Walter Savage Landor quotes

Walter Savage Landor was an English writer, poet, and critic, renowned for his prose and dramatic imagery. Known especially for his "Imaginary Conversations," his works display keen intellect and wit. He influenced many literary figures and remains an important figure in English literature. Here are 65 of his quotes:

The Siren waits thee, singing song for song. (Walter Savage Landor)
There is delight in singing, though none hear beside the singer. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
Ambition is but avarice on stilts, and masked. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
When we play the fool, how wide The theatre expands! beside, How long the audience sits before us! How many prompters! what a chorus! View quote
Walter Savage Landor
Around the child bend all the three Sweet Graces: Faith, Hope, Charity. Around the man bend other faces; Pride, Envy, Malice, are his Graces. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
No ashes are lighter than those of incense, and few things burn out sooner. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
We are no longer happy so soon as we wish to be happier. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
Truth, like the juice of the poppy, in small quantities, calms men; in larger, heats and irritates them, and is attended by fatal consequences in excess. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
The damps of autumn sink into the leaves and prepare them for the necessity of their fall; and thus insensibly are we, as years close around us, detached from our tenacity of life by the gentle pressure of recorded sorrow. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
I strove with none, for none was worth my strife; Nature I loved; and next to Nature, Art. I warmed both hands before the fire of life; It sinks, and I am ready to depart. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
Music is God's gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to Heaven. (Walter Savage Landor)
Of all failures, to fail in a witticism is the worst, and the mishap is the more calamitous in a drawn-out and detailed one. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
Ambition has but one reward for all: A little power, a little transient fame; A grave to rest in, and a fading name! View quote
Walter Savage Landor
Wearers of rings and chains! Pray do not take the pains To set me right. In vain my faults ye quote; I write as others wrote On Sunium's hight. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
Past are three summers since she first beheld The ocean; all around the child await Some exclamation of amazement here. She coldly said, her long-lasht eyes abased, Is this the mighty ocean? is this all? That wondrous soul Charoba once possest,- Capacious, then, as earth or heaven could hold, Soul discontented with capacity,- Is gone (I fear) forever. Need I say She was enchanted by the wicked spells Of Gebir, whom with lust of power inflamed The western winds have landed on our coast? I since have watcht her in lone retreat, Have heard her sigh and soften out the name. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
We must not indulge in unfavourable views of mankind, since by doing it we make bad men believe that they are no worse than others, and we teach the good that they are good in vain. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
There are no fields of amaranth on this side of the grave: there are no voices, O Rhodopè! that are not soon mute, however tuneful: there is no name, with whatever emphasis of passionate love repeated, of which the echo is not faint at last. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
Nothing is pleasanter to me than exploring in a library. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
When a cat flatters... he is not insincere: you may safely take it for real kindness. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
Stand close around, ye Stygian set, with Dirce in the boat conveyed, Lest Charon, seeing her, forget, That he is old and she a shade. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
Shakespeare is not our poet, but the world's, Therefore on him no speech! and brief for thee, Browning! Since Chaucer was alive and hale, No man hath walked along our roads with step So active, so inquiring eye, or tongue So varied in discourse. (Walter Savage Landor)
I am heartily glad to witness your veneration for a Book which to say nothing of its holiness or authority, contains more specimens of genius and taste than any other volume in existence. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose their direction and begin to bend: such nails are then thrown into the dust or into the furnace. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes May weep, but never see, A night of memories and of sighs I consecrate to thee. View quote
Walter Savage Landor
Ah what avails the sceptered race, Ah what the form divine! View quote
Walter Savage Landor