This continuation page contains additional source-backed quotations not shown in the initial 69-quotation overview. Return to the topic guide and browse collection.
“Whether this be the best way is of no consequence, if it be the one individual character points out.”
Fuller gives individual character real authority in choosing a path: the decisive question is whether the course belongs honestly to the person living it.
Summer on the Lakes, in 1843; the sentence appears in Fuller’s dialogic reflection on temperament, inquiry, and following the direction one’s own character requires.
“When we speak of Clive, Nelson, and Putnam as men who “didn’t know what fear was,” we ought always to add the flea—and put him at the head of the procession.”
The heroic comparison is deliberately deflated by promoting the flea above famous military figures, exposing how literalizing a cliché can make grand praise sound ridiculous.
Pudd’nhead Wilson, Calendar epigraph before the chapter section in which the flea comparison appears.
“The moral fear of shame had risen superior to the physical fear of harm.”
The dialogue describes competing fears rather than fearlessness: social shame can become strong enough to override the immediate impulse to escape physical danger.
What Is Man?, Old Man describing the imagined timid soldier in battle; the example analyzes how one learned pressure may overpower another fear.
“I contend for the rights of men and the liberty of reason.”
The line joins political rights with intellectual liberty: the argument is not merely for a different ruler but for people’s capacity to reason without inherited deference.
A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening letter to Edmund Burke; Wollstonecraft frames the pamphlet as a defense of human rights and the liberty of reason.
“Reverencing the rights of humanity, I shall dare to assert them.”
Wollstonecraft presents public argument as an obligation to defend human rights even when ridicule or social pressure makes such advocacy uncomfortable.
A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening pages; the sentence immediately follows her statement that she contends for the rights of men and liberty of reason.
“truly sublime is the character that acts from principle, and governs the inferior springs of activity without slackening their vigour;”
The passage praises principled character that can use emotion and energy without allowing immediate feeling to overrule deliberate judgment.
A Vindication of the Rights of Men; this clause appears in Wollstonecraft’s contrast between habit, manipulated passion, and a character governed by principle.
“Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.”
Education enlarges judgment and weakens obedience based only on power, making intellectual development a condition of genuine independence.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; Wollstonecraft argues that deliberately narrowing women’s education preserves dependence and obedience.
“men with common minds seldom break through general rules.”
The travel reflection criticizes automatic conformity, suggesting that ordinary caution can keep people from testing whether a rule still makes sense in a particular situation.
Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Letter I; represented Cassell & Company 1889 text in Project Gutenberg #3529, preserving Wollstonecraft’s 1796 travel-letter work. After describing the customary maritime rule against sending out a boat, Wollstonecraft says that “men with common minds seldom break through general rules” while criticizing the captain’s reluctance to depart from convention. This is a first-person travel judgment about a particular situation, not a general empirical claim about ordinary people.
“I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare.”
Frank self-description has limits, but Montaigne still treats increasing candor as part of the value of writing honestly about oneself.
Essays of Montaigne, Book III, Chapter II, “Of Repentance,” Charles Cotton translation; Project Gutenberg Volume 14 #3594 / Complete Essays #3600. The surrounding passage treats fidelity and increasingly candid self-report as part of the Essays’ project.
“We must learn to suffer what we cannot evade; our life, like the harmony of the world, is composed of contrary things.”
Montaigne treats an imperfect mixture of pleasant and painful conditions as part of ordinary life: wisdom includes learning to live with what cannot be escaped instead of demanding a life made only of agreeable notes.
Essays of Montaigne, Book III, Chapter XIII, “Of Experience,” Charles Cotton translation; Project Gutenberg Volume 19 #3599 / Complete Essays #3600. Montaigne compares life’s unavoidable mixture of pleasant and painful conditions to harmony made from contrary tones.
“Leaves. On the ivy vine. When the last one falls I must go, too.”
Johnsy links her own survival to the dwindling ivy leaves while ill and despairing, revealing how completely hopelessness has narrowed her attention.
“The Last Leaf,” in The Trimmed Lamp, Project Gutenberg #3707. Johnsy speaks while seriously ill; the story rejects her fatalistic belief and later centers care, sacrifice and renewed desire to live. This is fiction, not health advice.
“Ambition, energy, industry, perseverance, are indispensable requisites for success in business.”
The sentence presents business success as a compound result of sustained energy and persistence rather than a single clever idea or fortunate moment.
The Art of Money Getting, in Barnum’s discussion of thorough work and business effort.
“Perseverance still is king; Time its sure reward will bring; Work and wait unwearying,—”
Dunbar closes the poem by making patient continued effort its central refrain, pairing work with the willingness to wait through difficulty.
“Keep A-Pluggin’ Away,” represented by Wikisource’s Complete Poems transcription. The poem repeatedly urges persistence through steep paths, storms, ridicule and pain; its period motivational voice is literary encouragement, not a guarantee that effort always produces a desired outcome.
“Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.”
The sequence emphasizes alertness, steadiness, and strength, presenting courage as sustained conduct rather than one dramatic moment.
1 Corinthians 16:13 in the King James Version.
“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.”
Pressure is acknowledged without allowing pressure to become the whole story; difficulty and endurance are held together.
2 Corinthians 4:8 in the King James Version; opening contrast in a sequence about affliction and endurance.
“Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.”
Strength is treated as something received and practiced for demanding circumstances, not merely a personality trait.
Ephesians 6:10 in the King James Version; opening command before the armor metaphor.
“Let us not be weary in well doing.”
Courage can look like continuing useful work after enthusiasm fades, especially when results are delayed rather than immediately visible.
Galatians 6:9 in the King James Version; opening clause of the verse about perseverance.
“If God be for us, who can be against us?”
The rhetorical question is designed to reduce fear of opposition by shifting attention toward a larger source of confidence.
Romans 8:31 in the King James Version.
“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”
The seasonal image turns hardship into a temporary phase: decline can contain the possibility of renewal even when that renewal is not yet visible.
Final line of Ode to the West Wind; the changing seasons become a metaphor for historical and personal renewal.
“I shall obey God rather than you.”
Socrates presents moral and philosophical duty as more binding than compliance with pressure from political authority.
Apology, Jowett translation; Socrates says he would continue practicing philosophy even if acquittal were conditioned on silence.
“The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways—I to die, and you to live.”
The closing sentence accepts the separation between life and death without claiming certainty about which condition is ultimately better.
Apology, final paragraph in Jowett’s translation; Socrates closes after the jury has sentenced him to death.
“I would rather die having spoken after my manner, than speak in your manner and live.”
Preserving truthful speech and character is valued above survival purchased by abandoning one’s principles merely to satisfy an audience.
Apology, Jowett translation; Socrates rejects saving himself through a style of pleading he considers unworthy.
“Ought a man to do what he admits to be right, or ought he to betray the right?”
Socrates asks whether acting on one’s considered judgment about right and wrong should be set aside when the costs are severe. In the prison conversation, the question tests whether escaping a wrongful sentence can be justified under the principles he and Crito have accepted.
Crito, Socrates questioning Crito during the prison discussion after establishing a rule against retaliation; Benjamin Jowett English translation, Project Gutenberg #1657. The sentence begins after Socrates says he will put the next point as a question. The question is not an unqualified defense of obedience to every law; the dialogue stages an argument about obligations to the city.
“I mean to say, Laches, that courage is the knowledge of that which inspires fear or confidence in war, or in anything.”
Nicias suggests that courageous judgment depends on understanding when danger deserves fear and when there is reason for confidence. Laches disputes the link between courage and specialized knowledge, and Socrates presses Nicias on what knowledge of future good or evil entails. It remains a hypothesis under examination, not a definitive philosophical verdict.
Laches, around Stephanus 194e–195a, Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1584. Nicias speaks to Laches after Socrates invites an alternative to Laches’s endurance account; subsequent questioning probes the scope of knowledge about fear and hope and leaves the inquiry unresolved. The local dramatic speaker is Nicias, not Plato personally. The wording occurs in the dialogue body, not Jowett’s introduction.
“I should say that courage is a sort of endurance of the soul, if I am to speak of the universal nature which pervades them all.”
Laches proposes endurance of the soul as a feature shared by different courageous acts, not only by soldiers who hold their ground. Socrates immediately tests this definition and asks whether stubborn endurance without wisdom can be harmful. The dialogue does not endorse endurance alone as a final, sufficient definition of courage.
Laches, roughly Stephanus 192b–c, Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1584. Laches answers Socrates’s attempt to define courage beyond battlefield conduct; Socrates then challenges whether foolish endurance can count as courageous. The local dramatic speaker is Laches, not Socrates or Plato himself. This is a contested proposal inside an unresolved inquiry, not Plato’s stand-alone creed.
“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.”
Falling is not treated as final defeat; character appears in the repeated act of getting up and continuing.
Proverbs 24:16, King James Version.
“Courage cannot be cast down by adversity.”
Courage is defined by what survives difficulty: adversity may create pressure, but it does not have to decide the person’s response.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 595, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
“There can be no alliance between Love and Fear.”
Love and fear pull a relationship in opposite directions when fear prevents honesty, security, or free affection.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 40, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
“He who dares danger, triumphs over it before it reaches him.”
Decisive action can reduce the psychological power of danger before the outcome is known, because fear no longer controls the first move.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 669, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
“The courage of the soldiers depends upon the wisdom of the general.”
Leadership affects collective courage because people take greater risks when they trust the judgment guiding the group.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 206, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
“Adversity shows whether we have friends, or only the shadows of friends.”
Difficulty tests whether a relationship has substance because support under pressure reveals more than companionship during easy circumstances.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 35, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
“A man of courage never endures an insult; an honorable man never offers one.”
The saying balances firmness with restraint: courage protects dignity, while honor prevents strength from becoming needless aggression.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 997, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
“hope for the patience to win my freedom.”
Freedom is paired with patient hope rather than anxious rescue, suggesting that endurance and inner steadiness are part of the desired liberation.
Fruit-Gathering, poem LXXIX; Project Gutenberg #6522. This excerpt completes a prayer against anxious craving to be saved and retains that spiritual context.
“Self-trust is the essence of heroism.”
Heroic action begins with enough trust in one’s judgment to act under uncertainty rather than waiting for unanimous approval.
Essays, First Series, essay VIII, ‘Heroism,’ Project Gutenberg #2944. ‘Self-trust is the essence of heroism’ occurs as Emerson defines the heroic soul's defiance of falsehood and wrong. It remains Transcendentalist moral and conduct-of-life rhetoric rather than a clinical personality measure or empirical prediction of courageous behavior.
“The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough.”
Greatness is measured by moral sufficiency rather than applause, making virtue a standard that does not require external decoration.
In Heroism, Emerson connects greatness with the conviction that virtue is sufficient.
“Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.”
Emerson argues that mature character requires enough independence to resist conformity when conviction points elsewhere.
Essays, First Series, essay II, “Self-Reliance,” Project Gutenberg #2944. “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist” follows Emerson’s claim that society conspires against the manhood of its members through conformity. The represented Gutenberg witness prints a comma after “man,” while the frozen catalog quotation omits that punctuation; the wording is otherwise the same. It remains Transcendentalist moral rhetoric about self-trust and independence rather than a universal instruction to reject social norms or expertise.
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
The line makes self-trust a prerequisite for independent thought and action.
Essay “Self-Reliance.”
“In self-trust all the virtues are comprehended.”
Emerson treats self-trust as a foundational intellectual virtue for the scholar: independent thought requires enough confidence to examine appearances and speak from judgment rather than merely repeat authority.
The American Scholar, 1837 address, Project Gutenberg #16643. Emerson says the scholar’s duties may be comprised in self-trust; the claim belongs to transcendentalist intellectual and civic rhetoric, not a guarantee that private conviction is always correct.
“There is not so helpless and pitiable an object in the world as a landsman beginning a sailor’s life.”
Dana remembers how bewildering the first hours of shipboard life felt to a novice suddenly surrounded by unfamiliar orders, sounds and tasks.
Two Years Before the Mast, Chapter I, “Departure,” Project Gutenberg #2055. Dana describes his own bewilderment on first going to sea and calls a landsman beginning a sailor’s life uniquely helpless and pitiable. It is first-person maritime memoir shaped by rhetorical exaggeration, not a literal universal ranking of helplessness.
“Stone walls doe not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage;”
Lovelace’s imprisoned speaker claims that external confinement cannot fully control a mind and inner life that still experience loyalty, love and spiritual freedom.
“To Althea, from Prison,” in Lucasta, Project Gutenberg #703. The poem was written in the context of Lovelace’s imprisonment and expresses Cavalier political and personal loyalty; its claim about freedom is poetic rather than a denial of the real harms of incarceration.
“I could not love thee, Dear, so much, Loved I not Honour more.”
The speaker paradoxically claims that his devotion to honor—including leaving for war—is part of what makes his love worthy rather than evidence that love is weaker.
“To Lucasta, Going to the Wars,” published in Lucasta (1649) and represented by Project Gutenberg #703. The lyric is Cavalier-era poetry spoken from a martial honor code; it is not a modern recommendation about relationships or war.
“This ground is hallowed by the heroes of defeat.”
The phrase grants dignity to people who struggled without conventional victory, reframing defeat as compatible with courage and a life still worthy of remembrance.
Memories and Portraits, in Stevenson’s reflection on graves and failed lives; Project Gutenberg #381. The sentence is literary commemoration, not a claim that every defeat is heroic.
“And lose, and start again at your beginnings.”
Starting again after loss is presented as a test of composure rather than as evidence that the earlier effort was meaningless.
If—, third stanza; the surrounding passage describes losing one’s winnings and beginning again.
“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs.”
Composure under collective panic is treated as a form of practical courage and judgment.
If—, opening line; the next line describes being blamed by those around you.
“If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.”
Composure under social pressure is treated as a mark of maturity, especially when panic and blame are spreading around you.
Poem “If—,” opening lines.
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same.”
Kipling’s speaker recommends maintaining steadiness toward both success and failure rather than allowing either outcome to determine one’s character or judgment.
“If—,” in Rewards and Fairies, Project Gutenberg #556. The poem presents a period ideal of masculine self-command through a sequence of conditional tests; the stored lines are literary and moral rhetoric, not a requirement to suppress normal emotion.
“Whither thou goest, I will go.”
The promise expresses loyalty through shared direction: love is shown by choosing to accompany another person into an uncertain future.
Ruth 1:16 in the King James Version; Ruth’s pledge to Naomi.
“Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.”
Large achievements often depend more on continued effort than on a single burst of power.
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia.
“Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.”
Johnson presents accurate confidence in one's own powers as necessary before attempting difficult work, while the next sentence warns that confidence formed without comparison to real ability can still be mistaken.
The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, “Pope”; Wikisource transcription of Johnson's Life of Pope. Johnson writes the sentence while discussing Alexander Pope's early estimate of his own abilities and immediately qualifies it by warning that isolated self-estimation can err.
“There mark what Ills the Scholar's Life assail; Toil, Envy, Want, the Garret, and the Jail.”
The poem refuses to romanticize scholarship by listing labor, envy, poverty and danger among the possible companions of intellectual ambition.
The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), first-edition scholar passage, Wikisource scan leaf 28. “There mark what Ills the Scholar’s Life assail” is followed by “Toil, Envy, Want, the Garret, and the Jail.” The first-edition transcription uses a comma after “assail”; this collection’s semicolon is a retained punctuation normalization. The couplet remains satirical literary context rather than a forecast of every scholar’s life.
“We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success.”
Failure can expose what does not work and force closer observation, turning setbacks into information that uncomplicated success may never reveal.
Self-Help, Chapter XI, “Self-Culture—Facilities and Difficulties,” Project Gutenberg #935. The passage follows Charles James Fox’s contrast between early success and perseverance after failure, then leads into examples of discoveries and learning produced through mistakes and failed attempts.
“The battle of life is, in most cases, fought up-hill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honour.”
Difficulty is not treated as evidence that effort is pointless; resistance can be part of the process by which achievement acquires substance.
Self-Help, Chapter XI, “Self-Culture—Facilities and Difficulties,” Project Gutenberg #935. The passage comes immediately after Hodson’s reflection on resolutely doing difficult duties and continues by presenting difficulty as a stimulus to people of resolution and valour.
“His motto was 'Persevere!'”
Smiles condenses Stephenson’s response to repeated engineering and institutional obstacles into a single governing principle of continued effort.
The Life of George Stephenson and of his Son Robert Stephenson, Chapter XI, “Chat Moss—Construction of the Railway”; represented 1868 revised edition, Project Gutenberg #46229. The motto appears in Smiles’s surrounding narration immediately after the quoted Chat Moss recollection.
“There was no help for it, however, but to go on.”
During the Chat Moss crisis, continuing became the practical choice after heavy investment and discouraging expert opinion had narrowed the alternatives.
The Life of George Stephenson and of his Son Robert Stephenson, Chapter XI, “Chat Moss—Construction of the Railway”; represented 1868 revised edition, Project Gutenberg #46229. Smiles records Stephenson’s first-person recollection of the directors’ crisis over Chat Moss in quoted speech.
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
The line distinguishes anticipated suffering from what is actually happening, challenging imagination when it magnifies uncertainty.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 13, section 4, Richard M. Gummere translation. 'We suffer more often in imagination than in reality' occurs in 'On Groundless Fears' as Seneca distinguishes feared possibilities from harms that have actually arrived. It remains Roman Stoic moral counsel rather than modern anxiety-treatment or clinical evidence.
“For manliness gains much strength by being challenged.”
Difficulty can exercise courage the way resistance exercises a muscle, giving strength an opportunity to become practiced rather than theoretical.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 13, section 3, Richard M. Gummere translation.
“What I advise you to do is, not to be unhappy before the crisis comes.”
Anticipatory fear can make a person suffer an event that has not occurred, so Seneca asks the reader not to spend present peace on an uncertain future.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 13, section 4, Richard M. Gummere translation.
“No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it.”
An obsession with extending life can undermine the peace of the life already present, because fear of ending displaces attention from living.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 4.
“Fortune has often in the past got the upper hand of you, and yet you have not surrendered, but have leaped up and stood your ground still more eagerly.”
Past recovery is evidence of present capacity: being struck down by fortune is different from surrendering to it.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 13, section 3, Richard M. Gummere translation.
“That from which you are running is within you.”
Changing places cannot solve a conflict that is carried internally; the difficult work is changing judgment and character.
Letter 104 argues that travel cannot by itself cure inward restlessness.
“Do not hope without despair, or despair without hope.”
Hope and fear can mirror each other when both depend on uncertain futures; steadier judgment avoids being ruled by either extreme.
Letter 104 discusses travel, anxiety, and the need to change the mind rather than merely the location.
“Can one rise superior to fortune unless God helps him to rise?”
Rising above fortune means refusing to let changing circumstances become the final measure of character or inner freedom.
Letter 41 discusses the source of moral greatness and resistance to fortune.
“Respect means love, and love and fear cannot be mingled.”
Seneca separates genuine respect from intimidation: a relationship governed by fear cannot provide the same moral bond as voluntary regard.
Letter 47, on master and slave, argues for humane treatment grounded in shared humanity.
“Let not the eyes be dry when we have lost a friend, nor let them overflow.”
Grief is neither forbidden nor allowed to consume everything; the line recommends honest mourning held within proportion.
Letter 63, on grief for lost friends, argues against both emotional numbness and endless mourning.
“Virtue needs nothing to set it off.”
Moral worth does not need decoration from wealth, fame, or comfort; its value is supposed to stand on its own.
Letter 66 compares different circumstances while arguing for the equality and sufficiency of virtue.
“Virtue is desirable, which enables us patiently to endure hardships.”
Endurance becomes admirable when it is guided by character rather than passive suffering or lack of alternatives.
Letter 67 considers whether difficult experiences can be desired insofar as they exercise courageous virtue.
“Wrestle bravely with disease.”
The command treats illness as a circumstance to meet with courage while keeping the focus on character rather than promising any medical outcome.
Letter 78 uses the language of struggle while discussing Seneca’s own experiences of illness and endurance.
“For sometimes it is an act of bravery even to live.”
Enduring a difficult period can itself require courage when continuing responsibly is harder than dramatic gestures or escape.
Letter 78 discusses illness, endurance, and the courage required to continue living under hardship.
“One who sustains himself by any prop may fall.”
When inner stability depends entirely on an external support, losing that support can collapse the whole structure of confidence.
Letter 92 contrasts self-sustaining virtue with happiness dependent on external props.
“Yet nothing sets us free from these alternations of hope and fear so well as always fixing some limit to our successes.”
Seneca links tranquility with limits: endless ambition keeps hope and fear alternating, while defining enough can reduce dependence on uncertain future gains.
Of Peace of Mind, section X, Aubrey Stewart translation (1889), cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #64576 and Wikisource. Seneca argues that voluntarily setting limits to success can interrupt the repeated alternation of hope and fear and prevent ambition from expanding without bounds.
“It is not the critic who counts.”
Participation matters more than detached fault-finding when achievement requires risk, effort, mistakes, and responsibility for an outcome.
Citizenship in a Republic, commonly called the Man in the Arena speech; Roosevelt contrasts action with spectatorship.
“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.”
Roosevelt places greater moral weight on imperfect participation than detached criticism from safety.
Excerpt from the “Man in the Arena” passage, Paris, April 23, 1910.
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
Roosevelt contrasts the disappointment of an unsuccessful attempt with the deeper loss of never attempting worthwhile work at all, making participation and effort more important than guaranteed success.
The Strenuous Life, speech before the Hamilton Club, Chicago, April 10, 1899; Project Gutenberg #58821. The sentence appears in Roosevelt’s opening argument for active effort and immediately follows his praise of the person who embodies “victorious effort”; it is preserved as historical motivational rhetoric rather than a promise that effort always produces success.
“Doubt of any sort cannot be removed except by Action.”
The fictional philosophy presented in Sartor argues that some uncertainty becomes clearer only after conduct tests an idea in experience rather than allowing speculation to continue without limit.
Sartor Resartus, Book II, Chapter IX, “The Everlasting Yea,” printed page 156 / Wikisource scan leaf 188 in The Works of Thomas Carlyle, Centenary Edition, Vol. I (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1896). “Doubt of any sort cannot be removed except by Action” appears inside Teufelsdröckh’s spiritual conversion and Carlyle’s claim that conviction becomes meaningful through conduct. This collection preserves the fictional-philosophical voice and religious setting rather than presenting the line as uncomplicated Carlyle autobiography or a modern psychological rule.
“The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth.”
The line emphasizes the scale and future consequences of the political choice Paine believed his contemporaries faced.
Common Sense (1776), “Thoughts on the present State of American Affairs.” The represented wording is verified in Project Gutenberg #147 and the validated 1776 Wikisource transcription; Paine enlarges the stakes from a city or province to a continent and to posterity.
“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”
Political change is framed as a rare opportunity to build institutions deliberately rather than merely inherit arrangements from the past.
Common Sense (1776), Appendix, validated Wikisource scan leaf 48 / printed page 40. Paine argues that independence creates an opportunity to form a new constitution and writes that Americans have it in their power to begin the world over again.
“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.”
Paine enlarges a local political conflict into a broader argument about principles that affect people beyond one country or generation.
Common Sense (1776), Introduction. The represented wording is verified in Project Gutenberg #147 and the validated scan-backed Wikisource transcription; Paine frames the American dispute as involving principles of natural rights and human concern beyond one locality.
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right.”
Custom can disguise error by making the familiar feel legitimate; critical judgment requires re-examining practices that have escaped scrutiny through repetition.
Common Sense (1776), Introduction. The represented opening sentence is verified in Project Gutenberg #147 and the validated scan-backed Wikisource transcription; Paine argues that familiarity can make a wrong practice appear right before public argument unsettles the custom.
“Such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks,—and all it wants,—is the liberty of appearing.”
Paine links truth with open expression, arguing that its central requirement is the opportunity to be heard rather than protection from scrutiny.
Rights of Man; represented in the public-domain Conway edition and kept in the work’s polemical political context.
“These are the times that try men's souls.”
Crisis reveals commitment because principles become costly to maintain precisely when fear, fatigue, and uncertainty make retreat easier.
Opening of The American Crisis No. I; Paine addresses perseverance during a difficult stage of the American Revolution.
“Resist much, obey little.”
The compact command favors independent judgment over reflexive obedience, especially when authority conflicts with conscience or freedom.
Leaves of Grass (1860), poem “Walt Whitman’s Caution,” represented on Wikisource from the 1860 edition.
“Come one, come all! this rock shall fly From its firm base as soon as I.”
Fitz-James refuses intimidation despite being surrounded, using the rock image to express a determination not to be moved from his position by threats.
The Lady of the Lake, Canto V, “The Combat,” stanza X, Project Gutenberg #45888. Fitz-James says “Come one, come all!” with his back against a rock after Roderick Dhu’s signal reveals armed followers around him. The defiant rock image is fictional martial speech in Scott’s historical romance in verse rather than current safety, combat or self-help advice.
“God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform;”
Cowper opens the hymn with a Christian claim that divine purposes may operate through events people cannot immediately understand or interpret correctly.
“Light Shining out of Darkness,” first published in 1774 and later included in Olney Hymns; represented by the Cowper & Newton Museum. The line is explicitly Christian devotional poetry about providence, not evidence that every hardship has a knowable beneficial purpose.
“So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan, which moves To that mysterious realm,”
Bryant turns the poem’s long meditation on universal mortality into an appeal to live in a way that makes eventual death less degrading or fearful.
“Thanatopsis,” represented in Project Gutenberg #29700. These lines begin the poem’s closing counsel after its extended description of death and nature; the language is poetic and spiritual rather than clinical end-of-life guidance.
“Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again;”
Bryant expresses confidence that truth can survive temporary defeat and re-emerge even when public power, violence or opinion appears to have buried it.
“The Battlefield,” represented in Project Gutenberg #29700. The line belongs to a civic-religious meditation on conflict, sacrifice and moral endurance; its resurrection imagery expresses poetic conviction rather than a literal law of history.
“My head is bloody, but unbowed.”
The speaker acknowledges injury without surrendering inward posture, making the line a compact image of retaining agency and self-possession under circumstances that have already caused real harm.
“Invictus,” first published in Henley’s 1888 Book of Verses (written 1875) and represented through the public-domain poem text. This is the second stanza’s closing line, following “Under the bludgeonings of chance”; this collection keeps the poem’s defiant lyric voice rather than treating it as a guarantee that adversity can always be mastered.
“I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”
The closing declaration emphasizes agency over one’s response and character even when external circumstances remain harsh or uncontrollable.
Closing lines of Invictus; Henley ends a poem about hardship with a statement of inner command.
“Failure is often the turning-point, the pivot of circumstance that swings us to higher levels.”
A setback can force reassessment and redirect effort, so Jordan treats some failures as transitions rather than final verdicts.
Self-Control, Its Kingship and Majesty, Chapter XIV, “Failure as a Success,” Project Gutenberg #51469. “Failure is often the turning-point...” follows Jordan’s account of a failed log-rafting experiment that nevertheless generated useful hydrographic observations. The word “often” is retained: this is conduct-of-life rhetoric about possible redirection after failure, not a guarantee that failure produces improvement.
“What, to our eyes, may seem hopeless failure is often but the dawning of a greater success.”
Immediate appearances can mislead: a failure may reveal another direction or become part of later success, so present defeat need not define the whole trajectory.
The Majesty of Calmness, “Failure as a Success.” The passage is motivational interpretation, not a promise that every loss will produce a better outcome.
“Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.”
James treats belief as an active stance toward uncertain possibilities: confidence does not prove that life will go well, but it can influence whether a person engages with life as something capable of being made worthwhile.
“Is Life Worth Living?” in The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, Project Gutenberg #26659. James explicitly says the “scientific proof” may remain unclear; the passage is philosophical encouragement about action under uncertainty, not empirical proof that belief guarantees outcomes.
“calmness amid storm”
The compact metaphor describes steadiness under pressure: difficulty remains present, but it need not dictate the quality of judgment or conduct.
Aequanimitas, 1889 valedictory address. Osler uses the phrase while defining imperturbability for physicians and surgeons; it is retained as a professional ideal in its historical medical setting.
“rise superior to the trials of life”
Equanimity is presented as a capacity to meet adversity without allowing every trial to overthrow judgment, patience, or the ability to continue useful action.
Aequanimitas, 1889. The wording appears in Osler’s discussion of patience and equanimity; the source note keeps the medical-graduation context visible rather than treating it as universal therapeutic advice.
“Though she be but little, she is fierce.”
Physical size is separated from force of character, giving the line its enduring use as a compact statement of spirited strength.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene 2; Helena describes Hermia during the lovers’ quarrel. Verified in the scan-backed 1918 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Willard Higley Durham; direct evidence resolves to the reviewed Act III transcription.
“Sweet are the uses of adversity.”
Adversity is presented as capable of yielding insight or value even when the experience itself is unwelcome.
As You Like It, Act II, Scene 1, Duke Senior; 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Jack R. Crawford, printed page 24 / Wikisource scan leaf 36. “Sweet are the uses of adversity” occurs in Duke Senior’s Forest of Arden reflection on exile, winter and the lessons he claims to find outside court life. It remains fictional dramatic speech rather than Shakespeare’s autobiographical advice or a modern psychological claim about hardship.
“The readiness is all.”
The emphasis is not on controlling every outcome but on meeting what comes with preparedness and acceptance.
Act 5, Scene 2.
“When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.”
Difficulty often feels cumulative: one loss can arrive alongside others, making the burden larger than any isolated event.
Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5; Claudius describes multiple troubles arriving together after Polonius’s death.
“The better part of valour is discretion.”
Courage is balanced with judgment here: avoiding a needless danger can sometimes be wiser than performing bravery for appearance.
Henry IV, Part 1, Act V Scene 4; reviewed against the 1917 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Samuel B. Hemingway, printed page 110 / scan leaf 124. Falstaff says 'The better part of valour is discretion' after counterfeiting death during the battle and immediately boasts that this discretion saved his life. It remains comic fictional self-justification rather than a universal rule for courage or risk.
“There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”
Brutus uses the tide metaphor to argue that judgment includes timing: opportunities can require action before circumstances change.
Julius Caesar, Act IV, Scene 3, in the 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Lawrence Mason. Brutus argues for marching to Philippi and compares opportunity to a tide that must be taken at the flood; the metaphor belongs to a disputed military decision inside the play rather than a context-free guarantee of success.
“The miserable have no other medicine but only hope.”
When circumstances offer little immediate relief, hope can preserve the possibility of endurance without pretending the pain is gone.
Measure for Measure, Act III, Scene I, Claudio to the disguised Duke. The scan-backed 1910 Methuen facsimile transcription of the 1623 First Folio reads “The miserable haue no other medicine / But onely hope” as Claudio awaits possible execution. The line remains fictional speech under threat of death, not medical treatment guidance or a guarantee that hope resolves suffering.
“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”
Doubt becomes harmful when it stops useful action before reality has had a chance to test what might be possible.
Measure for Measure, Lucio to Isabella. The retained modern locator is Act I, Scene 4; the represented 1623 First Folio witness, reviewed through the 1910 Methuen facsimile transcription on Wikisource, labels the same scene Act I, Scene V (Scena Quinta). Lucio urges Isabella to test her ability to plead for Claudio rather than let doubt prevent the attempt. This is fictional dramatic speech, not Shakespeare speaking autobiographically or a universal psychological law.
