Letitia Elizabeth Landon Quotes (785 quotes, page 12)

Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835 (1834), 'Chapter House, Furness Abbey' translation from an epistle of St. Beuve to A. Fontenay. (Presumably Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve)
Translations, From the French

Solitude

“How much of the full heart must be
A seal’d book at whose contents we tremble?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(1837 1) (Vol. 49) We Might Have Been
The Monthly Magazine

Books , Heart

“Imagination's truth is from its power:
Man's genius can create when nature's felt;
He copies when he deems that he invents.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Translations, From the French

Truth , Imagination , Nature

“The Painter's skill has seized a moment where
Her hand is wreathing mid his raven hair;
And he is bent in worship, as that touch,
That soft light touch, were ecstasy too much.
He is just turned from that bewildering face
To the fair arm that holds the magic vase —
The purple liquor is just sparkling up —
The youth has pledged his heart's truth on that cup!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(10th August 1822) Sketches from Drawings by Mr. Dagley. Sketch the Third. The Cup of Circe
The London Literary Gazette, 1821-1822

Truth , Youth , Light , Heart

“Youth suffers but for a season; the bowed but unbroken spirit resumes its elasticity; the future, unknown and beautiful, wins the present to itself, and the past waits for that dark and overwhelming influence which sooner or later will darken our whole horizon.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Other Gift Books

Youth , Beauty , Suffering , Waiting

“As steals the dew along the flower,
So stole thy smile on me;
I cannot tell the day, nor hour
I first loved thee!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(1836-2) (Vol.47) Songs-IV.
The Monthly Magazine

Love , Smile , Flowers

“Alas! when angry words begin
Their entrance on the lip to win;
When sullen eye and flushing cheek
Say more than bitterest tone could speak;
And look and word, than fire or steel,
Give wounds more deep,—time cannot heal;
And anger digs, with tauntings vain,
A gulf it may not pass again.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Golden Violet - The Ring
The Golden Violet (1827)

Time , Anger

“Of all the fowls that sweep the air
None with the Peacock may compare;
Not only for its loveliness,
Though queens in vain might ask such dress,
But o'er those painted plumes are cast
So many shadows from the past”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

Past , Painting

“There is a deep impression of awe produced by such a vast but silent crowd; we are at once conscious that the cause is terrible which can induce the unusual stillness. The issue of a trial on which hangs life or death, is indeed an appalling thing. We know that men are about to take away that which they cannot give—that a few words of human breath will deprive of breath one of the number for ever; and though we acknowledge that in this evil world punishment is the only security against crime, and that blood for blood has been a necessity from the beginning of time; still, we feel that the necessity is a dreadful one.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

Life , Death , Men , World

“The leaves were gone from all, save where the pine
Threw the wide shadow of its unchang'd green.
I could not envy it that fadeless state.—
Ah! who would be the last, the only one
That ruin spares—no; if the blight must pass
O'er all around, let it pass o'er me too!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Canto II, X
The Fate of Adelaide (1821)

Envy

“We say that people and that things are changed;
Alas! it is ourselves that change : the heart
Makes all around the mirror of itself.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The London Literary Gazette, 1829

People , Change , Heart

“One sweet whisper from her came;
And he drank to catch her breath, —
Wine and sigh alike are death!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(1836-3) (Vol.48) Subjects for Pictures. Second Series. II. A Supper of Madame de Brinvilliers
The Monthly Magazine

Death , Wine

“But youth is as a flowing stream, on whose current the shadow may rest but not remain.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Other Gift Books

Youth

“What a falsehood it is to say that genius and industry are incompatible! Does one work of genius exist that has not also been a work of labour?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

“I own that I have known greater misfortunes in life than that a young gentleman and lady of twenty should have to wait a twelve-month before they were married; but every person considers their own the worst that ever happened…”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

Life , Waiting , Personality

“Never day-beam hath shone o'er
Lovelier or wilder shore!
Half was land, and half was sea
Where the eye could only see
The blue sky for boundary.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(30th November 1822) Fragments in Rhyme V: the Happy Isle
7th December 1822) Fragments in Rhyme VI: The Painter's Love see The Improvisatrice (1824
14th December 1822) Fragments in Rhyme VII: Manmadin, The Indian Cupid. Floating down the Ganges see The Improvisatrice (1824
21st December 1822) Fragments in Rhyme IX: The Female Convict see The Improvisatrice (1824
The London Literary Gazette, 1821-1822

Sea

“The morning Sun arose —
Still the festal board was spread —
Still hosts and guests were round;
But hosts and guests were dead!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

22nd April 1826) The Death-Feast (under the pen name Iole
The London Literary Gazette, 1826

Sun , Dead

“Those cheerful bells, how can they bid
A welcome to the new-born Year?
I think on what the past has been;
I cannot hope—I only fear.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(4th January 1834) The New Year
The London Literary Gazette, 1833-1835

Fear , Hope , Thinking , Past

“I am persuaded there is no triumph equal to one achieved on the stage—it comes so immediate and so home : you have before you the mass of human beings whose sympathies are at your will; you witness the emotions which you raise, you see the tears which you command : the poet has erected the statue, but it is for you to give it life—the words must find their music on your lips—the generous sentiment, the exalted hope, the touches of deep feeling, ask their expression from you : surely such influence is among the triumphs of the mind, ay and a great and noble triumph.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

Life , Hope , Music , Feeling

“And here they met: where should Love’s meeting be —
Love passionate, and spiritual, and deep—
Where, but in such a haunted solitude—
A green and natural temple—fitting shrine
For vows the stars remember?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Last of the St. Aubyns
Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

Love , Star , Nature , Solitude

“Peace to the weary and the beating heart,
That fed upon itself!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

A History of the Lyre
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

Peace , Heart

“What a duty it is to cultivate a pleasant manner! how many a meeting does it make cheerful which would otherwise have been stupid and formal! We do not mean by this the mere routine of polite observance, but we mean that general cheerfulness which, like the sunshine lights up whatever it touches, that attention to others which discovers what subject is most likely to interest them, and that information which, ready for use, is easily laid under contribution by the habit of turning all resources to immediate employ. In short, a really pleasant manner grows out of benevolence, which can be as much shown in a small courtesy as in a great service.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Traits and Trials of Early Life (1836)

Stupidity , Light

“We step not over the threshold of childhood till led by Love”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

Love , Childhood

“It is a charmed ring—this emerald stone
Will be a sign, when thou art from me gone.
Mark if it changes; if a spot be seen
On the now spotless ground of lighted green,
Danger is round me; haste thou then to me,
Thou know'st how fearless is my trust in thee.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Golden Violet - The Child of the Sea
The Golden Violet (1827)

Art , Light , Change

“None but an ear, quickened as the mind can quicken the faculties of the body, could have heard a step that hesitated on the threshold.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Other Gift Books

“But o'er CYRENE'S cheek the rose,
Like moon-touch'd water, ebbs and flows;
And eyes that droop like Summer flowers
Told they could change with shine and showers.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Lost Pleiad
Source: The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

Flowers , Water , Change , Summer

“… unshared mirth only damps the spirits of a small circle …”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

“Well may storm be on the sky,
And the waters roll on high,
When MANMADIN passes by.
Earth below and heaven above
Well may bend to thee, oh Love!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Manmadin, The Indian Cupid. Floating down the Ganges from The London Literary Gazette (14th December 1822) Fragments in Rhyme VII
The Improvisatrice (1824)

Love , Water

“They know there must be May within the year,
Else would they never dream that May was here.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(12th May 1832) Our Present May
The London Literary Gazette, 1832

Dreams

“Which is the best,—
Beauty and glory, in a southern clime,
Mingled with thunder, tempest; or the calm
Of skies that scarcely change, which, at the least,
If much of shine they have not, have no storms?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Erinna
The Golden Violet (1827)
Variant: Which is the best,—
Beauty and glory, in a southern clime,
Mingled with thunder, tempest; or the calm
Of skies that scarcely change, which, at the least,
If much of shine they have not, have no storms?

Beauty , Passion , Change

“I can conceive no punishment so dreadful as keeping perpetual watch on our words, lest they betray what they mean to conceal; to know no unguarded moment — no careless gaiety — to pine for the confidence which yet we dare not bestow — to tremble, lest that some hidden meaning lurk in a phrase which only our own sickly fancy could torture into bearing such — to have suspicion become a second nature — and to shrink every morning from the glad sunshine, for we know not what a day may bring forth : the wheel of Ixion were a tender mercy compared to such a state.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

No.12. The Heart of Mid Lothian — EFFIE DEANS.
Literary Remains

Confidence , Nature

“His cheek was pale as marble, and as cold;
But his lip trembled not, and his dark eyes
Glanced proudly round. But when they bared his breast
For the death-shot, and took a portrait thence,
He clenched his hands, and gasped, and one deep sob
Of agony burst from him; and he hid
His face awhile—his mother's look was there.
He could not steel his soul when he recalled
The bitterness of her despair. It passed—
That moment of wild anguish; he knelt down;
That sunbeam shed its glory over one,
Young, proud, and brave, nerved in deep energy;
The next fell over cold and bloody clay....”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Deserter from The London Literary Gazette (8th June 1822) Poetic Sketches. Second Series - Sketch the Sixth
The Improvisatrice (1824)

Death , Soul , Despair

“Autumn was falling, but the pine
Seem'd as it mock'd all change; no sign
Of season on its leaf was seen,
The same dark gloom of changeless green.
But like the gorgeous Persian bands
'Mid the stern race of northern lands,
The chesnut boughs were bright with all
That gilds and mocks the autumn's fall.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Canto II
The Troubadour (1825)