Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Washington Irving Novelist

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: United States
  • Born: Apr 3, 1783
  • Died: Nov 28, 1859

Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.. His historical works include biographies of George Washington, Oliver Goldsmith and Muhammad, and several histories of 15th-century Spain dealing with subjects such as Christopher Columbus, the Moors and the Alhambra. Irving served as the U.S. ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846.

He made his literary debut in 1802 with a series of observational letters to the Morning Chronicle, written under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle. After moving to England for the family business in 1815, he achieved international fame with the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. in 1819–20. He continued to publish regularly — and almost always successfully — throughout his life, and completed a five-volume biography of George Washington just eight months before his death, at age 76, in Tarrytown, New York.

A woman's whole life is a history of the affections.

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune but great minds rise above them.

Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love.

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

There is never jealousy where there is not strong regard.

The natural effect of sorrow over the dead is to refine and elevate the mind.

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

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

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

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

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

Age is a matter of feeling, not of years.

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

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.

Temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.

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

Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.

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