Washington Irving

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

Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 - November 28, 1859) was an American author of the early 19th century.

1 Sourced
- 1.1 Knickerbocker's History of New York (1809)
- 1.2 The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819-1820)
2 Attributed
3 External links

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Sourced

Whenever a man's friends begin to compliment him about looking young, he may be sure that they think he is growing old.
- Bracebridge Hall. Bachelors (1822)

I am always at a loss to know how much to believe of my own stories.
- Tales of a Traveler, To the Reader (1824)

There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in travelling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one’s position, and be bruised in a new place.
- Tales of a Traveler (1824)

The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout our land, seems to have no genuine devotees in these peculiar villages; and unless some of its missionaries penetrate there, and erect banking houses and other pious shrines, there is no knowing how long the inhabitants may remain in their present state of contented poverty.
- The Creole Village published in The Knickerbocker magazine (November 1836)
- This is origin of the expression almighty dollar. See Edward Bulwer-Lytton for "the pursuit of the almighty dollar."

Free-livers on a small scale, who are prodigal within the compass of a guinea.
- The Stout Gentleman

There is an eloquence in true enthusiasm that is not to be doubted.
- "The Adventure Of The German Student"

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Knickerbocker's History of New York (1809)

How convenient it would be to many of our great men and great families of doubtful origin, could they have the privilege of the heroes of yore, who, whenever their origin was involved in obscurity, modestly announced themselves descended from a god.
- Book II, ch. 3

Who ever hears of fat men heading a riot, or herding together in turbulent mobs?—No—no, ‘tis your lean, hungry men who are continually worrying society, and setting the whole community by the ears.
- Book III, ch. 2

His wife "ruled the roast," and in governing the governor, governed the province, which might thus be said to be under petticoat government.
- Book IV, ch. 4

They claim to be the first inventors of those recondite beverages, cocktail, stonefence, and sherry cobbler.
- Book IV, ch. 241

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The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819-1820)

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.
- The Wife

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

A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use.
- Rip Van Winkle

That happy age when a man can be idle with impunity.
- Rip Van Winkle

Luxury spreads its ample board before their eyes; but they are excluded from the banquet. Plenty revels over the fields; but they are starving in the midst of its abundance: the whole wilderness has blossomed into a garden; but they feel as reptiles that infest it.
- Traits of Indian Character

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.
- The Broken Heart

Language gradually varies, and with it fade away the writings of authors who have flourished their allotted time.
- The Mutabilities of Literature

There rise authors now and then, who seem proof against the mutability of language, because they have rooted themselves inthe unchanging principles of human nature.
- The Mutabilities of Literature

The great British Library—an immense collection of volumes of all ages and languages, many of which are now forgotten, and most of which are seldom read: one of these sequestered pools of obsolete literature to which modern authors repair, and draw buckets full of classic lore, or “pure English, undefiled” wherewith to swell their own scanty rills of thought.
- The Art of Book-Making

His [the author's] renown has been purchased, not by deeds of violence and blood, but by the diligent dispensation of pleasure.
- The Westminster Abbey [The Poets' Corner]

The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal—every other affliction to forget: but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open—this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude.
- Rural Funerals

They who drink beer will think beer.
- Stratford-on-Avon

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Attributed

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.

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

A woman never forgets her sex. She would rather talk with a man than an angel, any day.

A woman's whole life is a history of the affections.

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.

Age is a matter of feeling, not of years.

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.

Great minds have purposes, others have wishes. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them.

Here's to your good health, and your family's good health, and may you all live long and prosper.

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

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

Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.

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

Resolved— never to do anything which I should be afraid to do, if it were my last of life.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.

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