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Adversity
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"Adversity is the first path to truth."
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron, Don Juan
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Bravery
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"The French courage proceeds from vanity — the German from phlegm — the Turkish from fanaticism & opium — the Spanish from pride — the English from coolness — the Dutch from obstinacy — the Russian from insensibility — but the Italian from anger."
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron
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Death
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"For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass'd;
And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!"
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron, Destruction of Sennacherib, The
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Deception/Lying
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And after all, what is a lie? ’T is but
The truth in masquerade.
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron, Don Juan. Canto xi. Stanza 37
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Doubt
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There is something pagan in me that I cannot shake off. In short, I deny nothing, but doubt everything.
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron
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Fate & Destiny
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"I have always believed that all things depended upon Fortune, and nothing upon ourselves."
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron
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Hope
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But what is Hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence; the least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of.
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron, Letter to Thomas Moore, Byron's Letters and Journals, vol. 4, ed. Leslie Marchand (1975)
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Imagination
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If a man proves too clearly and convincingly to himself...that a tiger is an optical illusion--well, he will find out he is wrong. The tiger will himself intervene in the discussion, in a manner which will be in every sense conclusive.
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron
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Irony
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So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain,
No more through rolling clouds to soar again,
View'd his own feather on the fatal dart,
And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart.
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers
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Kisses
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Oh! might I kiss those eyes of fire,
A million scarce would quench desire;
Still would I steep my lips in bliss,
And dwell an age on every kiss;
Nor then my soul should sated be,
Still would I kiss and cling to thee:
Nought should my kiss from thine dissever,
Still would we kiss and kiss for ever;
E'en though the numbers did exceed
The yellow harvest's countless seed;
To part would be a vain endeavour:
Could I desist?--ah! never--never.
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron, Imitated from Catullus. To Ellen
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Laughter
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When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,
And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;
When the air does laugh with our merry wit,
And the green hill laughs with the noise of it.
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron
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Literary
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"'Tis pleasant, sure, to see one's name in print. A book's a book, although there's nothing in 't."
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron
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Marriage
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All tragedies are finished by a death,
All comedies are ended by a marriage;
The future states of both are left to faith,
For authors fear description might disparage
The worlds to come of both. . . .
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron, Don Juan
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Nature
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There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more.
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron, from "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage"
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Past, the
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From the wreck of the past, which hath perish’d,
Thus much I at least may recall,
It hath taught me that what I most cherish’d
Deserved to be dearest of all:
In the desert a fountain is springing,
In the wide waste there still is a tree,
And a bird in the solitude singing,
Which speaks to my spirit of thee.
[Written to his half sister following his exile on grounds of incest with her.]
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron, To Augusta
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Remembrance
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When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past--
For years fleet away with the wings of the dove--
The dearest remembrance will still be the last,
Our sweetest memorial the first kiss of love.
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron
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Selfishness
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We are all selfish and I no more trust myself than others with a good motive.
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron
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Snow
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And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron, Hebrew Melodies, `The Destruction of Sennacherib'
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Solitude
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"To fly from, need not be to hate, makind:
All are not fit with them to stir and toil,
Nor is it discontent to keep the mind
Deep in its fountain."
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, 1818
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Success & Failure
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"They never fail who die in a great cause."
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron
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Suicide
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Oh! snatched away in beauty's bloom,
On thee shall press no ponderous tomb;
But on thy turf shall roses rear
Their leaves, the earliest of the year.
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron
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Words
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Words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
-Lord (George Gordon) Byron
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Books by and about Lord (George Gordon) Byron
