George Gordon Byron Quotes

The 'good old times' - all times when old are good. ~ George Gordon Byron

Though sages may pour out their wisdom's treasure, there is no sterner moralist then Pleasure. ~ George Gordon Byron

Ah, monarchs! could ye taste the mirth ye mar, Not in the toils of Glory would ye fret; The hoarse dull drum would sleep, and Man be happy yet. ~ George Gordon Byron

There is no instinct like that of the heart. ~ George Gordon Byron

if i dont write to empty my mind, i go mad ~ George Gordon Byron

Alas! They were so young, so beautiful, so lonely, loving, helpless, and the hour was that in which the heart is always full, annd, having o'er itself no further power, prompts deeds eternity can not annul. ~ George Gordon Byron

She was like me in lineaments
her eyes
Her hair, her features, all, to the very tone
Even of her voice, they said were like to mine;
But soften'd all, and temper'd into beauty;
She had the same lone thoughts and wanderings,
The quest of hidden knowledge, and a mind
To comprehend the universe: nor these
Alone, but with them gentler powers than mine,
Pity, and smiles, and tears
which I had not;
And tenderness
but that I had for her;
Humility
and that I never had.
Her faults were mine
her virtues were her own
I loved her, and destroy'd her! ~ George Gordon Byron

The lapse of ages changes all things - time - language - the earth - the bounds of the sea - the stars of the sky, and everything 'about, around, and underneath' man, except man himself, who has always been and always will be, an unlucky rascal. The infinite variety of lives conduct but to death, and the infinity of wishes lead but to disappointment. All the discoveries which have yet been made have multiplied little but existence. ~ George Gordon Byron

Love in full life and length, not love ideal,
No, nor ideal beauty, that fine name,
But something better still, so very real ... ~ George Gordon Byron

Very Like a Whale

One thing that literature would be greatly the better for
Would be a more restricted employment by authors of simile and metaphor.
Authors of all races, be they Greeks, Romans, Teutons or Celts,
Can'ts seem just to say that anything is the thing it is but have
to go out
of their way to say that it is like something else.
What foes it mean when we are told
That the Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold?
In the first place, George Gordon Byron had had enough experience
To know that it probably wasn't just one Assyrian, it was a lot
of Assyrians.
However, as too many arguments are apt to induce apoplexy and thus
hinder longevity,
We'll let it pass as one Assyrian for the sake of brevity.
Now then, this particular Assyrian, the one whose cohorts were gleaming
in purple and gold,
Just what does the poet mean when he says he came down like a wolf
on
the fold?
In heaven and earth more than is dreamed of in our philosophy there
are
a great many things,
But i don't imagine that among then there is a wolf with purple
and gold
cohorts or purple and gold anythings.
No, no, Lord Byron, before I'll believe that this Assyrian was actually
like a wolf I must have some kind of proof;
Did he run on all fours and did he have a hairy tail and a big red
mouth and
big white teeth and did he say Woof woof?
Fra ~ Ogden Nash

And those who saw, it did surprise,
Such drops could fall from human eyes. ~ George Gordon Byron

All who joy would win
Must share it
Happiness was born a twin. ~ George Gordon Byron

There' s not a joy the world can give like that it takes away,
When the glow of early thought declines in feeling's dull decay. ~ George Gordon Byron

A woman should never be seen eating or drinking, unless it be lobster salad and Champagne, the only true feminine and becoming viands. ~ George Gordon Byron

I could not tame my nature down; for he
Must serve who fain would sway -- and soothe -- and sue --
And watch all time -- and pry into all place --
And be a living lie -- who would become
A mighty thing amongst the mean, and such
The mass are; I disdained to mingle with
A herd, though to be leader -- and of wolves.
The lion is alone, and so am I. ~ George Gordon Byron

I know that two and two make four - and should be glad to prove it too if I could - though I must say if by any sort of process I could convert 2 and 2 into five it would give me much greater pleasure. ~ George Gordon Byron

There are two Souls, whose equal flow
In gentle stream so calmly run,
That when they part - they part? - ah no!
They cannot part - those Souls are One. ~ George Gordon Byron

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. ~ George Gordon Byron

Oh pleasure, you're indeed a pleasant thing, / Although one must be damned for you no doubt. / I make a resolution every spring / Of reformation, ere the year run out. ~ George Gordon Byron

If I have any fault, it is digression ~ George Gordon Byron

Many are poets, but without the name;
For what is Poesy but to create
From overfeeling Good or Ill; and aim
At an external life beyond our fate,
And be the new Prometheus of new men,
Bestowing fire from Heaven, and then, too late,
Finding the pleasure given repaid with pain ~ George Gordon Byron

I have a great mind to believe in Christianity for the mere pleasure of fancying I may be damned. ~ George Gordon Byron

Gwynned lies two days westwards; still further south, the weregeld calls. Mayhap with All-Father Woden's favour, my deeds may yet inspire the skalds. ~ George Gordon Byron

I have not been thy dupe, nor am thy prey
But was my own destroyer, and will be
My own hereafter. ~ Lord Byron

But suppose it past, - suppose one of these men, as I have seen them meagre with famine, sullen with despair, careless of a life which your lordships are perhaps about to value at something less than the price of a stocking-frame ; suppose this man surrounded by those children for whom he is unable to procure bread at the hazard of his existence, about to be torn for ever from a family which he lately supported in peaceful industry, and which it is not his fault than he can no longer so support; suppose this man - and there are ten thousand such from whom you may select your victims, - dragged into court to be tried for this new offence, by this new law, - still there are two things wanting to convict and condemn him, and these are, in my opinion, twelve butchers for a jury, and a Jefferies for a judge! ~ George Gordon Byron

Absence - that common cure of love. ~ George Gordon Byron

Hate is by far the greatest pleasure; men love in haste, but detest in leisure. ~ George Gordon Byron

Sweet to the miser are his glittering heaps,
Sweet to the father is his first-born's birth,
Sweet is revenge
especially to women ~ George Gordon Byron

The power of thought is the magic of the mind. ~ George Gordon Byron

I should, many a good day, have blown my brains out, but for the recollection that it would have given pleasure to my mother-in-law. ~ George Gordon Byron

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean - roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin - his control
Stops with the shore. ~ George Gordon Byron

A little still she strove, and much repented,
And whispering "I will ne'er consent" - consented. ~ George Gordon Byron

All unquiet things,
which stir too strongly the soul's secret springs ~ George Gordon Byron

but quiet to quick bosoms is a hell. ~ George Gordon Byron

We'll Go No More A-roving
So, we'll go no more a-roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart still be as loving,
And the moon still be as bright.
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.
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. ~ George Gordon Byron

Oh could I feel as I have felt,-or be what I have been,
Or weep as I could once have wept, o'er many a vanish'd scene;
As springs in deserts found seem sweet, all brackish though they be,
So midst the wither'd waste of life, those tears would flow to me. ~ George Gordon Byron

All human history attests
That happiness for man, - the hungry sinner! -
Since Eve ate apples, much depends on dinner.
~Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto XIII, stanza 99 ~ George Gordon Byron

A woman being never at a loss ... the devil always sticks by them. ~ George Gordon Byron

T is sweet to win, no matter how, one's laurels,
By blood or ink; 't is sweet to put an end
To strife; 't is sometimes sweet to have our quarrels,
Particularly with a tiresome friend:
Sweet is old wine in bottles, ale in barrels;
Dear is the helpless creature we defend
Against the world; and dear the schoolboy spot
We ne'er forget, though there we are forgot.
But sweeter still than this, than these, than all,
Is first and passionate Love - it stands alone,
Like Adam's recollection of his fall;
The Tree of Knowledge has been plucked - all 's known
And Life yields nothing further to recall
Worthy of this ambrosial sin, so shown,
No doubt in fable, as the unforgiven
Fire which Prometheus filched for us from Heaven. ~ George Gordon Byron

Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven!
If in your bright leaves we would read the fate
Of men and empires,-'tis to be forgiven,
That in our aspirations to be great,
Our destinies o'erleap their mortal state,
And claim a kindred with you; for ye are
A beauty and a mystery, and create
In us such love and reverence from afar,
That fortune, fame, power, life, have named themselves a star. ~ George Gordon Byron

A woman who gives any advantage to a man may expect a lover
but will sooner or later find a tyrant. ~ George Gordon Byron

But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew, upon a thought produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions think. ~ George Gordon Byron

I will not ask where thou liest low, Nor gaze upon the spot;
There flowers or weeds at will may
grow, So I behold them not ~ George Gordon Byron

Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure. ~ George Gordon Byron

When a man hath no freedom to fight for at home,
Let him combat for that of his neighbours;
Let him think of the glories of Greece and of Rome,
And get knocked on the head for his labours.
To do good to Mankind is the chivalrous plan,
And is always as nobly requited;
Then battle fro Freedom wherever you can,
And, if not shot or hanged, you'll get knighted. ~ George Gordon Byron

I cannot conceive why people will always mix up my own character and opinions with those of the imaginary beings which, as a poet, I have the right and liberty to draw. ~ George Gordon Byron

I am at length joined to Bologna, where I am settled like a sausage. ~ George Gordon Byron

The thorns which I have reap'd are of the tree
I planted; they have torn me, and I bleed.
I should have known what fruit would spring from such a seed. ~ George Gordon Byron

Fools are my theme, let satire be my song. ~ George Gordon Byron

More brave than firm,
and more disposed to dare
And die at once
than wrestle with despair ... ~ George Gordon Byron

And there the stories
Of martyrs awed, as Spagnoletto tainted
His brush with all the blood of all the sainted. ~ George Gordon Byron

Yet, should our feeble efforts nought avail, Should, after all, our best endeavours fail; Still, let some mercy in your bosoms live, And, if you can't applaud, at least forgive. ~ George Gordon Byron

Wedded she some years, and to a man
Of fifty, and such husbands are in plenty;
And yet, I think, instead of such a ONE
'Twere better to have TWO of five and twenty ... ~ George Gordon Byron

Come, lay thy head upon my breast and I'll kiss thee unto rest. ~ George Gordon Byron

But who, alas! can love, and then be wise? ~ George Gordon Byron

The light of love, the purity of grace,
The mind, the Music breathing from her face,
The heart whose softness harmonised the whole
And, oh! that eye was in itself a Soul! ~ George Gordon Byron

The kiss, dear maid ! thy lip has left

Shall never part from mine,

Till happier hours restore the gift

Untainted back to thine.


Thy parting glance, which fondly beams,

An equal love may see:

The tear that from thine eyelid streams

Can weep no change in me.


I ask no pledge to make me blest

In gazing when alone;

Nor one memorial for a breast,

Whose thoughts are all thine own.


Nor need I write --- to tell the tale

My pen were doubly weak:

Oh ! what can idle words avail,

Unless the heart could speak ?


By day or night, in weal or woe,

That heart, no longer free,

Must bear the love it cannot show,

And silent ache for thee. ~ George Gordon Byron

There's naught, no doubt, so much the spirit calms as rum and true religion. ~ George Gordon Byron

Society is now one polish'd horde, Form'd of two mighty tribes, the Bores and Bored. ~ George Gordon Byron

This is the age of oddities let loose. ~ George Gordon Byron

Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most must mourn the deepest o'er the fatal truth, the Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life. ~ George Gordon Byron

In this way Byron's take on the human condition becomes closer to the fractured collage of 20th century existentialists: a conflicted human nature posited within a harsh and painful environment where self-less compassion is essential to human progress, but is rewarded with torture and suffering. ~ George Gordon Byron

A drop of ink may make a million think. ~ George Gordon Byron

Every feeling hath been shaken;
Pride, which not a world could bow,
Bows to thee - by thee forsaken,
Even my soul forsakes me now. ~ George Gordon Byron

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 ... ~ George Gordon Byron

My slumbers
if I slumber
are not sleep,
But a continuance of enduring thought,
Which then I can resist not: in my heart
There is a vigil, and these eyes but close
To look within; and yet I live, and bear
The aspect and the form of breathing men. ~ George Gordon Byron

Censure no more shall brand my humble name
The child of passion and the fool of fame ~ George Gordon Byron

Oh, there is sweetness in the mountain air And life, that bloated Ease can never hope to share. ~ George Gordon Byron

What deep wounds ever closed without a scar? ~ George Gordon Byron

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still! ~ George Gordon Byron

Death, so called, is a thing which makes men weep, And yet a third of life is passed in sleep. ~ George Gordon Byron

I had a dream, which was not at all a dream. ~ George Gordon Byron

Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray. ~ George Gordon Byron

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord. ~ George Gordon Byron

Man, being reasonable, must get drunk; the best of life is but intoxication. ~ George Gordon Byron

Dark-heaving; boundless, endless, and sublime,
The image of Eternity,
the throne
Of the Invisible! even from out thy slime
The monsters of the deep are made; each zone
Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone. ~ George Gordon Byron

I have not written for their pleasure ... I have never flattered their opinions, nor their pride; nor will I. Neither will I make "Ladies' books" al dilettar le femine e la plebe. I have written from the fulness of my mind, from passion, from impulse, from many sweet motives, but not for their "sweet voices."
I know the precise worth of popular applause, for few scribblers have had more of it; and if I chose to swerve into their paths, I could retain it, or resume it. But I neither love ye, nor fear ye; and though I buy with ye and sell with ye, I will neither eat with ye, drink with ye, nor pray with ye. ~ George Gordon Byron

And he who lieth there was childless. I have dried the fountain of gentle race..
-Cain ~ George Gordon Byron

Being of no party,
I shall offend all parties ~ George Gordon Byron

Friendship is love without wings. ~ George Gordon Byron

Just as I had formed a tolerable establishment my travels commenced, and on my return I find all to do over again; my former flock were all scattered; some married, not before it was needful. ~ George Gordon Byron

I awoke one morning to find myself famous. ~ George Gordon Byron

If I am fool, it is, at least, a doubting one; and I envy no one the certainty of his self-approved wisdom. ~ George Gordon Byron

When people say, "I've told you fifty times," / They mean to scold, and very often do; / When poets say, "I've written fifty rhymes," / They make you dread that they 'II recite them too;
In gangs of fifty, thieves commit their crimes; / At fifty love for love is rare, 't is true, / But then, no doubt, it equally as true is, / A good deal may be bought for fifty Louis. ~ George Gordon Byron

But what is Hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence; the least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of. ~ George Gordon Byron

There is an order
Of mortals on the earth, who do become
Old in their youth, and die ere middle age,
Without the violence of warlike death;
Some perishing of pleasure, some of study,
Some worn with toil, some of mere weariness,
Some of disease, and some insanity,
And some of wither'd or of broken hearts;
For this last is a malady which slays
More than are number'd in the lists of Fate,
Taking all shapes and bearing many names. ~ George Gordon Byron

When we have made our love and gamed our gaming, Drest, voted, shone, and maybe something more; With dandies dined, heard senators declaiming, Seen beauties brought to market by the score, Sad rakes to sadder husbands chastely taming, There's little left but to be bored or bore. Witness those ci-devant jeunes hommes who stem The stream, nor leave the world which leaveth them. ~ George Gordon Byron

Despair and Genius are too oft connected ~ George Gordon Byron

Now hatred is by far the longest pleasure;
Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure. ~ George Gordon Byron

Shadow! or Spirit!
Whatever thou art,
Which still doth inherit
The whole or a part
Of the form of thy birth,
Of the mould of thy clay,
Which returned to the earth,
Re-appear to the day! ~ George Gordon Byron

Always laugh when you can, it is cheap medicine. ~ George Gordon Byron

This was an easy matter with a man Oft in the wrong, and never on his guard; And even the wisest, do the best they can, Have moments, hours, and days, so unprepared, That you might 'brain them with their lady's fan;' And sometimes ladies hit exceeding hard, And fans turn into falchions in fair hands, And why and wherefore no one understands. ~ George Gordon Byron

Be hypocritical, be cautious, be Not what you seem, but always what you see. ~ George Gordon Byron

Byron's Prometheus becomes symbolic of the human condition in both his mixed divinity and his drive to suffer through the toils of life in a grand effort towards a progressive evolution, whereby the cruel fate of humanity might someday be overcome. ~ George Gordon Byron

Yet he was jealous, though he did not show it, For jealousy dislikes the world to know it. ~ George Gordon Byron

Even innocence itself has many a wile,
And will not dare to trust itself with truth,
And love is taught hypocrisy from youth. ~ George Gordon Byron

I do not believe in any religion, I will have nothing to do with immortality. We are miserable enough in this life without speculating upon another. ~ George Gordon Byron

I am ashes where once I was fire... ~ George Gordon Byron

Years steal fire from the mind as vigor from the limb; and life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim. ~ George Gordon Byron

On with the dance! let joy be unconfin'd ~ George Gordon Byron