Thomas De Quincey, (1785-1859), British Author Quotes

Call for the grandest of all earthly spectacles. What is that? It is the sun going to his rest.

Cows are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them. And, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures.

Tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervous sensibilities will always be the favorite beverage of the intellectual.

Thou hast the keys of Paradise, oh just, subtle, and mighty opium!

Flowers that are so pathetic in their beauty, frail as the clouds, and in their coloring as gorgeous as the heavens, had through thousands of years been the heritage of children -- honored as the jewelry of God only by them -- when suddenly the voice of Christianity, counter-signing the voice of infancy, raised them to a grandeur transcending the Hebrew throne, although founded by God himself, and pronounced Solomon in all his glory not to be arrayed like one of these.

Solitude, though it may be silent as light, is like light, the mightiest of agencies; for solitude is essential to man. All men come into this world alone and leave it alone.

It was a Sunday afternoon, wet and cheerless; and a duller spectacle this earth of ours has not to show than a rainy Sunday in London.

The memory strengthens as you lay burdens upon it.

The pulpit style of Germany has been always rustically negligent, or bristling with pedantry.

Mathematics has not a foot to stand upon which is not purely metaphysical.