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Call for the grandest of all earthly spectacles, what is that? It is the sun going to his rest. Call for the grandest of all human sentiments, what is that? It is that man should forget his anger before he lies down to sleep.

— Thomas De Quincey Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822)

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More quotes by Thomas De Quincey

Solitude, though silent as light, is, like light, the mightiest of agencies; for solitude is essential to man. All men come into this world alone; all leave it alone.

In many walks of life, a conscience is a more expensive encumbrance than a wife or a carriage.

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822)

It is notorious that the memory strengthens as you lay burdens upon it, and becomes trustworthy as you trust it.

The laughter of girls is, and ever was, among the delightful sounds of earth.

Coleridge and Opium-Eating (1845)

Dyspepsy is the ruin of most things: empires, expeditions, and everything else.

Letter to Hessey (1823)

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Attribution

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