50 verified quotes from 30 writers, c. 475 BC to 1925.
Quotes 1 to 25 of 50, page 1 of 2.
The quotes on kindness here are less about grand gestures than about attention: listening carefully to what someone says, not keeping a register of wrongs, giving a portion of yourself rather than a present. Dickens’s A Christmas Carol supplies several, as you might expect from a story that is about a man learning exactly that.
George Eliot ends Middlemarch by crediting the growing good of the world to people who lived faithfully a hidden life. Shakespeare, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Dickinson and Kahlil Gibran make similar points in their own registers. Each line was matched in the full text of the public-domain edition we link.
What “verified” means, and what we leave out: How we verify.
What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others
Our note: Asked for one word to guide a whole life, Confucius offers reciprocity and explains it this way.
Verified in the full text of The Analects on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #3330
…we ought not to retaliate or render evil for evil to any one, whatever evil we may have suffered from him
Our note: Socrates in his cell, arguing with his friend Crito about how to answer wrong.
Verified in the full text of Crito on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1657
The man did not know the rest of my faults, for he would not have mentioned these only
Our note: Epictetus's suggested reply when told that someone has been speaking ill of you.
Verified in the full text of The Encheiridion on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #10661 · Collected in A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion
Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.
Our note: Book II opens with this reminder; he goes on to say such people act from ignorance, and he will not be angry with them.
Verified in the full text of Meditations on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #15877 · Collected in The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like [the wrong-doer].
Our note: Book VI.
Verified in the full text of Meditations on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #15877 · Collected in The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Accustom thyself to attend carefully to what is said by another, and as much as it is possible, be in the speaker's mind.
Our note: Book VI, on really listening.
Verified in the full text of Meditations on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #15877 · Collected in The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Endeavour to be patient in bearing with other men's faults and infirmities whatsoever they be, for thou thyself also hast many things which have need to be borne with by others.
Our note: A plain reminder that we need the same patience we are asked to give.
Verified in the full text of The Imitation of Christ on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1653
A peaceable man doth more good than a well-learned.
Our note: From the chapter on the good, peaceable man.
Verified in the full text of The Imitation of Christ on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1653
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
Our note: Portia, returning home at night, sees a candle burning in her hall.
Verified in the full text of The Merchant of Venice on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: Madonna and Child with Saints, Ludovico Carracci, 1607
The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath.
Our note: Portia, disguised as a lawyer, pleads for mercy in court.
Verified in the full text of The Merchant of Venice on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: Madonna and Child with Saints, Ludovico Carracci, 1607
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin
Our note: Ulysses on what all people share. In context he means our shared love of novelty.
Verified in the full text of Troilus and Cressida on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Woodland Road with Travelers, Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1607
Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none.
Our note: The Countess's blessing to her son Bertram as he leaves for court.
Verified in the full text of All's Well That Ends Well on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Musician and His Daughter, Thomas de Keyser, 1629
If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world
Our note: From Bacon's essay on goodness.
Verified in the full text of Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #575 · Collected in Essays
Painted the same decade: A Cardinal's Procession, Ottavio Leoni (Il Padovano), 1621
…in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior
Our note: From Bacon's essay on revenge, which he calls a kind of wild justice.
Verified in the full text of Of Revenge on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #575 · Collected in Essays
Painted the same decade: The Immaculate Conception, Guido Reni, 1627
Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation
Our note: Silence, the second of Franklin's thirteen virtues.
Verified in the full text of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #148
Painted the same decade: Sebastián Martínez y Pérez (1747–1800), Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes), 1792
Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty
Our note: Justice, the eighth of Franklin's thirteen virtues.
Verified in the full text of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #148
Painted the same decade: Sebastián Martínez y Pérez (1747–1800), Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes), 1792
It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world
Our note: A short line from her argument that women need rights, not favours.
Verified in the full text of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #3420
Painted the same decade: The Sackville Children, John Hoppner, 1796
He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us He made and loveth all.
Our note: The Mariner's moral, near the poem's end.
Verified in the full text of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #151
Painted the same decade: Sebastián Martínez y Pérez (1747–1800), Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes), 1792
One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.
Our note: On how differently people enjoy themselves.
Verified in the full text of Emma on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #158
Painted the same decade: Waterfall at Mont-Dore, Achille-Etna Michallon, 1818
…a tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.
Our note: The narrator on Rip's wife, Dame Van Winkle.
Verified in the full text of Rip Van Winkle on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2048 · Collected in The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon
Painted the same decade: General Étienne-Maurice Gérard (1773–1852), Jacques Louis David, 1816
…if the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin
Our note: Darwin reflecting on slavery in Brazil near the end of his account of the voyage.
Verified in the full text of The Voyage of the Beagle on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #944
Painted the same decade: Parochialstrasse in Berlin, Eduard Gaertner, 1831
There is one mind common to all individual men.
Our note: The opening line of the essay "History."
Verified in the full text of History on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2944 · Collected in Essays, First Series
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.
Our note: Scrooge's promise after the three spirits have visited him.
Verified in the full text of A Christmas Carol on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #46
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
…no space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused
Our note: Marley's ghost warns Scrooge about a life spent only on business.
Verified in the full text of A Christmas Carol on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #46
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846
Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business.
Our note: Marley's ghost answers Scrooge's praise of his business sense.
Verified in the full text of A Christmas Carol on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #46
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
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