31 verified quotes from 20 writers, c. 475 BC to 1916.
Quotes 17 to 31 of 31, 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 wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, …
Our note: Part of Thoreau's explanation of why he went to the woods.
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
Most of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.
Our note: Thoreau on how comfort can get in the way of a good life.
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
"Begin at the beginning," the King said gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop."
Our note: The King's instructions to the White Rabbit at the trial.
Verified in the full text of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #11
Painted the same decade: Young Lady in 1866, Edouard Manet, 1866
Take care of the sense, and the sounds will take care of themselves
Our note: One of the Duchess's morals, a play on the proverb about pence and pounds.
Verified in the full text of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #11
Painted the same decade: The Calm Sea, Gustave Courbet, 1869
Money is a needful and precious thing, and when well used, a noble thing, but I never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for.
Our note: Marmee's advice to Meg and Jo.
Verified in the full text of Little Women on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #514
Painted the same decade: The Spanish Singer, Edouard Manet, 1860
…there is no greatness where simplicity, goodness, and truth are absent.
Our note: Tolstoy's measure of greatness, set against Napoleon's reputation.
Verified in the full text of War and Peace on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2600
Painted the same decade: The Woman in the Waves, Gustave Courbet, 1868
Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
Our note: From a lecture Morris gave in Birmingham in 1880, printed in Hopes and Fears for Art (1882).
Verified in the full text of The Beauty of Life on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #3773 · Collected in Hopes and Fears for Art
Painted the same decade: The Organ Rehearsal, Henry Lerolle, 1885
Extreme busyness, whether at school or college, kirk or market, is a symptom of deficient vitality; …
Our note: From Stevenson's essay defending leisure.
Verified in the full text of An Apology for Idlers 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
Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need—a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, …
Our note: The narrator, after the friends try to pack far too much for their boat trip on the Thames.
Verified in the full text of Three Men in a Boat on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #308
Painted the same decade: Study for "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte", Georges Seurat, 1884
A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing
Our note: Lord Darlington's answer when asked what a cynic is.
Verified in the full text of Lady Windermere's Fan on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #790
Painted the same decade: Ia Orana Maria (Hail Mary), Paul Gauguin, 1891
Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity
Our note: Muir on why city people were heading for the mountains in 1901.
Verified in the full text of Our National Parks on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #60929
Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing—absolute nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.
Our note: The Rat, taking the Mole out on the river for the first time.
Verified in the full text of The Wind in the Willows on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #289
It's my world, and I don't want any other. What it hasn't got is not worth having, and what it doesn't know is not worth knowing
Our note: The Water Rat explains to the Mole what the river means to him.
Verified in the full text of The Wind in the Willows on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #289
It isn't the great big pleasures that count the most; it's making a great deal out of the little ones
Our note: Judy Abbott in one of her letters to her unknown benefactor.
Verified in the full text of Daddy-Long-Legs on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #157
Painted the same decade: Tilla Durieux (Ottilie Godeffroy, 1880–1971), Auguste Renoir, 1914
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
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