145 Lord Byron Quotes

Lord Byron quotes

1. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-1818)

2. Don Juan (1818-1824)

3. When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past- For years fleet away with the wings of the dove- The dearest remembrance will still be the last, Our sweetest memorial the first kiss of love.

4. 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.

5. I only know we loved in vain; I only feel-farewell! farewell!

6. When we two parted In silence and tears, Half brokenhearted, To sever for years.

7. In secret we met In silence I grieve, That thy heart could forget, Thy spirit deceive. If I should meet thee After long years, How should I greet thee? With silence and tears.

8. Near this spot Are deposited the Remains of one Who possessed Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, And all the virtues of Man, without his Vices. This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery If inscribed over human ashes, Is but a just tribute to the Memory of BOATSWAIN, a DOG

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

10. Maid of Athens, ere we part, Give, oh give me back my heart!

11. The love where Death has set his seal, Nor age can chill, nor rival steal, Nor falsehood disavow.

12. And thou wert lovely to the last, Extinguish'd, not decay'd; As stars that shoot along the sky Shine brightest as they fall from high.

13. The Cincinnatus of the West, Whom envy dared not hate, Bequeath'd the name of Washington, To make man blush there was but one!

14. The glory and the nothing of a name.

15. My great comfort is, that the temporary celebrity I have wrung from the world has been in the very teeth of all opinions and prejudices. I have flattered no ruling powers; I have never concealed a single thought that tempted me.

16. Fare thee well! and if forever, Still forever, fare thee well: Even though unforgiving, never 'Gainst thee shall my heart rebel.

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

18. Oh, God! it is a fearful thing To see the human soul take wing In any shape, in any mood.

19. A light broke in upon my brain, - It was the carol of a bird; It ceased, and then it came again, The sweetest song ear ever heard.

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

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

22. I had a dream, which was not all a dream.

23. Though the day of my Destiny's over, And the star of my Fate hath declined, Thy soft heart refused to discover The faults which so many could find.

24. In the desert a fountain is springing, In the wide waste there still is a tree, And a bird in the solitude singing, Which speaks to my spirit of thee.

25. The careful pilot of my proper woe.

26. And a firm will, and a deep sense, Which even in torture can descry Its own concenter'd recompense, Triumphant where it dares defy

27. 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!

28. My boat is on the shore, And my bark is on the sea; But, before I go, Tom Moore. Here's a double health to thee!

29. 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.

30. 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.

31. 'Bring forth the horse!' - the horse was brought; In truth, he was a noble steed, A Tartar of the Ukraine breed, Who look'd as though the speed of thought Were in his limbs.

32. And if we do but watch the hour, There never yet was human power Which could evade, if unforgiven, The patient search and vigil long Of him who treasures up a wrong.

33. Oh, talk not to me of a name great in story; The days of our youth are the days of our glory; And the myrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty Are worth all your laurels, though ever so plenty.

34. The best of prophets of the future is the past.

35. The world is a bundle of hay, Mankind are the asses that pull, Each tugs in a different way- And the greatest of all is John Bull!

36. 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.

37. 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.

38. Who killed John Keats? 'I,' says the Quarterly, So savage and Tartarly; ''Twas one of my feats.'

39. He seems To have seen better days, as who has not Who has seen yesterday?

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

41. Divine in hookas, glorious in a pipe When tipp'd with amber, mellow, rich, and ripe; Like other charmers, wooing the caress More dazzlingly when daring in full dress; Yet thy true lovers more admire by far Thy naked beauties-give me a cigar!

42. What's drinking? A mere pause from thinking!

43. 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!

44. Seek out - less often sought than found - A Soldier's Grave, for thee the best; Then look around and choose thy Ground, And take thy Rest.

45. I awoke one morning and found myself famous.

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

47. They never fail who die In a great cause.

48. I'll publish right or wrong: Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.

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

50. A man must serve his time to every trade Save censure-critics are ready-made.

51. With just enough of learning to misquote.

52. As soon Seek roses in December, ice in June; Hope constancy in wind, or corn in chaff; Believe a woman or an epitaph, Or any other thing that's false, before You trust in critics, who themselves are sore.

53. Better to err with Pope, than shine with Pye.

54. Perverts the Prophets and purloins the Psalms.

55. 'Twas thine own genius gave the final blow, And help'd to plant the wound that laid thee low: So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain, No more through rolling clouds to soar again, View'd his own feather on the fatal dart, And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart.

56. Yet truth will sometimes lend her noblest fires, And decorate the verse herself inspires: This fact, in virtue's name, let Crabbe attest,- Though Nature's sternest painter, yet the best.

57. Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime? Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle, Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime!

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

59. The light of love, the purity of grace, The mind, the music breathing from her face, 19 The heart whose softness harmonized the whole,- And oh, that eye was in itself a soul!

60. 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?

61. The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle.

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

63. Mark! where his carnage and his conquests cease! He makes a solitude, and calls it - peace!

64. Hark! to the hurried question of despair: 'Where is my child?'-an echo answers, 'Where?'

65. He who hath bent him o'er the dead Ere the first day of death is fled,- The first dark day of nothingness, The last of danger and distress, Before decay's effacing fingers Have swept the lines where beauty lingers.

66. 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.

67. Shrine of the mighty! can it be That this is all remains of thee?

68. For freedom's battle, once begun, Bequeath'd by bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft, is ever won.

69. And lovelier things have mercy shown To every failing but their own, And every woe a tear can claim Except an erring sister's shame.

70. The keenest pangs the wretched find Are rapture to the dreary void, The leafless desert of the mind, The waste of feelings unemployed.

71. Better to sink beneath the shock Than moulder piecemeal on the rock.

72. The cold in clime are cold in blood, Their love can scarce deserve the name.

73. I die-but first I have possessed, And come what may, I have been blessed.

74. 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.

75. The fatal facility of the octosyllabic verse.

76. Oh who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried.

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

78. The power of thought,-the magic of the mind!

79. Such hath it been - shall be - beneath the sun The many still must labour for the one!

80. There was a laughing devil in his sneer.

81. Hope withering fled, and Mercy sighed farewell!

82. Farewell! For in that word, that fatal word,-howe'er We promise, hope, believe,-there breathes despair.

83. No words suffice the secret soul to show, For truth denies all eloquence to woe.

84. He left a corsair's name to other times, Linked with one virtue, and a thousand crimes.

85. She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow'd to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

86. The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

87. For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast.

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

89. When all of genius which can perish dies.

90. Folly loves the martyrdom of fame.

91. Who track the steps of glory to the grave.

92. Sighing that Nature formed but one such man, And broke the die, in molding Sheridan.

93. And both were young, and one was beautiful.

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

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

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

97. And they were canopied by the blue sky, So cloudless, clear, and purely beautiful That God alone was to be seen in heaven.

98. Mont Blanc is the Monarch of mountains; They crowned him long ago, On a throne of rocks - in a robe of clouds - With a Diadem of Snow.

99. But we, who name ourselves its sovereigns, we, Half dust, half deity, alike unfit To sink or soar.

100. Think'st thou existence doth depend on time? It doth; but actions are our epochs: mine Have made my days and nights imperishable Endless, and all alike, as sands on the shore Innumerable atoms; and one desert Barren and cold, on which the wild waves break, But nothing rests, save carcases and wrecks, Rocks, and the salt-surf weeds of bitterness.

101. The heart ran o'er With silent worship of the great of old! The dead but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule Our spirits from their urns.

102. 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.

103. For the sword outwears its sheath, And the soul wears out the breast, And the heart must pause to breathe, And love itself have rest.

104. Though the night was made for loving, And the day returns too soon, Yet we'll go no more a roving By the light of the moon.

105. For most men (till by losing rendered sager) Will back their own opinions by a wager.

106. Soprano, basso, even the contra-alto, Wished him five fathom under the Rialto.

107. 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.

108. Besides, they always smell of bread and butter.

109. 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.

110. Heart on her lips, and soul within her eyes, Soft as her clime, and sunny as her skies.

111. O Mirth and Innocence! O milk and water! Ye happy mixtures of more happy days.

112. Which makes life itself a lie, Flattering dust with eternity.

113. By all that 's good and glorious.

114. I am the very slave of circumstance And impulse,-borne away with every breath!

115. The dust we tread upon was once alive.

116. All farewells should be sudden.

117. The 'good old times' - all times when old are good - Are gone.

118. Where is he, the champion and the child Of all that's great or little, wise or wild; Whose game was empires, and whose stakes were thrones; Whose table earth - whose dice were human bones?

119. While Franklin's quiet memory climbs to heaven, Calming the lightning which he thence hath riven, Or drawing from the no less kindled earth Freedom and peace to that which boasts his birth; While Washington's a watchword, such as ne'er Shall sink while there's an echo left to air.

120. If I could envy any man for successful ill nature I should envy Lord Byron for his skill in satirical nomenclature.

121. Mad, bad and dangerous to know.

122. You speak of Lord Byron and me - there is this great difference between us. He describes what he sees - I describe what I imagine. Mine is the hardest task.

     Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

123. If they had said that the sun or the moon had gone out of the heavens, it could not have struck me with the idea of a more awful and dreary blank in creation than the words: 'Byron is dead!'

     Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

124. The world is rid of Lord Byron, but the deadly slime of his touch still remains.

     Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

125. Lord Byron makes man after his own image, woman after his own heart; the one is a capricious tyrant, the other a yielding slave.

126. Whatever he does, he must do in a more decided and daring manner than any one else; he lounges with extravagance, and yawns so as to alarm the reader!

127. Our Lord Byron - the fascinating - faulty - childish - philosophical being - daring the world - docile to a private circle - impetuous and indolent - gloomy and yet more gay than any other.

128. It still saddens me that Lord Byron, who showed such impatience with the fickle public, wasn't aware of how well the Germans can understand him and how highly they esteem him. With us the moral and political tittle-tattle of the day falls away, leaving the man and the talent standing alone in all their brilliance.

129. I never heard a single expression of fondness for him fall from the lips of any of those who knew him well.

130. Lord Byron is great only as a poet; as soon as he reflects, he is a child.

131. From the poetry of Lord Byron they drew a system of ethics, compounded of misanthropy and voluptuousness, a system in which the two great commandments were, to hate your neighbour, and to love your neighbour's wife.

132. In a room at the end of the garden to this house was a magnificent rocking-horse, which a friend had given my little boy; and Lord Byron, with a childish glee becoming a poet, would ride upon it. Ah! why did he ever ride his Pegasus to less advantage?

133. What helps it now, that Byron bore, With haughty scorn which mocked the smart, Through Europe to the Aetolian shore The pageant of his bleeding heart? That thousands counted every groan, And Europe made his woe her own?

134. The news came to the village - the dire news which spread across the land, filling men's hearts with consternation - that Byron was dead. Tennyson was then about a boy of fifteen. 'Byron was dead! I thought the whole world was at an end,' he once said, speaking of those bygone days. 'I thought everything was over and finished for everyone - that nothing else mattered. I remembered I walked out alone, and carved 'Byron is dead' into the sandstone.'

135. Always looking at himself in mirrors to make sure he was sufficiently outrageous.

1. Lord of himself; that heritage of woe!

2. It is by far the most elegant worship, hardly excepting the Greek mythology. What with incense, pictures, statues, altars, shrines, relics, and the real presence, confession, absolution, - there is something sensible to grasp at. Besides, it leaves no possibility of doubt; for those who swallow their Deity, really and truly, in transubstantiation, can hardly find any thing else otherwise than easy of digestion.

3. I should like to know who has been carried off, except poor dear me - I have been more ravished myself than anybody since the Trojan war.

4. O thou beautiful And unimaginable ether! and Ye multiplying masses of increased And still increasing lights! what are ye? what Is this blue wilderness of interminable Air, where ye roll along, as I have seen The leaves along the limpid streams of Eden? Is your course measur'd for ye? Or do ye Sweep on in your unbounded revelry Through an aerial universe of endless Expansion,--at which my soul aches to think,-- Intoxicated with eternity.

5. Pure friendship's well-feigned blush.

6. To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.

7. Your thief looks Exactly like the rest, or rather better; 'Tis only at the bar, and in the dungeon, That wise men know your felon by his features.

8. Age shakes Athena's tower, but spares gray Marathon.

9. Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure.

10. And the commencement of atonement is the sense of its necessity.