Age:-
§ My days are in the yellow leaf;
The flowers and fruits of love are gone;
The worm, the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone! (On My Thirty-sixth Year [1824], St. 2.)
Aristocracy:-
§ For what were all these country patriots born?
To hunt, and vote, and raise the price of corn?
§ Such hath it been shall be beneath the sun
The many still must labor for the one. (Corsair [1814], Canto I, st. 8.)
Authors:-
§ One hates an author that is all author, fellows In foolscap uniforms turned up with ink, So very anxious, clever, fine, and jealous. (Beppo, st. 72.)
Bores and Bored:-
§ Society is now one polished horde,
Formed of two mighty tribes, the Bores and Bored. (Don Juan, Canto XIII, st. 95.)
Castlereagh:-
§ Posterity will ne'er survey
A nobler grave than this:
Here lie the bones of Castlereagh:
Stop, traveller, and piss.
Death:-
§ What is the worst of woes that wait on age?
What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow?
To view each loved one blotted from life's page,
And be alone on earth, as I am now. (Childe Harold, Canto II, st. 98.)
Drinking:-
§ What's drinking?
A mere pause from thinking! (The Deformed Transformed [1824], Act III, Sc. i.)
England:-
§ I am sure my bones would not rest in an English grave, or my clay mix with the earth of that country. I believe the thought would drive me mad on my death-bed could I suppose that any of my friends would be base enough to convey my carcass back to her soil. I would not even feed her worms if I could help it.
§ The English winter ending in July,
To recommence in August. (Don Juan, Canto XIII, st. 42.)
Envy:-
§ He who ascends to mountaintops, shall find
The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow;
He who surpasses or subdues mankind
Must look down on the hate of those below. (Childe Harold, Canto III, st. 45.).
Fame:-
§ Fame is the thirst of youth. (Childe Harold, Canto III, st. 112.)
Farewell:-
§ All farewells should be sudden. (Sardanapalus [1821], Act V.)
Flirting:-
§ So much alarm'd that she is quite alarming,
All Giggle, Blush half Pertness, and half Pout.
§ Merely innocent flirtation, Not quite adultery, but adulteration. (Don Juan, Canto XII, st. 63.)
Freedom:-
§ Yet, Freedom! yet thy banner, torn, but flying,
Streams like the thunderstorm against the wind. (Childe Harold, Canto IV, st. 98.)
I told you so:-
§ Of all the horrid, hideous notes of woe,
Sadder than owl songs or the midnight blast,
Is that portentous phrase, I told you so. (Don Juan, Canto XIV, st. 50.)
Intellectual Leader:-
§ Among them, but not of them; in a shroud
Of thoughts which were not their thoughts. (Childe Harold, Canto III, st. 113.)
§ But Oh! ye lords of ladies intellectual,
Inform us truly, have they not henpecked you all? (Don Juan, Canto I, st. 22.)
Italy:-
§ I love the language, that soft bastard Latin,
Which melts like kisses from a female mouth. (Beppo, st. 44.)
§ Italia! O Italia! thou who hast
The fatal gift of beauty. (Childe Harold, Canto IV, st. 42.) [Actually Byron stole this line from Vincenzo da Filicaja (1642-1707).]
Laughter:-
§ Nothing can confound a wise man more than laughter from a dunce.
Love:-
§ Friendship may, and often does, grow into love, but love never subsides into friendship.
§ Man's love is of man's life a thing apart,
'Tis woman's whole existence. (Don Juan, Canto I, st. 194.)
§ Had sighed to many, though he loved but one. (Childe Harold, Canto I, st. 5.)
§ Doomed to die by Love's sad archery. (Childe Harold, Canto I, st. 72.)
Lying:-
§ And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but
The truth in masquerade."
Marriage:-
§ All tragedies are finish'd by death, all comedies are ended by a marriage.
Money:-
§ Ready money is Aladdin's lamp. (Don Juan, Canto XII, st. 12.)
Night:-
§ For the night
Shows stars and women in a better light.
§ ... the night was made for loving. (So, We'll Go No More A-Roving [1817].)
Predictions:-
§ I suppose we shall soon travel by air-vessels; make air instead of sea-voyages. (In Medwin's Conversations with Lord Byron, 1824.)
Revolution:-
§ Who would be free themselves must strike the blow. (Childe Harold, Canto II, st. 76.).
Rum:-
§ There's nought, no doubt, so much the spirit calms
As rum and true religion. (Don Juan, Canto II, st. 34.)
Scotland:-
§ A land of meanness, sophistry and lust.
Sex:-
§ What men call gallantry, and gods adultery,
Is much more common where the climate's sultry. (Don Juan, Canto I, st. 63.)
§ All human history attests
That happiness for man the hungry sinner!
Since Eve ate apples, much depends on dinner. (Don Juan, Canto XIII, st. 99.)
§ A little still she strove, and much repented,
And whispering I will ne'er consent consented. (Don Juan, Canto I, st. 117.)
§ And there was mounting in hot haste. (Childe Harold, Canto III, st. 25.)
Solitude:-
§ In solitude, where we are Least alone.
Southey:-
§ He lied with such a fervour of intention
There was no doubt he earned his laureate pension.
Suspicion:-
§ Suspicion is a heavy armour. (Werner.)
Time:-
§ O Time! the beautifier of the dead, Adorner of the ruin. (Childe Harold, Canto IV, st. 130.)
§ Time, the avenger, unto thee I lift My hands and eyes. (Childe Harold, Canto IV, st. 130.)
War:-
§ War's a brain-spattering art. (Don Juan, Canto I, st. 4.)
Wine and Women:-
§ Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter,
Sermons and soda water the day after. (Don Juan, Canto II, st. 178.)
Wisdom:-
§ Wisdom, ever on the watch to rob Joy of its alchemy. (Don Juan, Canto II, st. 203.)
Women:-
§ The Devil hath not, in all his quiver's choice,
An arrow for the heart like a sweet voice. (Don Juan, Canto XV, st. 13.)
§ Her stature tall I hate a dumpy woman. (Don Juan, Canto I, st. 61.)
§ Stockings, slippers, brushes, combs With other articles of ladies fair. (Don Juan, Canto I, st. 143.)
§ Light classic articles of female want, French stuffs, lace, tweezers, toothpicks, teapot, tray. (Don Juan, Canto III, st. 17.)
Wordsworth:-
§ Let simple Wordsworth chime his childish verse. (English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.)
§ His performances, since Lyrical Ballads, are miserably inadequate to the to the ability that lurks within him. (Byron as quoted in "Nichol," p. 59.)
