Quote

It is the divine attribute of the imagination, that it is irrepressible, unconfinable that when the real world is shut out, it can create a world for itself, and with a necromantic power can conjure up glorious shapes and forms, and brilliant visions to make solitude populous, and irradiate the gloom of a dungeon.

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
Politician
Writer
New York City
New York
Diedrich Knickerbocker
Geoffrey Crayon
Lauuncelot Langstaff
Make
Shapes
Gloom
World
Divine
Visions
Vision
Attributes
Populous
Create
Shut
Irrepressible
Imagination
Glorious
Dungeon
Form
Solitude
Conjure
Power
Brilliant
Dungeons
Real
Forms
Attribute

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If I can, by a lucky chance, in these uneasy days, rub out one wrinkle from the brow of care, or beguile the heavy heart of one moment of sadness if I can, how and then, prompt a happier view of human nature, and make my reader more in good humor with his fellow-beings and himself, surely, I shall not have written in vain.
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Luxury spreads its ample board before their eyes but they are excluded from the banquet. Plenty revels over the fields but theyare starving in the midst of its abundance: the whole wilderness has blossomed into a garden but they feel as reptiles that infest it.
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The easiest thing to do, whenever you fail, is to put yourself down by blaming your lack of ability for your misfortunes.
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I consider a story merely as a frame on which to stretch my materials.
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A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.
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One point is certain, that truth is one and immutable until the jurors all agree, they cannot all be right.
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When friends grow cold, and the converse of intimates languishes into vapid civility and commonplace, these only continue the unaltered countenance of happier days, and cheer us with that true friendship which never deceived hope, nor deserted sorrow.
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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.
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It is worthy to note, that the early popularity of Washington was not the result of brilliant achievement nor signal success on the contrary, it rose among trials and reverses, and may almost be said to have been the fruit of defeat.
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He who would greatly deserve must greatly dare.
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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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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.
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From its peaceful bosom spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections.
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Of all the old festivals, however, that of Christmas awakens the strongest and most heartfelt associations. There is a tone of solemn and sacred feeling that blends with our conviviality, and lifts the sprit to a state of hallowed and elevated enjoyment.
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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
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Jealous people poison their own banquet and then eat it
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A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.
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History is but a kind of Newgate calendar, a register of the crimes and miseries that man has inflicted on his fellow-man.
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I am always at a loss at how much to believe of my own stories.
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A woman's whole life is a history of the affections.
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