Such were our minor preparations for the journey, but above all we laid in an ample stock of good-humored, and a genuine disposition to be pleased; determining to travel in true contrabandista style; taking things as we found them, rough or smooth, and mingling with all classes and conditions in a kind of vagabond companionship. It is the true way to travel in Spain.

— Washington Irving

Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.

— Washington Irving

The almighty dollar that great object of universal devotion throughout our land seems to have no genuine devotees in these peculiar villages.

— Washington Irving

The idol of today pushes the hero of yesterday out of our recollection and will in turn be supplanted by his successor of tomorrow.

— Washington Irving

The natural effect of sorrow over the dead is to refine and elevate the mind.

— Washington Irving

The natural principle of war is to do the most harm to our enemy with the least harm to ourselves and this of course is to be effected by stratagem.

— Washington Irving

The only happy author in this world is he who is below the care of reputation.

— Washington Irving

There are certain half-dreaming moods of mind in which we naturally steal away from noise and glare, and seek some quiet haunt where we may indulge our reveries and build our air castles undisturbed.

— Washington Irving

There is a certain relief in change even though it is from bad to worse as I have found in traveling in a stagecoach it is often a comfort to shift one's position and be bruised in a new place.

— Washington Irving

There is a certain relief in change even though it is from bad to worse as I have found in travelling in a stagecoach that it is often a comfort to shift one's position and be bruised in a new place.

— Washington Irving