Washington Irving quotes

Washington Irving was an American writer, essayist, and historian, famous for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." His works played a significant role in shaping early American literature and folklore. He is also remembered for his influence on the development of the short story as a literary form. Here are 84 of his quotes:

Great minds have purposes; others have wishes.

Washington Irving

Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.

Washington Irving

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them.

Washington Irving

A woman's whole life is a history of the affections.

Washington Irving

There is in every true woman's heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.

Washington Irving

A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.

Washington Irving

I am always at a loss at how much to believe of my own stories.

Washington Irving

Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.

Washington Irving

Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.

Washington Irving

They who drink beer will think beer.

Washington Irving

Those men are most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the discipline of shrews at home.

Washington Irving

There is certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in traveling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one's position, and be bruised in a new place.

Washington Irving

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

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

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.

Washington Irving

One of the greatest and simplest tools for learning more and growing is doing more.

Washington Irving

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

Whenever a man's friends begin to compliment him about looking young, he may be sure that they think he is growing old.

Washington Irving

Luxury spreads its ample board before their eyes; but they are excluded from the banquet. Plenty revels over the fields; but they are starving in the midst of its abundance: the whole wilderness has blossomed into a garden; but they feel as reptiles that infest it.

Washington Irving

Thus man passes away; his name perishes from record and recollection; his history is as a tale that is told, and his very monument becomes a ruin.

Washington Irving

There is an eloquence in true enthusiasm that is not to be doubted.

Washington Irving

Free-livers on a small scale, who are prodigal within the compass of a guinea.

Washington Irving