28 Famous Quotes by Washington Irving
4/3/1783 - 11/28/1859
Also Known As:
Diedrich Knickerbocker
Geoffrey Crayon
Jonathan Oldstyle
Professions:
Information:
About Washington Irving
Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of George Washington, Oliver Goldsmith and Muhammad, and several histories of 15th-century Spain dealing with subjects such as Christopher Columbus, the Moors, and the Alhambra. Irving served as the U.S. ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846.
He made his literary debut in 1802 with a series of observational letters to the Morning Chronicle, written under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle. After moving to England for the family business in 1815, he achieved international fame with the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. in 1819. He continued to publish regularly—and almost always successfully—throughout his life, and completed a five-volume biography of George Washington just eight months before his death, at age 76, in Tarrytown, New York.
Irving, along with James Fenimore Cooper, was among the first American writers to earn acclaim in Europe, and Irving encouraged American authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Edgar Allan Poe. Irving was also admired by some European writers, including Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Thomas Campbell, Francis Jeffrey, and Charles Dickens. As America's first genuine internationally best-selling author, Irving advocated for writing as a legitimate profession, and argued for stronger laws to protect American writers from copyright infringement.
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.
Being a woman
Quotes, by Washington Irving
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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 messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love.
Communication
Quotes, by Washington Irving
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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.
Fulfilment
Quotes, by Washington Irving
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A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.
Mothers
Quotes, by Washington Irving
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Here's to your good health, and your family's good health, and
may you all live long and prosper.
Toasts
Quotes, by Washington Irving , Source: Rip Van Winkle, (from The Sketch Book) as used by Joseph Jefferson
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The idol of to-day pushes the hero of yesterday out of our
recollection, and will, in turn, be supplanted by his successor
of to-morrow.
Heroes
Quotes, by Washington Irving , Source: The Sketch Book--Westminster Abbey
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The moon of the whip-poor-will from the hillside; the boding cry
of the tree-toad, that harbinger of storm; the dreary hooting of
the screechowl.
Whippoorwills
Quotes, by Washington Irving , Source: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, (from The Sketch Book)
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As I sat on a sunny bank
On Christmas day in the morning
I spied three ships come sailing in.
Christmas
Quotes, by Washington Irving , Source: The Sketch Book--The Sunny Bank
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History fades into fable; fact becomes clouded with doubt and
controversy; the inscription moulders from the tablet: the
statue falls from the pedestal. Columns, arches, pyramids, what
are they but heaps of sand; and their epitaphs, but characters
written in the dust?
Ruin
Quotes, by Washington Irving , Source: The Sketch Book--Westminster Abbey
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There is a 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.
Change
Quotes, by Washington Irving
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The idol of today pushes the hero of yesterday out of our recollection; and will, in turn, be supplanted by his successor of tomorrow.
Heroism
Quotes, by Washington Irving
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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.
Mothers
Quotes, by Washington Irving
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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.
Inspirational
Quotes, by Washington Irving
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There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in travelling in a stagecoach, that ;it is often a comfort to shift one's position, and be bruised in a new place.
Change
Quotes, by Washington Irving
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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.
Heart-quotes
Quotes, by Washington Irving
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