41 verified quotes from 26 writers, c. 399 BC to 1916.
Quotes 1 to 21 of 41, page 1 of 2.
Hope in these pages is mostly quiet and practical. Thoreau reports what he learned at Walden: that someone who advances confidently in the direction of their dreams meets with a success unexpected in common hours. Emily Dickinson makes hope a small bird that sings without the words and never stops.
Anne Shirley supplies several lines, including a new day with no mistakes in it yet; Wilde’s Lord Darlington says some of us, in the gutter, are looking at the stars; Tagore warns that tears for the sun can hide the stars. Each line was matched in the full text of the named edition we link.
What “verified” means, and what we leave out: How we verify.
…be of good cheer about death, and know of a certainty, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.
Our note: Socrates to the jurors who have just voted to condemn him.
Verified in the full text of Apology on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1656
Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes
Our note: From Bacon's short essay on bearing hard times.
Verified in the full text of Of Adversity on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #575 · Collected in Essays
Painted the same decade: Philip IV (1605–1665), King of Spain, Velázquez (Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez), probably 1624
The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind
Our note: From Paine's introduction to Common Sense.
Verified in the full text of Common Sense on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #147
Painted the same decade: Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), Joseph Siffred Duplessis, 1778
Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience—or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope.
Our note: Mrs. Dashwood encourages the gloomy Edward Ferrars.
Verified in the full text of Sense and Sensibility on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #161
Painted the same decade: Evening: Landscape with an Aqueduct, Théodore Géricault, 1818
You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.
Our note: From the letter Captain Wentworth writes to Anne Elliot near the end of the novel.
Verified in the full text of Persuasion on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #105
Painted the same decade: The Public Viewing David's "Coronation" at the Louvre, Louis Léopold Boilly, 1810
Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune, but great minds rise above it.
Our note: The narrator, in an essay on a wife who stands by her husband after his ruin.
Verified in the full text of The Wife on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2048 · Collected in The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon
Painted the same decade: Evening: Landscape with an Aqueduct, Théodore Géricault, 1818
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
Our note: The closing line of the ode.
Verified in the full text of Ode to the West Wind on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #4800 · Collected in The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley
Painted the same decade: Heroic Landscape with Rainbow, Joseph Anton Koch, 1824
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; Behind the clouds is the sun still shining
Our note: From a short poem about a dreary day and the light behind it.
Verified in the full text of The Rainy Day on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #78406 · Collected in The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
…whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire to be free
Our note: Douglass on why small comforts in slavery only made him think harder about escape.
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
…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
…as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life
Our note: Ishmael in the chapter on the lee shore, on the calm island inside every person.
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
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
Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.
Our note: The final lines of Walden.
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
…the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving
Our note: The Autocrat, Holmes's talkative boarding-house narrator.
Verified in the full text of The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #751
Painted the same decade: Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine, Théodore Chassériau, 1851
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.
Our note: Pip remembers leaving his village for London.
Verified in the full text of Great Expectations on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1400
Painted the same decade: The Woman in the Waves, Gustave Courbet, 1868
…a hand is put into theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward; and the hand may be a little child's
Our note: On the little girl Eppie, who brings the lonely weaver Silas back to life.
Verified in the full text of Silas Marner on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #550
Painted the same decade: The Calm Sea, Gustave Courbet, 1869
In old days there were angels who came and took men by the hand and led them away
Our note: The narrator on redemption, just before the passage about a hand put into ours.
Verified in the full text of Silas Marner on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #550
Painted the same decade: The Third-Class Carriage, Honoré Daumier, 1864
Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people?
Our note: Lincoln arguing for patience in March 1861, as the Union came apart.
Verified in the full text of First Inaugural Address on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #3253 · Collected in The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln
Painted the same decade: Boy with a Sword, Edouard Manet, 1861
…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
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.
Our note: Lincoln in March 1865, as the Civil War neared its end.
Verified in the full text of Second Inaugural Address on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #3253 · Collected in The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln
Painted the same decade: The Laundress, Honoré Daumier, 186[3?]
That you are here—that life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
Our note: The answer at the end of a short poem full of doubts.
Verified in the full text of O Me! O Life! on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1322 · Collected in Leaves of Grass
Painted the same decade: The Third-Class Carriage, Honoré Daumier, 1864
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