George Gordon Byron > Quotes

“In secret we met -
In silence I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee? -
With silence and tears”
― George Gordon Byron

“All who joy would win
Must share it -- Happiness was born a twin.”
― George Gordon Byron, Don Juan

“The great object of life is sensation- to feel that we exist, even though in pain.”
― George Gordon Byron

“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 roars:
I love not man the less, but Nature more...”
― George Gordon Byron

“She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes...”
― George Gordon Byron

“The heart will break, but broken live on. ”
― George Gordon Byron

“If I do not write to empty my mind, I go mad.”
― George Gordon Byron

“Always laugh when you can, it is cheap medicine.”
― George Gordon Byron

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew, upon a thought produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions think.”
― George Gordon Byron

“Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt
In solitude, where we are least alone.”
― George Gordon Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

“Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.”
― George Gordon Byron

“Death, so called, is a thing which makes men weep, And yet a third of life is passed in sleep.”
― George Gordon Byron

“Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life. ”
― George Gordon Byron

“Tis strange,-but true; for truth is always strange;
Stranger than fiction: if it could be told,
How much would novels gain by the exchange!
How differently the world would men behold!”
― George Gordon Byron, Don Juan

“There is something pagan in me that I cannot shake off. In short, I deny nothing, but doubt everything.”
― George Gordon Byron

“I have a great mind to believe in Christianity for the mere pleasure of fancying I may be damned.”
― George Gordon Byron

“The thorns which I have reap'd are of the tree
I planted; they have torn me, and I bleed.
I should have known what fruit would spring from such a seed.”
― George Gordon Byron

“I know that two and two make four - and should be glad to prove it too if I could - though I must say if by any sort of process I could convert 2 and 2 into five it would give me much greater pleasure.”
― George Gordon Byron

“They never fail who die in a great cause.”
― George Gordon Byron

“You gave me the key to your heart, my love, then why did you make me knock?”
― George Gordon Byron

“Man, being reasonable, must get drunk; the best of life is but intoxication.”
― George Gordon Byron

“But first, on earth as vampire sent,
Thy corse shall from its tomb be rent,
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race.

There from thy daughter, sister, wife,
At midnight drain the stream of life,
Yet loathe the banquet which perforce
Must feed thy livid living corse.

Thy victims ere they yet expire
Shall know the demon for their sire,
As cursing thee, thou cursing them,
Thy flowers are withered on the stem.”
― George Gordon Byron

“Friendship is love without wings.”
― George Gordon Byron

“Adversity is the first path to truth.”
― George Gordon Byron

“...let joy be unconfined...”
― George Gordon Byron

“I love not man the less, but nature more”
― George Gordon Byron

“I had a dream, which was not at all a dream.”
― George Gordon Byron

“What deep wounds ever closed without a scar?”
― George Gordon Byron

“Between two worlds life hovers like a star, twixt night and morn, upon the horizon's verge.”
― George Gordon Byron

“If I am fool, it is, at least, a doubting one; and I envy no one the certainty of his self-approved wisdom.”
― George Gordon Byron

“Letter writing is the only device combining solitude with good company.”
― George Gordon Byron

“Why I came here, I know not; where I shall go it is useless to inquire - in the midst of myriads of the living and the dead worlds, stars, systems, infinity, why should I be anxious about an atom?”
― George Gordon Byron

“I live not in myself, but I become
Portion of that around me: and to me
High mountains are a feeling, but the hum
of human cities torture.”
― George Gordon Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

“Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, sermons and soda water the day after.”
― George Gordon Byron

“In her first passion, a woman loves her lover, in all the others all she loves is love.”
― George Gordon Byron

“Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.”
― George Gordon Byron

“I have not loved the world, nor the world me, but let us part fair foes; I do believe, though I have found them not, that there may be words which are things, hopes which will not deceive, and virtues which are merciful, or weave snares for the failing: I would also deem o'er others' griefs that some sincerely grieve; that two, or one, are almost what they seem, that goodness is no name, and happiness no dream.”
― George Gordon Byron

“She was like me in lineaments-- her eyes
Her hair, her features, all, to the very tone
Even of her voice, they said were like to mine;
But soften'd all, and temper'd into beauty;
She had the same lone thoughts and wanderings,
The quest of hidden knowledge, and a mind
To comprehend the universe: nor these
Alone, but with them gentler powers than mine,
Pity, and smiles, and tears-- which I had not;
And tenderness-- but that I had for her;
Humility-- and that I never had.
Her faults were mine-- her virtues were her own--
I loved her, and destroy'd her!”
― George Gordon Byron, The Poetical Works of Lord Byron

“To have joy, one must share it.”
― George Gordon Byron

“There is no instinct like that of the heart.”
― George Gordon Byron

“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.”
― George Gordon Byron

“Like the measles, love is most dangerous when it comes late in life.”
― George Gordon Byron

“Are not the mountains, waves, and skies as much a part of me, as I of them?”
― George Gordon Byron

“So we'll go no more a-roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart still be as loving,
And the moon still be as bright.

For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul outwears the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.

Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we'll go no more a-roving
By the light of the moon.”
― George Gordon Byron

“Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.”
― George Gordon Byron

“Absence - that common cure of love.”
― George Gordon Byron

“I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives as much as if we had never married at all. ”
― George Gordon Byron

“the poor dog, in life the firmest friend, the first to welcome, the foremost to defend.”
― George Gordon Byron

“Near this spot are deposited the remains of one who possessed beauty without vanity, strength without insolence, courage without ferocity, and all the virtues of man, without his vices. This praise, which would be unmeaning flattery if inscribed over human ashes, is but a just tribute to the memory of Botswain, a dog. ”
― George Gordon Byron

“He learned the arts of riding, fencing, gunnery,
And how to scale a fortress - or a nunnery.”
― George Gordon Byron