Letitia Elizabeth Landon Quotes

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Oh! moral of enjoyment! — scattered, crushed : —
The pale checks of the few that staid, like ghosts
Haunting the footsteps of departing mirth,
While the bright pictures over them looked down
Almost in mockery.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
In moments of great anxiety there is a sort of natural superstition about the heart, which the reason rejects in cooler moments.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
While we are laid on the battle plain,
Drenched to the skin by the midnight rain,
Pleasant dreams may thy slumber crown,
As thou sinkest to rest amid silk and down :
But shame beside thy pillow stand !
A German maid shall kiss thee not,
A German song rejoice thee not,
And German wine shall warm thee not !
He who has strength to wield a brand,
Let him draw it now for his father-land !

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
The dying chief sprang to his knee,
And the staunch'd wounds well'd fearfully;
But his gash'd arm, what is it now?
Livid his lip, and black his brow,
While over him the slayer stood,
As if he almost scorn'd the blood
That cost so little to be won,—
He strikes,—the work of death is done!

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
From religion... they will learn the only true lesson of equality — the conviction that our destinies are not in our own hands; they will see that no situation in life is without its share of suffering; — and this perpetual reference to a higher power ought equally to teach the rich humility, and the poor devotion.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
So much to win, so much to lose,
No marvel that I fear to choose.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Alas! when angry words begin
Their entrance on the lip to win;
When sullen eye and flushing cheek
Say more than bitterest tone could speak;
And look and word, than fire or steel,
Give wounds more deep,—time cannot heal;
And anger digs, with tauntings vain,
A gulf it may not pass again.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Hope is a timid thing,
Fearful, and weak, and born in suffering.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Death never excites such sympathy as it does when it assumes the shape of murder.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
In a valley sweet with singing
From the hill and from the wood,
Where the green moss rills were springing,
A wondrous maiden stood.
The first lark seemed to carry
Her coming through the air ;
Not long she wont to tarry,
Though she wandered none knew where.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Oh, softest is the cheek's love-ray
When seen by moonlight hours

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
And here they met:—where should Love's meeting be —
Love passionate, and spiritual, and deep—
Where, but in such a haunted solitude—
A green and natural temple—fitting shrine
For vows the stars remember ?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Love, passionate young Love, how sweet it is
To have the bosom made a Paradise
By thee—life lighted by thy rainbow smile!

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
For when do friends not delight in the sorrow of the prosperous?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
The hope that clings to the least glimpse of blue
Amid a sky of murkiness ; the fear
That sickens at itself; the fond deceit,
That will not see the truth ; the tenderness,
That only asks to trust ; and, at the last,
The knowledge we have known in vain so long
Comes like a thunderbolt, and crashes.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
I would resign the words of praise which now
Make my cheek crimson and my pulses beat.
Could I but deem that when my heart is cold
And my lip passionless, my songs would be
Numbered 'mid the young minstrels' first delights,
And murmured by the lover where his suit
Calls upon poetry to breathe of love.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
How very desolate that breast must be,
Whose only joyance is in memory!
And what must woman suffer, thus betrayed?—
Her heart's most warm and precious feelings made
But things wherewith to wound: that heart—so weak,
So soft—laid open to the vulture's beak!

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Where on earth is the truth that may vie
With woman's lone and long constancy?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Thrice venomed is the wound when 'tis Love's hand
Inflicts the blow.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Sight-seeing gratifies us in different ways. First, there is the pleasure of novelty; secondly, either that of admiration or fault-finding — the latter a very animated enjoyment.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
But the knowledge of the library is not that of the world; a youth of solitude is bad preparation for a manhood of action; from the earliest age we need to mingle with our kind; the child corrects and instructs the child more than their masters; our equals are the tools wherewith experience works out its lessons; and the play-ground, with its rival interests, its injustices, its necessity for the ready wit and the curbed temper is both miniature and prophesy of the world, which will but bring back the old struggles only with a sterner aspect, and the same successes, but with more than half their enjoyment departed.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
My power was but a woman's power;
Yet, in that great and glorious dower
Which Genius gives, I had my part:
I poured my full and burning heart

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
It is not him, not the bold enemy
That rushes fiercely on the healthful breast.
For such I have no fear. 'Tis this dull jail
That makes the hero and the coward one !

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
But there are natural temples still for those
Eternal though dethroned Deities,
Where from green altars flowers send up their incense:
This fount is one of them. —

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Strange, that ignorance should be our best happiness in this life, and yet be the one we are ever striving to destroy !

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
We hope, plan, execute; will it be in vain?
Or will the future be the past again?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
We enjoy no pleasure so much as we do tormenting ourselves.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
True love is timid, as it knew its worth,
And that such happiness is scarce for earth.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Beautiful weakness! oh, if weak,
That woman's heart should tinge her cheek!
'Tis sad to change it for the strength
That heart and cheek must know at length.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Other sorrows soften the heart, — poverty hardens it. Nothing like poverty for chilling the affections and repressing the spirits. Its annoyances are all of the small and mean order ; its regrets all of a selfish kind ; its presence is perpetual ; and the scant meal, and the grudged fire, are repeated day by day, yet who can become accustomed to them ?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon