62 verified quotes from 32 writers, c. 475 BC to 1916.
Quotes 43 to 62 of 62, page 3 of 3.
Continued from page 1, which has our introduction. Still oldest first.
What “verified” means, and what we leave out: How we verify.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, …
Our note: Part of Thoreau's explanation of why he went to the woods.
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
It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.
Our note: The final lines of the novel, imagined as Sydney Carton's thoughts.
Verified in the full text of A Tale of Two Cities on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #98
Painted the same decade: Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine, Théodore Chassériau, 1851
…he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
Our note: From Self-Help.
Verified in the full text of Self-Help on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #935
Painted the same decade: The Artist's Sitting Room in Ritterstrasse, Adolph Menzel, 1851
The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
Our note: From the Gettysburg Address, honouring the soldiers who died there.
Verified in the full text of Gettysburg Address on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #4
Painted the same decade: Woman with a Parrot, Gustave Courbet, 1866
I want to do something splendid before I go into my castle, something heroic or wonderful that won't be forgotten after I'm dead.
Our note: Jo describing her castle in the air, when the young people share their dreams.
Verified in the full text of Little Women on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #514
Painted the same decade: Boy with a Sword, Edouard Manet, 1861
I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship.
Our note: Amy in the second part of the novel, on facing life's troubles.
Verified in the full text of Little Women on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #514
Painted the same decade: The Third-Class Carriage, Honoré Daumier, 1864
My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt
Our note: A plain statement of the book's moral about standing up to cruelty.
Verified in the full text of Black Beauty on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #271
Painted the same decade: Eugène Murer (Hyacinthe-Eugène Meunier, 1841–1906), Auguste Renoir, 1877
…love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.
Our note: The elder Zossima to a woman who dreams of loving humanity but shrinks from serving one person.
Verified in the full text of The Brothers Karamazov on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #28054
Painted the same decade: Wheat Field with Cypresses, Vincent van Gogh, 1889
It is better to lose health like a spendthrift than to waste it like a miser
Our note: From Stevenson's essay on living boldly in spite of the fear of death.
Verified in the full text of Æs Triplex on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #386 · Collected in Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers
Painted the same decade: Portrait of a Woman, Henri Fantin-Latour, 1885
By all means begin your folio; even if the doctor does not give you a year, even if he hesitates about a month, make one brave push and see what can be accomplished in a week
Our note: The same essay: start the big work anyway.
Verified in the full text of Æs Triplex on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #386 · Collected in Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers
Painted the same decade: Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat (obverse: The Potato Peeler), Vincent van Gogh, 1887
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
Our note: From Wilde's essay on individualism.
Verified in the full text of The Soul of Man under Socialism on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1017
Painted the same decade: Ia Orana Maria (Hail Mary), Paul Gauguin, 1891
Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue.
Our note: From Wilde's essay on individualism.
Verified in the full text of The Soul of Man under Socialism on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1017
Painted the same decade: The Dream of the Shepherd (Der Traum des Hirten), Ferdinand Hodler, 1896
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.
Our note: A maxim from "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar."
Verified in the full text of Pudd'nhead Wilson on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #102 · Collected in The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
Painted the same decade: Irises, Vincent van Gogh, 1890
The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings
Our note: Mademoiselle Reisz's warning, as Edna Pontellier remembers it.
Verified in the full text of The Awakening on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #160
Painted the same decade: The Shepherd's Song, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, 1891
There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The True courage is in facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty
Our note: The Wizard to the Cowardly Lion, who already had what he came to ask for.
Verified in the full text of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #55
If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside.
Our note: Sara, now poor and working as a servant, decides how she will behave.
Verified in the full text of A Little Princess on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #146
The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.
Our note: From the essay "The Red Angel," defending fairy tales for children.
Verified in the full text of Tremendous Trifles on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #8092
To die will be an awfully big adventure
Our note: Peter's thought as the tide rises around him on Marooners' Rock.
Verified in the full text of Peter and Wendy on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #16 · Collected in Peter Pan
Painted the same decade: Tilla Durieux (Ottilie Godeffroy, 1880–1971), Auguste Renoir, 1914
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; …
Our note: The opening of poem 35 of Tagore's own English Gitanjali.
Verified in the full text of Gitanjali on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #7164
Painted the same decade: Tilla Durieux (Ottilie Godeffroy, 1880–1971), Auguste Renoir, 1914
Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race
Our note: Stephen Dedalus's diary entry on the eve of leaving Ireland, near the end of the novel.
Verified in the full text of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #4217
Painted the same decade: Tilla Durieux (Ottilie Godeffroy, 1880–1971), Auguste Renoir, 1914
We use Google Analytics to understand traffic. OK to enable analytics cookies?