Self-trust quotes — Page 2

Oenone, in The Early Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Project Gutenberg #8601. Pallas speaks the lines while arguing that self-reverence, self-knowledge and self-control lead to a life governed by right rather than by reward; this is poetic character speech, not a prose maxim detached from the poem.

Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX, Chapter VIII, Project Gutenberg #8438. The surrounding argument explicitly contrasts this noble “Self-loving” with the blameworthy form that grasps at wealth, honours and bodily pleasures, so the line is not a defense of simple selfishness.

Mental Efficiency, opening discussion of self-development. Project Gutenberg #23347. Bennett is distinguishing method from personal purpose, not claiming that advice or collaboration has no value.

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.

Counsels and Maxims, in Schopenhauer’s discussion of society and individuality; T. Bailey Saunders translation.

Counsels and Maxims, chapter on our relation to others, translated by T. Bailey Saunders.

The Wisdom of Life; the sentence appears in Schopenhauer’s criticism of giving excessive weight to reputation and social opinion.

The Wisdom of Life; Schopenhauer develops a three-part distinction between what a person is, what a person has, and what a person represents in the eyes of others.

The Wisdom of Life; T. Bailey Saunders’s public-domain translation distinguishes what a person is from possessions and from the opinions of other people.

The Wisdom of Life; Schopenhauer criticizes the habit of measuring the value of one’s existence by reputation or the fluctuating opinions of others.

Poor Richard’s Almanack.

The Way to Wealth, where Father Abraham repeats maxims associated with Poor Richard.

The Way to Wealth / Poor Richard Improved, industry section; represented by Project Gutenberg #43855. Father Abraham is compiling maxims from Franklin’s earlier Almanacks.

The Way to Wealth, in Franklin’s discussion of debt and credit.

The Way to Wealth, frugality section; Project Gutenberg #43855. Father Abraham contrasts industrious people with those reduced to borrowing by extravagance.

Political Ideals, early discussion of individual development. Russell immediately criticizes the bad teacher who imposes one opinion and produces pupils giving the same answer to doubtful questions.

Jane Eyre; Jane insists on moral and personal independence during a decisive conversation with Rochester.

Jane Eyre, Chapter XXVII, Project Gutenberg #1260. Jane answers the pressure to remain with Rochester by saying she cares for herself and will respect herself more when friendless and unsupported, then explicitly invokes law, principles and temptation. It is fictional first-person moral reasoning under dramatic pressure, not Charlotte Brontë autobiography or universal relationship advice.

Shirley; fictional narrative description within the novel’s relationship context. The line describes a character’s restraint and must not be presented as a direct autobiographical maxim by Charlotte Brontë.

The Professor, early first-person narration by the fictional William Crimsworth. The novel was published posthumously in 1857; the line is character narration, not Brontë autobiography.

Villette; excerpt from Lucy Snowe’s reflection on how to advance toward a more independent position. This is fictional first-person narration, and the excerpt is not presented as Brontë speaking autobiographically.

De Officiis, Book II, section 33, Project Gutenberg #47001. Cicero’s larger argument says public confidence depends on practical wisdom joined with justice; intelligence alone is not presented as sufficient for trust.

The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book XV contrasts inward self-examination with dependence on others.

Eighty Years and More (1898), Chapter XIV, “Views on Marriage and Divorce,” Project Gutenberg #11982. This sentence immediately follows Stanton’s individual-sovereignty claim inside her quoted April 1894 Arena article: she contrasts older state/family primacy with the Christian claim of individual conscience and judgment. The passage is historical reform argument, not modern constitutional or family-law doctrine.

Eighty Years and More (1898), Chapter XIV, “Views on Marriage and Divorce,” Project Gutenberg #11982. Stanton introduces the surrounding passage as “my latest thought on this question” from The Arena of April 1894, then argues that marriage and divorce should be judged from individual sovereignty and individual happiness. The 1898 memoir remains the represented source while the embedded 1894 article origin is preserved.

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.

Solitude of Self, 1892 congressional address; punctuation follows a widely reproduced transcription of Stanton’s public-domain speech.

The Woman’s Bible, Stanton commentary; the line appears in her critique of idealizing women’s self-sacrifice and is preserved in the Project Gutenberg text.

The Woman's Bible, The Book of Judges, Chapter II, Judges xi, Project Gutenberg #9880. Stanton imagines Jephthah's unnamed daughter rejecting sacrifice: ‘My first duty is to develop all the powers given to me and to make the most of myself and my own life.’ This is Stanton's invented protest voice within her commentary, not a biblical quotation or speech preserved in Judges.

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.

“The Old Stoic,” in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell; Project Gutenberg #1019. The poem uses a deliberately severe persona and should not be treated as a complete ethical system.

“The Soul Selects Her Own Society”; capitalization is lightly normalized.

Discourses of Epictetus, Book II, Chapter I, “That confidence (courage) is not inconsistent with caution,” George Long translation; 1877 George Bell & Sons witness on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #10661. Epictetus distinguishes confidence toward externals from moral caution in the use of one’s own will.

Enchiridion, section X, George Long translation; Epictetus gives examples such as endurance under pain and patience under abuse.

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying XIV, in the passage comparing life’s difficulties with enduring the Olympic festival.

A Little Princess; Sara uses an imagined inner identity to preserve dignity during poverty and mistreatment.

Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Project Gutenberg #71893, in Douglass’s retrospective account of resisting Edward Covey. The passage belongs to the history of slavery and self-emancipation; it should not be reduced to a generic motivational slogan detached from that violence.

My Bondage and My Freedom, immediately after Douglass describes his resistance to Covey; capitalization follows the represented Project Gutenberg text.

My Bondage and My Freedom, Chapter XVII, ‘The Last Flogging,’ Project Gutenberg #202. Douglass calls his fight with Edward Covey the turning point in his ‘life as a slave’ and writes ‘I was a changed being after that fight’ immediately before ‘I WAS A MAN NOW.’ The passage is autobiographical testimony about resistance to enslavement and restored self-respect, not a universal prescription for violence or a clinical theory of agency.

Narrative, Chapter X; the line follows Douglass’s physical resistance to Edward Covey and precedes his resolve never again to be a slave in fact.

Self-Made Men lecture, commonly dated to 1872 in edited versions. The compact statement occurs within an argument that values self-dependence while the lecture’s opening explicitly denies that anyone is literally or completely self-made; Library of Congress manuscript materials anchor the source identity and preserve later versions.

Human, All-Too-Human, Part I, aphorism 482, “Repeated Once More”; Helen Zimmern translation.

The Joyful Wisdom, aphorism 269; Thomas Common translation.

Crime and Punishment, Part III, Chapter I, printed page 203 / Wikisource scan leaf 235, Constance Garnett translation in the scan-backed 1917 Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction / P. F. Collier & Son edition, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #2554. Razumihin argues that going wrong in one’s own way is better than going right in someone else’s while defending the role of making one’s own errors in reaching truth; it remains energetic fictional character dialogue rather than direct Dostoevsky autobiography.

The Brothers Karamazov, Book II, Chapter 4, “A Lady of Little Faith,” Constance Garnett translation, verified against Project Gutenberg #28054 and Wikisource. Father Zossima tells the visitor, “Above all, don’t lie to yourself,” and develops the warning into an argument about self-deception, respect and love; this is fictional character counsel inside the novel.

The Odd Women, represented by Project Gutenberg #4313. Virginia speaks to her sister Alice early in the novel; the exclamation sits inside Gissing’s wider treatment of unmarried women, paid work and constrained choices in Victorian England.

The Principles of Success in Literature, chapter on Style, Project Gutenberg #10420; Lewes criticizes attempts to copy the verbal mannerisms of famous writers.

The Principles of Success in Literature, chapter on Style, Project Gutenberg #10420; Lewes is warning writers against imitating Cicero, Titian or other masters.

The Principles of Success in Literature, chapter on Style, Project Gutenberg #10420; the sentence concludes a warning against imitation and affected literary manner.

Hebrews 13:6 in the King James Version.

The World I Live In (1908), Chapter XII, “The Larger Sanctions,” printed page 160, Project Gutenberg #27683. The sentence “My intellectual horizon is infinitely wide” immediately follows Keller’s assertion about mental vision and belongs to the same first-person philosophical defense of intellectual and imaginative range.

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.

Amiel's Journal, entry dated April 28, 1852, in Mary Augusta Ward’s public-domain translation; Amiel counsels patience with the movement of feeling.

Amiel's Journal, entry dated April 6, 1866, in Mary Augusta Ward’s public-domain English translation; the entry reflects on the qualities of a gentleman.

Amiel's Journal, 1851 diary entry, translated by Mary Augusta Ward; the passage belongs to Amiel’s introspective effort to reach clarity beneath divided feeling.

A Doll’s House, Act III, R. Farquharson Sharp translation, Project Gutenberg #15492. Nora Helmer says she must think things over for herself during the final confrontation with Torvald, after saying she must educate herself and stand alone. This is fictional dramatic speech, not Ibsen autobiography or contemporary family / legal guidance.

An Enemy of the People, Act V, R. Farquharson Sharp public-domain translation, Project Gutenberg #2446. Dr. Thomas Stockmann tells his family that “the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone” after deciding to remain in town and educate boys despite public hostility. This is fictional dramatic speech within a contentious political conflict, not a neutral empirical rule about isolation.

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, in the mountain-travel passage represented by Project Gutenberg #4232. The line follows Thoreau's argument that travellers often exaggerate difficulties and that a person who thinks himself lost can recover steadiness by recognizing where he actually stands.

Walden; Thoreau contrasts one’s own deliberate track with paths chosen by others.

Walden, Conclusion; Thoreau urges readers to move deliberately toward the life they have imagined.

Walden, “Economy,” in the passage contrasting public opinion with a person’s own private opinion of himself.

Conclusion of Walden; Thoreau argues for following one’s own measure and direction.

Daisy Miller: A Study, Project Gutenberg #208. Daisy speaks to Winterbourne in Rome; the line is fictional dialogue shaped by the novella’s conflict over convention, reputation and autonomy.

The Portrait of a Lady, Volume I, Project Gutenberg #2833. Isabel says this to Caspar Goodwood while resisting his proposal and his argument that marriage would make her more independent.

Bartleby, the Scrivener, Project Gutenberg #11231. Bartleby speaks this line when the lawyer asks him to help examine copied documents; it is fictional character dialogue, not a general prescription to refuse work or obligations.

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, Project Gutenberg #26998. The narrator comments on Peter after he feels shunned by the birds, explaining that losing faith in his power to fly would itself end that power within the story's fantasy logic. The line is narrator voice, not an autobiographical claim by Barrie.

As a Man Thinketh, “Thought and Purpose.”

As a Man Thinketh, “Achievement.”

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter XXXI, Project Gutenberg #1342. Elizabeth Bennet says this to Mr. Darcy at Rosings while he stands near the pianoforte as she plays. Darcy immediately teases her that she sometimes enjoys professing opinions that are not entirely her own, so the line also carries Austen’s character comedy.

Lectures on Art, Lecture VII, Project Gutenberg #19164. The surrounding passage explicitly distinguishes learning from past masters from adopting their results as one’s own.

Lectures on Art, Lecture VII, Project Gutenberg #19164. Ruskin is warning students against both conceit and servile imitation.

On Liberty, Chapter III, in Mill’s discussion of individuality and self-directed choice.

On Liberty, Chapter III, “Of Individuality, as One of the Elements of Well-Being”; Project Gutenberg #34901. The sentence follows Mill's list of perception, judgment, discriminative feeling, mental activity and moral preference as faculties exercised through making a choice.

On Liberty, Chapter I, Project Gutenberg #34901. This sentence follows Mill’s harm-principle formulation and belongs to a political-philosophical argument about the legitimate limits of social and legal interference. It is not a claim that every private action has no effects or obligations toward other people.

On Liberty, Chapter III; Mill contrasts imitation with actively choosing one’s own plan of life.

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter I, printed page 48, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill argues that questions about women’s capacities and vocations should be decided by women’s own experience and use of their faculties rather than imposed in advance by men.

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter I, printed page 29, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill contrasts inherited fixed social stations with the modern principle that people should be free to employ their faculties and pursue available opportunities.

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter IV, printed page 179, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill asks readers to estimate another person’s need for independence by considering the value they themselves place on personal independence as an element of happiness.

The Prophet, “On Children.”

The Prophet, section “Self-Knowledge.” A man asks Almustafa to speak about self-knowledge, and Almustafa answers with this line before describing the heart’s knowledge and the self as a boundless sea. The represented wording is the 1923 text preserved by Wikisource/Project Gutenberg #58585.

The Awakening, Project Gutenberg #160. Mademoiselle Reisz first explains that an artist needs “the courageous soul,” later repeating the fuller wording as Edna’s story reaches its end; it is character dialogue within a novel, not a universal test of artistic legitimacy.

“The Story of an Hour,” first published in 1894 and represented by Wikisource. The words belong to Louise Mallard’s private reaction after she is told her husband has died; the story’s irony and ending are essential context.

2 Timothy 1:7 in the King James Version; the verse contrasts fear with power, love, and disciplined-mindedness.

Proverbs 10:9 in the King James Version; the opening clause is quoted here.

Proverbs 4:23 in the King James Version.

Tao Teh King, chapter 47, James Legge translation; the sentence belongs to a passage about knowing without compulsive outward searching.

Meditations, Book III, section 5, George Long translation.

Meditations, Book XII, section 6, George Long translation.

Meditations, Book III, section 5, George Long translation; Project Gutenberg #6920/#15877. The sentence immediately precedes “A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others,” making the inward-reliance context explicit.

Meditations, Book VII, section 59, George Long translation in Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.

Meditations, Book VIII, section 48, George Long translation.

Life Without and Life Within, Part I ‘Reviews,’ essay ‘Menzel's View of Gœthe,’ Project Gutenberg #39037. ‘For the soul seeks not adorers, but peers’ appears in Fuller's discussion of the youth of genius, mockers and worshippers, immediately contrasting blind worship with ‘intelligent sympathy.’ It remains nineteenth-century literary criticism and intellectual reflection rather than a universal social or relationship rule.

Life Without and Life Within, “The Poor Man”; Fuller argues that difficult experience can produce realistic knowledge of one’s resources and a grounded degree of self-reliance.

Summer on the Lakes, in 1843; the sentence appears in Fuller’s dialogic reflection on temperament, inquiry, and following the direction one’s own character requires.

Woman in the Nineteenth Century; spoken by Fuller’s illustrative figure Miranda while explaining the self-dependence encouraged by her upbringing.

Woman in the Nineteenth Century; Fuller explicitly names self-subsistence, self-reliance, and self-impulse within her argument about women’s independence.

Woman in the Nineteenth Century, in the discussion of Miranda; Fuller explicitly connects awakened self-respect with serenity and inward peace.

A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening letter to Edmund Burke; Wollstonecraft frames the pamphlet as a defense of human rights and the liberty of reason.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Introduction, Project Gutenberg #3420. The frozen quotation 'I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body' is a clause from a longer sentence beginning 'I earnestly wish to point out...' and continuing through Wollstonecraft's criticism of delicacy and weakness as feminine ideals. It remains eighteenth-century feminist political-moral argument rather than a modern clinical or physiological prescription.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; Wollstonecraft explicitly connects independence of character with the exercise of understanding.