George Gordon Byron: Trending quotes

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George Gordon Byron: 454 quotes9 likes

“A great poet belongs to no country; his works are public property, and his Memoirs the inheritance of the public.”

As quoted in Conversations of Lord Byron with Thomas Medwin (1832), Preface.

“My mother Earth!
And thou fresh breaking Day, and you, ye Mountains,
Why are ye beautiful? I cannot love ye.
And thou, the bright eye of the universe,
That openest over all, and unto all
Art a delight—thou shin'st not on my heart.”

George Gordon Byron book Manfred

Act I, scene ii.
Manfred (1817)

“Old man! ’tis not so difficult to die.”

George Gordon Byron book Manfred

Act III, scene iv
Manfred (1817)

“Twas thine own genius gave the final blow,
And help'd to plant the wound that laid thee low:
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.”

George Gordon Byron English Bards and Scotch Reviewers

Source: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), Line 826. A number of authors have addressed this common motif of an eagle shot with an eagle-feather arrow

“Perverts the Prophets and purloins the Psalms.”

George Gordon Byron English Bards and Scotch Reviewers

Source: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), Line 326.

“When all of genius which can perish dies.”

George Gordon Byron

Source: Monody on the Death of Sheridan (1816), Line 22.

“The love where Death has set his seal,
Nor age can chill, nor rival steal,
Nor falsehood disavow.”

George Gordon Byron

And Thou Art Dead as Young and Fair http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-thou38.html (1812).

“A man must serve his time to every trade
Save censure — critics are ready-made.”

George Gordon Byron English Bards and Scotch Reviewers

Source: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), Line 63.

“He who hath bent him o'er the dead
Ere the first day of death is fled,—
The first dark day of nothingness,
The last of danger and distress,
Before decay's effacing fingers
Have swept the lines where beauty lingers.”

George Gordon Byron The Giaour

Source: The Giaour (1813), Line 68.

“She was his life,
The ocean to the river of his thoughts,
Which terminated all.”

George Gordon Byron The Dream

Stanza 2; this can be compared to: "She floats upon the river of his thoughts", Henry W. Longfellow, The Spanish Student, act ii, scene 3.
The Dream (1816)

“As soon
Seek roses in December, ice in June;
Hope constancy in wind, or corn in chaff;
Believe a woman or an epitaph,
Or any other thing that's false, before
You trust in critics, who themselves are sore.”

George Gordon Byron English Bards and Scotch Reviewers

Source: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), Line 75.

“Jack was embarrassed — never hero more,
And as he knew not what to say, he swore.”

George Gordon Byron

The Island (1823), Canto III, Stanza 5.

“But we, who name ourselves its sovereigns, we,
Half dust, half deity, alike unfit
To sink or soar.”

George Gordon Byron book Manfred

Act I, scene ii.
Manfred (1817)

“The cold in clime are cold in blood,
Their love can scarce deserve the name.”

George Gordon Byron The Giaour

Source: The Giaour (1813), Line 1099.

“Divine in hookas, glorious in a pipe
When tipp'd with amber, mellow, rich, and ripe;
Like other charmers, wooing the caress
More dazzlingly when daring in full dress;
Yet thy true lovers more admire by far
Thy naked beauties—give me a cigar!”

George Gordon Byron

The Island (1823), Canto II, Stanza 19.

“And lovelier things have mercy shown
To every failing but their own,
And every woe a tear can claim
Except an erring sister's shame.”

George Gordon Byron The Giaour

Source: The Giaour (1813), Line 418.

“I loved my country, and I hated him.”

George Gordon Byron book The Vision of Judgment

The Vision of Judgment, lxxxiii, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“Sighing that Nature formed but one such man,
And broke the die, in molding Sheridan.”

George Gordon Byron

Source: Monody on the Death of Sheridan (1816), Line 117; this can be compared to: "Natura il fece, e poi ruppe la stampa" (translated: "Nature made him, and then broke the mould"), Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, canto x, stanza 84; "The idea that Nature lost the perfect mould has been a favorite one with all song-writers and poets, and is found in the literature of all European nations", Book of English Songs, p. 28.

“For most men (till by losing rendered sager)
Will back their own opinions by a wager.”

George Gordon Byron

Stanza 27.
Beppo (1818)

“Farewell!
For in that word, that fatal word,—howe'er
We promise, hope, believe,—there breathes despair.”

George Gordon Byron

Canto I, stanza 15.
The Corsair (1814)