Decision quotes — Page 3

Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. IV “The New Downing Street”; Project Gutenberg #1140. The sentence occurs inside Carlyle’s controversial political argument about leadership; this collection uses it for work/responsibility while retaining that historical context.

Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. I “The Present Time”; Project Gutenberg #1140. The excerpt completes Carlyle’s sentence about knowing the present time and what it bids people do; the local political context remains essential.

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). “Do the Duty which lies nearest thee” follows the doubt/action sentence and is explicitly described as a precept that was of invaluable service to Teufelsdröckh. It remains fictional-philosophical and religious conduct-of-life rhetoric rather than a context-free productivity command.

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.

“Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes,” represented in Project Gutenberg #11254. The poem is comic mock-moral verse about Horace Walpole’s cat Selima; the gendered eighteenth-century joke remains historical literary language rather than a modern claim about women.

Pragmatism, Lecture II, “What Pragmatism Means”; Project Gutenberg #5116. Capitalization has been normalized from the represented all-caps sentence while the wording is otherwise preserved.

Pragmatism, Lecture II, “What Pragmatism Means”; Project Gutenberg #5116. The sentence follows James’s claim that theories become instruments rather than final answers.

The Will to Believe, essay “The Will to Believe”; Project Gutenberg #26659. James immediately argues that truth-seeking and error-avoidance are distinct laws rather than two phrasings of one command.

Aequanimitas, valedictory address delivered at the University of Pennsylvania on May 1, 1889; reviewed against the represented 1906 second edition of Aequanimitas with Other Addresses, Internet Archive identifier aequanimitaswith00osle_0. Osler defines imperturbability as ‘coolness and presence of mind under all circumstances,’ immediately followed by ‘calmness amid storm’ and ‘clearness of judgment in moments of grave peril.’ This remains historical medical-professional rhetoric about composure, not clinical guidance or an instruction to suppress emotion.

Act 3, Scene 1; Hamlet weighs existence against suffering and uncertainty.

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.

Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2, in the 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Lawrence Mason. Cassius says ‘Men at some time are masters of their fates’ immediately before the fuller stars/underlings argument; the retained short record is part of the same local persuasion scene.

Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2, in the 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Lawrence Mason. Cassius tells Brutus that men can be masters of their fates and immediately continues, ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings.’ This is Cassius’s political persuasion inside the drama, not neutral historical evidence or Shakespeare speaking directly.

Act 2, Scene 3; Friar Laurence urges Romeo to move with greater care.

Act 2, Scene 7; the inscription warns against judging by outward appearance.

The Merry Wives of Windsor; a comic line about timing and punctuality.