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Washington Irving

Washington Irving Quotes

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Famous Washington Irving Quotes

“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.”

WorldWritingMindWould BeLiteratureLanguageCreativeGeniusEndlessFadesVaryFade AwayMazesBewilderedCreative Power
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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“There is a certain artificial polish, a commonplace vivacity acquired by perpetually mingling in the beau monde; which, in the commerce of world, supplies the place of natural suavity and good-humour, but is purchased at the expense of all original and sterling traits of character.”

WorldCharacterCertainNaturalHumourOriginalsExpensesArtificialTraitsCommercePolishCommonplaceSuppliesE CommerceSterlingMinglingVivacityGood Humour
Book:The works
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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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“It is the divine attribute of the imagination, that it is irrepressible, unconfinable; that when the real world is shut out, it can create a world for itself, and with a necromantic power can conjure up glorious shapes and forms, and brilliant visions to make solitude populous, and irradiate the gloom of a dungeon.”

WorldRealFormImaginationVisionDivineShapesSolitudeBrilliantGloriousReal WorldAttributesGloomDungeonsIrrepressible
Book:The Complete Short Stories of Washington Irving: The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Bracebridge Hall, Tales of a Traveler, The Alhambra, Woolfert’s Roost & The Crayon Papers Collections (Illustrated): The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, Old Christmas, The Voyage, Roscoe, The Widow’s Retinue, An Old Soldier, Mountjoy, Don Juan, Woolfert’s Roost, Tales of The Alhambra and many more
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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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“The literary world is made up of little confederacies, each looking upon its own members as the lights of the universe; and considering all others as mere transient meteors, doomed to soon fall and be forgotten, while its own luminaries are to shine steadily into immortality.”

WorldWritingLittlesMadeLightFallUniverseMembersShiningMereForgottenImmortalityConsideringDoomedTransientMeteors
Book:Bracebridge Hall ; Tales of a Traveller ; The Alhambra
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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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“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.”

IfsWorldHeartSoulWholeLife IsCasesAdventureAmbitionStriveAffectionWhole LifeTreasureEmpiresHopelessTrafficStrifeAvariceBankruptcyHidden Treasure
Book:The complete works of Washington Irving in one volume with a memoir of the author
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“No man knows what the wife of his bosom is until he has gone with her through the fiery trials of this world.”

KnowsMenWorldMarriageGoneWifeThis WorldTrialsBosomsFiery
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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