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Washington Irving

Washington Irving Quotes

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Famous Washington Irving Quotes

“There's nothing like being in fashion. A man that has once got his character up for a wit is always sure of a laugh, say what he may. He may utter as much nonsense as he pleases, and all will pass current. No one stops to question the coin of a rich man; but a poor devil cannot pass off either a joke or a guinea without its being examined on both sides. Wit and coin are always doubted with a threadbare coat.”

MenMayCharacterSidesPoorLaughingRichFashionPleaseJokesDevilCurrentsWitNonsenseCoatsBoth SidesCoinsRich ManDoubtedGuinea
Book:The Complete Tales of Washington Irving
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“How we delight to build our recollections upon some basis of reality,--a place, a country, a local habitation! how the events of life, as we look back upon them, have grown into the well-remembered background of the places where they fell upon us! Here is some sunny garden or summer lane, beautified and canonized forever, with the flood of a great joy; and here are dim and silent places,--rooms always shadowed and dark to us, whatever they may be to others,--where distress or death came once, and since then dwells forevermore.”

WellsLooksMayCountryRealityJoyDarkRoomsForeverEventsSummerGardenBasesSilentDelightBackgroundsLocalsRememberedAssociationFloodDistressSunnyLanesRecollectionGreat Joy
Author:Washington Irving
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“Nature seems to delight in disappointing the assuduities of art, with which it would rear dulness to maturity, and to glory in the vigor and luxuriance of her chance productions. She scatters the seeds of genius to the winds, and though some may perish among the stony places of the world, and some may be choked by the thorns and brambles of early adversity, yet others will now and then strike root even in the clefts of the rock, struggle bravely up into sunshine, and spread over their sterile birthplace all the beauties of vegetation.”

WorldMayArtSeemsChanceStruggleRocksWindGeniusGloryRootsAdversityProductionsDelightSpreadSeedsStrikesMaturitySunshineNow And ThenThornsDisappointingVigorVegetationBirthplace
Author:Washington Irving
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“A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands. But a mother's love endures through all; in good repute, in bad repute, in the face of the world's condemnation, a mother still loves on, and still hopes that her child may turn from his evil ways, and repent; still she remembers the infant smiles that once filled her bosom with rapture, the merry laugh, the joyful shout of his childhood, the opening promise of his youth; and she can never be brought to think him all unworthy.”

ThinkingWorldWayMayChildrenStillsRememberFacesMotherTurnsEvilFatherEnemyLaughingWifeChildhoodYouthBrotherPromiseHusbandFilledEndureOpeningDesertJoyfulBrothers And SistersInfantRepentBosomsMerryUnworthyRaptureCondemnationMother's Love
Author:Washington Irving
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“A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands. But a mother's love endures through all.”

LoveMayChildrenMotherTurnsFatherFamilyEnemyWifeBrotherMomHusbandEndureMy MomDesertBrothers And SistersSisterHusband And WifeMother And DaughterMother LoveMother's LoveMother ProverbsMother ChildLove For My MotherWives And MothersMom And ChildGreatest Mom
Author:Washington Irving
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“There is nothing in England that exercises a more delightful spell over my imagination than the lingerings of the holiday customs and rural games of former times. They recall the pictures my fancy used to draw in the May morning of life, when as yet I only knew the world through books, and believed it to be all that poets had painted it; and they bring with them the flavour of those honest days of yore, in which, perhaps with equal fallacy, I am apt to think the world was more home-bred, social, and joyous than at present.”

ThinkingWorldMayBookHomeUsedGamesSocialImaginationMorningHonestPoetExerciseEqualDrawsEnglandFormerFancyHolidayCustomsSpellsRecallsDelightfulMy ImaginationJoyousFallacyLingeringFlavour
Book:The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Esq. (Wasington Irving)
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“Into the space of one little hour sins enough may be conjured up by evil tongues to blast the fame of a whole life of virtue.”

MayLittlesEnoughWholeEvilHoursSinSpaceVirtueFameTongueWhole LifeBlastSlander
Book:The Complete Works of Washington Irving: Short Stories, Plays, Historical Works, Poetry and Autobiographical Writings (Illustrated): The Entire Opus of the Prolific American Writer, Biographer and Historian, Including The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Bracebridge Hall and many more
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