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Letitia Elizabeth Landon Quotes
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Letitia Elizabeth Landon was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L.

✵ 14. August 1802 – 15. October 1838
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon: 785   quotes 11   likes

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Quotes

“[From Minna after stabbing Pauline von Lindorf to death]: Yes, I have killed her at last. They thought I did not know her, but I did. She took away my father's heart from me, and would have taken away my husband’s; but I have killed her at last.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

Death , Heart

“Distinction is purchased at the expense of sympathy”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

“But the knowledge of the library is not that of the world; a youth of solitude is bad preparation for a manhood of action; from the earliest age we need to mingle with our kind; the child corrects and instructs the child more than their masters; our equals are the tools wherewith experience works out its lessons; and the play-ground, with its rival interests, its injustices, its necessity for the ready wit and the curbed temper is both miniature and prophesy of the world, which will but bring back the old struggles only with a sterner aspect, and the same successes, but with more than half their enjoyment departed.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Other Gift Books

Youth , Age , World , Knowledge

“Tis May again, another May,
Looking as if it meant to stay;
So many are its thousand flowers,
So glorious are its sunny hours,
So green its earth, so blue its sky,
As made for Hope's eternity.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Golden Violet - title poem - The First Day
The Golden Violet (1827)

Hope , Flowers

“Oh, nothing has the memory of love!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

Love , Memory

“Thrice hallowed shrine
Of the heart's intercourse, our own fireside!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Gladesmuir from The London Literary Gazette (14th September 1822) Poetical Sketches. Third series - Sketch the Second
The Improvisatrice (1824)

Heart

“Cecil Forrester was heir to many misfortunes, being handsome, rich, high-born, and clever.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

“A soft and blue Italian sky, — the blue
That painters and that poets love, — the blue
The lover worships in the maiden's eyes,
Whose beauty is their power and spell.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The London Literary Gazette, 1823

Love , Beauty , Lovers

“What we may do
To-morrow may perhaps decide our fate.
We may have said but yesterday some word
Which may not be recalled.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Corinne’s Chant in the Vicinity of Naples
Translations, From the French

Fate

“Sketches indeed, from that most passionate page,
A woman's heart, of feelings, thoughts, that make
The atmosphere in which her spirit moves;”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

A History of the Lyre
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

Feeling , Passion , Heart

“Oh, softest is the cheek's love-ray
When seen by moonlight hours
Other roses seek the day,
But blushes are night flowers.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

When Should Lover’s Breathe Their Vows from The London Literary Gazette (24th November 1821)
The Improvisatrice (1824)

Love , Flowers , Night

“For he had curious colours, that could give
The human face so like, it seem'd to live.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

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

“How much we give to other hearts our tone,
And judge of others' feelings by our own!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Title poem, section IV.
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

Feeling , Heart

“It was a summer evening; and the sea
Seem'd to rejoice in its tranquillity;
Rolling its gentle waters to the west,
Till the rich crimson blush'd upon their breast,
Uniting lovingly the wave and sky,
Like Hope content in its delight to die.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

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

Hope , Water , Summer , Sea

“English people … never speak, excepting in cases of fire or murder, unless they are introduced.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

People

“Perhaps it is a benevolent provision of Nature that we remember more what touches than what pains us.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

Pain , Nature

“Thrice venomed is the wound when 'tis Love's hand
Inflicts the blow.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(3rd August 1822) Sketches from Drawings by Mr. Dagley. Sketch the Second. Love touching the Horns of a Snail, which is shrinking from his hand.
The London Literary Gazette, 1821-1822

Love

“And this is woman's fate:
All her affections are called into life
By winning flatteries, and then thrown back
Upon themselves to perish; and her heart,
Her trusting heart, filled with weak tenderness,
Is left to bleed or break!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Castilian Nuptuals from The London Literary Gazette (28th September 1822) Poetical Sketches. 3rd series - Sketch the Fourth
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

Life , Fate , Heart

“Words are powerless to tell. —
Such the image in my heart, —
Painter, try thy glorious art!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(16th November 1822) Fragments in Rhyme III: Outline for a Portrait
23rd November 1822) Fragments in Rhyme IV: Arion see The Improvisatrice (1824
The London Literary Gazette, 1821-1822

Art , Heart

“music's power
Is little felt in sunlit hour;
But hear its voice when hopes depart,
Like swallows, flying from the heart
On which the summer's late decline
Has set a sadness and a sign;......
How deeply will the spirit feel
The lute, the song's sweet-voiced appeal;
And how the heart drink in their sighs
As echoes they from Paradise.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Canto IV
The Troubadour (1825)

Sadness , Hope , Music , Feeling

“Good and evil! good and evil! ye are mingled inextricably in the web of our being; and who may unthread the darker yarn?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

Evil

“Can loveliness lose its power? Ah, yes! when love can lose its truth. Weak and impetuous, yielding to temptation, but trembling to enjoy the reward of the committed crime; such is the man of whom my heart made its divinity, — for whose sake I would have toiled as a slave; ay, and do; but with far other aim now. Let us but once meet again, Jehanghire, and thou art mine! but I — I can never be thine again. Life, throne, fortunes, we will yet share together; but my heart, never, never more!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Other Gift Books

Love , Life , Truth , Art

“As a story teller, Scott is unrivalled; he would have made the fortune of a cafe at Damascus.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Literary Remains

“I envy thee, thou careless wind!
How light, how wild thy wandering :
Thou hast no earthly chain, to bind
One fetter on thy airy wing.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(2nd August 1823) both from Songs
The London Literary Gazette, 1823

Light , Envy

“I do love violets:
They tell the history of woman's love;
They open with the earliest breath of spring;
Lead a sweet life of perfume, dew, and light;
And, if they perish, perish with a sigh
Delicious as that life.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Roland's Tower
The Improvisatrice (1824)

Love , Life , History , Spring

“Like a human thought in quest
Of a future hour.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(1838 2) (Vol 53) Subjects for Pictures - Ariadne Watching the Sea after the Departure of Theseus
The Monthly Magazine

Future

“Merciful God, thou dost not answer me!
I made my choice on earth, and now my heart
Has no asylum. Ye decide for me,
And such a destiny is best.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Last Song of Corinne
Translations, From the French

God , Heart

“I LOVED her! ay, I would have given
A death-bed certainty of heaven
If I had thought it could confer
The least of happiness on her!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Canto III
The Troubadour (1825)

Love , Death , Happiness

“I dreamed a dream, that I had flung a chain
Of roses around Love,—I woke, and found
I had chained Sorrow.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Literary Souvenir, 1826 (1825) The Forsaken
Other Gift Books

Love , Dreams

“Thou shalt bid thy fair hands rove
O'er thy soft lute's silver slumbers,
Waking sounds; of song and love
In their sweet Italian numbers.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(29th March 1823) Song - I'll meet thee at the midnight hour
The London Literary Gazette, 1823

Love

“There cannot be a greater error than to suppose that the poet does not feel what he writes. What an extraordinary, I might say, impossible view, is this to take of an art more connected with emotion than any of its sister sciences. What — the depths of the heart are to be sounded, its mysteries unveiled, and its beatings numbered by those whose own heart is made by this strange doctrine — a mere machine wound up by the clock-work of rhythm! No; poetry is even more a passion than a power, and nothing is so strongly impressed on composition as the character of the writer. I should almost define poetry to be the necessity of feeling strongly in the first instance, and the as strong necessity of confiding in the second.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

Art , Error , Feeling , Confidence

“… we English people delight in a moral — not a moral to be deduced or inferred, but a nice, rounded, little moral, in all the starch of set sentences, and placed just at the end”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

People

“[From Reginald Clinton]: I do not believe that the heart is turned from the Creator by enjoying his works. Of what avail is the sweet breath of the rose, the morning song of the lark? The pleasure they impart is not matter of necessity, and yet we delight in both. The soul of the poet is as much His gift as the fragrance of the flower, or the lay of the bird; and the page where inspired words record heroic deed, touching sorrow, or natural loveliness, is one of those pleasures for which we should be thankful. I, for my part, believe most devoutly in the Almighty mercy, when I see how much that is beautiful and gladdening has been scattered over our pilgrimage here.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

Pleasure , Beauty , Soul , Flowers

“The weakness of our nature—how soon any strong emotion masters it!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

Nature , Strong

“The cold north wind which bows to earth
The lightness of the willow's birth
Bends not the mountain cedar trees;
Folding their branches from the breeze,
They stand as if they could defy
The utmost rage of storm and sky.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Canto I
The Troubadour (1825)

Mountain , Birth , Tree , Light

“the unpunished crime is never regretted. We weep over the consequence, not over the fault.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

“How I pity those whose childhood has been unhappy! to them one of the sweetest springs of feeling has been utterly denied, the most green and beautiful part of life laid waste.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Improvisatrice (1824)

Life , Beauty , Feeling , Spring

“How very desolate that breast must be,
Whose only joyance is in memory!
And what must woman suffer, thus betrayed?—
Her heart's most warm and precious feelings made
But things wherewith to wound: that heart—so weak,
So soft—laid open to the vulture's beak!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Rosalie.
The Improvisatrice (1824)

Feeling , Suffering , Memory , Heart

“Life has little breathing time; and, even when we do for a moment reflect, it is rather on our present than our past : the pains and pleasures of memory are put aside as quickly as the poem which celebrates them.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

Life , Pain , Pleasure , Memory

“No one can say farewell with indifference.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Other Gift Books

Indifference

“I heard them hymn his name--his power,--
I heard them, and I smiled;
How could they say the earth was ruled
By but a sleeping child?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

L’Amore Dominatore from Literary Souvenir, 1826
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

Smile , Sleep

“I like to be candid in my admissions — it is so very disarming; you forestall the objection which you admit — at least your adversary has scarcely the heart to push to its utmost the advantage which you so meekly confess.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

Heart

“I kiss'd her lips: oh, God, the chill!
My heart is frozen with it still:—
It was as suddenly on me
Open'd my depths of misery.
I flung me on the ground, and raved,
And of the wind that past me craved
One breath of poison, till my blood
From lip and brow gush'd in one flood.
I watch'd the warm stream of my veins
Mix with the death wounds clotted stains;
Oh! how I pray'd that I might pour
My heart's tide, and her life restore!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Canto III
The Troubadour (1825)

Life , Death , God , Past

“There is a flower, a snow-white flower,
Fragile as if a morning shower
Would end its being, and the earth
Forget to what it gave a birth;
And it looks innocent and pale,
Slight as the least force could avail
To pluck it from its bed, and yet
Its root in depth and strength is set.
The July sun, the autumn rain,
Beat on its slender stalk in vain;—
Around it spreads, despite of care,
Till the whole garden is its share;
And other plants must fade and fall
Beneath its deep and deadly thrall.
This is love's emblem; it is nurst
In all unconciousness at first,
Too slight, too fair, to wake distrust;
No sign how that an after hour
Will rue and weep its fatal power.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Canto IV
The Troubadour (1825)

Love , Flowers , Birth , Autumn

“To hide the wells from the beam of the sun,
She took the webs of silvery white
Herself had wove in the lone moonlight,
And threw them o'er, so that not one ray
Could lighten their depths with a glimpse of day;”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The London Literary Gazette, 1824

Sun

“Partly from being a more scattered population, which leads to self-dependence — partly to their religious struggles having given an historical character to their ordinary remembrances, nourished by that family pride which loves to look back — there is more individuality among the Scotch than among any other peasantry.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

No.10. Old Mortality — JENNY DENNISON.
Literary Remains

Love , Family , Dependency

“Sound peculiarly appeals to memory.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

Memory

“[Guido] Oh, my Ianthe, I live but in you,
And I will win thee, through each obstacle
By tyranny of fortune raised, my own,
My best heart's treasure! (he snatches her hand)
[Manfred] Wild fool! she is your sister!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(12th April 1823) Dramatic Scene. Ianthe — Guido — Manfred.
(19th April 1823) Fragments see The Improvisatrice (1824) The Oak
The London Literary Gazette, 1823

Fools , Sister , Heart

“Ah! it is well we can forget,
Or who could linger on
Beneath a sky whose stars are set,
On earth whose flowers are gone?
For who could welcome loved ones near,
Thinking of those once far more dear”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

Love , Star , Flowers , Thinking

“There grew ten thousand flowers, on whose leaves
Shone every hue that ever yet hath shone
In a king's diadem of Indian gems,
Or in the tints an autumn sunset throws
O'er the rich glaciers in the rainbow arch
Of the departing shower;”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The London Literary Gazette, 1823

Flowers , Autumn