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“What’s past is prologue.”
Voice: Fictional character · Antonio
The past is framed as context rather than the whole story, leaving the future open to further action.
Source note: The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 1; Antonio says this while urging Sebastian toward a conspiracy against Alonso. The phrase is therefore embedded in morally compromised dramatic persuasion rather than neutral advice.
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“The worth of work with the hands”
Washington opens the book by treating manual work as capable of contributing to education, dignity and practical development rather than merely supplying labor.
Source note: Working With the Hands, Chapter I, opening sentence; Project Gutenberg #64504. This deliberately short excerpt is presented with its educational context.
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“education ought to do more for a boy”
Washington rejects an overly narrow definition of schooling and asks whether education can improve the practical conditions and responsibilities of life.
Source note: Working With the Hands, Chapter I; Project Gutenberg #64504. This short excerpt precedes Washington’s discussion of poverty, family responsibility and practical education.
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“Thou shalt die out of death into life.”
Voice: Fictional character · Mara
Mara reframes death as movement toward life within the novel’s Christian-symbolic world, offering transformation rather than annihilation as the imagined answer to despair.
Source note: Lilith: A Romance; Project Gutenberg #1640. Spoken by Mara to Lilith in a theological fantasy scene; it is not presented as empirical evidence about death or an afterlife.
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“A little learning is a dangerous thing.”
Partial knowledge can produce misplaced confidence; the warning favors deeper study over shallow certainty.
Source note: An Essay on Criticism, Part II; Pope warns that shallow learning can produce premature confidence before deeper study tempers judgment.
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“The past is never more than an experiment.”
Past conduct provides information rather than an unchangeable verdict; Bennett uses that distinction to argue that present habits can still be revised.
Source note: Mental Efficiency, “Breaking with the Past.” The sentence frames prior experience as material for correction rather than a permanent identity.