31 verified quotes from 18 writers, c. 399 BC to 1911.
Quotes 17 to 31 of 31, page 2 of 2.
Continued from page 1, which has our introduction. Still oldest first.
What “verified” means, and what we leave out: How we verify.
He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it—namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.
Our note: After Tom tricks his friends into paying him for the chance to whitewash a fence.
Verified in the full text of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #74
Painted the same decade: Joan of Arc, Jules Bastien-Lepage, 1879
For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move; …
Our note: From Stevenson's account of a twelve-day walk in southern France with a stubborn donkey.
Verified in the full text of Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #535
Painted the same decade: The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil, Edouard Manet, 1874
I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose
Our note: Holmes explaining to Watson, in their first adventure, why he ignores most facts.
Verified in the full text of A Study in Scarlet on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #244
Painted the same decade: Shoes, Vincent van Gogh, 1888
There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact
Our note: Holmes to Watson on the train to Herefordshire.
Verified in the full text of The Boscombe Valley Mystery on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1661 · Collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Painted the same decade: The Shepherd's Song, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, 1891
…life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.
Our note: Holmes by the fire at Baker Street.
Verified in the full text of A Case of Identity on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1661 · Collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Painted the same decade: Irises, Vincent van Gogh, 1890
It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
Our note: Holmes to Watson as a new case begins.
Verified in the full text of A Scandal in Bohemia on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1661 · Collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Painted the same decade: The Englishman (William Tom Warrener, 1861–1934) at the Moulin Rouge, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1892
You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.
Our note: Holmes asks Watson how many steps lead up to their rooms. Watson doesn't know.
Verified in the full text of A Scandal in Bohemia on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1661 · Collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Painted the same decade: Still Life with Teapot and Fruit, Paul Gauguin, 1896
Adam was but human—this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden.
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: Still Life with Teapot and Fruit, Paul Gauguin, 1896
The brain is wider than the sky, For, put them side by side, The one the other will include With ease, and you beside.
Our note: The first stanza.
Verified in the full text of The brain is wider than the sky on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #12242 · Collected in Poems by Emily Dickinson
Painted the same decade: The Englishman (William Tom Warrener, 1861–1934) at the Moulin Rouge, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1892
The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes
Our note: Holmes, early in the novel.
Verified in the full text of The Hound of the Baskervilles on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2852
I Keep six honest serving-men: (They taught me all I knew) Their names are What and Where and When And How and Why and Who.
Our note: From the poem after "The Elephant's Child," the story of a very curious young elephant.
Verified in the full text of Just So Stories on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2781
…who was full of 'satiable curtiosity, and that means he asked ever so many questions
Our note: How the story introduces its young hero, whose questions get him into trouble and, in the end, a trunk.
Verified in the full text of The Elephant's Child on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2781 · Collected in Just So Stories
Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about?
Our note: Anne on her first drive to Green Gables, full of questions.
Verified in the full text of Anne of Green Gables on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #45
The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for want of wonder.
Our note: From a collection of Chesterton's short newspaper essays.
Verified in the full text of Tremendous Trifles on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #8092
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
Our note: From Muir's journal of a summer herding sheep in the Sierra Nevada in 1869.
Verified in the full text of My First Summer in the Sierra on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #32540
Painted the same decade: Tilla Durieux (Ottilie Godeffroy, 1880–1971), Auguste Renoir, 1914
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