progress of things takes place by the passage of the highest form of each thing into the thing above it.”

Imagining progress as the best in one form passing into a higher form · Unpublished notes, Poetry and Art

Hope
Time

“But the charm of a plan like that is so substantive and per se that it is really independent of fulfilment: though it never blossom into performance, one has the flower in the bud.”

Finding value and beauty in a generous intention even when it remains unrealised · Letter to John Nichol, 1866