George Gordon Byron: Quotes about life

George Gordon Byron was English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. Explore interesting quotes on life.
George Gordon Byron: 454 quotes9 likes

“Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most
Must mourn the deepest o’er the fatal truth,
The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life.”

George Gordon Byron book Manfred

Act I, scene i.
Manfred (1817)

“Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life,
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,
And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray!”

George Gordon Byron book The Bride of Abydos

Canto II, stanza 20.
The Bride of Abydos (1813)

“The poor dog, in life the firmest friend,
The first to welcome, foremost to defend.”

George Gordon Byron

Inscription on the monument of a Newfoundland dog (1808).

“We are all the fools of time and terror: Days
Steal on us and steal from us; yet we live,
Loathing our life, and dreading still to die.”

George Gordon Byron

“I do not believe in any religion, I will have nothing to do with immortality. We are miserable enough in this life without speculating upon another.”

George Gordon Byron

“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)

“She walks the waters like a thing of life,
And seems to dare the elements to strife.”

George Gordon Byron

Canto I, stanza 3.
The Corsair (1814)

“I live,
But live to die: and, living, see no thing
To make death hateful, save an innate clinging,
A loathsome and yet all invincible
Instinct of life, which I abhor, as I
Despise myself, yet cannot overcome—
And so I live. Would I had never lived!”

George Gordon Byron book Cain

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

“My best! my last friends!
Let's not unman each other: part at once:
All farewells should be sudden, when for ever,
Else they make an eternity of moments,
And clog the last sad sands of life with tears.
Hence, and be happy: trust me, I am not
Now to be pitied; or far more for what
Is past than present; — for the future, 'tis
In the hands of the deities, if such
There be: I shall know soon. Farewell — Farewell.”

George Gordon Byron Sardanapalus

Act V
Sardanapalus (1821)

“How my soul hates This language,
Which makes life itself a lie,
Flattering dust with eternity.”

George Gordon Byron Sardanapalus

Act I, scene 2.
Sardanapalus (1821)

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

George Gordon Byron book Cain

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

“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.

“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