Thomas de Quincey Quotes

44 quotes in 681 categories

• Allow me to offer my congratulations on the truly admirable skill you have shown in keeping clear of the mark. Not to have hit once… Admirable
• It is most absurdly said, in popular language, of any man, that he is disguised in liquor; for, on the contrary, most men are disguised… Absurdly
• The peace of nature and of the innocent creatures of god seems to be secure and deep, only so long as the presence of man… Creatures
• Tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervous sensibilities will always be the favorite beverage of the intellectual. Beverage
• Flowers that are so pathetic in their beauty, frail as the clouds, and in their coloring as gorgeous as the heavens, had through thousands of… Beauty
• Mathematics has not a foot to stand upon which is not purely metaphysical. Feet
• Thou hast the keys of Paradise, oh, just, subtle, and mighty opium! Drug
• I stood checked for a moment - awe, not fear, fell upon me - and whist I stood, a solemn wind began to blow, the… Awe
• Rightly it is said of utter, utter misery, that it 'cannot be remembered'; itself, being a rememberable thing, is swallowed up in its own chaos. Chaos
• All is finite in the present; and even that finite is infinite in it velocity of flight towards death. But in God there is nothing… All
• Flowers that are so pathetic in their beauty, frail as the clouds, and in their coloring as gorgeous as the heavens, had through thousands of… All
• Nobody will laugh long who deals much with opium: its pleasures even are of a grave and solemn complexion. Complexion
• Call for the grandest of all earthly spectacles, what is that? It is the sun going to his rest. All
• Kings should disdain to die, and only disappear. Die
• All that is literature seeks to communicate power All
• Even imperfection itself may have its ideal or perfect state. Even Imperfection
• The mere understanding, however useful and indispensable, is the meanest faculty in the human mind and the most to be distrusted. Distrusted
• In many walks of life, a conscience is a more expensive encumbrance than a wife or a carriage. Carriage
• A promise is binding in the inverse ratio of the numbers to whom it is made. Binding
• Either the human being must suffer and struggle as the price of a more searching vision, or his gaze must be shallow and without intellectual… Gaze

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