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Washington Irving
37 quotes
“I endeavor to take things as they come with cheerfulness, and when I cannot get a dinner to suit my taste, I endeavor to get a taste to suit my dinner.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whenever a man's friends begin to compliment him about looking young, he may be sure that they think he is growing old.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) first seen 1822 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bracebridge Hall. Bachelors (1822)
“I am always at a loss to know how much to believe of my own stories.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) first seen 1824 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tales of a Traveler, To the Reader (1824)
“There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in travelling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one’s position, and be bruised in a new place.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) first seen 1824 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tales of a Traveler (1824), Preface, p. 7
“The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout our land, seems to have no genuine devotees in these peculiar villages; and unless some of its missionaries penetrate there, and erect banking houses and other pious shrines, there is no knowing how long the inhabitants may remain in their present state of contented poverty.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) first seen 1836 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Creole Village published in The Knickerbocker magazine (November 1836). This is origin of the expression almighty dollar. See Edward Bulwer-Lytton for "the pursuit of the almighty dollar". Compare: "Whilst that for …
“Free-livers on a small scale, who are prodigal within the compass of a guinea.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is an eloquence in true enthusiasm that is not to be doubted.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How convenient it would be to many of our great men and great families of doubtful origin, could they have the privilege of the heroes of yore, who, whenever their origin was involved in obscurity, modestly announced themselves descended from a god.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Who ever hears of fat men heading a riot, or herding together in turbulent mobs? — No — no, ‘tis your lean, hungry men who are continually worrying society, and setting the whole community by the ears.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His wife "ruled the roost," and in governing the governor, governed the province, which might thus be said to be under petticoat government.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They claim to be the first inventors of those recondite beverages, cocktail, stonefence, and sherry cobbler.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My native country was full of youthful promise; Europe was rich in the accumulated treasures of age.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams, and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those men are most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the discipline of shrews at home.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That happy age when a man can be idle with impunity.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a healthful hardiness about real dignity, that never dreads contact and communion with others, however humble. It is only spurious pride that is morbid and sensitive, and shrinks from every touch.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Other men are known to posterity only through the medium of history, which is continually growing faint and obscure; but the intercourse between the author and his fellow-men is ever new, active, and immediate.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Two small aisles on each side of this chapel present a touching instance of the equality of the grave; which brings down the oppressor to a level with the oppressed, and mingles the dust of the bitterest enemies together.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thus man passes away; his name perishes from record and recollection; his history is as a tale that is told, and his very monument becomes a ruin.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Luxury spreads its ample board before their eyes; but they are excluded from the banquet. Plenty revels over the fields; but they are starving in the midst of its abundance: the whole wilderness has blossomed into a garden; but they feel as reptiles that infest it.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A more extensive statement not found as such in this work is attributed to Irving in Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book (1923) edited by Roycroft Shop:
“A woman's whole life is a history of the affections. The heart is her world: it is there her ambition strives for empire; it is there her avarice seeks for hidden treasures. She sends forth her sympathies on adventure; she embarks her whole soul on the traffic of affection; and if shipwrecked, her case is hopeless — for it is a bankruptcy of the heart.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There rise authors now and then, who seem proof against the mutability of language, because they have rooted themselves in the unchanging principles of human nature. They are like gigantic trees that we sometimes see on the banks of a stream; which, by their vast and deep roots, penetrating through the mere surface, and laying hold on the very foundations of the earth, preserve the soil around them from being swept away by the ever-flowing current, and hold up many a neighboring plant, and perhaps worthless weed, to perpetuity.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The great British Library — an immense collection of volumes of all ages and languages, many of which are now forgotten, and most of which are seldom read: one of these sequestered pools of obsolete literature to which modern authors repair, and draw buckets full of classic lore, or “pure English, undefiled” wherewith to swell their own scanty rills of thought.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His [the author's] renown has been purchased, not by deeds of violence and blood, but by the diligent dispensation of pleasure.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal — every other affliction to forget: but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open — this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They who drink beer will think beer.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From the listless repose of the place and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of SLEEPY HOLLOW, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land and to pervade the very atmosphere.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback without a head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper whose head had been carried away by a cannonball in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War, and who is ever and anon seen by the country-folk hurrying along in the gloom of night as if on the wings of the wind.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In his private dealings he was just. He treated friends and strangers, the rich and poor, the powerful and weak, with equity, and was beloved by the common people for the affability with which he received them, and listened to their complaints.[...]”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) first seen 1850 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahomet and his successors, George P. Putnam, 1850, p. 330
“His military triumphs awakened no pride nor vain glory, as they would have done had they been effected for selfish purposes. In the time of his greatest power he maintained the same simplicity of manners and appearance as in the days of his adversity. So far from affecting a regal state, he was displeased if, on entering a room, any unusual testimonials of respect were shown to him. If he aimed at a universal dominion, it was the dominion of faith; as to the temporal rule which grew up in his hands, as he used it without ostentation, so he took no step to perpetuate it in his family”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) first seen 1850 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahomet and his successors, George P. Putnam, 1850, p. 339
“We feel that we are surrounded by the congregated bones of the great men of past times, who have filled history with their deeds, and the earth with their renown. And yet it almost provokes a smile at the vanity of human ambition to see how they are crowded together and jostled in the dust; what parsimony is observed in doling out a scanty nook, a gloomy corner, a little portion of earth, to those whom, when alive, kingdoms could not satisfy, and how many shapes and forms and artifices are devised to catch the casual notice of the passenger, and save from forgetfulness for a few short years a name which once aspired to occupy ages of the world's thought and admiration.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Language gradually varies, and with it fade away the writings of authors who have flourished their allotted time; otherwise, the creative powers of genius would overstock the world, and the mind would be completely bewildered in the endless mazes of literature. Formerly there were some restraints on this excessive multiplication. Works had to be transcribed by hand, which was a slow and laborious operation; they were written either on parchment, which was expensive, so that one work was often erased to make way for another; or on papyrus, which was fragile and extremely perishable. Authorship was a limited and unprofitable craft, pursued chiefly by monks in the leisure and solitude of their cloisters. The accumulation of manuscripts was slow and costly, and confined almost entirely to monasteries. To these circumstances it may, in some measure, be owing that we have not been inundated by the intellect of antiquity; that the fountains of thought have not been broken up, and modern genius drowned in the deluge. But the inventions of paper and the press have put an end to all these restraints. They have made everyone a writer, and enabled every mind to pour itself into print, and diffuse itself over the whole intellectual world. The consequences are alarming. The stream of literature has swollen into a torrent — augmented into a river — expanded into a sea.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I can but reach that bridge," thought Ichabod, "I am safe." Just then he heard the black steed panting and blowing close behind him; he even fancied that he felt his hot breath. Another convulsive kick in the ribs, and old Gunpowder sprang upon the bridge; he thundered over the resounding planks; he gained the opposite side; and now Ichabod cast a look behind to see if his pursuer should vanish, according to rule, in a flash of fire and brimstone. Just then he saw the goblin rising in his stirrups, and in the very act of hurling his head at him. Ichabod endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, but too late. It encountered his cranium with a tremendous crash; he was tumbled headlong into the dust, and Gunpowder, the black steed, and the goblin rider passed by like a whirlwind.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many of the visions and revelations handed down as having been given by him are spurious. The miracles ascribed to him are all fabrications of Moslem zealots. He expressly and repeatedly disclaimed all miracles excepting the Koran ; which, considering its incomparable merit, and the way in which it had come down to him from heaven, he pronounced the greatest of miracles. And here we must indulge a few observations on this famous document. While zealous Moslems and some of the most learned doctors of the faith draw proofs of its divine origin from the inimitable excellence of its style and composition, and the avowed illiteracy of Mahomet, less devout critics have pronounced it a chaos of beauties and defects; without method or arrangement; full of obscurities, incoherencies, repetitions, false versions of scriptural stories, and direct contradictions. The truth is that the Koran as it now exists is not the same Koran delivered by Mahomet to his disciples, but has undergone many corruptions and interpolations.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) first seen 1850 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahomet and his successors, George P. Putnam, 1850, p. 330-331
“The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout our land, seems to have no genuine devotees in these peculiar villages.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) said by 1859 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source