41 verified quotes from 28 writers, c. 475 BC to 1925.
Quotes 22 to 41 of 41, 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.
…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
…but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor
Our note: The Autocrat, following his remark about the direction we are moving.
Verified in the full text of The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #751
Painted the same decade: Madame Frederic Breyer (Fanny Hélène Van Bruyssel, 1830–1894), Gustave Courbet, 1858
The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual
Our note: From the first chapter of the Victorian bestseller.
Verified in the full text of Self-Help on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #935
Painted the same decade: Madame Frederic Breyer (Fanny Hélène Van Bruyssel, 1830–1894), Gustave Courbet, 1858
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in
Our note: From the close of the speech Lincoln gave in March 1865, weeks before the Civil War ended.
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 Collector of Prints, Edgar Degas, 1866
Watch and pray, dear, never get tired of trying, and never think it is impossible to conquer your fault
Our note: Marmee to Jo, after Jo's temper nearly leads to disaster.
Verified in the full text of Little Women on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #514
Painted the same decade: A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers (Madame Paul Valpinçon?), Edgar Degas, 1865
I am angry nearly every day of my life, Jo, but I have learned not to show it, and I still hope to learn not to feel it, though it may take me another forty years to do so.
Our note: Marmee confessing her own temper to Jo, who is struggling with hers.
Verified in the full text of Little Women on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #514
Painted the same decade: The Dead Christ with Angels, Edouard Manet, 1864
A noiseless patient spider, I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated
Our note: The opening of a poem that compares the soul to a spider casting out threads.
Verified in the full text of A Noiseless Patient Spider on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1322 · Collected in Leaves of Grass
Painted the same decade: The Spanish Singer, Edouard Manet, 1860
Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait.
Our note: Kutuzov, on his patient strategy.
Verified in the full text of War and Peace on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2600
Painted the same decade: Young Lady in 1866, Edouard Manet, 1866
Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.
Our note: The Red Queen explains Looking-glass country to Alice.
Verified in the full text of Through the Looking-Glass on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #12
Painted the same decade: Dancers Practicing at the Barre, Edgar Degas, 1877
I shall do one thing in this life—one thing certain—that is, love you, and long for you, and keep wanting you till I die
Our note: Gabriel Oak to Bathsheba.
Verified in the full text of Far from the Madding Crowd on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #107
Painted the same decade: The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil, Edouard Manet, 1874
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
By all means begin your folio; even if the doctor does not give you a year, even if he hesitates about a month, make one brave push and see what can be accomplished in a week
Our note: The same essay: start the big work anyway.
Verified in the full text of Æs Triplex on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #386 · Collected in Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers
Painted the same decade: Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat (obverse: The Potato Peeler), Vincent van Gogh, 1887
…three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.
Our note: Trollope on his steady writing habit, kept up alongside a full-time post office career.
Verified in the full text of An Autobiography on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #5978
Painted the same decade: Shoes, Vincent van Gogh, 1888
Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed down-stairs a step at a time.
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
The man with a new idea is a Crank until the idea succeeds.
Our note: From "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar."
Verified in the full text of Following the Equator on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2895
Painted the same decade: The Dream of the Shepherd (Der Traum des Hirten), Ferdinand Hodler, 1896
I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.
Our note: From Washington's autobiography.
Verified in the full text of Up from Slavery on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2376
I have begun everything with the idea that I could succeed, and I never had much patience with the multitudes of people who are always ready to explain why one cannot succeed.
Our note: Washington on the habit of mind that carried him through the founding of Tuskegee.
Verified in the full text of Up from Slavery on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2376
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
At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done—then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.
Our note: From the chapter "In the Garden."
Verified in the full text of The Secret Garden on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #113
Painted the same decade: Tilla Durieux (Ottilie Godeffroy, 1880–1971), Auguste Renoir, 1914
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past
Our note: The last sentence of the novel.
Verified in the full text of The Great Gatsby on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #64317
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