Lord Byron

What should I have known or written had I been a quiet, mercantile politician or a lord in waiting? A man must travel, and turmoil, or there is no existence.

There are four questions of value in life, Don Octavio. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love.

But what is Hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence; the least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of.

My turn of mind is so given to taking things in the absurd point of view, that it breaks out in spite of me every now and then.

If we must have a tyrant, let him at least be a gentleman who has been bred to the business, and let us fall by the axe and not by the butcher's cleaver.

If I could always read, I should never feel the want of company.

The Cardinal is at his wit's end - it is true that he had not far to go.

Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.

It is useless to tell one not to reason but to believe - you might as well tell a man not to wake but sleep.

Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.

I cannot help thinking that the menace of Hell makes as many devils as the severe penal codes of inhuman humanity make villains.

Now hatred is by far the longest pleasure; men love in haste but they detest at leisure.