George Borrow Quotes

George Borrow shares grand musings on heroes and strange lands that feel like a short adventure.

13 quotes

1. The author of Amelia, the most singular genius which their island ever produced, whose works it has long been the fashion to abuse in public and to read in secret.

2. There is a peculiarity in the countenance, as everybody knows, which, though it cannot be described, is sure to betray the Englishman.

3. Sherry...a silly, sickly compound, the use of which will transform a nation, however bold and warlike by nature, into a race of sketchers, scribblers, and punsters, in fact into what Englishmen are at the present day.

4. There are no countries in the world less known by the British than these selfsame British Islands, or where more strange things are every day occurring.

5. Smoking has a sedative effect upon the nerves, and enables a man to bear the sorrows of this life (of which every one has his share) not only decently, but dignifiedly.

6. If you must commit suicide - and there is no knowing to what people may be brought - always contrive to do it as decorously as possible; the decencies, whether of life or of death, should never be lost sight of.

7. I have always been a friend to hero-worship; it is the only rational one, and has always been in use amongst civilized people.

8. There's night and day, brother, both sweet things; sun, moon, and stars, brother, all sweet things; there's likewise a wind on the heath. Life is very sweet, brother; who would wish to die?

9. There's the wind on the heath, brother; if I could only feel that, I would gladly live for ever.

10. He is not deserving of the name of Englishman who speaketh against ale, that is, good ale.

11. Life is very sweet, brother; who would wish to die?

12. “[M]ischief itself is merely an attempt to escape from the dreary vacuum of idleness.”

13. “Youth is the only season for enjoyment, and the first twenty-five years of one's life are worth all the rest of the longest life of man, even though these be spent in penury and contempt, and the rest in possession of wealth, honors, respectability.”