Perspective quotes — Page 2

An Epistle from Mr. Pope to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735 first-edition scan), printed page 15 / scan leaf 21, line 297. “Who breaks a Butterfly upon a Wheel?” occurs inside the hostile “Paris” / Lord Hervey satire and questions disproportionate punishment. The first edition capitalizes “Butterfly” and “Wheel”; the frozen catalog capitalization is normalized, and the personal/polemical context remains explicit.

The Rape of the Lock, Canto I, line 2 in the 1717 recension. The retained catalog wording ‘What mighty contests rise from trivial things’ is verified in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope (1717), scan page 157; the 1714 second edition instead reads ‘What mighty Quarrels rise from trivial things,’ so the synchronized source year is 1717. The line is part of Pope’s mock-heroic invocation and should be read as satire.

“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.

The Wisdom of Life, T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10741. This is a philosophical claim about temperament, not a denial that external circumstances can matter greatly.

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

On the Improvement of the Understanding, section 12, Project Gutenberg #1016 in R. H. M. Elwes's public-domain English translation. Spinoza says the terms good and evil are applied relatively while introducing his distinction between ordinary relative goods and the true/highest good sought by the unfinished treatise. It remains translation-mediated seventeenth-century methodological philosophy rather than a claim that all moral distinctions are meaningless.

The Consolation of Philosophy, Book II, Chapter IV, H. R. James translation (Elliot Stock, 1897), printed page 60 in Project Gutenberg #14328. The retained catalog wording ‘Nothing is wretched, but thinking makes it so.’ is a frozen clause extract from James’s longer sentence beginning ‘So true is it that...’ in Lady Philosophy’s argument about Fortune, judgment and the instability of external circumstances. It remains late-antique philosophical consolation mediated by translation, not modern cognitive-science or clinical mental-health evidence.

Character Building, “Two Sides of Life,” Project Gutenberg #60484. The advice belongs to a longer argument against habitual discouraging talk.

Character Building, “Two Sides of Life,” Project Gutenberg #60484. Washington explicitly warns just before this passage against going too far toward either the bright or dark side.

Hypatia — or New Foes with an Old Face, Chapter XXIV, “Lost Lambs,” Project Gutenberg #6308. Pelagia tells Philammon that men love women for their own sakes while women love “for love’s sake” during a distressed reflection on betrayal, dependence and the absent Amal. It is fictional dialogue in Kingsley’s historical novel, not a universal claim about men and women.

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.

Cranford, Project Gutenberg #394. Martha says the line during a comic but affectionate refusal to leave Miss Matty after financial trouble; it is character dialogue, not Gaskell’s definition of reason.

Poems of Cheer, “As You Go Through Life,” represented 1914 edition; Project Gutenberg #3238. The poem explicitly acknowledges that things go wrong, so the line is about chosen attention rather than denial.

“Hope,” in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell; Project Gutenberg #1019. The poem personifies Hope critically rather than offering a straightforward optimistic slogan.

“Beclouded,” Poems: First Series; Project Gutenberg #12242. The line is personification and comparison, not a literal claim that nature possesses human emotion or status.

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

Of Studies, in Bacon’s instructions for how different kinds of books should be read.

Human, All-Too-Human, Part I, aphorism 515, “From Experience”; Helen Zimmern translation.

Human, All-Too-Human, Part I, aphorism 485, “Decided Character”; Helen Zimmern translation.

The Joyful Wisdom, aphorism 196; Thomas Common translation.

The Joyful Wisdom, aphorism 269; Thomas Common translation.

The Joyful Wisdom, aphorism 261, “Originality”; Thomas Common translation.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, “Reading and Writing,” Thomas Common translation.

Daniel Deronda; narrator’s ironic observation while Gwendolen speculates about Grandcourt, represented from Project Gutenberg #7469.

Middlemarch; the narrator contrasts narrow judgment with considering a subject from several points of view.

Optimism: An Essay (1903), Project Gutenberg #31622. The following paragraph calls ignorant or indifferent optimism dangerous and false.

The Story of My Life; Keller reflects on finding experience and interest even within darkness and silence.

The World I Live In (1908), Chapter XII, “The Larger Sanctions,” printed page 160, Project Gutenberg #27683. Keller states that blindness has no limiting effect upon mental vision while defending the role of imagination, correspondence and inherited language in apprehending realities beyond immediate sensation.

Walden, Conclusion; Thoreau uses the sentence while arguing that familiar human views do not exhaust reality.

Walden, “The Bean-Field,” Project Gutenberg #205. Thoreau follows the question by imagining living through other ages and worlds in an hour; the passage is about the variety of human experience and the limits of judging what another life can contain.

Ulysses, Episode 2 (“Nestor”), Project Gutenberg #4300. Stephen Dedalus says the line during his conversation with Mr Deasy; it is fictional dialogue inside a modernist novel and should not be flattened into Joyce’s direct historical thesis.

Emma, Volume I, Chapter IX, scan-backed 1816 John Murray first edition on Wikisource. Emma tells her father that one half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other while explaining why his grandchildren enjoy rough play that he himself cannot comprehend; this is Emma Woodhouse’s fictional dialogue, not Austen speaking autobiographically.

Emma, Volume III, Chapter XIII, scan-backed 1816 John Murray first edition on Wikisource. The narrator observes that complete truth seldom belongs to any human disclosure while explaining that even the Emma–Knightley understanding contains mistaken conduct alongside genuine feeling.

Emma, Volume II, Chapter VIII, scan-backed 1816 John Murray first edition on Wikisource. After Frank Churchill returns from an impulsive haircut, Emma “moralised to herself” that silly things can cease to seem silly when sensible people do them impudently. This is Emma Woodhouse’s ironic private judgment inside the novel, not Austen endorsing impudence as a general rule.

Mary Crawford makes the remark while discussing motives and conduct in company.

Pepacton, discussion of poetic interpretation of nature. Burroughs contrasts objective natural-history observation with the poet’s subjective idealization, using Shelley and Keats as examples.

The Country House, represented by Project Gutenberg #2772. The wording belongs to the novel’s narrator and appears amid ironic treatment of Mr. Pendyce’s theory and landed-class assumptions; it is literary social commentary, not a universal sociological law.

Travels in Alaska, early sea voyage; Muir moves from ocean scenery to imagining the globe and stars together.

On Liberty, Chapter 2; Mill argues for open discussion because opposing views expose weaknesses and sharpen understanding.

Heart of Darkness, Part I, Project Gutenberg #219. Marlow says ‘We live, as we dream—alone’ while explaining to his listeners that the lived ‘life-sensation’ of an earlier period cannot be fully conveyed to another person. The line remains fictional narration inside Conrad's colonial-era novella rather than a clinical or universal psychological finding about loneliness.

The Madman, “The Grave-Digger”; the line is spoken by the grave-digger to the narrator.

Tao Teh King, Chapter 71, James Legge translation, Project Gutenberg #216.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6.

Pudd’nhead Wilson, Chapter IV epigraph; a comic Calendar maxim rather than dialogue by a character in the chapter.

Pudd’nhead Wilson, Chapter XIX epigraph; a Calendar maxim paired with the good-example line.

Pudd’nhead Wilson, Chapter X epigraph; the mortality line is immediately followed by the anger maxim.

Pudd’nhead Wilson, Calendar epigraph before the chapter section in which the flea comparison appears.

The Innocents Abroad (1869), Chapter LI. After seeing a customary greeting during the Palestine journey, Twain remarks “One must travel, to learn” and says old Scriptural phrases are acquiring concrete meaning. Verified against the scan-backed 1869 first edition; the line is experiential travel reflection rather than universal educational evidence.

The Innocents Abroad (1869), Chapter XLVI. In Palestine Twain says he must studiously and faithfully unlearn many inherited ideas because direct observation has altered the scale and meaning of what he had imagined. Verified against the scan-backed 1869 first edition.

What Is Man?, Old Man speaking in the opening dialogue. This collection treats the sentence as a provocative deterministic position inside the dialogue, not as settled psychology.

What Is Man?, Part I, “a. Man the Machine. b. Personal Merit,” Project Gutenberg #70. The Old Man says “You and I are but sewing-machines” immediately after contrasting Shakespeare with a Gobelin loom and before insisting that people merely turn out what their inherited and external influences permit. This remains Twain’s comic-philosophical deterministic dialogue, not settled psychology or neuroscience.

What Is Man?, Old Man replying to the Young Man’s question about changing an automatic opinion; this is dialogic determinism, not neutral cognitive science.

What Is Man?, opening dialogue between the Old Man and Young Man; this sentence belongs to the Old Man’s deterministic argument about education and outside influence.

Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Letter VII; represented Cassell & Company 1889 text in Project Gutenberg #3529. “The contemplation of noble ruins produces a melancholy that exalts the mind” occurs during Wollstonecraft’s visit to a church recess containing long-preserved bodies and her reflections on death, ruins, historical change and mortality. It remains Romantic-era reflective prose rather than a modern psychological finding about melancholy.

The Gift of the Magi, Project Gutenberg #7256. The narrator offers the line just after Della counts her $1.87 and cries on the couch before Christmas; it is humorous literary narration within a story of poverty, love and gift-giving.

Elsie Venner, represented by Project Gutenberg #2696 and corroborated by Gutenberg’s Holmes quotation index. The sentence belongs to nineteenth-century literary and medical-philosophical discourse; it is not current psychiatric guidance, diagnosis or a clinically validated rule.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 edition, Chapter 17; Lord Henry answers the Duchess of Monmouth’s question “What are you?” with “To define is to limit.”

Nature (first published 1836), Chapter I, “Nature,” in James Munroe and Company’s 1849 new-edition witness represented by Project Gutenberg #29433. A scan of the same 1849 J. Munroe edition places “Nature always wears the colors of the spirit” on printed page 9. Emerson is arguing that inward condition colors the experience of landscape; this is nineteenth-century Transcendentalist philosophy, not modern cognitive science, environmental psychology or a clinical claim.

The Conduct of Life; Emerson uses the line while describing life as an expanding field of experience rather than a narrowly fixed allotment.

In Tune with the Infinite, Prelude; Project Gutenberg #23559. The sentence belongs to Trine’s philosophical New Thought contrast between optimist and pessimist and should not be treated as a clinical definition.

“Delight in Disorder,” from Hesperides (1648), represented by Project Gutenberg #1211. The poem is a seventeenth-century lyric of attraction and dress; its period language is preserved as aesthetic poetry rather than a modern norm about appearance.

Reginald, represented by Project Gutenberg #2830. Reginald says this during a social conversation; it is satirical fictional dialogue from Saki’s recurring character, not a measured claim about age or memory.

Rasselas, Chapter XXI; spoken by Imlac while challenging the assumption that apparently wise people deliberately chose the condition they inhabit.

Rasselas, Chapter XXX; Imlac argues that studying history helps people understand the sources of present benefits and harms.

Main Street, Project Gutenberg #543. The narrator gives this comic generalization immediately before Carol reacts angrily to Vida’s suggestion that she has not suffered; it is satirical fiction, not a psychological finding about every person.

Common Sense (1776), Introduction. The represented wording is verified in Project Gutenberg #147 and the validated scan-backed Wikisource 1776 sixth-edition transcription; Paine follows his warning that custom can make an error look right by observing that time often changes opinion where argument initially does not.

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.

The Woman in White, Third Epoch, ‘The Story Continued by Walter Hartright,’ section II, Project Gutenberg #583. Walter tells Marian ‘The best men are not consistent in good—why should the worst men be consistent in evil?’ while they assess Count Fosco after Marian reports his warning. It remains fictional moral reasoning about a particular antagonist rather than an empirical rule about human behavior.

On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth, first published March 1827. The sentence belongs to Hazlitt’s account of expansive youthful expectation and should not be treated as a literal claim of control over the future.

‘On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth,’ opening of the essay first published unsigned in The Monthly Magazine, March 1827, represented in The Collected Works of William Hazlitt, Volume XII, Project Gutenberg #72206. ‘No young man believes he shall ever die’ opens Hazlitt's rhetorical account of youth's felt distance from mortality; it is historical essay reflection, not a literal claim about every young person.

Table-Talk, Volume I, Essay III, “On the Past and Future,” Project Gutenberg #3020. “The future is yet to come” occurs in Hazlitt’s comparison of the already-existing past with the not-yet-existing future: the full sentence continues that the future “has never been anything.” The retained short excerpt is therefore part of a philosophical contrast, not a prediction, forecasting rule or scientific proposition.

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 is contrasting the risk of being mistaken with the cost of refusing every uncertain intellectual venture.

A Way of Life, section IV, printed page 12, London: Constable & Company Ltd. (1913), Project Gutenberg #73116. Osler says “Realise how much time there is, how long the day is” while discussing deliberate control of the mind, study and avoidance of hurry and worry; this collection does not convert the period medical rhetoric into current clinical or productivity guidance.

Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2; Hamlet says this to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern while explaining that Denmark feels like a prison to him. The line is dramatic dialogue, not a detached psychological proposition by Shakespeare.

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5.

Othello, Act I, Scene III, reviewed against the scan-backed 1910 First Folio facsimile on Wikisource. The Duke tells Brabantio that continuing to spend grief on an irreversible loss only compounds it; the retained modernized wording corresponds to the Folio's 'The rob'd that smiles, steales something from the Thiefe.' It is dramatic counsel inside the scene, not Shakespeare autobiography or clinical grief guidance.

Act 2, Scene 2; Juliet separates Romeo from the social meaning of his family name.