Washington Irving Quotes

Great minds have purposes others have wishes.

Great minds have purposes; others have wishes.

Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.

A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.

I've had it with you and your emotional constipation!

A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.

Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting, and there is no jovial companionship equal to that where the jokes are rather small and laughter abundant.

Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power.

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.

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.

Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them.

Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love.

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.

There is an enduring tenderness in the love of a mother to a son that trancends all other affections of the heart

One of the greatest and simplest tools for learning more and growing is doing more.

A mother is the truest friend we have when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity.

A mother is the truest friend we have.

There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind.

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

The tongue is the only instrument that gets sharper with use.

They who drink beer will think beer.

The easiest thing to do, whenever you fail, is to put yourself down by blaming your lack of ability for your misfortunes.

A father may turn his back on his child, … . but a mother's love endures through all.

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.

There is never jealousy where there is not strong regard.

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

The idol of today pushes the hero of yesterday out of our recollection; and will, in turn, be supplanted by his successor of tomorrow.

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

He who wins a thousand common hearts is entitled to some renown; but he who keeps undisputed sway over the heart of a coquette is indeed a hero.

An inexhaustible good nature is one of the most precious gifts of heaven, spreading itself like oil over the troubled sea of thought, and keeping the mind smooth and equable in the roughest weather.

Others may write from the head, but he writes from the heart, and the heart will always understand him.

He who would study nature in its wildness and variety, must plunge into the forest, must explore the glen, must stem the torrent, and dare the precipice.

Enthusiasts soon understand each other.

The tie which links mother and child is of such pure and immaculate strength as to be never violated.

I have never found, in anything outside of the four walls of my study, an enjoyment equal to sitting at my writing desk with a clean page, a new theme, and a mind awake.

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

I consider a story merely as a frame on which to stretch my materials.

Jealous people poison their own banquet and then eat it

Villainy wears many masks; none so dangerous as the mask of virtue.

A barking dog is often more useful than a sleeping lion.

Every desire bears its death in its very gratification. Curiosity languishes under repeated stimulants, and novelties cease to excite and surprise, until at length we cannot wonder even at a miracle.

There is a healthful hardiness about real dignity that never dreads contact and communion with others however humble.

The moan of the whip-poor-will from the hillside; the boding cry of the tree-toad, that harbinger of storm; the dreary hooting of the screechowl.

Every antique farm-house and moss-grown cottage is a picture.

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

It is not poverty so much as pretense that harasses a ruined man.

There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse.

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