Walter Savage Landor > Quotes

“Nothing is pleasanter to me than exploring in a library.”
― Walter Savage Landor, Pericles and Aspasia

“What is reading but silent conversation.”
― Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations

“When a cat flatters ... he is not insincere: you may safely take it for real kindness.”
― Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary conversations

“Dying Speech of an Old Philosopher

I strove with none, for none was worth my strife.
Nature I loved, and, next to Nature, Art:
I warm'd both hands before the fire of life;
It sinks; and I am ready to depart.”
― Walter Savage Landor

“Cats ask plainly for what they want.”
― Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary conversations

“Music is God's gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to Heaven.”
― Walter Savage Landor

“Many laws as certainly make bad men, as bad men make many laws.”
― Walter Savage Landor

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

“Cats, like men, are flatterers.”
― Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary conversations

“No truer word, save God's, was ever spoken,
Than that the largest heart is soonest broken.”
― Walter Savage Landor

“Death stands above me,
Whispering low I know not what into my ear. ”
― Walter Savage Landor

“The damps of autumn sink into the leaves and prepare them for the necessity of their fall; and thus insensibly are we, as years close around us, detached from our tenacity of life by the gentle pressure of recorded sorrow.”
― Walter Savage Landor

“Petulance is not wit, although a few grains of wit may be found in petulance; quartz is not gold, although a few grains of gold may be found in quartz.”
― Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations

“On love, on grief, on every human thing,
Time sprinkles Lethe's water with his wing.”
― Walter Savage Landor

“I loved him not; and yet, now he is gone,
I feel I am alone.
I check’d him while he spoke; yet, could he speak,
Alas! I would not check.
For reasons not to love him once I sought,
And wearied all my thought
To vex myself and him: I now would give
My love could he but live
Who lately lived for me, and, when he found
’Twas vain, in holy ground
He hid his face amid the shades of death.
I waste for him my breath
Who wasted his for me! but mine returns,
And this lorn bosom burns
With stifling heat, heaving it up in sleep,
And waking me to weep
Tears that had melted his soft heart: for years
Wept he as bitter tears.
Merciful God! such was his latest prayer,
These may she never share.
Quieter is his breath, his breast more cold,
Than daisies in the mould,
Where children spell, athwart the churchyard gate,
His name and life’s brief date.
Pray for him, gentle souls, whoe’er you be,
And oh! pray too for me!”
― Walter Savage Landor

“I strove with none for none were worth my strife. Nature I loved and next to nature, Art. I warmed both hands before the fire of life; it sinks, and I am ready to depart.
- Walter Savage Landor 1776-1864”
― Walter Savage Landor

“Gather those broad leaves, and all the rest, growing under the brushwood; unbrace his armour. Loose the helmet first”
― Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations and Poems A Selection

“When little men cast long shadows, it is a sign that the sun is setting.”
― Walter Savage Landor

“There is delight in singing, though none hear beside the singer.”
― Walter Savage Landor