Walter Savage Landor

Walter Savage Landor
Walter Savage Landorwas an English writer and poet. His best known works were the prose Imaginary Conversations, and the poem Rose Aylmer, but the critical acclaim he received from contemporary poets and reviewers was not matched by public popularity. As remarkable as his work was, it was equalled by his rumbustious character and lively temperament...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth30 January 1775
appreciation men long
No good writer was ever long neglected; no great man overlooked by men equally great. Impatience is a proof of inferior strength, and a destroyer of what little there may be.
play long theatre
When we play the fool, how wideThe theatre expands! beside,How long the audience sits before us!How many prompters! what a chorus!
men long age
Vast objects of remote altitude must be looked at a long while before they are ascertained. Ages are the telescope tubes that must be lengthened out for Shakespeare; and generations of men serve but a single witness to his claims.
government long democracy
A mercantile democracy may govern long and widely; a mercantile aristocracy cannot stand.
long giving diversity
We enter our studies, and enjoy a society which we alone can bring together. We raise no jealousy by conversing with one in preference to another; we give no offence to the most illustrious by questioning him as long as we will, and leaving him as abruptly. Diversity of opinion raises no tumult in our presence: each interlocutor stands before us, speaks or is silent, and we adjourn or decide the business at our leisure.
politics argument truth-prevails
In argument, truth always prevails finally; in politics, falsehood always.
stupid practice religion
The most pernicious of absurdities is that weak, blind, stupid faith is better than the constant practice of every human virtue.
We think that we suffer from ingratitude, while in reality we suffer from self-love.
fading grave power rest transient
Ambition has but one reward for all: A little power, a little transient fame; A grave to rest in, and a fading name!
Ambition is but avarice on stilts, and masked.
mind
An ingenuous mind feels in unmerited praise the bitterest reproof.
easy few leading life within
There is no easy path leading out of life, and few easy ones that lie within it.
ridicule
Ridicule has followed the vestiges of truth, but never usurped her place.
teacher war experience
Experience is our only teacher both in war and peace.