George Gordon Byron Quotes page 4

“There be none of Beauty's daughters
With a magic like thee;
And like music on the waters
Is thy sweet voice to me.”

Werner, Act I, sc. i (1822).

“A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.”

Stanzas for Music http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-StanzM-beautysd.htm, st. 1 (1816).

George Gordon Byron The Dream

Stanza 3.
The Dream (1816)

“Hands promiscuously applied,
Round the slight waist, or down the glowing side.”

“When a man hath no freedom to fight for at home,
Let him combat for that of his neighbours;
Let him think of the glories of Greece and of Rome
And get knock'd on the head for his labours.
To do good to mankind is the chivalrous plan,
And is always as nobly requited;
Then battle for freedom wherever you can.
And, if not shot or hang'd, you'll get knighted.”

The Waltz, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“Mark! where his carnage and his conquests cease!
He makes a solitude, and calls it — peace!”

Letter to Thomas Moore, 5 November 1820 http://books.google.com/books?id=K-s_AAAAYAAJ&q=%22When+a+man+hath+no+freedom+to+fight+for+at+home+Let+him+combat+for+that+of+his+neighbours+Let+him+think+of+the+glories+of+Greece+and+of+Rome+And+get+knock'd+on+the+head+for+his+labours+To+do+good+to+mankind+is+the+chivalrous+plan+And+is+always+as+nobly+requited+Then+battle+for+freedom+wherever+you+can+And+if+not+shot+or+hang'd+you+'ll+get+knighted%22&pg=PA377#v=onepage

“Hope withering fled, and Mercy sighed farewell!”

Canto II, stanza 20. Here Byron is using an adaptation of a quote from Agricola by the Roman historian Tacitus (c. 30). The original words in the text are Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (To robbery, slaighter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a wilderness, and call it peace). This has also been reported as Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (They make solitude, which they call peace).
The Bride of Abydos (1813)

“By all that's good and glorious.”

Canto I, stanza 9.
The Corsair (1814)

George Gordon Byron Sardanapalus

Act I, scene 2.
Sardanapalus (1821)

“There 's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away.”

“Here's a sigh to those who love me,
And a smile to those who hate:
And, whatever sky's above me,
Here's a heart for every fate.”

Stanzas for Music (March 1815), reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“Sublime tobacco! which from east to west
Cheers the tar's labor or the Turkman's rest.”

To Thomas Moore, st. 2.

“There was a laughing devil in his sneer.”

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

“Farewell! if ever fondest prayer
For other's weal avail'd on high,
Mine will not all be lost in air,
But waft thy name beyond the sky.”

Canto I, stanza 9.
The Corsair (1814)

“That which I am, I am; I did not seek
For life, nor did I make myself.”

Farewell! if ever fondest Prayer (1808).

George Gordon Byron book Cain

Cain (1821), Act III, sc. i.

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

“And to his eye
There was but one beloved face on earth,
And that was shining on him.”

St. 1.
So, We'll Go No More A-Roving (1817)

George Gordon Byron The Dream

Stanza 2.
The Dream (1816)

“Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine,
And all, save the spirit of man, is divine?”

“Were't the last drop in the well,
As I gasp'd upon the brink,
Ere my fainting spirit fell
'T is to thee that I would drink.”

Canto I, stanza 1.
The Bride of Abydos (1813)

“Send me no more reviews of any kind. — I will read no more of evil or good in that line. — Walter Scott has not read a review of himself for thirteen years.”

To Thomas Moore, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“Eat, drink, and love; the rest's not worth a fillip.”

Letter to his publisher, John Murray (3 November 1821).

George Gordon Byron Sardanapalus

Act I, scene 2 http://books.google.com/books?id=q4QR8v_hOigC&pg=PA249&lpg=PA249&dq=%22Eat,+drink,+and+love;+the+rest's+not+worth+a+fillip.%22&source=bl&ots=ey6M4uLNpl&sig=L0zlgXlw1OgHOZzN50sGeRHkc50&hl=en&ei=CJQ7TObKK4XbnAeE-LXlAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CC4Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22Eat%2C%20drink%2C%20and%20love%3B%20the%20rest's%20not%20worth%20a%20fillip.%22&f=false. <br class="br">Sardanapalus (1821)

“The best of prophets of the future is the past.”

“Tis pleasure, sure, to see one's name in print;
A book's a book, although there's nothing in 't.”

Journal (28 January 1821).

George Gordon Byron English Bards and Scotch Reviewers

Source: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), Line 51.

“Shrine of the mighty! can it be
That this is all remains of thee?”

George Gordon Byron The Giaour

Source: The Giaour (1813), Line 106.

“The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle.”

“As the liberty lads o'er the sea
Bought their freedom, and cheaply, with blood,
So we, boys, we
Shall die fighting or live free,
And down with all kings but King Ludd!”

Canto II, stanza 2.
The Bride of Abydos (1813)

“It is the hour when from the boughs
The nightingale's high note is heard;
It is the hour when lovers' vows
Seem sweet in every whisper'd word.”

Song for the Luddites http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-Luddites.htm (1816).

George Gordon Byron Parisina

Parisina, Stanza 1, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“From my youth upwards
My spirit walk'd not with the souls of men,
Nor look'd upon the earth with human eyes;
The thirst of their ambition was not mine,
The aim of their existence was not mine;
My joys, my griefs, my passions, and my powers
Made me a stranger.”

“Where may the wearied eye repose
When gazing on the Great;
Where neither guilty glory glows,
Nor despicable state?
Yes — one — the first — the last — the best — The Cincinnatus of the West,
Whom envy dared not hate,
Bequeath'd the name of Washington,
To make man blush there was but one!”

Act II, scene ii.
Manfred (1817)

“Whose game was empires and whose stakes were thrones,
Whose table earth, whose dice were human bones.”

Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-Nap-06.htm, st. 29 (1814).

“And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!”

Age of Bronze, Stanza 3, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

George Gordon Byron book Hebrew Melodies

The Destruction of Sennacherib, st. 6.
Hebrew Melodies (1815)

“There is no power in holy men,
Nor charm in prayer, nor purifying form
Of penitence, nor outward look, nor fast,
Nor agony—nor, greater than all these,
The innate tortures of that deep despair,
Which is remorse without the fear of hell,
But all in all sufficient to itself
Would make a hell of heaven,—can exorcise
From out the unbounded spirit the quick sense
Of its own sins, wrongs, sufferance, and revenge
Upon itself; there is no future pang
Can deal that justice on the self—condemn'd
He deals on his own soul.”

“To be thus—
Grey-hair'd with anguish, like these blasted pines,
Wrecks of a single winter, barkless, branchless,
A blighted trunk upon a cursed root,
Which but supplies a feeling to decay—
And to be thus, eternally but thus,
Having been otherwise! Now furrow'd o'er
With wrinkles, plough'd by moments, not by years
And hours—all tortured into ages—hours
Which I outlive!—Ye toppling crags of ice!
Ye avalanches, whom a breath draws down
In mountainous o'erwhelming, come and crush me!
I hear ye momently above, beneath,
Crash with a frequent conflict; but ye pass,
And only fall on things that still would live.”

Act III, scene i.
Manfred (1817)

“The dust we tread upon was once alive.”

Act I, scene ii.
Manfred (1817)

George Gordon Byron Sardanapalus

Act IV, scene 1.
Sardanapalus (1821)

“She was a form of life and light
That seen, became a part of sight,
And rose, where'er I turn'd mine eye,
The morning-star of memory!
Yes, love indeed is light from heaven;
A spark of that immortal fire
With angels shared, by Alla given,
To lift from earth our low desire.”

George Gordon Byron The Giaour

Source: The Giaour (1813), Line 1127.

“And both were young, and one was beautiful.”

George Gordon Byron The Dream

Stanza 2.
The Dream (1816)

“Because
He is all-powerful, must all-good, too, follow?
I judge but by the fruits—and they are bitter—
Which I must feed on for a fault not mine.”

George Gordon Byron book Cain

Cain (1821), Act I, sc. i.

“By thy cold breast and serpent smile,
By thy unfathom'd gulfs of guile,
By that most seeming virtuous eye,
By thy shut soul's hypocrisy;
By the perfection of thine art
Which pass'd for human thine own heart;
By thy delight in others' pain,
And by thy brotherhood of Cain,
I call upon thee! and compel
Thyself to be thy proper Hell!”

“What say you to such a supper with such a woman?”

Act I, scene i.
Manfred (1817)

“The careful pilot of my proper woe.”

Note to a Letter on Bowles's Strictures, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“My hair is grey, but not with years,
Nor grew it white
In a single night,
As men's have grown from sudden fears.”

Epistle to Augusta, Stanza 3, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“Folly loves the martyrdom of fame.”

The Prisoner of Chillon http://readytogoebooks.com/PC31.htm, st. 1 (1816).

“Lord of himself,—that heritage of woe!”

Source: Monody on the Death of Sheridan (1816), Line 68.

“My days are in the yellow leaf;
The flowers and fruits of Love are gone;
The worm — the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone!”

Lara, Canto I, Stanza 2, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“I love the language, that soft bastard Latin,
Which melts like kisses from a female mouth,
And sounds as if it should be writ on satin,
With syllables which breathe of the sweet South,
And gentle liquids gliding all so pat in,
That not a single accent seems uncouth,
Like our harsh northern whistling, grunting guttural,
Which we're obliged to hiss, and spit, and sputter all.”

On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year http://readytogoebooks.com/LP14.htm, st. 2 (1824).

“Such is the aspect of this shore;
'T is Greece, but living Greece no more!
So coldly sweet, so deadly fair,
We start, for soul is wanting there.”

Stanza 44.
Beppo (1818)

George Gordon Byron The Giaour

Source: The Giaour (1813), Line 90.

“Who hath not proved how feebly words essay
To fix one spark of beauty's heavenly ray?
Who doth not feel, until his failing sight
Faints into dimness with its own delight,
His changing cheek, his sinking heart, confess
The might, the majesty of loveliness?”

“Better to err with Pope, than shine with Pye.”

Canto I, stanza 6.
The Bride of Abydos (1813)

George Gordon Byron English Bards and Scotch Reviewers

Source: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), Line 102.

“Hark! to the hurried question of despair:
"Where is my child?"—an echo answers, "Where?"”

“The busy have no time for tears. ”

Canto II, stanza 27; this can be compared to: I came to the place of my birth, and cried, "The friends of my youth, where are they?" And echo answered, "Where are they?", Anonymous Arabic manuscript
The Bride of Abydos (1813)

“A thousand years scarce serve to form a state: an hour may lay it in the dust.”