Walter Savage Landor - Imaginary Conversations

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There is no more certain sign of a narrow mind, of stupidity, and of arrogance, than to stand aloof from those who think differently from us.

Walter Savage Landor
We listen to those whom we know to be of the same opinion as ourselves, and we call them wise for being of it; but we avoid such as differ from us.

Walter Savage Landor
We must not indulge in unfavourable views of mankind, since by doing it we make bad men believe that they are no worse than others, and we teach the good that they are good in vain.

Walter Savage Landor
A good cook is the peculiar gift of the gods. He must be a perfect creature from the brain to the palate, from the palate to the finger's end.

Walter Savage Landor
Ambition does not see the earth she treads on: The rock and the herbage are of one substance to her.

Walter Savage Landor
Immoderate power, like other intemperance, leaves the progeny weaker and weaker, until nature as in compassion covers it with her mantle and it is seen no more.

Walter Savage Landor
Truth, like the juice of the poppy, in small quantities, calms men; in larger, heats and irritates them, and is attended by fatal consequences in its excess.

Walter Savage Landor
Kindness in ourselves is the honey that blunts the sting of unkindness in another.

Walter Savage Landor
Justice is often pale and melancholy; but Gratitude, her daughter, is constantly in the flow of spirits and the bloom of loveliness.

Walter Savage Landor
We oftener say things because we can say them well, than because they are sound and reasonable.

Walter Savage Landor
No friendship is so cordial or so delicious as that of girl for girl; no hatred so intense and immovable as that of woman for woman.

Walter Savage Landor
Fame, they tell you, is air; but without air there is no life for any; without fame there is none for the best.

Walter Savage Landor
Teach him to live unto God and unto thee; and he will discover that women, like the plants in woods, derive their softness and tenderness from the shade.

Walter Savage Landor
Cruelty, if we consider it as a crime, is the greatest of all; if we consider it as a madness, we are equally justifiable in applying to it the readiest and the surest means of oppression.

Walter Savage Landor
Was genius ever ungrateful? Mere talents are dry leaves, tossed up and down by gusts of passion, and scattered and swept away; but, Genius lies on the bosom of Memory, and Gratitude at her feet.

Walter Savage Landor
We may receive so much light as not to see, and so much philosophy as to be worse than foolish.

Walter Savage Landor
Kings play at war unfairly with republics; they can only lose some earth, and some creatures they value as little, while republics lose in every soldier a part of themselves.

Walter Savage Landor
States, like men, have their growth, their manhood, their decrepitude, their decay.

Walter Savage Landor
A critic is never too severe when he only detects the faults of an author. But he is worse than too severe when, in consequence of this detection, be presumes to place himself on a level with genius.

Walter Savage Landor
Those who are quite satisfied sit still and do nothing; those who are not quite satisfied are the sole benefactors of the world.

Walter Savage Landor
We must distinguish between felicity and prosperity; for prosperity leads often to ambition, and ambition to disappointment; the course is then over, the wheel turns round but once, while the reaction of goodness and happiness is perpetual.

Walter Savage Landor
Something of the severe hath always been appertaining to order and to grace; and the beauty that is not too liberal is sought the most ardently, and loved the longest.

Walter Savage Landor
Dignity, in private men and in governments, has been little else than a stately and stiff perseverance in oppression; and spirit, as it is called, little else than the foam of hard-mouthed insolence.

Walter Savage Landor
Ridicule has followed the vestiges of truth, but never usurped her place.

Walter Savage Landor
Modesty and diffidence make a man unfit for public affairs; they also make him unfit for brothels.

Walter Savage Landor
There is no easy path leading out of life, and few are the easy ones that lie within it.

Walter Savage Landor
Principles do not mainly influence even the principled; we talk on principle, but we act on interest.

Walter Savage Landor
Two evils, of almost equal weight, may befall the man of erudition: never to be listened to, and to be listened to always.

Walter Savage Landor
There are no fields of amaranth on this side of the grave: there are no voices, O Rhodopè! that are not soon mute, however tuneful: there is no name, with whatever emphasis of passionate love repeated, of which the echo is not faint at last.

Walter Savage Landor
Goodness does not more certainly make men happy than happiness makes them good.

Walter Savage Landor