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Thus man passes away; his name perishes from record and recollection; his history is as a tale that is told, and his very monument becomes a ruin.

— Washington Irving The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819)

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More quotes by Washington Irving

There is a healthful hardiness about real dignity, that never dreads contact and communion with others, however humble. It is only spurious pride that is morbid and sensitive, and shrinks from every touch.

The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819)

A woman is more considerate in affairs of love than man; because love is more the study and business of her life.

Bracebridge Hall (1822)

There is an eloquence in true enthusiasm that is not to be doubted.

Good temper, like a sunny day, sheds a brightness over everything; it is the sweetener of toil and the soother of disquietude.

Gems for the Fireside (1882)

I am always at a loss to know how much to believe of my own stories.

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A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.

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History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.

James Joyce Ulysses (1922)

If we don’t care about our past we can’t have very much hope for our future.

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I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past, — so good night!

Thomas Jefferson

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Washington Irving (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.