65 verified quotes from 38 writers, c. 475 BC to 1923.
Quotes 23 to 44 of 65, page 2 of 3.
Continued from page 1, which has our introduction. Still oldest first.
What “verified” means, and what we leave out: How we verify.
Undoubtedly philosophers are in the right, when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison
Our note: Gulliver, newly arrived among the giants after his time among the tiny Lilliputians.
Verified in the full text of Gulliver's Travels on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #829
Painted the same decade: The Wedding of Stephen Beckingham and Mary Cox, William Hogarth, 1729
Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured and little to be enjoyed.
Our note: A line from the prince's search for a happy life.
Verified in the full text of The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #652
Painted the same decade: Ancient Rome, Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1757
…knowledge is more than equivalent to force. The master of mechanics laughs at strength.
Our note: From the same talk about the flying machine.
Verified in the full text of The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #652
Painted the same decade: Portrait of a Woman, Said to be Madame Charles Simon Favart (Marie Justine Benoîte Duronceray, 1727–1772), François Hubert Drouais, 1757
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value
Our note: From the same pamphlet, on why a hard-won freedom is valued more.
Verified in the full text of The American Crisis on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #3741
Painted the same decade: Virgil's Tomb by Moonlight, with Silius Italicus Declaiming, Joseph Wright (Wright of Derby), 1779
A sadder and a wiser man, He rose the morrow morn
Our note: The Wedding-Guest after hearing the Mariner out.
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
…every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle
Our note: Jefferson urging a bitterly split country to unite after the election of 1800.
Verified in the full text of First Inaugural Address on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #56313 · Collected in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 8 (of 9)
Painted the same decade: Ignacio Garcini y Queralt (1752–1825), Brigadier of Engineers, Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes), 1804
We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.
Our note: Fanny to Henry Crawford, who has asked her to guide his conduct.
Verified in the full text of Mansfield Park on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #141
Painted the same decade: Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (1754–1838), Prince de Talleyrand, Pierre Paul Prud'hon, 1817
Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.
Our note: Victor warns Walton, near the end of his story.
Verified in the full text of Frankenstein on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #84
Painted the same decade: General Étienne-Maurice Gérard (1773–1852), Jacques Louis David, 1816
A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquillity.
Our note: A principle Victor states while telling his story.
Verified in the full text of Frankenstein on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #84
Painted the same decade: The Public Viewing David's "Coronation" at the Louvre, Louis Léopold Boilly, 1810
…every thing you have missed, you have gained something else; and for every thing you gain, you lose something.
Our note: Emerson's idea that every gain and loss is balanced.
Verified in the full text of Compensation on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2944 · Collected in Essays, First Series
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
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
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Our note: Emerson defends changing your mind when you learn something new. Note the word "foolish"; it is often dropped.
Verified in the full text of Self-Reliance on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2944 · Collected in Essays, First Series
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846
To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.
Our note: From the essay "Experience."
Verified in the full text of Experience on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2945 · Collected in Essays, Second Series
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
We live amid surfaces, and the true art of life is to skate well on them.
Our note: From the essay "Experience."
Verified in the full text of Experience on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2945 · Collected in Essays, Second Series
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846
All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity, that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut.
Our note: The wry opening sentence of Anne Brontë's first novel, on what stories can teach.
Verified in the full text of Agnes Grey on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #767
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
…there is always a but in this imperfect world
Our note: A wry line from Anne Brontë's second novel.
Verified in the full text of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #969
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
…truth always conveys its own moral to those who are able to receive it
Our note: From Anne Brontë's preface to the second edition, defending her plain telling of hard things.
Verified in the full text of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #969
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846
…which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied
Our note: The narrator closes a chapter on the restlessness of wanting.
Verified in the full text of Vanity Fair on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #599
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
It is not down in any map; true places never are.
Our note: Ishmael, describing Queequeg's home island.
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 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
…the world's great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor its great scholars great men.
Our note: The Autocrat on learning and greatness.
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
It's but little good you'll do a-watering the last year's crop
Our note: Adam, in dialect, on the uselessness of dwelling on what is over.
Verified in the full text of Adam Bede on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #507
Painted the same decade: Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine, Théodore Chassériau, 1851
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