Meaning of “History is a nightmare from which I am…”

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 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.”

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.

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

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter X, “The Lobster Quadrille,” Project Gutenberg #11. Alice says this to the Mock Turtle while trying to recount a day in which her body, knowledge and sense of identity keep changing; it is character dialogue in a fantasy narrative.

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