18th-century Author Quotes

Jane Austen

Lord Byron

Stendhal

Novalis

Walter Scott

Giacomo Casanova

William Wordsworth

A persuadable temper might sometimes be as much in favour of happiness as a very resolute character.

So do the dark in soul expire, Or live like scorpion girt by fire; So writhes the mind remorse hath riven, Unfit for earth, undoom'd for heaven, Darkness above, despair beneath, Around it flame, within it death.

He who talks much cannot always talk well.

Now as all the sciences are connected with each other, Philosophy is never completed. In a complete system of all the sciences will philosophy for the first time be made manifest.

It is from cowardice and not from want of enlightenment that we do not read in our own hearts.

Five minutes! Zounds! I have been five minutes too late all my life-time!

That blood which thou hast spill'd, should join you closely in an eternal bond.

Vittorio Alfieri

These wretched kings,
Of whom all men speak ill, have oft some good in them.

François Andrieux

Ye generous maids, revenge your sex's wrong; Let not the mean destroyer e'er approach Your sacred charms. Now muster all your pride, Contempt and scorn, that, shot from Beauty's eye, Confounds the mighty impudent, and smites The front unknown to shame.

And His that gentle voice we hear,
Soft as the breath of even.

It is so seldom that a young fellow has any inclination for the company of an old man...

There is one court whose "findings" are incontrovertible, and whose sessions are held in the chambers of our own breast.

Forever seeking, never found,
In this wide varied scene;
Sole object of unceasing search,
While in this low terrene.
Yet vain the search, if in the heart
Some lurking passion dwell;
For this will hang with cypress wreath
Retirement's secret cell.
In vain the outward scene is calm,
In vain the world we fly;
If thou, in pure religion's garb,
Thy friendly aid deny.

Plays, gentlemen, are to their authors what children are to women: they cost more pain than they give pleasure.

Pierre Beaumarchais

He did not think, with the Caliph Omar Ben Adalaziz, that it was necessary to make a hell of this world to enjoy Paradise in the next.

William Thomas Beckford

Come, swift-wing'd Fancy, airy maid,
In varied, dazzling vest array'd,
Inspire thy vot'ry's lay;
Grant me thy flow'ry walks to tread,
To range thy summer-painted mead,
Or near thy fountain play.
Now led by thy resistless hand,
Or guided by thy fairy wand,
O'er yet untrodden space;
Or on thy pinions borne along,
The bright Ideas' flitting throngs
Pursue th' aerial race.

Elizabeth Bentley

Gaily! gaily! close our ranks!
Arm! Advance!
Hope of France!
Gaily! gaily! close our ranks!
Onward! Onward! Gauls and Franks!

Pierre-Jean de Béranger

But if I'm content with a little, Enough is as good as a feast.

Isaac Bickerstaffe

The best-concerted schemes men lay for fame, Die fast away: only themselves die faster. The far-fam'd sculptor, and the laurell'd bard, Those bold insurancers of deathless fame, Supply their little feeble aids in vain.

Tell me thou all pervading mind,
When I this life forsake,
Must ev'ry tender tie unbind,
Each sweet connection break?

Ann Eliza Bleecker

Strange to the world, he wore a bashful look, The fields his study, nature was his book.

Robert Bloomfield

I have seen some extracts from Johnson's Preface to his 'Shakespeare'…No feeling nor pathos in him! Altogether upon the high horse, and blustering about Imperial Tragedy!

John Brown (essayist)

Now spring returns; but not to me returns
The vernal joy my better years have known;
Dim in my breast life's dying taper burns,
And all the joys of life with health have flown.

Far from having taken any positive step, I have not yet even fommed any resolution.

Never wedding, ever wooing, Still a lovelorn heart pursuing, Read you not the wrong you're doing In my cheek's pale hue? All my life with sorrow strewing; Wed or cease to woo.

Thomas Campbell