272 Quotes by Washington Irving

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

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.

There is something nobly simple and pure in a taste for the cultivation of forest trees.

If ever I should wish for a retreat whither I might steal from the world and its distractions, and dream quietly away the remnant of a troubled life, I know of none more promising than this little valley.

It was Shakespeare’s notion that on this day birds begin to couple; hence probably arose the custom of sending fancy love-billets.

Like most shortcuts, it was an ill-chosen route.

They are given to all kinds of marvellous beliefs; are subject to trances and visions; and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air.

A mother is the truest friend we have when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity.

There is a sacredness in tears.