Top 160 Washington Irving Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “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

Featured in: Loss Quotes, Quotes About Feelings, Suffering Quotes, Sorrow Quotes, Sadness Quotes

2. “Great minds have purposes; others have wishes.”

— Washington Irving

3. “Villainy wears many masks; none so dangerous as the mask of virtue.”

— Washington Irving

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

— Washington Irving

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

— Washington Irving

Featured in: Quotes About Heart, Christmas Quotes, Quotes About Fire

6. “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

7. “There is an enduring tenderness in the love of a mother to a son that trancends all other affections of the heart.”

— Washington Irving

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

— Washington Irving

9. “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness but of power. They are messengers of overwhelming grief and of unspeakable love.”

— Washington Irving

10. “The love of a mother is never exhausted. It never changes – it never tires – it endures through all; in good repute, in bad repute. In the face of the world’s condemnation, a mother’s love still lives on.”

— Washington Irving

11. “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

12. “Some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles.”

— Washington Irving

13. “A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.”

— Washington Irving

14. “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

15. “The tie which links mother and child is of such pure and immaculate strength as to be never violated.”

— Washington Irving

16. “The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible.”

— Washington Irving

Featured in: Book Quotes, Reading Quotes

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

— Washington Irving

18. “He who would greatly deserve must greatly dare.”

— Washington Irving

19. “Christmas is here, Merry old Christmas, Gift-bearing Christmas, Day of grand memories, King of the year!”

— Washington Irving

20. “Jealous people poison their own banquet and then eat it.”

— Washington Irving

21. “There is an emanation from the heart in genuine hospitality which cannot be described, but is immediately felt and puts the stranger at once at his ease.”

— Washington Irving

22. “Good temper, like a sunny day, sheds a ray of brightness over everything; it is the sweetener of toil and the soother of disquietude!”

— Washington Irving

23. “A woman is more considerate in affairs of love than a man; because love is more the study and business of her life.”

— Washington Irving

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

— Washington Irving

25. “They who drink beer will think beer.”

— Washington Irving

26. “The idol of today pushes the hero of yesterday out of our recollection; and will, in turn, be supplanted by his successor of tomorrow.”

— Washington Irving

27. “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

28. “There was one species of despotism under which he had long groaned, and that was petticoat government.”

— Washington Irving

29. “The tongue is the only instrument that gets sharper with use.”

— Washington Irving

30. “There is a serene and settled majesty to woodland scenery that enters into the soul and delights and elevates it, and fills it with noble inclinations.”

— Washington Irving

31. “It’s a fair wind that blew men to ale.”

— Washington Irving

32. “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.”

— Washington Irving

33. “Surely happiness is reflective, like the light of heaven.”

— Washington Irving

34. “The Indians with surprise found the mouldering trees of their forests suddenly teeming with ambrosial sweet; and nothing, I am told, can exceed the greedy relish with which they banquet for the first time upon this unbought luxury of the wilderness.”

— Washington Irving

35. “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.”

— Washington Irving

36. “Young lawyers attend the courts, not because they have business there, but because they have no business.”

— Washington Irving

37. “There is a healthful hardiness about real dignity that never dreads contact and communion with others however humble.”

— Washington Irving

Featured in: Real Quotes

38. “There are certain half-dreaming moods of mind in which we naturally steal away from noise and glare, and seek some quiet haunt where we may indulge our reveries and build our air castles undisturbed.”

— Washington Irving

39. “There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse.”

— Washington Irving

40. “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.”

— Washington Irving

41. “Too young for woe, though not for tears.”

— Washington Irving

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

— Washington Irving

43. “I have often had occasion to remark the fortitude with which women sustain the most overwhelming reverses of fortunes.”

— Washington Irving

44. “There is a majestic grandeur in tranquillity.”

— Washington Irving

45. “Marriage is the torment of one, the felicity of two, the strife and enmity of three.”

— Washington Irving

46. “There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind.”

— Washington Irving

47. “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

48. “A mother is the truest friend we have...”

— Washington Irving

49. “Speculation is the romance of trade, and casts contempt upon on all its sober realities. It renders the stock-jobber a magician, and the exchange a region of enchantment.”

— Washington Irving

Featured in: Romance Quotes

50. “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