This continuation page contains additional source-backed quotations not shown in the initial 70-quotation overview. Return to the topic guide and browse collection.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Lincoln uses a structural metaphor: a system pulled permanently in opposite directions cannot remain stable forever.
Speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858.
“Self-help is the best help.”
Asking for help does not replace the responsibility to make the effort that is already within one’s own power.
Moral printed after “Hercules and the Wagoner” in the Townsend translation; Hercules first tells the driver to help himself.
“The best intentions will not always ensure success.”
Good motives do not guarantee good outcomes; care still needs judgment about what an action actually does to another person.
Moral printed after “The Monkeys and Their Mother” in the Townsend translation.
“Misfortunes springing from ourselves are the hardest to bear.”
Harm is especially painful when our own choices, tools, or contributions helped create the conditions that made the loss possible.
Moral printed after “The Oak and the Woodcutters”; the oak laments wedges made from its own branches.
“A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth.”
Repeated deception damages credibility beyond the original lie: once listeners have learned to expect false alarms, even a later truthful warning can fail to restore belief in time.
Joseph Jacobs, The Fables of Aesop, “The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf,” Project Gutenberg #28. The wise man of the village gives the moral after the boy’s repeated false cries cause the villagers to ignore his real warning.
“Fair weather friends are not worth much.”
Friendship that exists only while circumstances are easy has little value when loyalty is actually tested by difficulty.
Moral printed after “The Swallow and the Crow” in the Townsend translation of the fables.
“The least outlay is not always the greatest gain.”
Trying to minimize immediate cost can create a worse result when skill, care, or professional competence is what the task actually requires.
Moral printed after “The Widow and the Sheep”; the widow injures the sheep while trying to avoid the shearer’s expense.
“To err is human; to forgive, divine.”
Error is treated as ordinary human limitation, while forgiveness requires an additional act of generosity.
An Essay on Criticism, Part III; Pope joins good nature and good sense before contrasting ordinary human error with the higher moral act of forgiveness.
“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
The line warns that confidence without judgment can push people into situations that more thoughtful people approach cautiously.
An Essay on Criticism, Part III; Pope warns against reckless confidence and poor judgment in critics.
“What mighty contests rise from trivial things,”
The mock-heroic opening announces the poem’s central comic method: treating a small social quarrel with the scale and language of epic conflict.
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.
“Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”
The line contrasts immediate visual attraction with the more durable appeal of character or merit.
The Rape of the Lock, Canto V, line 34 in Pope’s 1717 revision; final line of Clarissa’s added speech. The inherited 1714 source year is corrected to 1717; the narrator immediately notes that the audience gives her no applause, keeping the maxim inside its mock-heroic dramatic setting.
“What then remains but well our pow'r to use, And keep good-humour still whate'er we lose?”
Within Clarissa’s speech, the practical response to inevitable loss is to use one’s capacities well and preserve composure rather than trying to make change impossible.
The Rape of the Lock, Canto V, lines 29–30 in Pope’s 1717 revision; spoken by Clarissa. Her speech was added in 1717, so the inherited 1714 source year is corrected to 1717. Clarissa’s counsel is immediately followed by the poem’s return to comic battle, preserving the satirical frame.
“How vain are all these glories, all our pains, Unless good sense preserve what beauty gains:”
Clarissa’s speech argues that appearance and social admiration are unstable unless judgment and character give them something more durable to rest on.
The Rape of the Lock, Canto V, lines 15–16 in Pope’s 1717 revision; spoken by Clarissa. Her moralizing speech (Canto V lines 7–36) was added in 1717, so the inherited 1714 source year is corrected to 1717. The reviewed evidence opens the 1717 Canto V scan start; the exact couplet is independently preserved in the complete final-form text.
“All human wisdom is summed up in these two words,—‘Wait and hope.’”
At the novel’s close, the Count reduces his hard-earned counsel to patience joined with hope rather than certainty about what the future will bring.
The Count of Monte Cristo, closing letter, Project Gutenberg #1184, in the represented public-domain English translation. Edmond Dantès writes the advice to Morrel and Valentine; the English wording is translation-specific and is fictional counsel, not a direct English-language aphorism authored by Dumas.
“Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.”
Facts can be acquired quickly, while judgment develops more slowly through reflection and experience.
Poem “Locksley Hall”; the contrast distinguishes readily acquired knowledge from the slower development of judgment and wisdom.
“Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, These three alone lead life to sovereign power.”
Tennyson joins respect for oneself with knowledge and restraint: durable personal power is presented as the result of living by an inward law rather than seeking power merely for its own sake.
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.
“Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.”
Bierce’s satirical definition suggests that learning may deepen understanding in reflective people while giving the unreflective additional ways to conceal ignorance.
The Devil’s Dictionary, entry “Education,” Project Gutenberg #972. This is a deliberately cynical comic dictionary definition and should be read as satire rather than as a literal educational theory.
“All men by nature desire to know.”
Aristotle treats the desire for knowledge as a basic human tendency, giving curiosity a foundational place in the movement from perception toward understanding.
Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book I, Chapter I, W. D. Ross translation (1908), validated Wikisource scan leaf 21. 'All men by nature desire to know' opens the work before the discussion of sensation, memory, experience, art and knowledge. This remains ancient philosophy mediated by translation, not a modern empirical finding about cognition.
“By doing just actions we come to be just.”
Character is formed through repeated conduct: practicing just actions helps turn justice from an abstract ideal into a stable disposition.
Nicomachean Ethics, Book II; Aristotle explains virtue as something developed through corresponding actions.
“Friendship helps the young to keep from error.”
Aristotle gives friendship a practical educational role: trusted companions can help younger people avoid mistakes by supplying counsel, example and shared judgment.
Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII, Chapter I, Project Gutenberg #8438. The sentence occurs in Aristotle’s opening inventory of why friendship is necessary across different stages of life.
“Every action and moral choice, aims, it is thought, at some good.”
Actions and choices are intelligible because they pursue something taken to be good, even when people disagree about what the good actually is.
Nicomachean Ethics, Book I; the opening argument begins from the idea that action aims at a perceived good.
“A desire for Friendship may arise quickly but not Friendship itself.”
Initial liking or a wish to become friends can happen immediately, but Aristotle reserves mature friendship for a relationship tested by time, familiarity and demonstrated character.
Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII, Chapter III, Project Gutenberg #8438. Aristotle has just argued that people must become mutually known and prove themselves fit objects of friendship before the relationship is complete.
“No one would choose to live without friends though he should have all the other good things in the world.”
Friendship is treated not as an optional luxury but as part of a flourishing life, even when material needs and other advantages are already supplied.
Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII; Aristotle begins his discussion of friendship by treating it as necessary to a good life.
“Virtue then is a state apt to exercise deliberate choice, being in the relative mean, determined by reason.”
Virtue is treated as a stable capacity for deliberate choice, guided by practical judgment rather than by extremes of impulse or deficiency.
Nicomachean Ethics, Book II, Chapter VI; the public-domain English translation defines virtue through deliberate choice and the relative mean.
“And so the good man ought to be Self-loving: because by doing what is noble he will have advantage himself and will do good to others.”
Aristotle distinguishes a worthy form of self-love from selfish appetite: the good person values the rational and noble part of life in a way that benefits both the self and other people.
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.
“Law is reason without desire.”
Good law is idealized as judgment governed by reason rather than by the changing appetites or personal passions of an individual ruler.
Politics: A Treatise on Government, Book III, Chapter XVI, William Ellis translation; represented through the 1912 Dent witness / Project Gutenberg #6762. In comparing rule by a person with rule by law, Aristotle says that passion can affect even the best rulers and concludes that law is reason without desire.
“Knowledge is hard to seek, and harder yet to adhere to. Knowledge is painful often; and yet when we know we are happy.”
Claude presents knowledge as difficult to obtain and live with, yet still capable of giving a kind of clarity or satisfaction once it is possessed.
Amours de Voyage, Letter X, “Claude to Eustace,—from Rome,” Project Gutenberg #1393. Claude’s two sentences about knowledge appear in the fictional verse-letter sequence after he turns from Roman politics toward study. This is Clough’s fictional epistolary voice, not direct autobiography or an empirical claim about happiness.
“In a world where all is fleeting, change alone endures.”
Stability is temporary, so practical judgment requires expecting change rather than treating present arrangements as permanent.
Counsels and Maxims, T. Bailey Saunders translation, in a discussion of fortune and apparent stability.
“For the safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.”
Lowering unrealistic expectations can reduce avoidable disappointment, though the maxim deliberately sets a restrained rather than exuberant ideal of happiness.
Counsels and Maxims, opening general rules on happiness and avoiding unnecessary suffering.
“The art of not reading is highly important.”
Selecting what not to read protects limited attention from being consumed by material that is merely fashionable, noisy, or low-value.
Essay “On Books and Reading”; the surrounding passage explains selective reading rather than hostility to books generally.
“One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind.”
The deliberately severe contrast argues that reading quality matters because repeated exposure influences the habits and material of thought.
Essay “On Books and Reading,” public-domain English text.
“In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited.”
Finite time makes selection unavoidable, so choosing worthwhile reading also requires declining material that does not deserve limited attention.
Essay “On Books and Reading”; Schopenhauer connects literary selection directly with limited time and strength.
“What a man is, and so what he has in his own person, is always the chief thing to consider.”
The line directs attention toward qualities carried within the person rather than status or possessions, grounding a durable sense of value in character, capacity, and inner life.
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.
“What a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has, or how he is regarded by others.”
Schopenhauer places personal character and inner constitution above possessions and reputation, making well-being depend more on what a person is than on external valuation.
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.
“Stand for truth, and ’tis enough.”
Jonson argues that loyalty should attach to what is true rather than to a teacher, sect or personal faction.
Timber, or Discoveries Made Upon Men and Matter, represented by Project Gutenberg #5134. Jonson follows the sentence with his refusal to have readers defend a position merely because it is his; the aphorism belongs to a direct prose reflection on independent judgment and truth.
“Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself;”
Spinoza argues that the highest form of flourishing is not an external prize paid for virtuous conduct but is bound up with the activity he calls virtue itself.
Ethics, Part V, Proposition XLII, R. H. M. Elwes translation represented by Project Gutenberg #3800. ‘Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself’ introduces Spinoza's proposition linking blessedness, knowledge, virtue and control of the emotions. It remains translation-mediated seventeenth-century metaphysical ethics, not a universal psychological measurement or clinical prescription.
“In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.”
Franklin treats humility as a continuing discipline rather than a completed achievement: pride is difficult precisely because it can survive attempts to suppress it and can even attach itself to the appearance of modesty.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Part II, Humility discussion near the close of the Passy 1784 continuation. Franklin reflects that pride survives attempts to suppress it and can attach itself even to apparent humility; the reviewed direct locator is Wikisource Section Thirty Nine.
“Well done is better than well said.”
Franklin gives execution priority over impressive promises or intentions.
Poor Richard’s Almanack.
“Fish and visitors stink in three days.”
Hospitality has limits, and the humor works by comparing an overlong visit with something that naturally becomes unpleasant over time.
Poor Richard’s Almanack; a comic maxim about hospitality, boundaries, and overstaying a welcome.
“Creditors have better memories than debtors.”
Debt can feel less urgent to the borrower than to the person awaiting repayment, making the line a dry reminder about financial obligations and accountability.
Poor Richard’s Almanack for 1736; Franklin uses a short contrast to emphasize the persistence of financial obligations.
“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
The joke exaggerates how difficult secrecy becomes once information is shared, making discretion the safest form of confidentiality.
Poor Richard’s Almanack; one of Franklin’s compact maxims about secrecy and human behavior.
“Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure.”
Leisure is easier to protect when working time is used deliberately, linking time management with freedom rather than treating organization as an end in itself.
Poor Richard’s Almanack; the maxim connects disciplined use of working time with the ability to gain leisure.
“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
The proverb links routine and self-discipline with health, productivity, and practical judgment.
Poor Richard’s Almanack; proverb on routine, work and practical discipline.
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”
Time is treated as the substance from which life is built, so wasting it means spending something that cannot be recovered.
Poor Richard’s Almanack; the maxim connects the value of life directly with the use of time.
“Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.”
Small recurring costs can matter more than they appear individually, so careful attention to minor spending is part of long-term financial discipline.
The Way to Wealth; Father Abraham repeats the Poor Richard maxim while warning about small but cumulative expenses.
“The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty.”
Russell argues that uncertainty can be intellectually valuable because it loosens inherited assumptions and makes room for examined alternatives.
The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter XV, “The Value of Philosophy,” printed page 242 / scan leaf 246 in the 1912 Williams & Norgate edition on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #5827. “The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty” begins Russell’s concluding account of how philosophical doubt can loosen unexamined certainty; this is philosophical argument, not an empirical psychological finding.
“Discourses on humility give occasion for pride to the boastful, and for humility to the humble.”
Pascal points to a self-referential danger: even learning or speaking about humility can become another stage for vanity unless a person is willing to examine the motives behind the performance.
The Thoughts of Blaise Pascal, C. Kegan Paul translation, Project Gutenberg #46921. The next sentence extends the paradox by observing how difficult it is to speak humbly about humility.
“Nothing is wretched, but thinking makes it so.”
Misfortune and judgment are separated: external circumstances can be painful, but the interpretation attached to them strongly influences whether a life is experienced as wholly ruined.
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.
“I may be wrong.”
The admission places a limit on Washington’s own policy claims and models intellectual uncertainty rather than presenting judgment as infallible.
The Future of the American Negro, Chapter VIII; Project Gutenberg #26507. The sentence appears in Washington’s closing policy discussion immediately after his summary of dangers and immediately before his qualification that he may also be in some degree right.
“There is no education which one can get from books and costly apparatus that is equal to that which can be gotten from contact with great men and women.”
Books matter, but lived contact with admirable people can teach standards, courage and conduct that abstract instruction alone may not communicate.
Up from Slavery, Chapter III, “The Struggle For An Education,” Project Gutenberg #2376. Washington describes General Samuel Chapman Armstrong’s influence at Hampton and argues that sustained contact with exemplary people can itself be a powerful form of education.
“It is better not to know wants than not to know want!”
The maxim distinguishes being free from manufactured desires from being ignorant of hardship, valuing enoughness without denying the lessons of real need.
The Lady of the Shroud, Project Gutenberg #3095. The wording is quoted in a letter as the remembered wisdom of Rupert’s mother; “wants” and “want” are deliberately contrasted.
“Reflect upon your present blessings—of which every man has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
The sentence does not deny bereavement or hardship; it redirects attention toward the good that remains present while acknowledging that every life also contains misfortune.
Sketches by Boz, “Characters,” Chapter II, “A Christmas Dinner,” verified against Project Gutenberg #882 and the scan-backed 1836 Volume I transcription on Wikisource. “Reflect upon your present blessings—of which every man has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some” appears immediately after Dickens asks readers to look at their children and explicitly imagines an empty seat where a child has died. The sentence therefore places gratitude beside bereavement and remembered loss rather than denying grief; it is narrator prose, not modern clinical grief-treatment guidance.
“No one is so old as to think that he may not live a year.”
Even late in life people naturally continue to imagine a future, which helps explain why worthwhile work and planning do not simply stop with age.
Cato on Old Age, Shuckburgh translation, in a passage about older people planting for those who come after them.
“The course of life is fixed, and nature admits of its being run but in one way, and only once.”
Each stage of life occurs only once, so wisdom includes accepting its appropriate strengths instead of endlessly trying to restore an earlier stage.
Cato on Old Age, Shuckburgh translation, in Cicero’s discussion of the distinctive advantages of each season of life.
“A true friend is, as it were, another self.”
The phrase captures the intimacy of friendship: another person becomes close enough that concern for them resembles concern for oneself.
De Amicitia, chapter 21 / classical section 80, Andrew P. Peabody translation, Project Gutenberg #7491. Laelius says that unless self-love is transferred into friendship a true friend cannot be found, “for such a friend is, as it were, another self.” The familiar another-self formulation is presented in its philosophical context and not as a literal identity claim.
“Firm, steadfast, self-consistent men are to be chosen as friends.”
Reliable friendship depends on reliable character; steadiness matters because trust cannot grow when conduct constantly changes with advantage.
De Amicitia, chapter 17 / classical section 62, Andrew P. Peabody translation, Project Gutenberg #7491. “Firm, steadfast, self-consistent men are to be chosen as friends” follows Laelius’ recollection of Scipio’s concern that people test possessions more carefully than friendships. The counsel remains ancient character ethics rather than a diagnostic rule for evaluating people.
“Friendship is nothing else than entire fellow feeling as to all things human and divine with mutual good-will and affection.”
Cicero defines the strongest friendship as a broad sharing of concern, judgment and goodwill rather than a narrow exchange of favors or useful contacts.
De Amicitia (Laelius de Amicitia), chapter 6 / classical section 20, Andrew P. Peabody translation, Project Gutenberg #7491. Laelius defines friendship as entire fellow feeling in human and divine things joined with mutual goodwill and affection. Cicero remains the work author while Gaius Laelius is the local dialogue speaker; this is ancient ethical-philosophical argument rather than a modern empirical definition of friendship.
“For we have confidence in those who we think have more understanding than ourselves”
Cicero treats confidence in another person as partly a judgment about competence: people are more willing to rely on someone they believe can understand difficult circumstances and reach sound decisions.
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.
“To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.”
Recognizing the right course is incomplete if fear or convenience prevents a person from acting on that judgment.
The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book II connects moral recognition with the courage required for action.
“What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”
A simple test for conduct is to consider whether we would accept the same treatment if our positions were reversed.
The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book XV gives the maxim as a concise rule for conduct toward others.
“The superior man wishes to be slow in his speech and earnest in his conduct.”
Restraint in speech is paired with seriousness in action, placing demonstrated conduct above impressive but unproven words.
The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book IV contrasts careful speech with earnest conduct.
“What the superior man seeks, is in himself. What the mean man seeks, is in others.”
Mature judgment begins with one’s own conduct and capacities rather than making other people the first explanation for every outcome.
The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book XV contrasts inward self-examination with dependence on others.
“The superior man is satisfied and composed; the mean man is always full of distress.”
The contrast treats composure as a feature of cultivated character rather than as freedom from all difficulty: the “superior man” is represented as settled enough not to live in continual inward distress.
The Analects of Confucius, Book VII, Chapter XXXVI, James Legge translation, Project Gutenberg #3330.
“To have faults and not to reform them,—this, indeed, should be pronounced having faults.”
Making an error is less serious than refusing to correct it after the problem has become visible.
The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book XV distinguishes ordinary faults from the refusal to reform them.
“I saw the cloud, though I did not foresee the storm.”
Moll recognizes warning signs in the household’s changing treatment of her but admits she did not understand how serious the coming consequences would become.
Moll Flanders, Project Gutenberg #370. The fictional first-person narrator uses weather metaphor while recalling an early relationship crisis and the family’s growing hostility toward her.
“rolling on through the land slowly and surely, like a good man's life”
The narrator compares a steady river to a good life, using natural movement as an image for patient continuity and moral character.
John Halifax, Gentleman, represented by Project Gutenberg #2351. The phrase belongs to the first-person narrator Phineas Fletcher while describing the river; it is a literary simile inside the novel, not direct autobiography by Craik.
“Adventures do occur, but not punctually.”
The narrator notes that meaningful or unexpected experiences cannot be scheduled simply because a person has decided that a particular moment ought to become interesting.
A Passage to India, Project Gutenberg #61221. The narrator explains Mrs. Moore’s more patient response to disappointment after an outing fails to materialize on cue; the sentence belongs to fictional narration.
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
The verse places change inside a larger rhythm of seasons and purposes, making it useful for thinking about acceptance when one phase of life gives way to another.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 in the King James Version, opening the sequence of contrasting times and seasons.
“I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.”
Joy and doing good are placed together as practical goods available within a life whose timing cannot be fully controlled.
Ecclesiastes 3:12 in the King James Version.
“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.”
Finishing and enduring are given more weight than the excitement of starting or the pride of appearance.
Ecclesiastes 7:8 in the King James Version; the verse contrasts patient spirit with pride and values the completed end of a matter over the excitement of its beginning.
“Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.”
The warning treats speed itself as part of the danger of anger: delay creates room for judgment before emotion hardens into conduct.
Ecclesiastes 7:9 in the King James Version.
“What then is to be done? Be wise with speed; A fool at forty is a fool indeed.”
Young’s satirical couplet urges people not to postpone the cultivation of judgment until age has made long-standing folly harder to excuse.
Love of Fame, the Universal Passion, Satire II, from the seven-satire sequence issued in the 1720s and represented in Project Gutenberg #18827. The couplet belongs to Young’s satirical moral persona; its age-based sting is period rhetoric rather than an empirical claim about people at forty.
“But sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom.”
Mr. Gibson affectionately suggests that an imprudent act motivated by care can sometimes make a person more lovable than detached good judgment.
Wives and Daughters, Chapter LIV, “Molly Gibson’s Worth Is Discovered,” Project Gutenberg #4274. Mr. Gibson smiles at Cynthia after she returns because she heard Molly was ill and says that one may like foolish people for their folly better than wise people for wisdom. It is affectionate fictional dialogue about a specific act of care, not Gaskell’s general rule against wisdom.
“No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig.”
Epictetus treats worthwhile development as organic rather than instantaneous: ability, character and reconciliation require stages of growth that cannot be skipped simply because the final result is desired now.
Discourses of Epictetus, Book I, Chapter XV, “What Philosophy Promises,” George Long translation; 1877 George Bell & Sons witness on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #10661. Epictetus answers a request for immediate improvement with the fig/grape analogy: nothing great is produced suddenly and development requires time.
“We shall both be cautious and confident, and indeed confident because of our caution.”
Epictetus rejects confidence as recklessness: confidence becomes rational when caution is directed toward one’s own judgments and choices rather than toward externals that cannot be controlled.
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.
“For if we had understanding, ought we to do any thing else both jointly and severally than to sing hymns and bless the deity, and to tell of his benefits?”
Epictetus links gratitude with attentive understanding: recognizing ordinary capacities and the order of life should produce praise rather than treating what sustains us as invisible or automatically deserved.
Discourses of Epictetus, Book I, Chapter XVI, “Of Providence,” George Long translation; 1877 George Bell & Sons witness on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #10661. The passage is explicitly theological Stoicism: Epictetus says understanding should lead people to sing hymns, bless the deity and recount divine benefits.
“Some things are in our control and others not.”
The opening distinction of the Enchiridion asks people to separate what depends on their own judgment and action from what does not.
Classical work; English wording varies by translation.
“Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish.”
Peace becomes more possible when desire stops demanding that reality conform perfectly to preference before a useful response can begin.
Enchiridion, section VIII, George Long translation; the following clause advises wishing events to be as they are.
“The man did not know the rest of my faults, for he would not have mentioned these only.”
Epictetus answers insult without retaliation by turning attention toward his own fallibility; the joke reduces the critic’s power because reputation is treated as an external judgment rather than something that must be avenged.
Enchiridion, section 33 in George Long’s public-domain translation, Project Gutenberg #10661. The line is the suggested reply after hearing that someone has spoken ill of you; it is Stoic self-command, not an instruction to accept abuse without boundaries.
“Demand not that events should happen as you wish; but wish them to happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.”
Peace is sought by aligning desire with reality rather than requiring reality to obey preference, a central Stoic distinction between response and circumstance.
Enchiridion, section 8; Epictetus applies Stoic acceptance to events outside personal control.
“On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use.”
Instead of beginning with what an event has taken away, the practice asks which capacity—endurance, restraint, patience, or judgment—can still be exercised.
Enchiridion, section X, George Long translation; Epictetus gives examples such as endurance under pain and patience under abuse.
“Freedom is the name of virtue: Slavery, of vice.”
Freedom is treated as an ethical condition of character rather than simply the absence of external restraint.
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying X, Hastings Crossley translation.
“Place then thy happiness in that wherein thou art equal to the Gods.”
Epictetus locates happiness in the rational and moral capacities a person can exercise rather than in rank, possessions, or bodily advantages.
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying XXXIII, Hastings Crossley translation.
“A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope.”
The image warns against making one uncertain outcome carry the whole weight of a life; resilience benefits from more than one source of meaning and support.
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying XVI, Hastings Crossley translation.
“True instruction is this:—to learn to wish that each thing should come to pass as it does.”
Stoic instruction begins by reducing the conflict between reality and demand, leaving judgment and action to work with what actually occurs.
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying XXVI, Hastings Crossley translation.
“Give me by all means the shorter and nobler life, instead of one that is longer but of less account!”
Length alone does not make a life better; Epictetus places moral quality and nobility above mere duration.
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying IX, Hastings Crossley translation.
“A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.”
Revenge can keep an injury psychologically active long after the original event, making resentment a way of repeatedly reopening the hurt.
Bacon, “Of Revenge”; the sentence continues by contrasting revenge with wounds that would otherwise heal.
“In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.”
Bacon argues that retaliation merely mirrors the wrong, whereas refusing revenge can restore agency by ending the cycle instead of remaining governed by the injury.
Francis Bacon, essay IV ‘Of Revenge,’ represented by Project Gutenberg #575. The frozen catalog sentence capitalizes the extracted opening ‘In’ and ends after ‘superior’; the witness reads it inside the longer sentence beginning ‘Certainly, in taking revenge...’ and continuing ‘for it is a prince's part to pardon.’ It remains early-modern moral and legal-political essay argument rather than modern clinical anger guidance.
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”
Not every book deserves the same kind of attention; readers should match effort and depth to the value and purpose of the work.
Essay “Of Studies”; Bacon distinguishes different depths and purposes of reading.
“Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.”
Bacon joins truth with charity and steadiness, presenting intellectual honesty as part of a well-ordered mind rather than a weapon for pride.
Francis Bacon, 'Of Truth,' essay I in the 1625 Essays; independently checked against the validated 1884 Works of Francis Bacon, Volume I scan leaf 139. The retained sentence closes Bacon's theological/philosophical truth discussion by linking charity, providence and truth; it is explicitly early-modern Christian-philosophical rhetoric, not clinical or scientific evidence.
“A man may know much about educating himself, and but little about the proper means for educating others.”
Douglass distinguishes learning independently from knowing how to teach someone else. He values self-education yet cautions that overcoming personal obstacles does not automatically make a person an expert in educational institutions or instruction.
Self-Made Men, in the section considering criticisms of successful self-educated people. This wording follows the Teaching American History transcript (1872 editorial date). Douglass delivered and revised the lecture over time; the precise wording is tied to this transcript and should not be silently projected onto every manuscript version.
“Insanity in individuals is something rare—but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.”
Collective belonging can amplify irrationality that would be less common in an isolated person, making group judgment worth examining critically.
Beyond Good and Evil, aphorism 156, Helen Zimmern translation.
“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.”
Opposing something destructive can reshape the opponent as well; sustained conflict requires vigilance about the habits and values one absorbs.
Beyond Good and Evil, aphorism 146, in Helen Zimmern’s public-domain English translation.
“The unreasonableness of a thing is no argument against its existence, but rather a condition thereof.”
The aphorism separates the fact that something exists from the expectation that existence must be rational or well ordered.
Human, All-Too-Human, Part I, aphorism 515, “From Experience”; Helen Zimmern translation.
“Partial knowledge is more triumphant than complete knowledge; it takes things to be simpler than they are.”
The warning is that simplified partial explanations can spread more easily precisely because they remove the complications that fuller understanding would have to preserve.
Human, All-Too-Human, Part I, aphorism 578, “Partial Knowledge”; Helen Zimmern translation; sentence shortened before the final clause about popularity and persuasion.
“A man far oftener appears to have a decided character from persistently following his temperament than from persistently following his principles.”
Nietzsche distinguishes the appearance of consistency from principled consistency, suggesting repeated temperament can look like deliberate moral character.
Human, All-Too-Human, Part I, aphorism 485, “Decided Character”; Helen Zimmern translation.
“We hear only the questions to which we are capable of finding an answer.”
The aphorism suggests that inquiry is limited by the conceptual capacities of the person asking, making intellectual growth partly a matter of becoming able to formulate and recognize better questions.
The Joyful Wisdom, aphorism 196; Thomas Common translation.
“Above all, don’t lie to yourself.”
Self-deception is presented as especially damaging because it corrupts the person’s ability to recognize truth both inwardly and around them.
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.
“Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds”
The narrator presents character and action as reciprocal: choices express who a person is, while repeated actions also reshape the person who makes them.
Adam Bede; narrator’s reflection during the novel’s moral development, represented from Project Gutenberg #507.
“It’s easy finding reasons why other folks should be patient.”
The remark exposes the asymmetry between recommending endurance to someone else and actually bearing hardship oneself.
Adam Bede; spoken in dialect within the novel, so the source note keeps the fictional conversational setting rather than turning it into an editionless author maxim.
