Works By Letitia Elizabeth Landon

"Shame is the worst pang of unrequited affection."

"— Love is the least calculating of all dreamers, —"

"What an odd thing experience is ! — now turning over so rapidly the book of life, now writing so much on a single leaf."

"However, there is always one solace to misery, as there is one drawback to pleasure, — they must all have an end, …"

"[Reply from Mr Delawarr]: Even, as we eulogise the peace and innocence of a country life ; for the peace of the parish, apply to the rector on the tithe day — for its innocence, to the justice of the peace."

"[From Lady Mandeville]: I believe, that we abuse the age we live in, on the same principle that we take liberties with our friends. The poor present time, how it is calumniated ! degenerate, immoral, irreligious, are its best epithets ; and we talk of the good old time till we really believe it existed."

"[From Edward Lorraine]: I think romance can never take a very high tone but in times of great civilisation. Romance is more matter of feeling than of passion ; and if violent passions belong to a barbarous, strong feelings belong to a civilised state. The refinement of our tastes, of course, is communicated to our sentiments ; and we exaggerate, subtilise, and spiritualise — the three chief ingredients of romance."

"How mistaken is the phrase, "every delicacy of the season " — they mean out of season. Grapes are ripe at the same time as strawberries, and peaches come in with the crocuses."

"The truth is, Lord Merton was, simply, naturally and intensely selfish ; he was himself "the ocean of his thoughts ;" he never considered the comfort of other people, because he never looked at it as distinct from his own ; and the most romantic devotion, the most self-denying love, would have seemed, if he were the object of it, as quite in the common course of things. This is a common character, which age alone developes into deformity. Youth, like charity, covers a multitude of sins ; but Heaven help the wife, children, servants, and all other pieces of domestic property, when such a man is fifty, and has the gout !"

"People are often very generous in giving what is of no value : is it on this principle that one lady is usually so profuse in her admiration of the dress of another ?"

"Not one in a thousand knows how to put on a bonnet : they set it on one side like a disagreeable recollection ; or bolt upright, as if they wanted to realise Shakespeare's worst of puns, — "and she, like France, was at war with her hair (heir)." No such very great degree of genius can be displayed in the rest of the toilet. The dress has been chosen — it fits you à ravir — it has simply to be put on with mathematical accuracy : but the bonnet is the triumph of taste, — you must exert your intellect, — your destiny is in your own hands."

"[From Lady Mandeville]: Nay, nay — it is to shew us how well you can do without us. I daily expect, in these times of reform and retrenchment, that a bill will be brought into the House for the suppression of the female sex, as an expensive and useless superfluity."

"[From a lady known as our English Corinne]: 'Now, do you not see what a wicked little girl you are? Why do you not pray to God every morning to make you a better child ? ' 'And so I do,' sobbed the poor little thing, 'but he only makes me worserer and worserer.’"

"[From Edward Lorraine]: —news lasts longer in the country than it does in town—"

"[From Edward Lorraine]: But, really, it is scarcely worth while to be witty, when we remember how stupid people are. One would often think that a joke was as hard to be taken as an affront."

"[From Mr Morland]: Ridicule may be the test of truth, but it is not its result."

"[From Mr Morland]: … we like and require truth — always supposing and allowing that the said truth interferes neither with our interests nor our inclinations."

"[From Mr Edward Lorraine]: Nothing is more difficult than to paint from nature — nothing so pleasant when achieved."

"[From Emily]: At all events, that gentleman's self-estimate is a pleasant one who believes that every man looks up to, and that every woman is in love with him."

"All sweeping assertions are erroneous."

"Those who have no part in the conflict see with the imagination : they behold the crimson banner, hear the stately trumpet, and think not of the dust of the march, or the agony of the battle ; …"

"From childhood we hear some few great names to which mind has given an immortality : they are called the benefactors of their kind — their words are familiar to our lips — our early thoughts take their tone, our first mental pleasures are derived, from their pages — we admire, and then we imitate —we think how glorious it is to let the spirit thus go forth, winning a throne in men's hearts, sending our thoughts, like the ships of Tyre laden with rich merchandise, over the ocean of human opinion, and bringing back a still richer cargo of praise and goodwill. Thus was it with the great men of old, and so shall it be with us. We forget that Time, the Sanctifier, has been with them ; that no present interests jar against theirs ; and that around them is the calm and the solemnity of the grave; and we forget the ordeal through which they have passed to the temple."

"Clubs are just a modification of monasteries — places of refuge from female attentions ; and, as in former days, the finest architecture, the best situation, the most elaborate cuisine, the most refined cellar, are devoted to their use. The principal modern improvements are the omission of fasting and penance, and the substitution of magazines for missals."

"Do not tell me of the happiness of life, when every day begins with a struggle and a sacrifice. To get up in the morning, both in the enjoyment it resigns and the resolution it requires, is an act of heroism."

"Our nature has many mysteries — the moral and physical world are strangely allied ; the weight on the air presages the hurricane — the darkness on the heaven the tempest — why may not destiny have its signs, and the heart its portents, …"

"Childhood is not often a happy season — it is too much forced and controlled, …"

"It is true enough for a proverb, that the pleasantest parties are those of which the least can be told."

"Shyness is too much a mere impulse in very early youth to be lasting ; …"

"Or is there a prophetic spirit in the human mind, which makes those of the keenest feelings often appear cold ; an intuitive, though unowned fear, repressing sensations of such deep and intense power ? They can not feel only a little ; and they shrink, though with an unconscious dread, from feeling too much."

"[From Edward Lorraine]: … : you know ladies never dress but for each other ; …"

"[From Edward Lorraine]: An exquisite distinction I once heard made between wit and humour, appears to me admirably to apply to that of the French and English — that humour differs from wit in being more nearly allied with pathos. Thus it is with us islanders — we can be merry, but not lively ; and mirth brings its own reaction."

"[From Edward Lorraine]: … a nation only wants words for the things it knows—"

"[From Edward Lorraine]: By the by, I think it among the great honours to French literature, that one of its most original branches, fairy tales, is peculiarly its own."

"[From Edward Lorraine]: The monarch must be noble as his dwelling ; ..."

"[From Emily]: Good taste is his religion, his morality, his standard, and his test. … … Consistency of action, attention to results, and also to present benefit on the one side, and harmony of colour and graceful effect on the other, he urges arise from the same principle under different circumstances — viz. good taste !"

"Ireland, last year, was to be paradise, if that Peri, emancipation, was but sent there ; now it is a wretched, degraded, oppressed country, unless the Union be dissolved !"

"A century or two ago, the best blood in the kingdom was spent in defence of the right divine of kings — and it was called heroic conduct ; now it is to be shed in defence of the rights of the people — and that is very heroic conduct too. I wonder what will be heroic conduct a century hence."

"It is hard, very hard, for the heart to part with, at one struggle, those it has most loved and reverenced."

"[From Edward Lorraine]: And thus it is, with all the works of men : whether for beauty or usefulness, how soon they perish ! One generation builds, that another may neglect or destroy. We talk of the future — we look to it — we act for it. The future comes — ourselves are forgotten — our works are ruins."

"Nothing like a gallop on a beautiful Arabian in all desperate cases."

"Conscience always acts on the conciliatory system."

"He saw the need of instant action, and took refuge in that common resource of the destitute, a well-sounding phrase."

"Habits are the petrifactions of the feelings, and his habits were those of business. [A resolution is never shaken by a conviction.]"

"None are so disinterested as the thoughtless and absorbed."

"[From Edward Lorraine]: Opinions may change with the circumstances on which they were founded, but principles never."

"[From Mr Delawarr]: … : enmities are like friendships — useless encumbrances ; individual feelings have nothing to do with general proceedings."

"[From Mr Delawarr]: He is a fool, therefore obstinate ; but vain, and therefore manageable."

"[From Mr Delawarr]: A very small loss indeed, it being only what you ought never to have had."

"Surprises are like misfortunes or herrings — they rarely come single."

"... no enmity is so bitter as a political one ..."