73 verified quotes from 37 writers, c. 475 BC to 1923.
Quotes 26 to 49 of 73, page 2 of 3.
Continued from page 1, which has our introduction. Still oldest first.
What “verified” means, and what we leave out: How we verify.
Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time
Our note: The best-known verse of Longfellow's early poem answering a gloomy view of life.
Verified in the full text of A Psalm of Life on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #78406 · Collected in The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Painted the same decade: Hagar in the Wilderness, Camille Corot, 1835
To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,—that is genius.
Our note: The opening argument of Emerson's essay on trusting your own mind.
Verified in the full text of Self-Reliance on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2944 · Collected in Essays, First Series
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
Our note: From "Self-Reliance."
Verified in the full text of Self-Reliance on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2944 · Collected in Essays, First Series
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.
Our note: From "Self-Reliance."
Verified in the full text of Self-Reliance on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2944 · Collected in Essays, First Series
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.
Our note: The closing lines of "Self-Reliance."
Verified in the full text of Self-Reliance on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2944 · Collected in Essays, First Series
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; …
Our note: From "Self-Reliance."
Verified in the full text of Self-Reliance on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2944 · Collected in Essays, First Series
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.
Our note: From "Self-Reliance."
Verified in the full text of Self-Reliance on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2944 · Collected in Essays, First Series
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846
It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
Our note: From "Self-Reliance."
Verified in the full text of Self-Reliance on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2944 · Collected in Essays, First Series
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
…however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact
Our note: The resolution Douglass made after resisting Covey.
Verified in the full text of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #23
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846
I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself
Our note: Jane, deciding to leave Thornfield rather than stay on Rochester's terms.
Verified in the full text of Jane Eyre on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1260
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846
I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do.
Our note: Rochester, disguised as a fortune-teller, reading what Jane's face seems to say about her.
Verified in the full text of Jane Eyre on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1260
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour
Our note: Jane holding to her principles at the moment they are hardest to keep.
Verified in the full text of Jane Eyre on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1260
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846
Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!
Our note: Jane to Rochester, in the scene where he at last proposes.
Verified in the full text of Jane Eyre on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1260
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face
Our note: The narrator, on how people are met with the mood they bring; the passage goes on to advise laughing with the world.
Verified in the full text of Vanity Fair on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #599
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846
…be mean in anything; never be false; never be cruel. Avoid those three vices, Trot, and I can always be hopeful of you.
Our note: David's aunt gives him this advice as he leaves for school.
Verified in the full text of David Copperfield on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #766
Painted the same decade: Madame Frederic Breyer (Fanny Hélène Van Bruyssel, 1830–1894), Gustave Courbet, 1858
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.
Our note: The novel's first sentence.
Verified in the full text of David Copperfield on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #766
Painted the same decade: Louis Gueymard (1822–1880) as Robert le Diable, Gustave Courbet, 1857
No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true
Our note: The narrator on the minister Arthur Dimmesdale, who hides his part in Hester's sin.
Verified in the full text of The Scarlet Letter on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #33
Painted the same decade: Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine, Théodore Chassériau, 1851
Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance
Our note: Ishmael, after reading the memorial tablets to lost whalemen in the New Bedford chapel.
Verified in the full text of Moby-Dick on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2701
Painted the same decade: Louis Gueymard (1822–1880) as Robert le Diable, Gustave Courbet, 1857
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
Our note: From the book's conclusion, defending people who live at their own pace.
Verified in the full text of Walden on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #205
Painted the same decade: Louis Gueymard (1822–1880) as Robert le Diable, Gustave Courbet, 1857
I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.
Our note: Thoreau argues that real change happens in the person, not the wardrobe.
Verified in the full text of Walden on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #205
Painted the same decade: The Artist's Sitting Room in Ritterstrasse, Adolph Menzel, 1851
What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.
Our note: From the chapter "Economy."
Verified in the full text of Walden on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #205
Painted the same decade: Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine, Théodore Chassériau, 1851
I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
Our note: The opening lines of "Song of Myself."
Verified in the full text of Song of Myself on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1322 · Collected in Leaves of Grass
Painted the same decade: The Artist's Sitting Room in Ritterstrasse, Adolph Menzel, 1851
Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Our note: Near the end of "Song of Myself."
Verified in the full text of Song of Myself on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1322 · Collected in Leaves of Grass
Painted the same decade: Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine, Théodore Chassériau, 1851
I exist as I am, that is enough, If no other in the world be aware I sit content, …
Our note: From "Song of Myself."
Verified in the full text of Song of Myself on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1322 · Collected in Leaves of Grass
Painted the same decade: The Artist's Sitting Room in Ritterstrasse, Adolph Menzel, 1851
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