Quote

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.

Washington Irving

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Never
Equal
Enjoyment
Wall
Theme
Study
Awake
Four
Page
Found
Pages
Anything
Clean
Desk
Writing
Sitting
Desks
Mind
Outside
Walls

More quotes by Washington Irving

Image
A father may turn his back on his child, … . but a mother's love endures through all.
Washington Irving
Image
Language gradually varies, and with it fade away the writings of authors who have flourished their allotted time otherwise, the creative powers of genius would overstock the world, and the mind would be completely bewildered in the endless mazes of literature.
Washington Irving
Image
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.
Washington Irving
Image
Other men are known to posterity only through the medium of history, which is continually growing faint and obscure but the intercourse between the author and his fellow-men is ever new, active, and immediate.
Washington Irving
Image
Poetry is evidently a contagious complaint.
Washington Irving
Image
The only happy author in this world is he who is below the care of reputation.
Washington Irving
Image
Surely happiness is reflective, like the light of heaven.
Washington Irving
Image
The scholar only knows how dear these silent, yet eloquent, companions of pure thoughts and innocent hours become in the season of adversity. When all that is worldly turns to dross around us, these only retain their steady value.
Washington Irving
Image
Small minds are subdued by misfortunes, greater minds overcome them.
Washington Irving
Image
After all, it is the divinity within that makes the divinity without and I have been more fascinated by a woman of talent and intelligence, though deficient in personal charms, than I have been by the most regular beauty.
Washington Irving
Image
The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion.
Washington Irving
Image
Who ever hears of fat men heading a riot, or herding together in turbulent mobs? No - no, your lean, hungry men who are continually worrying society, and setting the whole community by the ears.
Washington Irving
Image
A few amber clouds floated in the sky without a breath of air to move them. The horizon was of a fine golden tint, changing gradually into a pure apple-green, and from that into the deep blue of the mid-heaven.
Washington Irving
Image
Into the space of one little hour sins enough may be conjured up by evil tongues to blast the fame of a whole life of virtue.
Washington Irving
Image
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.
Washington Irving
Image
It is but seldom that any one overt act produces hostilities between two nations there exists, more commonly, a previous jealousy and ill will, a predisposition to take offense.
Washington Irving
Image
He is the true enchanter, whose spell operates, not upon the senses, but upon the imagination and the heart.
Washington Irving
Image
The very difference of character in marriage produces a harmonious combination.
Washington Irving
Image
I profess not to know how women's hearts are wooed and won. To me they have always been matters of riddle and admiration.
Washington Irving
Image
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.
Washington Irving