62 verified quotes from 32 writers, c. 475 BC to 1916.
Quotes 22 to 42 of 62, 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.
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
Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
Our note: Emerson answers the fear of being misunderstood.
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
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
You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man
Our note: Douglass introducing the fight with the slave-breaker Edward Covey, the turning point of his life.
Verified in the full text of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #23
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
It was a glorious resurrection, from the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of freedom
Our note: Douglass on how he felt after standing up to 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: 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 am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.
Our note: Jane to Mr. Rochester.
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
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
It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it
Our note: Jane, restless on the roof of Thornfield Hall.
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
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
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.
Our note: Written after Thoreau spent a night in jail for refusing to pay a tax he believed supported injustice.
Verified in the full text of Civil Disobedience on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #205 · Collected in Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846
The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread
Our note: On how Hester Prynne's outcast state freed her thinking.
Verified in the full text of The Scarlet Letter on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #33
Painted the same decade: Madame Frederic Breyer (Fanny Hélène Van Bruyssel, 1830–1894), Gustave Courbet, 1858
What we did had a consecration of its own.
Our note: Hester Prynne to Arthur Dimmesdale in the forest, refusing to call their love shameful.
Verified in the full text of The Scarlet Letter on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #33
Painted the same decade: Louis Gueymard (1822–1880) as Robert le Diable, Gustave Courbet, 1857
I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.
Our note: The cheerful second mate Stubb, alone on the night watch.
Verified in the full text of Moby-Dick on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2701
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
…there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces
Our note: Ishmael on those who can descend into despair and rise out of it again.
Verified in the full text of Moby-Dick on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2701
Painted the same decade: The Artist's Sitting Room in Ritterstrasse, Adolph Menzel, 1851
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 learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Our note: Thoreau sums up what his two years at the pond taught him.
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
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names.
Our note: Thoreau urges readers to face their circumstances rather than complain about them.
Verified in the full text of Walden on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #205
Painted the same decade: Madame Frederic Breyer (Fanny Hélène Van Bruyssel, 1830–1894), Gustave Courbet, 1858
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