This continuation page contains additional source-backed quotations not shown in the initial 50-quotation overview. Return to the topic guide and browse collection.
“For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?”
Mr. Bennet’s joke treats social observation as reciprocal: everyone is somebody else’s entertainment, including the people doing the laughing.
Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 57; Mr. Bennet comments on the absurd rumour concerning Elizabeth and Darcy.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
The famous opening exposes assumptions about money, marriage, and social expectations while sounding as if it were stating an unquestionable fact.
Opening sentence of Chapter 1; the narrator immediately signals the novel’s social irony.
“Love is like the measles; we all have to go through it.”
Romantic love is compared to an unavoidable childhood illness, making intense emotion comic by treating it as something people catch, endure, and eventually recover from.
The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, “On Being in Love”; the comparison opens the essay’s mock-medical treatment of romance.
“A boy’s love comes from a full heart; a man’s is more often the result of a full stomach.”
The contrast punctures mature romantic eloquence by suggesting comfort and appetite can masquerade as passion, while youthful awkwardness may reveal more direct feeling.
The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, “On Being in Love”; the narrator contrasts youthful shyness with the polished declarations of older men.
“Montmorency’s ambition in life, is to get in the way and be sworn at.”
The narrator gives the dog a mock life-purpose centered on obstruction and provoking people, turning ordinary pet mischief into a grand statement of ambition.
Three Men in a Boat, packing episode; the narrator describes Montmorency repeatedly inserting himself into whatever the men are trying to pack.
“A dog like that don’t want any encouragement. It’s the natural, original sin that is born in him that makes him do things like that.”
The mock-theological explanation treats ordinary canine mischief as inherited moral corruption, exaggerating the dog’s nuisance behavior into a theory of original sin.
Three Men in a Boat, packing episode; the narrator rejects Harris’s claim that he encourages Montmorency’s disruptive behavior.
“I have called you friends.”
The brief phrase reframes the relationship from mere obedience toward disclosed trust and personal closeness.
John 15:15 in the King James Version; Jesus contrasts servants with friends who have been told what he has heard.
“If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.”
This passage does not equate forgiveness with silence about harm: it places honest confrontation and forgiveness in the same sequence when repentance follows.
Luke 17:3 in the King James Version.
“If he trespass against thee seven times in a day ... thou shalt forgive him.”
Repeated offence makes forgiveness harder, which is exactly the point of the passage: the moral demand is not limited to the first easy opportunity to forgive.
Luke 17:4 in the King James Version; the middle repetition is shortened with an ellipsis while preserving the verse’s instruction.
“And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any.”
The instruction makes unresolved resentment relevant even in a private act of prayer: a grievance cannot simply be separated from the way a person approaches reconciliation and mercy.
Mark 11:25 in the King James Version; excerpt from the verse.
“I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”
The answer rejects a small numerical limit on forgiveness, making repeated mercy the point rather than merely reaching a quota.
Matthew 18:22 in the King James Version; Jesus answers Peter’s question about how often a brother should be forgiven.
“If ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”
The emphasis falls on forgiveness that is more than outward compliance: the teaching demands a response rooted in the heart rather than merely performed.
Matthew 18:35, King James Version; the sentence concludes the parable of the unforgiving servant and returns to forgiveness between people.
“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
The command uses care for oneself as the measure for care toward another person, linking healthy self-regard with outward responsibility rather than selfishness.
Matthew 22:39 in the King James Version.
“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you.”
The teaching moves beyond merely withholding retaliation and asks for active goodwill toward opponents, making forgiveness part of a transformed response to hostility.
Matthew 5:44, King James Version; Jesus commands love, blessing, and good action toward enemies within the Sermon on the Mount.
“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”
Mercy is presented as a virtue that shapes both how a person treats others and the kind of moral world that person hopes to inhabit.
Matthew 5:7 in the King James Version.
“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”
Forgiveness is framed as conduct expected from people who themselves depend on mercy, tying belief to the way injury is answered.
Matthew 6:14 in the King James Version.
“No man is an island, entire of itself.”
Donne argues against imagining people as self-contained units; individual life is bound up with the lives of others.
Meditation XVII.
“Men are but children of a larger growth;”
Dolabella compares adult appetite and instability with childhood, using the maxim to criticize desires that remain changeable despite age.
All for Love, represented by Project Gutenberg #2062. Dolabella speaks the line while reflecting on Antony’s passion and his own conflicting attraction to Cleopatra. It is dramatic character speech inside a tragedy, not Dryden autobiography or a universal developmental claim.
“Love has no age, no limit, and no death.”
Irene answers an older man’s skepticism by insisting that love is not confined by age and does not simply vanish when a person or relationship passes away.
Indian Summer of a Forsyte, represented in Project Gutenberg #2594. Irene says the line to old Jolyon while speaking about her dead lover; it is emotionally charged fictional dialogue, and the surrounding conversation immediately gives old Jolyon a more ironic response.
“Give a little love to a child, and you get a great deal back.”
Ruskin presents affection toward children as relational rather than one-way: care given to a child can be met with trust, warmth and generosity in return.
The Crown of Wild Olive, Lecture I, “Work,” Project Gutenberg #26716, printed page 41. Ruskin places the sentence inside a Victorian Christian discussion of what he calls the loving and generous character of “right childhood”; this collection preserves that historical moral framework rather than treating every surrounding prescription as modern child-development evidence.
“The equality of married persons before the law, is not only the sole mode in which that particular relation can be made consistent with justice to both sides.”
Mill applies equal legal standing to marriage, arguing that a just relationship cannot rest on one adult possessing a superior legal status over the other.
The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter II, printed page 78, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill argues that equality of married persons before the law is required for justice to both sides and for marriage to become a school of moral cultivation rather than legal subordination.
“Fear not: for am I in the place of God?”
Joseph refuses the role of final judge over the brothers who harmed him, creating space for reconciliation after fear and guilt.
Genesis 50:19 in the King James Version; Joseph answers his brothers after Jacob’s death when they fear retaliation.
“Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin;”
The request comes after their father’s death, when Joseph’s brothers fear retaliation and appeal directly for forgiveness of the wrong they committed against him.
Genesis 50:17, King James Version; Joseph’s brothers send a message asking pardon for their earlier wrongdoing against him.
“Nothing, say you? Perhaps so; nothing but a charming woman, who, strange as it may appear, made him the happiest of men!”
The narrator undercuts a purely material accounting of Fogg’s journey by suggesting that the relationship he found matters more than the wager or possessions he brought home.
Around the World in Eighty Days, final chapter, Project Gutenberg #103, in the represented public-domain English translation. This is the narrator’s comic-romantic conclusion after Phileas Fogg completes the journey; the English wording is translation-specific.
“Your friend is your needs answered.”
Friendship is described through mutual presence and response, emphasizing what dependable companionship provides.
The Prophet, “On Friendship.”
“Your children are not your children.”
Parenthood is framed as stewardship rather than ownership, leaving room for a child to become an independent person.
The Prophet, “On Children.”
“Love possesses not nor would it be possessed.”
Love is presented as relationship without ownership: closeness does not grant control over another person or require surrender of one’s own personhood.
The Prophet, “On Love”; Gibran warns against turning love into possession before describing love as sufficient unto itself.
“You may give them your love but not your thoughts.”
Care can be generous without requiring another person to inherit every belief or preference.
The Prophet, “On Children.”
“It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”
Giving becomes deeper when it includes time, attention, effort, and presence rather than possessions alone.
The Prophet, “On Giving.”
“You give but little when you give of your possessions.”
Possessions can be given without much personal cost; Gibran prepares the contrast with giving one’s own time and presence.
The Prophet, “On Giving.”
“Lie not one to another.”
The short instruction makes honesty a basic requirement of life with other people.
Colossians 3:9 in the King James Version; the opening command is quoted here.
“Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour.”
Truthfulness is framed as a responsibility within relationship, not merely as a private personal preference.
Ephesians 4:25 in the King James Version; the first clause and command are quoted here.
“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”
Support becomes concrete when people help carry difficulties that would otherwise be faced alone.
Galatians 6:2 in the King James Version.
“I know but too well how time flies along, That we live but few years, and yet fewer are young.”
The speaker recognizes that both life and youth are brief, then uses that awareness to explain why a relationship should be worth the time and consequences it demands.
The Lover: A Ballad, represented by the University of Toronto Representative Poetry Online text from Robert Dodsley’s 1748 A Collection of Poems by Several Hands. The line belongs to a lyric speaker weighing desire against the risk of later regret; it is not treated as a verbatim autobiographical confession by Montagu.
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
The famous opening contrasts shared conditions that support family stability with the many distinct ways relationships can break down.
Anna Karenina, opening sentence.
“I don't want any time! I know who I love best, who I'm happiest with, and I choose uncle.”
Rose’s choice of guardian is grounded in affection, trust and felt happiness, making chosen family attachment central to where she understands home to be.
Eight Cousins; Or, The Aunt-Hill, Chapter 21, Project Gutenberg #38567. Rose chooses Uncle Alec when relatives ask which household she wants to join.
“Brothers and sisters ought to live together; especially when the brother needs some one to make home pleasant for him”
Sibling closeness is connected to the making of a home, with companionship presented as practical care rather than only a family label.
Eight Cousins; Or, The Aunt-Hill, Chapter 21, Project Gutenberg #38567. Charlie is trying to persuade Rose to choose a household after her guardianship question is raised.
“Because true mothers never forget their children”
The compact line expresses Mrs Jo’s conviction that maternal attachment persists despite separation, distance and a troubled family history.
Jo's Boys, Chapter 4, Project Gutenberg #3499. Spoken by Mrs Jo while urging Dan to remember his mother; it reflects fictional dialogue and Alcott's narrative world.
“I see that Daisy is bound up in Nat; and if he is worthy of her I shall let them be happy in their own way”
Parental care here includes allowing an adult child to choose her own relationship when the parent judges the partner worthy rather than controlling the outcome.
Jo's Boys, Chapter 10, Project Gutenberg #3499. Mrs Meg is considering Daisy and Nat; the surrounding dialogue explicitly compares her choice with the freedom her own parents gave her.
“My mother gave it to me; and when you read it try to believe that neither of your mothers will ever forget you.”
A book passed from one mother to another generation becomes a symbol of continuing care, linking memory, reading and the idea of maternal presence across absence.
Jo's Boys, Chapter 4, Project Gutenberg #3499. Mrs Jo gives Dan a book that came from her own mother and speaks of both maternal bonds.
“Love is a great beautifier.”
Affection changes perception, making the loved person and the surrounding world feel more vivid and valuable.
Little Women, Chapter 24, “Gossip,” Project Gutenberg #514. The narrator says Meg has grown prettier than ever because “love is a great beautifier” while describing the three years before her wedding. This is literary narrator commentary about Meg’s happiness and maturation, not an empirical claim that affection produces a guaranteed physical effect.
“We've got Father and Mother, and each other.”
Beth answers material lack by naming the relationships the sisters still possess, turning family presence into a concrete reason for gratitude rather than denying hardship.
Little Women, Chapter 1, “Playing Pilgrims,” Project Gutenberg #514. Beth March answers her sisters’ complaints about poverty with “We’ve got Father and Mother, and each other,” naming family relationships as what remains available to them. This is Beth’s fictional dialogue inside the opening domestic scene.
“Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?”
The questions appeal to shared origin as a reason to reject treating other people as fundamentally alien or disposable.
Malachi 2:10 in the King James Version; opening questions.
“At least I prefer to write unwisely rather than to be silent unkindly.”
Marcus explains why he risks offering awkward advice to Fronto: preserving kindness and speaking when concern matters can be preferable to staying silent simply to avoid possible embarrassment.
Project Gutenberg #2680, correspondence appendix, Ad M. Caes. ii. 2. Marcus closes a letter about Fronto’s role in the Herodes Atticus dispute with this sentence. It is personal epistolary reasoning inside a specific conflict, not a universal rule to intervene in every disagreement.
“Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them.”
Human interdependence creates two practical choices when others fall short: help them learn when possible, or practice patient endurance when change is unavailable.
Meditations, Book VIII; George Long translation in Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
“That her hand may be given with dignity, she must be able to stand alone.”
A relationship entered from the ability to stand independently can preserve dignity more fully than one made necessary by the inability to exist outside it.
Woman in the Nineteenth Century; Fuller connects the dignity of freely giving oneself in relationship with the prior ability to stand independently.
“The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.”
The sentence builds friendship into something almost sacred and then punctures the ideal with a borrowing joke, satirizing how financial pressure tests supposedly unconditional loyalty.
Pudd’nhead Wilson, Calendar epigraph before the section following Chapter VII; the lending-money qualification supplies the punch line.
“’Tis my opinion that a man should lend himself to others, and only give himself to himself.”
Montaigne distinguishes participating in other people’s affairs from surrendering one’s whole inward life to them: engagement can be generous without allowing every external demand to possess the will.
Essays of Montaigne, Book III, Chapter X, “Of Managing the Will,” Charles Cotton translation; Project Gutenberg Volume 18 #3598 / Complete Essays #3600. Montaigne describes lending oneself to external affairs without allowing them to possess the whole will.
“There is no investment a business man can make that will pay him a greater per cent, than patience and amiability.”
Marden applies temperament to commerce, arguing that patience and pleasant treatment of other people can have practical value in business relationships.
Cheerfulness as a Life Power; Project Gutenberg #18394. The sentence reflects late nineteenth-century business advice and period language.
“I love talking about nothing, father. It is the only thing I know anything about.”
The line makes conversation comic by combining cheerful self-deprecation with a claim of expertise in precisely nothing.
An Ideal Husband, Act I; Lord Goring answers his father, Lord Caversham, “I love talking about nothing, father. It is the only thing I know anything about.” Verified against the public-domain Wikisource Act I transcription and Project Gutenberg #885; this is comic fictional dialogue in their exchange about London society.
“To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune—to lose both seems like carelessness.”
Lady Bracknell’s absurdly bureaucratic response turns tragedy into a social failing, which is funny because her concern for status overwhelms ordinary sympathy.
The Importance of Being Earnest, Act I; Lady Bracknell. Exact catalog wording is preserved in the scan-backed Samuel French acting text on Wikisource, scan leaf 24 / printed page 22, during her interrogation of Jack Worthing about his parentage.
“I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.”
Lord Henry pushes his preference for people over abstract morality into deliberate absurdity, making provocation itself part of the humor.
The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 edition, Chapter 1; Lord Henry tells Basil that he likes persons better than principles and extends the joke to people with no principles.
“Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business.”
Respectful treatment is described as business capital because trust, repeat dealings, and reputation often depend on how people are treated as much as on the transaction itself.
The Art of Money Getting, “Be Polite and Kind to Your Customers”; Barnum treats civility as a practical part of durable commercial reputation.
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind.”
Love is defined partly through patience and kindness, shifting the idea from emotion alone toward repeated behavior under strain.
1 Corinthians 13:4 in the King James Version; this is the opening clause of the verse.
“To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also.”
Paul makes forgiveness reciprocal and communal, showing that restoration can require people to align their response rather than preserve separate grievances.
2 Corinthians 2:10, King James Version; Paul continues instructions about forgiving and receiving a person who had caused sorrow.
“And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.”
Human difference is placed inside a shared human origin, supporting a broad view of common dignity and belonging.
Acts 17:26 in the King James Version; opening clause.
“Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another.”
The instruction places forgiveness beside forbearance: relationships often require both pardon after wrong and patience with ordinary human friction.
Colossians 3:13 in the King James Version; excerpt from the verse.
“Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.”
The verse connects truthful speech with mutual dependence: honesty matters because people live in relationship rather than as isolated individuals.
Ephesians 4:25 in the King James Version.
“Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”
The verse acknowledges anger while placing boundaries on what is done with it and how long it is allowed to govern a relationship.
Ephesians 4:26 in the King James Version.
“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another.”
Forgiveness is placed beside kindness and tenderheartedness, suggesting that pardon is not only the cancellation of a grievance but part of an ongoing way of treating people.
Ephesians 4:32 in the King James Version; excerpt from the verse before its comparison with divine forgiveness.
“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”
The instruction moves humility into relationships by asking people to resist rivalry and deliberately give weight to the interests and dignity of others.
Philippians 2:3 in the King James Version.
“Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”
Attention to other people’s interests expands life beyond self-concern and makes cooperation and care possible.
Philippians 2:4 in the King James Version.
“Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.”
Friendship and community require emotional presence in both directions, sharing another person’s joy as well as sorrow.
Romans 12:15 in the King James Version.
“Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath.”
The instruction interrupts retaliation by asking people not to make personal revenge their response to injury, creating room for restraint and release.
Romans 12:19, King James Version; Paul tells readers not to avenge themselves within a larger sequence about responding to enemies and evil.
“Then love, and desire, and friendship would appear to be of the natural or congenial. Such, Lysis and Menexenus, is the inference.”
Socrates tentatively suggests that attachment may arise from an affinity between people, after reasoning about what desire lacks. He and his companions immediately test—and ultimately fail to settle—this proposal; the sentence is a provisional inference, not Plato’s final definition of love or friendship.
Lysis, around Stephanus 221e, Socrates addressing Lysis and Menexenus while exploring desire, affinity and friendship. Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1579. The dialogue goes on to challenge whether the congenial is simply the like and ends without reaching a settled definition; do not present the tentative argument as an unconditional fact.
“For love is the desire of the whole, and the pursuit of the whole is called love.”
Aristophanes presents love as a longing to recover wholeness, but the claim belongs to his deliberately mythic account of divided human beings rather than to a literal theory of human origins.
Symposium, Aristophanes’s speech, Benjamin Jowett translation, Project Gutenberg #1600. The sentence concludes the comic myth of humans split into halves; it is a speaker position inside Plato’s dialogue, not direct autobiography or anthropology by Plato.
“He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”
Companions shape judgment and habits, so choosing relationships also means choosing some of the influences that shape a life.
Proverbs 13:20, King James Version.
“A soft answer turneth away wrath.”
The proverb recommends a restrained response because tone can either lower or intensify conflict.
Proverbs 15:1 in the King James Version; the proverb contrasts a soft answer with speech that intensifies wrath.
“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
Reliable relationships are revealed by constancy, especially when hardship makes support costly rather than convenient.
Proverbs 17:17, King James Version.
“He that covereth a transgression seeketh love.”
The proverb distinguishes repairing a relationship from repeatedly reopening an offence, presenting discretion as one way love protects community.
Proverbs 17:9 in the King James Version; excerpt from the contrast between covering a transgression and repeating a matter.
“He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.”
The proverb contrasts discretion with repeated reopening of an offence, recognizing that the way conflict is handled can preserve or fracture friendship.
Proverbs 17:9 in the King James Version.
“A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly.”
Friendship is reciprocal: wanting reliable relationships also creates a responsibility to practice friendliness and presence toward other people.
Proverbs 18:24 in the King James Version; this record uses the opening clause.
“There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
Some friendships become as dependable as family bonds, emphasizing closeness measured by steadfast presence rather than category alone.
Proverbs 18:24 in the King James Version; concluding clause of the verse.
“Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:”
The proverb treats repeated fury as socially contagious, warning that close association can shape habits and judgment.
Proverbs 22:24 in the King James Version; the next verse warns that a person can learn the ways of the habitually angry.
“Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not.”
Longstanding relationships carry accumulated trust and should not be discarded casually when circumstances change.
Proverbs 27:10 in the King James Version; opening command of the verse.
“Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”
Good relationships can improve judgment and character through challenge, conversation, and mutual influence.
Proverbs 27:17 in the King James Version; the proverb uses sharpening as an image for the way one person can strengthen or refine another.
“As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.”
The comparison suggests that people recognize themselves through other people, making relationship a mirror for character and inner life.
Proverbs 27:19 in the King James Version.
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”
Honest correction from a real friend may hurt more than flattery, but its purpose and reliability make it more valuable.
Proverbs 27:6, King James Version.
“Friendship either finds or makes equals.”
Friendship works best where people meet one another with mutual regard, either because equality is already present or because the relationship creates it.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 32, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
“Confidence is the only bond of friendship.”
Trust is presented as the connective tissue of friendship: without confidence in one another, familiarity alone does not make a durable bond.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 34, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
“Love cannot be stifled, but it may die out.”
Affection cannot always be suppressed by command, but it can still change over time when the conditions that sustained it disappear.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 39, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
“Time, not the will, can put an end to love.”
The maxim distinguishes deliberate decision from emotional change, suggesting that some attachments fade through time rather than a single act of will.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 43, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
“Allay the anger of your friend by kindness.”
Kindness can lower the temperature of conflict more effectively than matching a friend’s anger with additional anger.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, maxim 3, in Darius Lyman’s 1856 English rendering; maxim order can vary across editions.
“Do not find your happiness in another’s sorrow.”
A person’s good fortune is morally diminished when it depends on enjoying somebody else’s pain or humiliation.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 18, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
“The loss of a friend is the greatest of losses.”
The maxim treats friendship as a form of value that cannot be measured like property because losing the person also removes shared history and mutual presence.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 37, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
“There can be no alliance between Love and Fear.”
Love and fear pull a relationship in opposite directions when fear prevents honesty, security, or free affection.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 40, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
“The evil you do to others you may expect in return.”
Harm has consequences that often return through retaliation, damaged trust, reputation, or the patterns of conduct we create.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, maxim 2, in Darius Lyman’s 1856 English rendering; maxim order can vary across editions.
“The will controls the beginnings of love, but not its endings.”
Entering a relationship may involve choice, but the later course of attachment can become more complicated than the decision that began it.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 45, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
“Adversity shows whether we have friends, or only the shadows of friends.”
Difficulty tests whether a relationship has substance because support under pressure reveals more than companionship during easy circumstances.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 35, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
“Trust love even if it brings sorrow. Do not close up your heart.”
The advice refuses to make sorrow a reason for emotional withdrawal, presenting openness to love as worthwhile even when attachment can also bring pain.
The Gardener, poem 27; Project Gutenberg #6686. This is dialogue within a lyric sequence, and the surrounding exchange explicitly pairs love with tears and enduring sorrow.
“Before him, I may think aloud.”
The line describes the relief of a friendship in which thought can be expressed openly before it is polished for public judgment.
Essays: First Series, “Friendship” (1841), verified against Project Gutenberg #2944 and the 1907 Merrill/Turpin page witness in Project Gutenberg #16643, printed page 126. “Before him, I may think aloud” immediately continues Emerson’s definition of sincerity in friendship and belongs to the same Truth passage as the preceding catalog record.
“Happy is the house that shelters a friend!”
A home becomes meaningful through the quality of relationship it can shelter, not only through its comfort or possessions.
Essays: First Series, “Friendship” (first published 1841), verified against Project Gutenberg #2944 and the page-numbered 1907 Charles E. Merrill / Edna H. L. Turpin Essays witness in Project Gutenberg #16643, printed page 126. “Happy is the house that shelters a friend!” follows Emerson’s contrast between metaphysical uncertainty and the felt solidity of genuine friendship; the statement remains transcendentalist moral-philosophical rhetoric rather than a measurable claim about housing or wellbeing.
“A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere.”
Friendship permits unusual honesty because the relationship is secure enough to hold unguarded thought without constant performance.
Essays: First Series, “Friendship” (1841), verified against Project Gutenberg #2944 and the 1907 Merrill/Turpin page witness in Project Gutenberg #16643, printed page 126. Emerson names Truth as one of friendship’s two sovereign elements and says “A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere.” This collection preserves the essay’s idealizing moral argument rather than treating unrestricted disclosure as universally safe or appropriate.
“Our intellectual and active powers increase with our affection.”
Affection can call forth capacities that remain dormant in isolation; Emerson illustrates the claim with a writer who suddenly finds thoughts and words when writing to a friend.
Essays: First Series, “Friendship” (1841), verified against Project Gutenberg #2944 and the page-numbered 1907 Merrill/Turpin Essays witness in Project Gutenberg #16643, printed page 117. Emerson says “Our intellectual and active powers increase with our affection” before illustrating the claim with a scholar who finds thoughts and language when writing to a friend; it remains literary-philosophical observation rather than a quantified psychological law.
“When a man becomes dear to me I have touched the goal of fortune.”
Emerson relocates fortune from possessions to relationship: gaining someone genuinely dear can count as a form of wealth.
Essays: First Series, “Friendship” (1841), verified against Project Gutenberg #2944 and the 1907 Merrill/Turpin page witness in Project Gutenberg #16643, printed page 128. “When a man becomes dear to me I have touched the goal of fortune” opens Emerson’s treatment of Tenderness, the second element of friendship, and uses fortune metaphorically rather than as a material or financial claim.
“I wish that friendship should have feet, as well as eyes and eloquence.”
Emerson wants friendship to become practical conduct rather than remain admiration or beautiful speech: real affection should show itself in ordinary acts of presence, usefulness and care.
Essays: First Series, “Friendship” (1841), verified against Project Gutenberg #2944 and the 1907 Merrill/Turpin page witness in Project Gutenberg #16643, printed page 128. Emerson says friendship should have “feet, as well as eyes and eloquence” and immediately insists that it must “plant itself on the ground,” connecting lofty affection with practical civic virtues and aid.
“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
Friendship is treated as reciprocal practice rather than something one can demand without embodying it.
Essay “Friendship.”
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
The line makes self-trust a prerequisite for independent thought and action.
Essay “Self-Reliance.”
“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”
Emerson places inner integrity above conformity, arguing that a person should examine inherited standards rather than surrender judgment merely because they are socially approved.
Self-Reliance, in the passage beginning with Emerson’s argument for nonconformity.
“The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.”
A home gains much of its warmth and value from the people welcomed into it, not merely from possessions, decoration, or physical comfort.
Society and Solitude, “Domestic Life”; Emerson places friendship and the arrival of new people at the center of a lively and meaningful household.
