1.
There's night and day, brother, both sweet things; sun, moon, and stars, brother, all sweet things; there's likewise a wind on the heath. Life is very sweet, brother; who would wish to die?
George Henry Borrow
2.
Next to the love of God, the love of country is the best preventive of crime.
George Henry Borrow
3.
Translation is at best an echo.
George Henry Borrow
4.
Two great talkers will not travel far together.
George Henry Borrow
5.
If you must commit suicide ... always contrive to do it as decorously as possible; the decencies, whether of life or of death, should never be lost sight of.
George Henry Borrow
6.
There are no countries in the world less known by the British than those selfsame British Islands.
George Henry Borrow
7.
Good ale, the true and proper drink of Englishmen. He is not deserving of the name of Englishman who speaketh against ale, that is good ale.
George Henry Borrow
8.
Youth will be served, every dog has his day, and mine has been a fine one.
George Henry Borrow
9.
The Germans are the most philosophic people in the world, and the greatest smokers: now I trace their philosophy to their smoking. Smoking has a sedative effect upon the nerves, and enables a man to bear the sorrows of this life (of which every one has his share) not only decently, but dignifiedly.
George Henry Borrow
10.
We must walk before we run.
George Henry Borrow
11.
It has been said that idleness is the parent of mischief, which is very true; but mischief itself is merely an attempt to escape from the dreary vacuum of idleness.
George Henry Borrow
12.
A losing trade, I assure you, sir: literature is a drug.
George Henry Borrow
13.
I have always been a friend to hero-worship; it is the only rational one, and has always been in use amongst civilized people - the worship of spirits is synonymous with barbarism - it is mere fetish. ... There is something philosophic in the worship of the heroes of the human race.
George Henry Borrow
14.
Sherry...a silly, sickly compound, the use of which will transform a nation, however bold and warlike by nature, into a race of sketchers, scribblers, and punsters, in fact into what Englishmen are at the present day.
George Henry Borrow
15.
Never ride your horse more than five-and-thirty miles a day, always taking more care of him than of yourself; which is right and reasonable, seeing as how the horse is the best animal of the two.
George Henry Borrow
16.
I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
George Henry Borrow
17.
There is a peculiarity in the countenance, as everybody knows, which, though it cannot be described, is sure to betray the Englishman.
George Henry Borrow