1783-1859, American Author
A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.
Washington Irving – [Kindness]
A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.
Washington Irving – [Temper]
A woman's life is a history of the affections.
Washington Irving – [Affection]
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.
Washington Irving – [Women]
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.
Washington Irving – [Humor]
Great minds have purposes; others have wishes.
Washington Irving – [Purpose]
I am always at a loss at how much to believe of my own stories.
Washington Irving – [Writers and Writing]
In civilized life, where the happiness and indeed almost the existence of man, depends on the opinion of his fellow men. He is constantly acting a studied part.
Washington Irving – [Acting and Actors]
Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them.
Washington Irving – [Adversity]
Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.
Washington Irving – [Love]
Marriage is the torment of one, the felicity of two, the strife and enmity of three.
Washington Irving – [Marriage]
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 – [Genius]
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 – [Mind]
Temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.
Washington Irving – [Anger]
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.
Washington Irving – [Libraries]
The idol of today pushes the hero of yesterday out of our recollection; and will, in turn, be supplanted by his successor of tomorrow.
Washington Irving – [Heroes and Heroism]
The natural effect of sorrow over the dead is to refine and elevate the mind.
Washington Irving – [Sorrow]
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 – [War]
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.
Washington Irving – [Bereavement]
The tongue is the only instrument that gets sharper with use.
Washington Irving – [Communication]