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Washington Irving Biography

Washington Irving

Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), both of which appear in his collection, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of Oliver Goldsmith, Muhammad, and George Washington, as well as several histories of 15th-century Spain dealing with subjects such as Alhambra, Christopher Columbus, and the Moors. Irving served as the U.S. ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846.

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Washington Irving Quotes

Those who are well assured of their own standing are least apt to trepass on that of others.

Apt, Assured, Reputation, Standing, Trepass, Wells

Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.

Charity, Christmas, Hall, Heart, Thank You

A woman's whole life is a history of the affections. The heart is her world: it is there her ambition strives for empire; it is there her avarice seeks for hidden treasures. She sends forth her sympathies on adventure; she embarks her whole soul on the traffic of affection; and if shipwrecked, her case is hopeless — for it is a bankruptcy of the heart.

Adventure, Ambition, Heart, History, Hopeless

Some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles.

Create, Inspirational, Motivational, Springing, Thousand, Wisdom

There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind.

Fishing, Mind, Produce, Serenity, Tends

Speculation is the romance of trade, and casts contempt upon on all its sober realities. It renders the stock-jobber a magician, and the exchange a region of enchantment.

Business, Magician, Reality, Romance, Speculation, Trade

Some minds corrode and grow inactive under the loss of personal liberty; others grow morbid and irritable; but it is the nature of the poet to become tender and imaginitive in the loneliness of confinement. He banquets upon the honey of his own thoughts, and, like the captive bird, pours forth his soul in melody.

Bird, Imaginitive, Loneliness, Loss, Melody

A woman is more considerate in affairs of love than a man; because love is more the study and business of her life.

Business, Love, Man, Men, Study

One point is certain, that truth is one and immutable; until the jurors all agree, they cannot all be right.

Agree, Certain, Jurors, Right, Truth

It was Shakespeare's notion that on this day birds begin to couple; hence probably arose the custom of sending fancy love-billets.

Begin, Bird, Couple, Fancy

The tongue is the only instrument that gets sharper with use.

Communication, Funny, Gets, Humor, Instrument, Use

He who wins a thousand common hearts is entitled to some renown; but he who keeps undisputed sway over the heart of a coquette is indeed a hero.

Heart, Hero, Keeps, Undisputed, Winning

He that drinks beer, thinks beer.

Beer, Drinks, Humorous, Thinking, Thinks

There's nothing like being in fashion. A man that has once got his character up for a wit is always sure of a laugh, say what he may. He may utter as much nonsense as he pleases, and all will pass current. No one stops to question the coin of a rich man; but a poor devil cannot pass off either a joke or a guinea without its being examined on both sides. Wit and coin are always doubted with a threadbare coat.

Character, Fashion, Like, Men, Say, Threadbare

The dance, like most dances after supper, was a merry one; some of the older folks joined in it, and the squire himself figured down several couple with a partner, with whom he affirmed he had danced at every Christmas for nearly half a century.

Christmas, Couple, Half, Merry, Older, Squire

If I can, by a lucky chance, in these uneasy days, rub out one wrinkle from the brow of care, or beguile the heavy heart of one moment of sadness; if I can, how and then, prompt a happier view of human nature, and make my reader more in good humor with his fellow-beings and himself, surely, I shall not have written in vain.

Chance, Heart, Inspirational Life, Lucky, Sadness, Written

There was one species of despotism under which he had long groaned, and that was petticoat government.

Despotism, Government, Groaned, Long, Petticoat, Under

Too young for woe, though not for tears.

Tears, Though, Woe, Youth

The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal - every other affliction to forget: but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open - this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude.

Bereavement, Funeral, Grieving, Heal, Refuse, Sorrow

Critics are a kind of freebooters in the republic of letters--who, like deer, goats and divers other graminivorous animals, gain subsistence by gorging upon buds and leaves of the young shrubs of the forest, thereby robbing them of their verdure, and retarding their progress to maturity.

Animal, Goats, Gorging, Maturity, Progress, Verdure

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