44 verified quotes from 25 writers, c. 475 BC to 1923.
Quotes 23 to 44 of 44, 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.
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
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
…women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do
Our note: From the same passage, a plea for women's minds and ambitions.
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
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
The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free.
Our note: The narrator on how Hester's long exile from society loosened her hold on its rules.
Verified in the full text of The Scarlet Letter on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #33
Painted the same decade: The Artist's Sitting Room in Ritterstrasse, Adolph Menzel, 1851
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
Our note: The opening lines of the poem.
Verified in the full text of Song of the Open Road on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1322 · Collected in Leaves of Grass
Painted the same decade: Madame Frederic Breyer (Fanny Hélène Van Bruyssel, 1830–1894), Gustave Courbet, 1858
Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign
Our note: The last words of Mill's statement of the principle his essay defends.
Verified in the full text of On Liberty on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #34901
Painted the same decade: Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine, Théodore Chassériau, 1851
The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it
Our note: From the first chapter of On Liberty.
Verified in the full text of On Liberty on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #34901
Painted the same decade: The Artist's Sitting Room in Ritterstrasse, Adolph Menzel, 1851
If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind
Our note: The opening of Mill's chapter on the liberty of thought and discussion.
Verified in the full text of On Liberty on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #34901
Painted the same decade: Madame Frederic Breyer (Fanny Hélène Van Bruyssel, 1830–1894), Gustave Courbet, 1858
…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom
Our note: The close of the Gettysburg Address, delivered in November 1863.
Verified in the full text of Gettysburg Address on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #4
Painted the same decade: The Woman in the Waves, Gustave Courbet, 1868
You are the gull, Jo, strong and wild, fond of the storm and the wind, flying far out to sea, and happy all alone
Our note: Beth to Jo by the sea, in the second part of the novel.
Verified in the full text of Little Women on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #514
Painted the same decade: Young Lady in 1866, Edouard Manet, 1866
It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs
Our note: Bathsheba Everdene, trying to answer a man's declaration.
Verified in the full text of Far from the Madding Crowd on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #107
Painted the same decade: Eugène Murer (Hyacinthe-Eugène Meunier, 1841–1906), Auguste Renoir, 1877
…freedom is of the essence; because you should be able to stop and go on, and follow this way or that, as the freak takes you
Our note: The reason he gives, in the same essay, for walking alone.
Verified in the full text of Walking Tours on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #386 · Collected in Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers
Painted the same decade: Study for "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte", Georges Seurat, 1884
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
The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude
Our note: A refrain of the novel, set on the Louisiana coast.
Verified in the full text of The Awakening on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #160
Painted the same decade: The Englishman (William Tom Warrener, 1861–1934) at the Moulin Rouge, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1892
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
…she was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world.
Our note: The narrator on Edna Pontellier's awakening.
Verified in the full text of The Awakening on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #160
Painted the same decade: Irises, Vincent van Gogh, 1890
He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him
Our note: The refrain of 'The Cat that Walked by Himself', about the one animal that would not be tamed.
Verified in the full text of Just So Stories on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2781
Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing!
Our note: Toad praising the life of the open road.
Verified in the full text of The Wind in the Willows on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #289
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
Women ought to be free—as free as we are
Our note: Newland Archer, discovering his own view of women's independence.
Verified in the full text of The Age of Innocence on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #541
But let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you
Our note: From the section on marriage.
Verified in the full text of The Prophet on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #58585
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