Top 160 Washington Irving Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “No man knows what the wife of his bosom is until he has gone with her through the fiery trials of this world.”

— Washington Irving

52. “It lightens the stroke to draw near to Him who handles the rod.”

— Washington Irving

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

— Washington Irving

54. “The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion.”

— Washington Irving

55. “The moan 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.”

— Washington Irving

56. “I’ve had it with you and your emotional constipation!”

— Washington Irving

57. “I consider a story merely as a frame on which to stretch my materials.”

— Washington Irving

58. “Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting, and there is no jovial companionship equal to that where the jokes are rather small and laughter abundant.”

— Washington Irving

59. “True love will not brook reserve; it feels undervalued and outraged, when even the sorrows of those it loves are concealed from it.”

— Washington Irving

60. “The youthful freshness of a blameless heart.”

— Washington Irving

61. “The schoolmaster is generally a man of some importance in the female circle of a rural neighborhood, being considered a kind of idle, gentlemanlike personage, of vastly superior taste and accomplishments to the rough country swains, and, indeed, inferior in learning only to the parson.”

— Washington Irving

62. “He who wins a thousand common hearts is entitled to some renown; but he who keeps undisputed sway over the heart of a coquette is indeed a hero.”

— Washington Irving

63. “There is never jealousy where there is not strong regard.”

— Washington Irving

64. “Others may write from the head, but he writes from the heart, and the heart will always understand him.”

— Washington Irving

65. “The easiest thing to do, whenever you fail, is to put yourself down by blaming your lack of ability for your misfortunes.”

— Washington Irving

66. “Redundancy of language is never found with deep reflection. Verbiage may indicate observation, but not thinking. He who thinks much says but little in proportion to his thoughts.”

— Washington Irving

67. “Nothing impresses the mind with a deeper feeling of loneliness than to tread the silent and deserted scene of former throng and pageant.”

— Washington Irving

68. “Every desire bears its death in its very gratification. Curiosity languishes under repeated stimulants, and novelties cease to excite and surprise, until at length we cannot wonder even at a miracle.”

— Washington Irving

69. “Over no nation does the press hold a more absolute control than over the people of America, for the universal education of the poorest classes makes every individual a reader.”

— Washington Irving

70. “Every antique farm-house and moss-grown cottage is a picture.”

— Washington Irving

71. “The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout our land, seems to have no genuine devotees in these peculiar villages.”

— Washington Irving

72. “It was the policy of the good old gentleman to make his children feel that home was the happiest place in the world; and I value this delicious home-feeling as one of the choicest gifts a parent can bestow.”

— Washington Irving

73. “It is not poverty so much as pretense that harasses a ruined man – the struggle between a proud mind and an empty purse – the keeping up of a hollow show that must soon come to an end.”

— Washington Irving

74. “From its peaceful bosom spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections.”

— Washington Irving

75. “It is worthy to note, that the early popularity of Washington was not the result of brilliant achievement nor signal success; on the contrary, it rose among trials and reverses, and may almost be said to have been the fruit of defeat.”

— Washington Irving

76. “I have never found, in anything outside of the four walls of my study, an enjoyment equal to sitting at my writing desk with a clean page, a new theme, and a mind awake.”

— Washington Irving

77. “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

78. “The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced.”

— Washington Irving

79. “After all, it is the divinity within that makes the divinity without; and I have been more fascinated by a woman of talent and intelligence, though deficient in personal charms, than I have been by the most regular beauty.”

— Washington Irving

80. “Nature seems to delight in disappointing the assiduities of art, with which it would rear legitimate dulness to maturity; and to glory in the vigour and luxuriance of her chance productions.”

— Washington Irving

81. “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.”

— Washington Irving

82. “His appetite for the marvelous, and his powers of digesting it, were equally extraordinary.”

— Washington Irving

83. “To one given to day-dreaming, and fond of losing himself in reveries, a sea-voyage is full of subjects for meditation; but then they are the wonders of the deep and of the air, and rather tend to abstract the mind from worldly themes.”

— Washington Irving

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

— Washington Irving

85. “He is the true enchanter, whose spell operates, not upon the senses, but upon the imagination and the heart.”

— Washington Irving

86. “Angling is an amusement peculiarly adapted to the mild and cultivated scenery of England.”

— Washington Irving

87. “Enthusiasts soon understand each other.”

— Washington Irving

88. “The dance, like most dances after supper, was a merry one; some of the older folks joined in it, and the squire himself figured down several couple with a partner, with whom he affirmed he had danced at every Christmas for nearly half a century.”

— Washington Irving

89. “To look upon its grass grown yard, where the sunbeams seem to sleep so quietly, one would think that there at least the dead might rest in peace.”

— Washington Irving

90. “A woman’s life is a history of the affections.”

— Washington Irving

91. “Society is like a lawn, where every roughness is smoothed, every bramble eradicated, and where the eye is delighted by the smiling verdure of a velvet surface.”

— Washington Irving

92. “No man is so methodical as a complete idler, and none so scrupulous in measuring out his time as he whose time is worth nothing.”

— Washington Irving

93. “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

94. “There are moments of mingled sorrow and tenderness, which hallow the caresses of affection.”

— Washington Irving

95. “There is a sacredness in tears.”

— Washington Irving

96. “I value this delicious home-feeling as one of the choicest gifts a parent can bestow.”

— Washington Irving

97. “One point is certain, that truth is one and immutable; until the jurors all agree, they cannot all be right.”

— Washington Irving

98. “In civilized life, where the happiness, and indeed almost the existence, of man depends so much upon the opinion of his fellow men, he is constantly acting a studied part.”

— Washington Irving

99. “The paternal hearth, the rallying-place of the affections.”

— Washington Irving

100. “I am therefore a ready believer in relics, legends, and local anecdotes of goblins and great men, and would advise all travellers who travel for their gratification to be the same. What is it to us whether these stories be true or false, so long as we can persuade ourselves into the belief of them and enjoy all the charm of the reality?”

— Washington Irving