George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron, 1788 - 1824
Portrait by Thomas Phillips (1824)
Born: 22 January 1788, Dover, Kent, England, UK
Died: 19 April 1824, Messolonghi, Aetolia-Acarnania, Greece
"Mad, bad, and dangerous to know" was an apt description. Passionate, arrogant, constantly in debt, and promiscuous with both sexes, he shocked and titillated England with his lifestyle even as he stunned them with his literary talent. He was renowned for his good looks, and used them to advantage. He was sexually aware early, and some of his first poems were so risqué that his first book, Fugitive Pieces, was recalled and burned. His next book received such savage criticism that it inspired his first satire, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, which triggered a duel with the reviewer. Byron was not particularly active in the House of Lords, but he was a proponent of social reform and supported the Luddites, who were being put out of work by increasing automation at factories. He wrote several works defending them.
In 1809, Byron went on the Grand Tour, but staying to the south because of the Napoleonic Wars. He had many affairs, first among them his fling with Lady Caroline Lamb, who became obsessed with him and bore his child. The most outrageous scandal was the rumor that he and his half-sister Augusta had an affair. He married Anna Isabelle Milbanke in 1815, an unhappy match, they parted ways in 1816. After the failure of his marriage, Byron left England. He settled for a time near Lake Geneva, Switzerland, where he lived with his personal physician, John Polidori, and befriended Percy Shelley and his wife-to-be, Mary Godwin. During one rainy summer, they started telling each other stories. Mary's story would become Frankenstein, while Polidori created The Vampyre, the first romantic vampire novel, erroneously attributed to Byron. Byron had moved to Genoa by 1823 and was growing bored when he was approached to support Greece's rebellion against the Ottomans. Byron was eager for adventure and paid to refit the Greek fleet and prepared to sail into battle, but took ill and died before the fleet set sail.Biography from Wikipedia and English History Network
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Lord Byron quotes:
Quotes found : 140 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 10) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
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- 'Tis very certain the desire of life prolongs it. permalink
Lord Byron - A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn't know. permalink
Lord Byron - A little tumult, now and then, is an agreeable quickener of sensation; such as a revolution, a battle, or an adventure of any lively description. permalink
Lord Byron - A lovely being, scarcely formed or moulded,
A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded. permalink
Lord Byron - Don Juan (1824) - A man of eighty has outlived probably three new schools of painting, two of architecture and poetry and a hundred in dress. permalink
Lord Byron - A mistress never is nor can be a friend. While you agree, you are lovers; and when it is over, anything but friends. permalink
Lord Byron - A thousand years may scarce form a state. An hour may lay it in ruins. permalink
Lord Byron - A timid mind is apt to mistake every scratch for a mortal wound. permalink
Lord Byron - A woman should never be seen eating or drinking, unless it be lobster salad and Champagne, the only true feminine and becoming viands. permalink
Lord Byron - Absence — that common cure of love. permalink
Lord Byron - Accursed be the city where the laws would stifle nature's! permalink
Lord Byron - The Two Foscari (1821) - Admire, exult, despise, laugh, weep - for here
There is such matter for all feelings: —
Man! Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear. permalink
Lord Byron - Adversity is the first path to truth. permalink
Lord Byron - All tragedies are ended by death. All comedies are ended by marriage. permalink
Lord Byron - All who would win joy, must share it; happiness was born a twin. permalink
Lord Byron
Quotes found : 140 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 10) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
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