Geoffrey Crayon > Quotes

“The scholar only knows how dear these silent, yet eloquent, companions of pure thoughts and innocent hours become in the season of adversity. When all that is worldly turns to dross around us, these only retain their steady value. When friends grow cold, and the converse of intimates languishes into vapid civility and commonplace, these only continue the unaltered countenance of happier days, and cheer us with that true friendship which never deceived hope, nor deserted sorrow.”
― Geoffrey Crayon, The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon

“He was, moreover, esteemed by the women as a man of great erudition, for he had read several books quite through,”
― Geoffrey Crayon, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow + Rip Van Winkle + Old Christmas + 31 Other Unabridged & Annotated Stories

“he loved his daughter better even than his pipe,”
― Geoffrey Crayon, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow + Rip Van Winkle + Old Christmas + 31 Other Unabridged & Annotated Stories

“But if there was a pleasure in all this while snugly cuddling in the chimney-corner of a chamber that was all of a ruddy glow from the crackling wood-fire, and where, of course, no spectre dared to show its face, it was dearly purchased by the terrors of his subsequent walk homewards. What fearful shapes and shadows beset his path amidst the dim and ghastly glare of a snowy night! With what wistful look did be eye every trembling ray of light streaming across the waste fields from some distant window!”
― Geoffrey Crayon, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow + Rip Van Winkle + Old Christmas + 31 Other Unabridged & Annotated Stories

“the only bond that can keep hearts together—an unreserved community of thought and feeling.”
― Geoffrey Crayon, The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon

“As it is the fashion for modern tourists to travel pencil in hand, and bring home their portfolios filled with sketches, I am disposed to get up a few for the entertainment of my friends.”
― Geoffrey Crayon, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow + Rip Van Winkle + Old Christmas + 31 Other Unabridged & Annotated Stories

“phantoms of the mind that walk in darkness;”
― Geoffrey Crayon, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow + Rip Van Winkle + Old Christmas + 31 Other Unabridged & Annotated Stories

“The service was performed by a snuffling, well-fed vicar, who had a snug dwelling near the church. He was a privileged guest at all the tables of the neighborhood, and had been the keenest fox-hunter in the country, until age and good living had disabled him from doing anything more than ride to see the hounds throw off, and make one at the hunting dinner. Under the ministry of such a pastor, I found it impossible to get into the train of thought suitable to the time and place; so, having, like many other feeble Christians, compromised with my conscience, by laying the sin of my own delinquency at another person's threshold, I occupied myself by making observations on my neighbors.”
― Geoffrey Crayon, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow + Rip Van Winkle + Old Christmas + 31 Other Unabridged & Annotated Stories

“In his devouring mind's eye he pictured to himself every roasting-pig running about with a pudding in his belly and an apple in his mouth; the pigeons were snugly put to bed in a comfortable pie and tucked in with a coverlet of crust; the geese were swimming in their own gravy; and the ducks pairing cosily in dishes, like snug married couples, with a decent competency of onion sauce.”
― Geoffrey Crayon, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow + Rip Van Winkle + Old Christmas + 31 Other Unabridged & Annotated Stories

“It was, as I have said, a fine autumnal day, the sky was clear and serene, and Nature wore that rich and golden livery which we always associate with the idea of abundance. The forests had put on their sober brown and yellow, while some trees of the tenderer kind had been nipped by the frosts into brilliant dyes of orange, purple, and scarlet. Streaming files of wild-ducks began to make their appearance high in the air; the bark of the squirrel might be heard from the groves of beech and hickory nuts, and the pensive whistle of the quail at intervals from the neighboring stubble-field.”
― Geoffrey Crayon, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow + Rip Van Winkle + Old Christmas + 31 Other Unabridged & Annotated Stories

“Further reading and thinking, though they brought this vague inclination into more reasonable bounds, only served to make it more decided. I visited various parts of my own country; and had I been merely a lover of fine scenery, I should have felt little desire to seek elsewhere its gratification, for on no country had the charms of nature been more prodigally lavished. Her mighty lakes, her oceans of liquid silver; her mountains, with their bright aerial tints; her valleys, teeming with wild fertility; her tremendous cataracts, thundering in their solitudes; her boundless plains, waving with spontaneous verdure; her broad, deep rivers, rolling in solemn silence to the ocean; her trackless forests, where vegetation puts forth all its magnificence; her skies, kindling with the magic of summer clouds and glorious sunshine;—no, never need an American look beyond his own country for the sublime and beautiful of natural scenery.”
― Geoffrey Crayon, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow + Rip Van Winkle + Old Christmas + 31 Other Unabridged & Annotated Stories

“In that same village, and in one of these very houses (which, to tell the precise truth, was sadly time-worn and weather-beaten), there lived, many years since, while the country was yet a province of Great Britain, a simple, good-natured fellow, of the name of Rip Van Winkle. He was a descendant of the Van Winkles who figured so gallantly in the chivalrous days of Peter Stuyvesant, and accompanied him to the siege of Fort Christina. He inherited, however, but little of the martial character of his ancestors. I have observed that he was a simple, good-natured man; he was, moreover, a kind neighbor, and an obedient henpecked husband. Indeed, to the latter circumstance might be owing that meekness of spirit which gained him such universal popularity; for those men are apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the discipline of shrews at home. Their tempers, doubtless, are rendered pliant and malleable in the fiery furnace of domestic tribulation, and a curtain-lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering. A termagant wife may, therefore, in some respects, be considered a tolerable blessing, and if so, Rip Van Winkle was thrice blessed.”
― Geoffrey Crayon, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow + Rip Van Winkle + Old Christmas + 31 Other Unabridged & Annotated Stories