Thomas de Quincey's Quotes

If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.

Cows are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them; and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures.

Even imperfection itself may have its ideal or perfect state.

Tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervous sensibilities will always be the favorite beverage of the intellectual.

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.

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.

Call for the grandest of all earthly spectacles, what is that? It is the sun going to his rest.

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

Nobody will laugh long who deals much with opium: its pleasures even are of a grave and solemn complexion.

The public is a bad guesser.