"The world knows nothing of its greatest men." -- Henry Taylor
Sir Henry Taylor (18 October 1800 – 27 March 1886) was an English dramatist.
Taylor was born in Bishop Middleham, the son of a gentleman farmer, and spent his youth in Witton-le-Wear with his stepmother at Witton Hall (now Witton Tower) in the high street. His father George was a friend of Wordsworth and the poet visited him in July 1838.
In Witton, Taylor wrote 'The Cave of Ceada' which was accepted for the Quarterly Review. He became editor of the London Magazine in 1823, and from 1824 until 1872, he worked in the Colonial Office. Taylor wrote a number of plays, including Isaac Comnenus (1827) and Philip van Artevelde (1834). This latter brought him fame and elicited comparisons with Shakespeare In 1845 there followed a book of lyrical poems. His essay 'The Statesman' (1836) caused some controversy, being a satirical view of how the civil service really works. Taylor published his Autobiography in 1885, which contains pleasant portraits of Wordsworth, Southey, Tennyson and Scott among others.
"Conscience is, in most men, an anticipation of the opinions of others.""He who gives what he would as readily throw away, gives without generosity; for the essence of generosity is in self sacrifice.""No siren did ever so charm the ear of the listener as the listening ear has charmed the soul of the siren.""Shy and proud men are more liable than any others to fall into the hands of parasites and creatures of low character. For in the intimacies which are formed by shy men, they do not choose, but are chosen.""The hope, and not the fact, of advancement, is the spur to industry.""Where there are large powers with little ambition, nature may be said to have fallen short of her purposes."