Top 170 Quotes & Sayings by Letitia Elizabeth Landon - Page 2

Perhaps, from an innate desire of justification, sorrow always exaggerates itself. Memory is quite one of Job's friends; and the past is ever ready to throw its added darkness on the present.

My tears are buried in my heart, like cave-locked fountains sleeping.

I never cast a flower away, A gift of one who car'd for me; A flower--a faded flower, But it was done reluctantly.

Surprises are like misfortunes or herrings - they rarely come single.

Assuredly, meeting after absence, is one of - ah, no! - it is life's most delicious feeling.

Are we not like the actor of old times, who wore his mask so long his face took its likeness?

it is a curious fact, but one which all experience owns, that people do not desire so much to appear better, as to appear different from what they really are.

there is nothing so easy as to be wise for others; a species of prodigality, by-the-by - for such wisdom is wholly wasted.

A sealed book, at whose contents we tremble.

Affection exaggerates its own offenses.

I can pass days Stretch'd in the shade of those old cedar trees, Watching the sunshine like a blessing fall,-- The breeze like music wandering o'er the boughs, Each tree a natural harp,--each different leaf A different note, blent in one vast thanksgiving.

Oh, no! my heart can never be Again in lightest hopes the same; The love that lingers there for thee Hath more of ashes than of flame.

... many a heart is caught in the rebound ... Pride may be soothed by the ready devotion of another; vanity may be excited the more keenly by recent mortification.

Hope is love's happiness, but not its life.

Alas! the praise given to the ear Ne'er was nor ne'er can be sincere.

The dream on the pillow, That flits with the day, The leaf of the willow A breath wears away; The dust on the blossom, The spray on the sea; Ay,--ask thine own bosom-- Are emblems of thee.

he who seeks pleasure with reference to himself, not others, will ever find that pleasure is only another name for discontent.

The past is perpetual youth to the heart.

In sad truth, half our forebodings of our neighbors are but our own wishes, which we are ashamed to utter in any other form.

Jealousy ought to be tragic, to save it from being ridiculous.

From religion ... they will learn the only true lesson of equality - the conviction that our destinies are not in our own hands; they will see that no situation in life is without its share of suffering; - and this perpetual reference to a higher power ought equally to teach the rich humility, and the poor devotion.

It is said that ridicule is the test of truth: it is never applied, but when we wish to deceive ourselves.

Occupation is one great source of enjoyment. No man, properly occupied, was ever miserable.

Alas! we give our own coloring to the actions of others.

Imagination is to love what gas is to the balloon-that which raises it from earth.

A woman only can understand a woman.

We are rarely wrong when we act from impulse.

There is no wretchedness like self-reproach.

Restraint is the golden rule of enjoyment.

I do love violets; they tell the history of woman's love.

Social life is filled with doubts and vain aspirings; solitude, when the imagination is dethroned, is turned to weariness and ennui.

If there be any one habit which more than another is the dry rot of all that is high and generous in youth, it is the habit of ridicule.

How very satisfactory those discussions must be, where each party retains their own opinion!

Nothing more strongly marks the insufficiency of luxuries than the ease with which people grow accustomed to them; they are rather known by their want than by their presence. The word 'blasé' has been coined expressly for the use of the upper classes.

the blessings of matrimony, like those of poverty, belong rather to philosophy than reality.

A friend is never alarmed for us in the right place.

Memory has many conveniences, and, among others, that of foreseeing things as they have afterwards happened.

youth, balancing itself upon hope, is forever in extremes: its expectations are continually aroused only to be baffled, and disappointment, like a summer shower, is violent in proportion to its brevity.

Our first love-letter ... There is so much to be said, and which no words seems exactly to say - the dread of saying too much is so nicely balanced by the fear of saying too little. Hope borders on presumption, and fear on reproach.

I do not think that life has a suspense more sickening than that of expecting a letter which does not come.

To be rude is as good as being clever.

The lover and the physician are each popular from the same cause - we talk to them of nothing but ourselves.

Thou know'st how fearless is my trust in thee.

I cannot see why a taste for the country should be held so very indispensable a requisite for excellence; but really people talk of it as if it were a virtue, and as if an opposite opinion was, to say the least of it, very immoral.

Good taste is his religion, his morality, his standard, and his test.

Youth is a season that has no repose.

to the many, witticisms not only require to be explained, like riddles, but are also like new shoes, which people require to wear many times before they get accustomed to them.

The truth is, we like to talk over our disasters, because they are ours; and others like to listen, because they are not theirs.

When does the mind put forth its powers? when are the stores of memory unlocked? when does wit 'flash from fluent lips?' -- when but after a good dinner? Who will deny its influence on the affections? Half our friends are born of turbots and truffles.

... true love is like religion, it hath its silence and its sanctity.

In marriage, as in chemistry, opposites have often an attraction.

Shopping, true feminine felicity!

Oh, only those whose souls have felt this one idolatry can tell how precious is the slightest thing affection gives and hallows.

I have no parting sigh to give, so take my parting smile.

of all the follies that we can commit, the greatest is to hesitate.

Repentance is a one-faced Janus, ever looking to the past.

It is amazing how much a thought expands and refines by being put into speech: I should think it could hardly know itself.

My heart is its own grave!

It is said that ridicule is the test of truth; but it is never applied except when we wish to deceive ourselves - when if we cannot exclude the light, we would fain draw the curtain before it. The sneer springs out of the wish to deny; and wretched must that state of mind be, that wishes to take refuge in doubt.

To this hour, the great science and duty of politics is lowered by the petty leaven of small and personal advantage.