Life quotes — Page 2

The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter V; Project Gutenberg #3300. The historical spelling “conveniencies” is retained; this is classical political economy, not a modern household-wealth metric.

Moral printed after “Hercules and the Wagoner” in the Townsend translation; Hercules first tells the driver to help himself.

Moral printed after “The Hare and the Tortoise” in George Fyler Townsend’s translation of Aesop’s fables.

Moral printed after “The Lion, the Fox, and the Ass”; the fox changes his conduct after observing the ass’s fate.

Moral printed after “The Monkeys and Their Mother” in the Townsend translation.

Moral printed after “The Oak and the Woodcutters”; the oak laments wedges made from its own branches.

Moral printed after “The Swallow and the Crow” in the Townsend translation of the fables.

Moral printed after “The Widow and the Sheep”; the widow injures the sheep while trying to avoid the shearer’s expense.

An Essay on Criticism, Part III; Pope joins good nature and good sense before contrasting ordinary human error with the higher moral act of forgiveness.

An Essay on Criticism, Part II; Pope warns that shallow learning can produce premature confidence before deeper study tempers judgment.

An Essay on Criticism; Pope follows the line with the image of drinking deeply from the Pierian spring.

An Epistle from Mr. Pope to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735 first-edition scan), printed page 7 / scan leaf 13, lines 128–131. Pope explains that the Muse helped him endure “this long Disease, my Life” and addresses his physician-friend Arbuthnot directly. The frozen catalog lowercases “disease”; this is witness capitalization only. The passage is autobiographical-satirical verse, not medical guidance about illness or resilience.

The Rape of the Lock, Canto V, lines 29–30 in Pope’s 1717 revision; spoken by Clarissa. Her speech was added in 1717, so the inherited 1714 source year is corrected to 1717. Clarissa’s counsel is immediately followed by the poem’s return to comic battle, preserving the satirical frame.

The Count of Monte Cristo, closing letter, Project Gutenberg #1184, in the represented public-domain English translation. Edmond Dantès writes the advice to Morrel and Valentine; the English wording is translation-specific and is fictional counsel, not a direct English-language aphorism authored by Dumas.

Poem “Locksley Hall”; the contrast distinguishes readily acquired knowledge from the slower development of judgment and wisdom.

The Gospel of Wealth, first essay; 1889 North American Review text. Carnegie explicitly separates ordinary competence needed for family maintenance and education from the concentrated surplus wealth his argument addresses.

Agnes Grey, Chapter I, “The Parsonage,” Project Gutenberg #767. The frozen catalog is the opening clause of the narrator’s longer first sentence, which continues that the instructional “treasure” may be hard to find. Agnes Grey is a fictional first-person narrator; the passage should not be presented as literal Anne Brontë autobiography.

The Warden, Project Gutenberg #619. The narrator describes Mr Harding settling into Tom Towers’s comfortable rooms after an exhausting day; this is comic fictional narration, not a claim about universal happiness.

Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book I, Chapter I, W. D. Ross translation (1908), validated Wikisource scan leaf 21. 'All men by nature desire to know' opens the work before the discussion of sensation, memory, experience, art and knowledge. This remains ancient philosophy mediated by translation, not a modern empirical finding about cognition.

Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII, Chapter I, Project Gutenberg #8438. The sentence occurs in Aristotle’s opening inventory of why friendship is necessary across different stages of life.

Nicomachean Ethics, Book I; the opening argument begins from the idea that action aims at a perceived good.

Mental Efficiency, discussion of reading and self-development. The short imperative belongs to Bennett’s practical advice about choosing a field for sustained personal study.

Mental Efficiency, “Breaking with the Past.” The sentence frames prior experience as material for correction rather than a permanent identity.

Mental Efficiency. Bennett explicitly defines the scope of his argument as mental efficiency serving self-development; this is period conduct-of-life writing rather than modern cognitive-science evidence.

The Human Machine, discussion of using experience for self-command. Bennett’s claim is philosophical self-training advice; it does not imply that every failure is beneficial or emotionally easy.

“A Scandal in Bohemia,” The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1891), Project Gutenberg #1661. Holmes immediately warns that premature theorizing leads people to twist facts to suit theories; it is fictional detective dialogue.

Amours de Voyage, Letter X, “Claude to Eustace,—from Rome,” Project Gutenberg #1393. Claude’s two sentences about knowledge appear in the fictional verse-letter sequence after he turns from Roman politics toward study. This is Clough’s fictional epistolary voice, not direct autobiography or an empirical claim about happiness.

On the Art of Writing, Lecture XII, “On Style,” Project Gutenberg #17470; excerpted from Quiller-Couch’s summary of the course.

On the Art of Writing, Preface, Project Gutenberg #17470. Quiller-Couch states the governing premise of the Cambridge lectures: 'Literature is not a mere Science, to be studied; but an Art, to be practised.' The sentence belongs to his historical writing pedagogy and argument for continued practice, not a scientific classification of literature or a measurable guarantee of writing success.

On the Art of Writing, Lecture V, “Interlude: On Jargon,” Project Gutenberg #17470; Quiller-Couch contrasts direct prose with inflated official phrasing.

On the Art of Writing, Lecture XII, “On Style,” Project Gutenberg #17470; excerpted from Quiller-Couch’s reminder that students must master craft for themselves.

Counsels and Maxims, T. Bailey Saunders translation, in a discussion of fortune and apparent stability.

Counsels and Maxims, opening general rules on happiness and avoiding unnecessary suffering.

Counsels and Maxims, T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10715. The numerical life span reflects Schopenhauer’s nineteenth-century aphoristic framing rather than a modern lifespan rule.

Counsels and Maxims, T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10715. The statement belongs to Schopenhauer’s broader, characteristically pessimistic discussion of age and experience.

Counsels and Maxims, T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10715. The passage appears in an age-related comparison of intellectual powers and accumulated material.

Essay “On Books and Reading”; the surrounding passage explains selective reading rather than hostility to books generally.

Essay “On Books and Reading,” public-domain English text.

The Art of Literature, section “On Thinking for Oneself,” T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10714. The preceding sentence says a person must first learn something before turning it over in the mind.

The Wisdom of Life, T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10741. The surrounding argument contrasts what a person is, has and represents to others.

The Wisdom of Life, T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10741. The claim belongs to Schopenhauer’s philosophical account of personality and subjective experience.

The Wisdom of Life, T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10741. The following clause recommends pursuits suited to the development of one’s capacities.

The Wisdom of Life, T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10741. The wording belongs to Schopenhauer’s contrast between intellectual and ordinary forms of leisure.

Poor Richard’s Almanack; Franklin uses the image as a warning about association and consequences.

Poor Richard’s Almanack; a marital maxim later repeated in discussions of Franklin’s proverbial advice.

Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays, within Russell’s philosophical discussion of human value and the world. The line is preserved as ethical argument rather than converted into a promise that circumstances are controllable.

The Consolation of Philosophy, Book III, Chapter XI, H. R. James translation (Elliot Stock, 1897), printed page 149 in Project Gutenberg #14328. Lady Philosophy reaches ‘All things, then, seek the good’ after arguing that things naturally seek continued existence and unity, and that unity and goodness are the same. This remains late-antique metaphysical/philosophical argument mediated by translation, not an empirical description of every human motive or modern behavioral science.

Character Building, “Last Words,” Project Gutenberg #60484. In the closing address, Washington warns departing students not to feel superior to their families after schooling and then tells them to go home, live simply, help their parents and practise politeness.

Character Building, “Helping Others,” Project Gutenberg #60484. The statement is moral advice inside a school address and is not presented as clinical treatment for unhappiness.

Up from Slavery, Chapter III, “The Struggle For An Education,” Project Gutenberg #2376. Washington describes General Samuel Chapman Armstrong’s influence at Hampton and argues that sustained contact with exemplary people can itself be a powerful form of education.

Up from Slavery, Chapter II, “Boyhood Days,” Project Gutenberg #2376. Washington reflects on the obstacles facing Black youth after slavery and measures success by difficulty overcome rather than by final social position; the historical racial context is kept explicit.

Working With the Hands, Chapter I, opening sentence; Project Gutenberg #64504. This deliberately short excerpt is presented with its educational context.

Working With the Hands, Chapter I; Project Gutenberg #64504. This short excerpt precedes Washington’s discussion of poverty, family responsibility and practical education.

The Lady of the Shroud, Project Gutenberg #3095. The wording is quoted in a letter as the remembered wisdom of Rupert’s mother; “wants” and “want” are deliberately contrasted.

A Tale of Two Cities, opening sentence.

Great Expectations (1861), global Chapter XVII / Volume I Chapter XVII in the Chapman & Hall three-volume first book edition. Pip tells Biddy that the simpler life he might have led at the forge was “much to be regretted,” then admits that his ambitions make that lost alternative impossible to restore. Verified against the scan-backed Wikisource Chapter XVII transcription and cross-checked with Project Gutenberg #1400. This remains Pip’s retrospective fictional narration and dialogue, not Dickens autobiography.

Great Expectations (1861), global Chapter XL / Volume III Chapter I in the Chapman & Hall three-volume first book edition. Mr. Jaggers tells Pip “Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule” while insisting that he has stayed to the strict line of fact about Pip’s benefactor. Verified against the scan-backed Wikisource Volume III Chapter I transcription and cross-checked with Project Gutenberg #1400. This remains fictional legal dialogue and character method rather than a modern legal or scientific standard.

Martin Chuzzlewit, Chapter X, Project Gutenberg #968. Old Martin Chuzzlewit says that regrets are the natural property of grey hairs while speaking to Pecksniff during a deliberately strategic performance. The maxim remains fictional character speech shaped by manipulation and family conflict rather than direct Dickens autobiography or a clinical claim about aging.

Our Mutual Friend, Book III, Chapter IX (“Somebody Becomes the Subject of a Prediction”), verified against Project Gutenberg #883 and the stable Wikisource chapter transcription. John Rokesmith (the Secretary) answers Bella Wilfer after she calls herself “useless enough in this world.” This older catalog row modernizes Dickens’s represented wording “who lightens the burden of it for any one else” to “who lightens the burden of it to anyone else”; the frozen quotation remains unchanged and is explicitly treated as a wording variant of the same passage. This is fictional character dialogue about practical usefulness, not an empirical or clinical definition of human worth.

The Pickwick Papers, near the closing chapter, Project Gutenberg #580. The narrator deliberately leaves Pickwick and his companions in a moment of happiness and contrasts life’s “dark shadows” with its stronger lights; this is literary narration, not a promise that suffering always ends well.

The Water-Babies, represented by Project Gutenberg #1018. Tom recalls the mysterious Irishwoman’s warning while half asleep. The cleanliness language participates in Kingsley’s Victorian Christian moral fantasy and is not a scientific claim about character or hygiene.

The Simple Life, Chapter II, Mary Louise Hendee translation, Project Gutenberg #23092; the phrase appears in Wagner’s argument for returning attention to essentials.

The Simple Life, Chapter V, “Simple Duty,” Mary Louise Hendee translation, Project Gutenberg #23092; the phrase condenses his argument about nearby obligations.

The Simple Life, Chapter IV, “Simplicity of Speech,” Mary Louise Hendee translation, Project Gutenberg #23092; the claim is rhetorical advice about plain expression.

The Simple Life, Chapter II, Mary Louise Hendee translation, Project Gutenberg #23092; the sentence belongs to Wagner’s moral account of inward order.

The Simple Life, Chapter V, “Simple Duty,” Mary Louise Hendee translation, Project Gutenberg #23092; Wagner contrasts ordinary duty with inflated moral ambition.

Jane Eyre, Project Gutenberg #1260. Rochester says this to Jane while recounting his own decline. Jane replies that repentance is said to cure remorse; Rochester answers that reformation may be its cure. This is fictional character dialogue, not Charlotte Brontë’s direct psychological advice.

Cato on Old Age, Shuckburgh translation.

Laelius on Friendship, Shuckburgh translation.

Tusculan Disputations, Book V, section XIV, represented by Project Gutenberg #14988. Cicero defines security parenthetically as freedom from anxiety while arguing that a happy life must rest on stable goods and virtue rather than vulnerable externals. It remains ancient philosophical psychology mediated by translation, not modern clinical anxiety-treatment evidence.

The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book I opens by connecting learning with steady practice.

Analects 2:15 in James Legge’s translation; the saying balances study with independent reflection.

The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book XV distinguishes ordinary faults from the refusal to reform them.

Moll Flanders, Project Gutenberg #370. The fictional first-person narrator uses weather metaphor while recalling an early relationship crisis and the family’s growing hostility toward her.

Robinson Crusoe, represented by Project Gutenberg #38705. Crusoe says this while reflecting on what he interprets as secret intimations of Providence; the sentence is fictional first-person religious reflection, not evidence for supernatural guidance.

John Halifax, Gentleman, represented by Project Gutenberg #2351. The phrase belongs to the first-person narrator Phineas Fletcher while describing the river; it is a literary simile inside the novel, not direct autobiography by Craik.

Olive: A Novel, Chapter XI, Project Gutenberg #22121. Olive Rothesay tells Sara that if she loves Charles she should tell him so and give him her ‘whole life-long faith and affection’ while responding to Sara's first love-letter. This is fictional character counsel inside a nineteenth-century courtship plot rather than Craik autobiography or universally applicable relationship advice.

A Passage to India, Project Gutenberg #61221. The narrator explains Mrs. Moore’s more patient response to disappointment after an outing fails to materialize on cue; the sentence belongs to fictional narration.

A Room with a View, Chapter XIV, Project Gutenberg #2641. The frozen catalog wording is a clause extract from the narrator’s longer sentence: “Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice, and we welcome ‘nerves’ or any other shibboleth that will cloak our personal desire.” The passage concerns Lucy Honeychurch’s self-deception in fiction, not modern psychological evidence.

Howards End, Chapter XXII, Project Gutenberg #2946. The narrator summarizes Margaret’s hope of reconciling “the prose and the passion” in Henry with “Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon.” The sentence belongs to the novel’s thematic and character context rather than serving as a complete formula for every relationship.

Five Children and It, Chapter I, “Beautiful as the Day,” Project Gutenberg #17314. The narrator observes how quickly the children become accustomed to the astonishing after they begin conversing with the Psammead. This is playful children’s-fantasy narration rather than an empirical psychological claim about adaptation.

The Wouldbegoods, represented by Project Gutenberg #794. The observation appears in Nesbit’s comic children’s fiction and is filtered through the story’s child-centered narrative voice; it is literary observation rather than a measured claim about happiness.

Ecclesiastes 3:12 in the King James Version.

Ecclesiastes 3:12 in the King James Version.

The Masque of the Red Death, Project Gutenberg #1064. The sentence appears as the masked figure violates even Prince Prospero’s extreme masquerade conventions by embodying the Red Death; it is Gothic narration inside fiction, not a psychological law.

Love of Fame, the Universal Passion, Satire II, from the seven-satire sequence issued in the 1720s and represented in Project Gutenberg #18827. The couplet belongs to Young’s satirical moral persona; its age-based sting is period rhetoric rather than an empirical claim about people at forty.

Night Thoughts, Night I. The line appears in Young’s long religious and philosophical poem about mortality, delay and preparation for death; it is poetic moral reflection rather than productivity research.

Pollyanna; the line explains the logic of the glad game and its habit of looking for something genuinely positive.

Aurora Leigh, Book I, printed page 21 / Wikisource scan leaf 30, scan-backed Chapman and Hall third edition (London, 1857), cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #56621. After recounting bereavement and a slow return to ordinary consciousness, Aurora says, “For uses, therefore, I must count worth while.” This remains literary first-person narration about loss and renewed engagement with life, not clinical advice or a recovery benchmark.

Essays in Medical Sociology, Volume II, Essay I, ‘The Influence of Women in the Profession of Medicine,’ address delivered at the London School of Medicine for Women in October 1889, around printed page 8, Project Gutenberg #69998. Blackwell defines the great object of human life as becoming nobler and helping others while developing her historical argument about women's responsibilities and contribution to medicine. It remains period professional/social-reform rhetoric, not current clinical or professional guidance.

Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women, represented by Project Gutenberg #65496. The autobiography reproduces this sentence in Blackwell’s letter to Lady Noel Byron. It is historical first-person reform correspondence embedded in the memoir, not current medical guidance.

Solitude of Self; Stanton develops an extended navigation metaphor to argue that every person must be equipped for the emergencies and decisions of an individual life.

Poems of Optimism, “The Winds of Fate,” first published in this collection in 1913; Project Gutenberg #7421. The statement is metaphorical poetry about agency, not a denial of material constraints or unequal circumstances.

Poems of Power, “I Am,” published 1903; Project Gutenberg #6667. The poem is explicitly spiritual and metaphysical, so the line remains poetic purpose language rather than proof of a predetermined cosmic assignment.

Love and Marriage, represented by Project Gutenberg #57592, English edition copyright 1911, translated from Swedish by Arthur G. Chater. The sentence appears in Key’s historical discussion of fidelity, personality and reciprocal development in love; it is early-twentieth-century social philosophy, not relationship therapy.

“Earth Is Short,” Poems: First Series (1890), Project Gutenberg #12242. The poem proceeds into questions about heaven and God; its religious questions remain questions rather than verified metaphysical claims.

“Parting,” Poems: Third Series (1896), Project Gutenberg #12242. The poem is lyric and metaphysical; its language of immortality is not presented as empirical evidence about an afterlife.

Opening line of Poem 112; Dickinson links desire with the sharpness of perceived value.

Opening line of the poem.

Poem in Poems: First Series (1890), Project Gutenberg #12242. “The Bustle in a House” is used as an editorial first-line source identifier; the poem continues from physical tasks toward putting love away for eternity.