Matthew Gregory Lewis Quotes

Great Heaven! How frail thy creature Man is made! How by himself insensibly betrayed! In ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

That destruction o'er you hovers; Lustful Man and crafty Devil Will combine to work your evil; And from earth by sorrows driven, Soon your Soul must speed to heaven. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

Guilt, did I say? In what consists ours, unless in the opinion of an ill-judging world? ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

I beheld before me an animated Corse. Her countenance was long and haggard; Her cheeks and lips were bloodless; The paleness of death was spread over her features, and her eye-balls fixed stedfastly upon me were lustreless and hollow.
I gazed upon the Spectre with horror too great to be described. My blood was frozen in my veins. I would have called for aid, but the sound expired, ere it could pass my lips. My nerves were bound up in impotence, and I remained in the same attitude inanimate as a Statue.
The visionary Nun looked upon me for some minutes in silence: There was something petrifying in her regard. At length in a low sepulchral voice She pronounced the following words.
Raymond! Raymond! Thou art mine!
Raymond! Raymond! I am thine!
In thy veins while blood shall roll,
I am thine!
Thou art mine!
Mine thy body! Mine thy soul!
~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

Poor Matilda! She sleeps in the Grave, and her broken heart throbs no more with passion. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

Or make her blushing cheek a pillow for thy head ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

Authorship is a mania to conquer which no reasons are sufficiently strong. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

You too shall know, what it is to love without hope! ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

With what delight did Ambrosio listen to the declaration of her artless gratitude! The natural grace of her manners, the unequalled sweetness of her voice, her modest vivacity, her unstudied elegance, her expressive countenance, and intelligent eyes united to inspire him with pleasure and admiration: While the solidity and correctness of her remarks received additional beauty from the unaffected simplicity of the language, in which they were conveyed. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

Possession which cloys man, only increases the affection of woman ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

Extreme in hating and in loving;
Abhorring all whom I dislike,
Adoring who my fancy strike;
In forming judgements never long,
And for the most part judging wrong; ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

You are mine, and Heaven itself cannot rescue you from my power. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

Methinks, Oh! vain ill-judging Book,
I see thee cast a wishful look,
Where reputations won and lost are
In famous row called Paternoster.
Incensed to find your precious olio
Buried in unexplored port-folio,
You scorn the prudent lock and key,
And pant well bound and gilt to see
Your Volume in the window set
Of Stockdale, Hookham, or Debrett.

Go then, and pass that dangerous bourn
Whence never Book can back return:
And when you find, condemned, despised,
Neglected, blamed, and criticised,
Abuse from All who read you fall,
(If haply you be read at all
Sorely will you your folly sigh at,
And wish for me, and home, and quiet.

Assuming now a conjuror's office, I
Thus on your future Fortune prophesy: -
Soon as your novelty is o'er,
And you are young and new no more,
In some dark dirty corner thrown,
Mouldy with damps, with cobwebs strown,
Your leaves shall be the Book-worm's prey;

Or sent to Chandler–Shop away,
And doomed to suffer public scandal,
Shall line the trunk, or wrap the candle!

But should you meet with approbation,
And some one find an inclination
To ask, by natural transition
Respecting me and my condition;
That I am one, the enquirer teach,
Nor very poor, nor very rich;
Of passions strong, of hasty nature,
Of graceless form and dwarfish stature;
By few approved, and ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

By sad experience I know what sorrows She must endure, who marries into a family unwilling to receive her. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

He, who thought it necessary to maintain himself in her good graces, strove to console her under her disappointment by committing a little violence upon truth. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

He had gone again and, emboldened by his first successful trip, had chosen a different sort of world to enter, that of THE MONK. He had studied the book with great care and finally selected a passage that was purely descriptive.

The result was the same. The instant he closed the top of the showcase, he was transported to the world described in the open pages. He found himself standing - and shivering - in a dank corridor that, he knew, was far underground. Feeble candlelight flickered in the distance, off to his left. Water dripped down the gleaming walls and startled rats scurried past his feet. The air was stale and unpleasant. Down the corridor to his left, he could hear singing but could not make out the words. Then suddenly, from his right, he heard a woman's high-pitched scream, its sound caroming off the wet, stone walls of the passageway. He jumped, his skin crawling at the back of his neck.

And found himself back in his warm and familiar room.

("I Shall Not Leave England Now") ~ Alan Ryan

Folded in your arms, I shall sink to sleep; Your hand shall close my eyes for ever, and your lips receive my dying breath. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

She sealed his lips with a wanton kiss; 'Though I forgive your breaking your vows to heaven, I expect you to keep your vows to me. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

He had long observed with disapprobation and contempt the superstition which governed Madrid's inhabitants. His good sense had pointed out to him the artifices of the monks, and the gross absurdity of their miracles, wonders, and suppositious relics. He blushed to see his countrymen, the dupes of deceptions, so ridiculous, and only wished for an opportunity to free them from their monkish fetters. That opportunity, so long desired in vain, was at length presented to him. He resolved not to let it slip, but to set before the people, in glaring colours, how enormous were the abuses but too frequently practised in monasteries, and how unjustly public esteem was bestowed indiscriminately upon all who wore a religious habit. He longed for the moment destined to unmask the hypocrites, and convince his countrymen, that a sanctified exterior does not always hide a virtuous heart. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

I must have your soul ; must have it mine, and mine for ever. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

I will go, said Lorenzo. And Lorenzo stayed, where he was. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

No one is adequate to comprehending the misery of my lot! Fate obliges me to be constantly in movement: I am not permitted to pass more than a fortnight in the same place. I have no Friend in the world, and from the restlessness of my destiny I never can acquire one. Fain would I lay down my miserable life, for I envy those who enjoy the quiet of the Grave: But Death eludes me, and flies from my embrace. In vain do I throw myself in the way of danger. I plunge into the Ocean; The Waves throw me back with abhorrence upon the shore: I rush into fire; The flames recoil at my approach: I oppose myself to the fury of Banditti; Their swords become blunted, and break against my breast: The hungry Tiger shudders at my approach, and the Alligator flies from a Monster more horrible than itself. God has set his seal upon me, and all his Creatures respect this fatal mark! ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

Ambrosio, learn to know me better. I love you for your virtues: Lose them, and with them you lose my affections. I look upon you as a Saint; Prove to me that you are no more than Man, and I quit you with disgust. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

Sometimes I felt the bloated Toad, hideous and pampered with the poisonous vapours of the dungeon, dragging his loathsome length along my bosom: Sometimes the quick cold Lizard rouzed me leaving his slimy track upon my face, and entangling itself in the tresses of my wild and matted hair: Often have I at waking found my fingers ringed with the long worms which bred in the corrupted flesh of my Infant. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

But who for a moment can deceive the eyes of love? ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

She was about forty: In her youth She had been a Beauty; But her charms had been upon that large scale which can but ill sustain the shock of years: However She still possessed some remains of them. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

When I said I should die in your service with pleasure, I intended to live in it many long years; since, to tell you the truth, from a child I had always a particular dislike to dying, and I think that with every hour the prejudice grows stronger. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

Hush! Father, Hush! You must not talk!"
"He who imposed that order, knew not how interesting are the subjects on which I wish to speak. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

In short, to enter the lists of literature is wilfully to expose yourself to the arrows of neglect, ridicule, envy, and disappointment. Whether you write well or ill, be assured that you will not escape from blame ... ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

Be cautious not to utter a syllable! Step not out of the circle, and as you love yourself, dare not to look upon my face! ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

But in those whom no necessity forces to turn Author, who merely write for fame, and have full leisure to polish their compositions, faults are impardonable, and merit the sharpest arrows of criticism. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

The obscurity of the night was in my favour. For ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

Your heart new to the world, and full of warmth and sensibility, receives its first impressions with eagerness. Artless yourself, you suspect not others of deceit; and viewing the world through the medium of your own truth and innocence, you fancy all who surround you to deserve your confidence and esteem. What pity, that these gay visions must soon be dissipated! What pity, that you must soon discover the baseness of mankind, and guard against your fellow-creatures, as against your foes! ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

A bad composition carries its own punishment - contempt and ridicule; a good one excites envy and entails upon its author a thousand mortifications; he finds himself assailed by partial and ill-humored criticism; one man finds fault with the plan, another with the style, a third with the precept which strives to inculcate; and they who cannot succeed in finding fault with the book, employ themselves in stigmatizing its author: they maliciously rake out from obscurity every little circumstance which may throw ridicule upon his private character or conduct and aim at wounding the man since they cannot hurt the writer. ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis

If we remain surrendered to God, we've already died to everything decay and death could ever threaten to take away. Our treasure is no longer in things that moths can eat and thieves can steal (Matthew 6:19-20). Our heart is no longer set on things that aging and misfortune can affect. Our life is securely hidden in Christ, whose love never changes (Colossians 3:1-3). In fact, to the extent that we're surrendered to God every moment, we've "been crucified with Christ and [we] no longer live, but Christ lives in [us]" (Galatians 2:20). ~ Gregory A. Boyd

What is God's part and what is man's part? God's part is grace. Man's part is faith. ~ Dr. Lewis W Gregory

When I draw a character, very often as I'm doing a face, my face mirrors the expression. ~ Matthew Ashford

There was something about words and music together that allowed people to get nearest to honest truth about what was most difficult to say. Paradoxically, only through the essential instantaneity of music could you approach its eternal pertinence. ~ Gregory Maguire

The fight will last as long as I allow it to last, and then I will knock him out. ~ Lennox Lewis

It is often little things that are hardest to stand. ~ C.S. Lewis

Any time we have the opportunity to play in a more intimate room, there's such a huge aspect of our set just built for that. And beyond that, we just love being that close to our fans. ~ Ryan Lewis

There's too much love in the world. Sometimes I think that's what heaven is
a place where everybody's happy because nobody loves anybody else, ever. ~ Gregory David Roberts

I smiled a bit, thinking how meaningless rejection becomes as the years roll by. ~ Jenifer Lewis

Coaching is something I've been a part of my entire life. One of the things I've always been very passionate ... ~ Ray Lewis

... questioning the existence of God may begin because of one's sense of disappointment rather than because of a line of reasoning. Disappointment can bring disillusionment, and disillusionment can get quite a grip on us. It may be the case that, next to the grip of disillusionment, whatever reasons we can think of to believe that God exists or that God is good will appear weak. So sometimes the reason we do not believe or the reason we stop believing is not the intellectual challenge to believing in God. Sometimes, the grip of disillusionment cannot be matched by things that seem to be only abstract or theoretical. ~ Gregory E. Ganssle

Desperation is a fact of life in many poor, overcrowded countries. ~ Anthony Lewis

Infant baptism when practiced can be no more than an expression of the faith and hope of the parents that their child will ultimately be saved. ~ Lewis Sperry Chafer

He is like light and wisdom is his Gabriel. ~ Franklin D. Lewis

Old and cold. High rates of suicide and prescription drug abuse. Look at the inbred faces at the grocery stores and coffee shops, the exercise-deficient kids, the routinized state workers, the sun-deprived adults and isolated third and fourth generation sad cases who've never experienced a meal outside of Lewis and Clark County. Make no mistake; Helena, Montana is old and cold and the rigid, sick antithesis of living. ~ Brian D'Ambrosio

The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. ~ C.S. Lewis

The only thing dumber than a Democrat or a Republican is when those pricks work together. You see, in our two-party system, the Democrats are the party of no ideas and the Republicans are the party of bad ideas. It usually goes something like this. A Republican will stand up in Congress and say, 'I've got a really bad idea.' And a Democrat will immediately jump to his feet and declare, 'And I can make it sh*ttier.' ~ Lewis Black

I really love that dynamic between beauty and sadness ... theres always these moments of quiet alienation, the sense of disconnect, but also, these moments of possibility. ~ Gregory Crewdson

In the end there will be people who did the work of the Lord. They were busy in the church. They had done many wonderful works. But Jesus Himself says, "I never knew you" [Matthew 7:23 NKJV]. ~ Billy Graham

I'm a fast learner. I may not run as fast as I used to, but I think I still learn as fast. ~ Carl Lewis

Tears are a tribute to our deceased friends. When the body is sown, it must be watered. But we must not sorrow as those that have no hope; for we have a good hope through grace both concerning them and concerning ourselves. ~ Matthew Henry

The demand of the loveless and the self-imprisoned that they should be allowed to blackmail the universe: that till they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy: that theirs should be the final power; that Hell should be able to veto Heaven. ~ C.S. Lewis

You don't have to be a Brad Pitt look-alike hero just to be courageous and help out your friends and come through when it really matters. I think everyone can sort of relate to that in some way, particularly back to people's school days. ~ Matthew Lewis

People can be cruel,' he says with a sympathetic look that makes me trust him even more. And right then I realize that he is not writing down all my words in a file, which I really appreciate, let me tell you. ~ Matthew Quick

Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet. ~ John Lewis

Elephants are VERY BIG. Motor cars go quickly. ~ Wyndham Lewis

west. He liked the mild climate, the Sierras making it something like Colorado with a seashore. It took him several years to overcome the natural though secret belief of true New Yorkers, that people living somewhere else had to be, in some sense, kidding. ~ Gregory Benford

Restorative justice is not a replacement of retributive justice, but a complement. It seeks the rehabilitation of the wrongdoer and the repair of the victim's injury. ~ Lewis B. Smedes

There are only two living American authors fully deserving of the Nobel Prize. One is Lewis Mumford. The other is Wallace Stegner, whose novels and essays provide us a comprehensive portrait of industrial society in all its glittering corruption and radiant evil. ~ Edward Abbey

THE ORDINARY RESPONSE TO ATROCITIES is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable.
Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried. ~ Judith Lewis Herman

But. All I could focus on was that one word: Why was there always a but? My parents swore up and down that they would love me no matter what, and yet the but sent me sliding down a rabbit hole, appearing in my mind like miles of quicksand before I could get to the love they were promising. - Kate Fagan. ~ Gregory Montoya

All right, beautiful. You've got me tied down to this stone table, and there's a knife in your hand that says you get to rule Narnia for another hundred years. So maybe I die, and winter goes on. Maybe the hunger and the darkness and the fear never end. But as long as the children believe in me, I know that Aslan will live again. I, the Great Lion, Son of The Emperor Over The Sea, will live again and
aaaaauugh!! ~ C.S. Lewis

He had gone to several universities . . . and had found only curves and credits. He had become drunk on the idea of God and found only theology. He had risen several times on the subtle and powerful wings of lust, expectant of magnificence, achieving only discharge. A few times he had extended friendship with palpitating hope, only to find that no one quite knew what he had in mind. His solitude now was the result of his metabolism, that constant breathing in of joy and exhalation of sadness. ~ Edward Lewis Wallant

As yet, there is no final reckoning of the wealth the Valley has created. Hundreds of billions of dollars, certainly; perhaps even trillions. In any case, 'The greatest legal creation of wealth in the history of the planet,' as one local capitalist puts it. The ~ Michael Lewis

According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. ~ C.S. Lewis

As long as people are going to call you lunatic anyway, why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention. ~ Gregory Maguire

It's so much easier to pray for a bore than to go and see one. ~ C.S. Lewis

Humans and animals regard each other across a gulf of mutual incomprehension. With aliens, that has to go double. ~ Gregory Benford

Esther loses her virginity, hemorrhages during the process, and almost bleeds to death - like Catherine in A Farewell to Arms - and I do wonder why women are always hemorrhaging in American literature. ~ Matthew Quick

A burnt broom that has had enough, and refuses to burn further ... ~ Gregory Maguire

Remember that string of movies when we were younger, like mid '90s? The ones where the nerdy girl finally puts on makeup and a Wonderbra and everyone realizes how totally boneable she is?" "Yeah." "Well, that's you," she says. "We're in one of those movies. You're my hopeless teenage girl, all stuck in your shell, and I'm here to give you a fresh coat of makeup and a slutty dress. Push those boobies up, Andy Carter, it's go time." "Do ~ Matthew Norman

Adults spend their lives unwinding their childhood. ~ Matthew Dicks

And now, haste, haste, haste. ~ C.S. Lewis

The mind reproduces itself by transmitting its symbols to other intermediaries, human and mechanical, than the particular brain that first assembled them. ~ Lewis Mumford

Cherishing the welfare of others to the point where we are unable to bear the sight of their misery.' The ~ Matthew Quick