40 verified quotes from 29 writers, c. 475 BC to 1925.
Quotes 21 to 40 of 40, 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.
"Elegant economy!" How naturally one falls back into the phraseology of Cranford!
Our note: The narrator's fond joke about the town's polite way of making do with little.
Verified in the full text of Cranford on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #394
Painted the same decade: Louis Gueymard (1822–1880) as Robert le Diable, Gustave Courbet, 1857
It is never too late to give up our prejudices.
Our note: An early line in Walden about questioning what everyone takes for granted.
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
I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.
Our note: A wry aside from the chapter "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For."
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
A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.
Our note: From "Song of Myself."
Verified in the full text of Song of Myself 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
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 did not bow down to you, I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity
Our note: Raskolnikov explains to Sonia why he knelt at her feet.
Verified in the full text of Crime and Punishment on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2554
Painted the same decade: Woman with a Parrot, Gustave Courbet, 1866
…ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge
Our note: From the introduction, on people who declare that science will never solve a problem.
Verified in the full text of The Descent of Man on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2300
Painted the same decade: The Dance Class, Edgar Degas, 1874
…for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
Our note: The closing words of the novel, about the value of quiet lives.
Verified in the full text of Middlemarch on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #145
Painted the same decade: Springtime, Pierre-Auguste Cot, 1873
If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence
Our note: The narrator on why we do not feel every ordinary sorrow, written about Dorothea's unhappy honeymoon.
Verified in the full text of Middlemarch on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #145
Painted the same decade: Eugène Murer (Hyacinthe-Eugène Meunier, 1841–1906), Auguste Renoir, 1877
Success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed.
Our note: One of the few Dickinson poems printed in her lifetime, anonymously.
Verified in the full text of Success is counted sweetest on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #12242 · Collected in Poems by Emily Dickinson
Painted the same decade: The Birth of Venus, Alexandre Cabanel, 1875
I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too?
Our note: The opening of a playful poem about the dullness of fame.
Verified in the full text of I'm nobody! Who are you? on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #12242 · Collected in Poems by Emily Dickinson
Painted the same decade: Irises, Vincent van Gogh, 1890
Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes.
Our note: A quip from the play's third act.
Verified in the full text of Lady Windermere's Fan on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #790
Painted the same decade: The Englishman (William Tom Warrener, 1861–1934) at the Moulin Rouge, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1892
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
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: The Shepherd's Song, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, 1891
Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.
Our note: From "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar," the maxims that head the chapters of Twain's travel book.
Verified in the full text of Following the Equator on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2895
Painted the same decade: Irises, Vincent van Gogh, 1890
It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top.
Our note: From Washington's 1895 Atlanta Exposition address, which Up from Slavery reprints.
Verified in the full text of Up from Slavery on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2376
Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.
Our note: From Chesterton's book of essays on his beliefs.
Verified in the full text of Orthodoxy on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #130
Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.
Our note: From the chapter "The Ethics of Elfland."
Verified in the full text of Orthodoxy on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #130
The sparrow is sorry for the peacock at the burden of its tail
Our note: A verse from Stray Birds.
Verified in the full text of Stray Birds on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #6524
Painted the same decade: Tilla Durieux (Ottilie Godeffroy, 1880–1971), Auguste Renoir, 1914
Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth."
Our note: From the prophet Almustafa's words on self-knowledge.
Verified in the full text of The Prophet on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #58585
…just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had
Our note: Advice from Nick Carraway's father, recalled on the novel's first page.
Verified in the full text of The Great Gatsby on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #64317
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