Thomas de Quincey
Thomas de Quincey
Thomas Penson De Quinceywas an English essayist, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quincey inaugurated the tradition of addiction literature in the West...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth15 August 1785
blow wind ears
I stood checked for a moment - awe, not fear, fell upon me - and whist I stood, a solemn wind began to blow, the most mournful that ever ear heard. Mournful! That is saying nothing. It was a wind that had swept the fields of mortality for a hundred centuries.
drinking men sobriety
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 by sobriety.
congratulations skills missing
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 in so many trials, argues the most splendid talents for missing.
fitness exercise discipline
There is a necessity for a regulating discipline of exercise that, whilst evoking the human energies, will not suffer them to be wasted.
secret mind age
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; and peace of mind could be sent down by the mail.
rain wind tea
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 audibly without.
sunday afternoon earth
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.
sun spectacles
Call for the grandest of all earthly spectacles, what is that? It is the sun going to his rest.
burden
The burden of the incommunicable.
numbers promise ratios
A promise is binding in the inverse ratio of the numbers to whom it is made.
understanding mind faculty
The mere understanding, however useful and indispensable, is the meanest faculty in the human mind and the most to be distrusted.
perfect may states
Even imperfection itself may have its ideal or perfect state.
kings disappear should
Kings should disdain to die, and only disappear.
music single men
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.