James Leigh Hunt Quotes

Cats at firesides live luxuriously and are the picture of comfort. ~ Leigh Hunt

I entrench myself in books equally against sorrow and the weather. ~ Leigh Hunt

There is scarcely a single joy or sorrow within the experience of our fellow-creatures which we have not tasted; yet the belief, in the good and beautiful has never forsaken us. It has been medicine to us in sickness, richness in poverty, and the best part of all that ever delighted us in health and success. ~ Leigh Hunt

When Goethe says that in every human condition foes lie in wait for us, "invincible only by cheerfulness and equanimity," he does not mean that we can at all times be really cheerful, or at a moment's notice; but that the endeavor to look at the better side of things will produce the habit, and that this habit is the surest safeguard against the danger of sudden is evils. ~ Leigh Hunt

There seems a life in hair, though it be dead. ~ Leigh Hunt

Affection, like melancholy, magnifies trifles. ~ Leigh Hunt

If you become a Nun, dear,
The bishop Love will be;
The Cupids every one, dear!
Will chant-'We trust in thee!' ~ Leigh Hunt

The very greatest genius, after all, is not the greatest thing in the world, any more than the greatest city in the world is the country or the sky. It is the concentration of some of its greatest powers, but it is not the greatest diffusion of its might. It is not the habit of its success, the stability of its sereneness. ~ Leigh Hunt

It was first love. Nothing else is quite like that," I said. "Do you know what I mean? ~ Leigh James

Hair is the most delicate and lasting of our materials, and survives us, like love. It is so light, so gentle; so escaping from the idea of death, that, with a lock of hair belonging to a child or friend, we may almost look up to heaven and compare notes with the angelic nature,
may almost say, I have a piece of thee here not unworthy of thy being now. ~ Leigh Hunt

The perfection of conversational intercourse is when the breeding of high life is animated by the fervor of genius. ~ Leigh Hunt

Bread, milk and butter are of venerable antiquity. They taste of the morning of the world. ~ Leigh Hunt

For many years, biographers and scholars, beginning with her great nephew James Austen-Leigh, presented her as a quiet, reserved, proper woman, but one has only to read her novels to realize that she was nothing so bland. Her genius, her craft, and her timeless prose are no secret, but thanks to Cassandra's scissors, most other aspects of her life will probably remain a mystery. ~ Beth Pattillo

I am persuaded there is no such thing after all as a perfect enjoyment of solitude; for the more delicious the solitude the more one wants a companion. ~ Leigh Hunt

Mankind are creatures of books, as well as of other circumstances; and such they eternally remain,
proofs, that the race is a noble and believing race, and capable of whatever books can stimulate. ~ Leigh Hunt

Music is the medicine of the breaking heart. ~ Leigh Hunt

The person who can be only serious or only cheerful, is but half a man. ~ Leigh Hunt

Anglers boast of the innocence of their pastime; yet it puts fellow-creatures to the torture. They pique themselves on their meditative faculties; and yet their only excuse is a want of thought. ~ Leigh Hunt

The most tangible of all visible mysteries - fire. ~ Leigh Hunt

A dog can have a friend; he has affections and character, he can enjoy equally the field and the fireside; he dreams, he caresses, he propitiates; he offends, and is pardoned; he stands by you in adversity; he is a good fellow. ~ Leigh Hunt

A pleasure so exquisite as almost to amount to pain. ~ Leigh Hunt

We are violets blue, For our sweetness found Careless in the mossy shades, Looking on the ground. Love's dropp'd eyelids and a kiss,
Such our breath and blueness is. ~ Leigh Hunt

If you ever have to support a flagging conversation, introduce the topic of eating. ~ Leigh Hunt

Sympathizing and selfish people are alike, both given to tears. ~ Leigh Hunt

Great woman belong to history and to self sacrifice. ~ Leigh Hunt

Did you ever observe that immoderate laughter always ends in a sigh? ~ Leigh Hunt

Hawaii once had a rat problem. Then, somebody hit upon a brilliant solution. import mongooses from India. Mongooses would kill the rats. It worked. Mongooses did kill the rats. Mongooses also killed chickens, young pigs, birds, cats, dogs, and small children. There have been reports of mongooses attacking motorbikes, power lawn mowers, golf carts, and James Michener. in Hawaii now, there are as many mongooses as there once were rats. Hawaii had traded its rat problem for a mongoose problem. Hawaii was determined nothing like that would ever happen again.
How could Leigh-Cheri draw for Gulietta the appropriate analogy between Hawaii's rodents and society at large? Society had a crime problem. It hired cops to attack crime. Now society has a cop problem. ~ Tom Robbins

Poetry is the breath of beauty. ~ Leigh Hunt

For the qualities of sheer wit and humor, Swift had no superior, ancient or modern. ~ Leigh Hunt

The noise of the air base became a dull roar, and he fell asleep dreaming of James - his laugh, his smile, and the pine box he'd come home in. ~ Garrett Leigh

Wit is the clash and reconcilement of incongruities; the meeting of extremes round a corner. ~ Leigh Hunt