Thomas de Quincey Quotes.

1. "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. Once begun upon this downward path, you never know where you are to stop. Many a man has dated his ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought little of at the time."
- Quote by Thomas de Quincey

2. "Guilt and misery shrink, by a natural instinct, from public notice: they court privacy and solitude: and even in their choice of a grave will sometimes sequester themselves from the general population of the churchyard, as if declining to claim fellowship with the great family of man; thus, in a symbolic language universally understood, seeking (in the affecting language of Mr. Wordsworth) ’ Humbly to express A penitential loneliness."
- Quote by Thomas de Quincey

3. "Crocodiles, you will say, are stationary. Mr. Waterton tells me that the crocodile does not change,—that a cayman, in fact, or an alligator, is just as good for riding upon as he was in the time of the Pharaohs. That may be; but the reason is that the crocodile does not live fast—he is a slow coach. I believe it is generally understood among naturalists that the crocodile is a blockhead. It is my own impression that the Pharaohs were also blockheads."
- Quote by Thomas de Quincey

4. "the tyranny of the human face"
- Quote by Thomas de Quincey

5. "For tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally of coarse nerves, or are become so from wine-drinking, and are not susceptible of influence from so refined a stimulant, will always be the favourite beverage of the intellectual;"
- Quote by Thomas de Quincey

6. "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."
- Quote by Thomas de Quincey

7. "Γενικά, τα σπάνια άτομα που μου προκάλεσαν αηδία στόν κόσμο αυτό, ύπηρξαν άτομα ανθηρά κοινωνικώς και με καλή φήμη,όσο για τούς μασκαράδες που γνώρισα, και δεν είναι λίγοι, τούς σκέφτομαι όλους χωρίς εξαίρεση μ' ευχαρίστηση και καλοσύνη."
- Quote by Thomas de Quincey

8. "Ah, reader! I would the gods had made thee rhythmical, that thou mightest comprehend the thousandth part of my labours in the evasion of cacophony."
- Quote by Thomas de Quincey

9. "In many walks of life, a conscience is a more expensive encumbrance than a wife or a carriage."
- Quote by Thomas de Quincey

10. "A promise is binding in the inverse ratio of the numbers to whom it is made."
- Quote by Thomas de Quincey