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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

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Washington Irving
Age: 76 †
Born: 1783
Born: April 3
Died: 1859
Died: November 28
Author
Biographer
Diplomat
Essayist
Historian
Journalist
Lawyer
Novelist
Playwright
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New York City
New York
Diedrich Knickerbocker
Geoffrey Crayon
Lauuncelot Langstaff
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Thorns
Views
Fades
Land
Charm
Literature
Fairy
Reading
Visible
Become
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Briars
Book
Distance
Landscapes
Like
Approach
Nearer

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Surely happiness is reflective, like the light of heaven.
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Poetry had breathed over and sanctified the land.
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The only happy author in this world is he who is below the care of reputation.
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There was one species of despotism under which he had long groaned, and that was petticoat government.
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Critics are a kind of freebooters in the republic of letters--who, like deer, goats and divers other graminivorous animals, gain subsistence by gorging upon buds and leaves of the young shrubs of the forest, thereby robbing them of their verdure, and retarding their progress to maturity.
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Sometimes the table was graced with immense apple-pies, or saucers full of preserved peaches and pears but it was always sure to boast an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks - a delicious kind of cake, at present scarce known in this city, except in genuine Dutch families.
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Angling is an amusement peculiarly adapted to the mild and cultivated scenery of England
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From its peaceful bosom spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections.
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A woman's whole life is a history of the affections.
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I was always fond of visiting new scenes, and observing strange characters and manners. Even when a mere child I began my travels, and made many tours of discovery into foreign parts and unknown regions of my native city, to the frequent alarm of my parents, and the emolument of the town-crier.
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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.
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There is an enduring tenderness in the love of a mother to a son that trancends all other affections of the heart
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There is a remembrance of the dead to which we turn even from the charms of the living.
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The natural effect of sorrow over the dead is to refine and elevate the mind.
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There is no character in the comedy of human life more difficult to play well than that of an old bachelor.
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Men are always doomed to be duped, not so much by the arts of the other as by their own imagination. They are always wooing goddesses, and marrying mere mortals.
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For what is history, but... huge libel on human nature, to which we industriously add page after page, volume after volume, as if we were holding up a monument to the honor, rather than the infamy of our species.
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