Quotes by Thomas de Quincey

About Thomas de Quincey:

Thomas Penson De Quincey was an English essayist, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821). Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quincey inaugurated the tradition of addiction literature in the West.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

here was the secret of happiness, about which philosophers had disputed for so many ages, at once discovered; happiness might now be bought for a penny, and carried in the waistcoat-pocket; portable ecstasies might be had corked up in a pint-bottle; ...

Thomas de Quincey

Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four o'clock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging a...

Thomas de Quincey

But my way of writing is rather to think aloud, and follow my own humours, than much to consider who is listening to me; and, if I stop to consider what is proper to be said to this or that person, I shall soon come to doubt whether any part at all i...

Thomas de Quincey

If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he next comes to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.

Thomas de Quincey

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.

Thomas de Quincey

Man should forget his anger before he lies down to sleep.

Thomas de Quincey

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.

Thomas de Quincey

The public is a bad guesser.

Thomas de Quincey

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

Thomas de Quincey

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

Thomas de Quincey

If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.

Thomas de Quincey

Even imperfection itself may have its ideal or perfect state.

Thomas de Quincey

Nobody will laugh long who deals much with opium: its pleasures even are of a grave and solemn complexion.

Thomas de Quincey

Guilt and misery shrink, by a natural instinct, from public notice: they court privacy and solitude: and even in their choice of a grave will sometimes sequester themselves from the general population of the churchyard, as if declining to claim fello...

Thomas de Quincey

If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begun upon this downward path, you never k...

Thomas de Quincey

In many walks of life, a conscience is a more expensive encumbrance than a wife or a carriage.

Thomas de Quincey

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.

Thomas de Quincey

Author Bio

  • NameThomas de Quincey
  • DescriptionEnglish author
  • BornAugust 15, 1785
  • DiedDecember 8, 1859
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionLinguist; Journalist; Writer