Washington Irving Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of Washington Irving's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Author Washington Irving's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 179 quotes on this page collected since April 3, 1783! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
  • Redundancy of language is never found with deep reflection. Verbiage may indicate observation, but not thinking. He who thinks much says but little in proportion to his thoughts.

  • The very difference of character in marriage produces a harmonious combination.

  • The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced.

    Washington Irving (1835). “The complete works of Washington Irving in one volume with a memoir of the author”, p.270
  • All these, however, were mere terrors of the night, phantoms of the mind that walk in darkness; and though he had seen many spectres in his time, and been more than once beset by Satan in divers shapes, in his lonely pre-ambulations, yet daylight put an end to all these evils; and he would have passed a pleasent life of it, in despite of the devil and all his works, if his path had not been crossed by a being that causes more perplexity to mortal man than ghosts, goblins, and the whole race of witches put together, and that was - a woman.

  • after a man passes 60 , his mischief is mainly in his head

  • There is never jealousy where there is not strong regard.

    Washington Irving (1835). “The complete works”, p.475
  • There is no character in the comedy of human life more difficult to play well than that of an old bachelor.

    Washington Irving (2015). “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”, p.610, e-artnow
  • There is an emanation from the heart in genuine hospitality which cannot be described, but is immediately felt and puts the stranger at once at his ease.

    Washington Irving (1835). “The complete works of Washington Irving in one volume with a memoir of the author”, p.288
  • He that drinks beer, thinks beer.

  • Her mighty lakes, like oceans of liquid silver; her mountains with their right aerial tints; her valleys, teeming with wild fertility; her tremendous cataracts, thundering in their solitudes; her boundless plains, waving with spontaneous verdure; her brought deep rivers, rolling in solemn silence to the ocean; her trackless forests, where vegetation puts forth all its magnificence; her skies, kindling waves in the magic of the summer clouds and glorious sunshine;-no, never need an American look beyond his own country for the sublime and beautiful of natural scenery.

  • 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 (2015). “The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. – The Complete Collection: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, The Voyage, Roscoe, A Royal Poet, A Sunday in London and many more (Illustrated)”, p.133, e-artnow
  • The youthful freshness of a blameless heart.

  • There is something nobly simple and pure in a taste for the cultivation of forest trees. It argues, I think, a sweet and generous nature to have his strong relish for the beauties of vegetation, and this friendship for the hardy and glorious sons of the forest. He who plants a tree looks forward to future ages, and plants for posterity. Nothing could be less selfish than this.

  • Acting provides the fulfillment of never being fulfilled. You're never as good as you'd like to be. So there's always something to hope for.

  • There is certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in traveling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one's position, and be bruised in a new place.

    1824 Tales of a Traveller,'To the Reader'.
  • Society is like a lawn, where every roughness is smoothed, every bramble eradicated, and where the eye is delighted by the smiling verdure of a velvet surface

    Washington Irving (2015). “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”, p.383, e-artnow
  • Washington, in fact, had very little private life, but was eminently a public character.

    Washington Irving (1857). “Life of George Washington”, p.3
  • It lightens the stroke to draw near to Him who handles the rod.

  • 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.

    Washington Irving (2015). “The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. – The Complete Collection: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, The Voyage, Roscoe, A Royal Poet, A Sunday in London and many more (Illustrated)”, p.133, e-artnow
  • The slanders of the pen pierce to the heart; they rankle longest in the noblest spirits; they dwell ever present in the mind and render it morbidly sensitive to the most trifling collision.

    Washington Irving (1999). “Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories”, p.64, Penguin
  • It was Shakespeare's notion that on this day birds begin to couple; hence probably arose the custom of sending fancy love-billets.

  • In civilized life, where the happiness, and indeed almost the existence, of man depends so much upon the opinion of his fellow men, he is constantly acting a studied part.

    Washington Irving (1866). “The Works of Washington Irving ...: Oliver Goldsmith; The sketch book”
  • There is a serene and settled majesty to woodland scenery that enters into the soul and delights and elevates it, and fills it with noble inclinations.

  • My father died and left me his blessing and his business. His blessing brought no money into my pocket, and as to his business, it soon deserted me, for I was busy writing poetry, and could not attend to law, and my clients, though they had great respect for my talents, had no faith in a poetical attorney.

    Washington Irving (2015). “The Complete Travel Sketches and Memoirs of Washington Irving: Tales of The Alhambra, Abbotsford and Newstead Abby, A Tour on the Prairies & Tales of a Traveler: Autobiographical Writings, Travel Reports, Essays and Notes of the Prolific American Writer, Biographer and Historian, Author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle and Old Christmas”, p.539, e-artnow
  • Rising genius always shoots forth its rays from among clouds and vapours, but these will gradually roll away and disappear, as it ascends to its steady and meridian lustre.

    "The Analectic Magazine".
  • Poetry is evidently a contagious complaint.

    Washington Irving (1860). “The Works of Washington Irving: Tales of a traveller”, p.158
  • A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.

    Washington Irving (2015). “Old Christmas: From the Sketch Book of Washington Irving”, p.39, Simon and Schuster
  • There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind.

  • History fades into fable; fact becomes clouded with doubt and controversy; the inscription molders from the tablet: the statue falls from the pedestal. Columns, arches, pyramids, what are they but heaps of sand; and their epitaphs, but characters written in the dust?

    Washington Irving (2006). “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories From the Sketch Book”, p.144, Penguin
  • Too young for woe, though not for tears.

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  • We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 179 quotes from the Author Washington Irving, starting from April 3, 1783! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!