Washington Irving quotes

“I am always at a loss at how much to believe of my own stories.”

— Washington Irving

“Indeed, there is an eloquence in true enthusiasm that is not to be doubted.”

— Washington Irving

“Marriage is the torment of one, the felicity of two, the strife and enmity of three.”

— Washington Irving

“Rising genius always shoots out its rays from among the clouds, but these will gradually roll away and disappear as it ascends to its steady luster.”

— Washington Irving

“Young lawyers attend the courts, not because they have business there, but because they have no business.”

— Washington Irving

“The natural effect of sorrow over the dead is to refine and elevate the mind.”

— Washington Irving

“The natural principle of war is to do the most harm to our enemy with the least harm to ourselves; and this of course is to be effected by stratagem.”

— Washington Irving

“Those men are most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the discipline of shrews at home.”

— Washington Irving

“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.”

— Washington Irving

“Who ever hears of fat men heading a riot, or herding together in turbulent mobs? No - no, your lean, hungry men who are continually worrying society, and setting the whole community by the ears.”

— Washington Irving

“It is not poverty so much as pretense that harasses a ruined man - the struggle between a proud mind and an empty purse - the keeping up of a hollow show that must soon come to an end.”

— Washington Irving

“The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible.”

— Washington Irving

“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.”

— Washington Irving

“After all, it is the divinity within that makes the divinity without; and I have been more fascinated by a woman of talent and intelligence, though deficient in personal charms, than I have been by the most regular beauty.”

— Washington Irving

“Some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles.”

— Washington Irving