English poet Lord Byron’s reputation as a heartbreaker precedes him. During his most publicized affair with British aristocrat Lady Caroline Lamb, the society darling famously declared the Don Juan “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” It’s an epitaph still quoted to this day. On the 191st anniversary of the Romantic rogue’s death, we’re looking back at some of Byron’s swooniest quotes — pieces of his works that prove the bon vivant’s seductive writing prowess was always on point, making him one of the greatest Romantics of the age.
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“Pleasure’s a sin, and sometimes sin’s a pleasure.”
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“Away with your fictions of flimsy romance, Those tissues of falsehood which folly has wove ! Give me the mild beam of the soul-breathing glance, Or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love.”
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“The light of love, the purity of grace, The mind, the music breathing from her face, 19 The heart whose softness harmonized the whole,— And oh, that eye was in itself a soul!”
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“She walks the waters like a thing of life, And seems to dare the elements to strife.”
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“She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow’d to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies.”
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“She was his life, The ocean to the river of his thoughts, Which terminated all.”
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“Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.”
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“In secret we met In silence I grieve, That thy heart could forget, Thy spirit deceive.”
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“Whene’er we meet my blushes rise, And mantle through my purpled cheek, But yet no blush to mine replies, Nor e’en your eyes your love bespeak.”
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“I wish to tune my quivering lyre, To deeds of fame, and notes of fire”
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“This is the deepest of our woes, For this these tears our cheeks bedew; This is of love the final close, Oh, God! the fondest, last adieu!”
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“If thou wert mine, had all been hush’d:— This cheek, now pale from early riot, With Passion’s hectic ne’er had flush’d, But bloom’d in calm domestic quiet.”
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“I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives as much as if we had never married at all.”
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“Eat, drink, and love; the rest’s not worth a fillip.”
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“Sweet girl! though only once we met, That meeting I shall ne’er forget; And though we ne’er may meet again, Remembrance will thy form retain; I would not say, “I love,” but still, My senses struggle with my will: In vain to drive thee from my breast, My thoughts are more and more represt; In vain I check the rising sighs, Another to the last replies: Perhaps, this is not love, but yet, Our meeting I can ne’er forget.”
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“These locks, which fondly thus entwine, In firmer chains our hearts confine, Than all th’ unmeaning protestations Which swell with nonsense, love orations.”
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“By day or night, in weal or woe, That heart, no longer free, Must bear the love it cannot show, And silent ache for thee.”
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“Heart on her lips, and soul within her eyes, Soft as her clime, and sunny as her skies.”
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“The heart will break, but broken live on.”
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“When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past For years fleet away with the wings of the dove The dearest remembrance will still be the last, Our sweetest memorial the first kiss of love.”