George Gordon Byron Quotes
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George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, FRS , commonly known as Lord Byron, was an English poet, peer, politician, and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and remains widely read and influential. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems, Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and the short lyric poem, "She Walks in Beauty".

He travelled extensively across Europe, especially in Italy, where he lived for seven years in Venice, Ravenna and Pisa, where he had a chance to frequent his friend the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Later in his brief life, Byron joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died in 1824 at the age of 36, from a fever contracted while in Missolonghi.

Often described as the most flamboyant and notorious of the major Romantics, Byron was both celebrated and castigated in life for his aristocratic excesses, including huge debts, numerous love affairs – with men as well as women, as well as rumours of a scandalous liaison with his half-sister – and self-imposed exile. His only legitimate child, Ada Lovelace, is regarded by some as the first computer programmer based on her notes for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine. His illegitimate children include Allegra Byron, who died in childhood, and possibly, Elizabeth Medora Leigh.

✵ 22. January 1788 – 19. April 1824   •   Other names Lord Byron, Lord George Gordon Noel Byron
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George Gordon Byron: 227   quotes 9   likes

George Gordon Byron Quotes

“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.

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

Act III, scene iv
Manfred (1817)

“Perverts the Prophets and purloins the Psalms.”

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

“When all of genius which can perish dies.”

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.”

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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.”

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.

“His heart was one of those which most enamour us,
Wax to receive, and marble to retain:
He was a lover of the good old school,
Who still become more constant as they cool.”

Stanza 34; this can be compared to: "My heart is wax to be moulded as she pleases, but enduring as marble to retain", Miguel de Cervantes, The Little Gypsy.
Beppo (1818)

“I only know we loved in vain;
I only feel — farewell! farewell!”

Farewell! If Ever Fondest Prayer (1808), st. 2.

“The power of thought,—the magic of the mind!”

Canto I, stanza 8.
The Corsair (1814)

“Yet in my lineaments they trace
Some features of my father's face.”

Parisina, Stanza 13, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“Born in the garret, in the kitchen bred.”

A Sketch, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“Maid of Athens, ere we part,
Give, oh give me back my heart!”

Maid of Athens http://readytogoebooks.com/MOA43.htm, st. 1 (1810).

“The "good old times" — all times when old are good —
Are gone.”

St. 1.
The Age of Bronze (1823)

“Besides, they always smell of bread and butter.”

Stanza 39.
Beppo (1818)

“[Armenian] is a rich language, however, and would amply repay any one the trouble of learning it.”

"To Mr. Moore", From the Letters of Lord Byron, 5 December 1816, p. 12.
Lord Byron's Armenian Exercises and Poetry (1870)