19th century

Explore 1787 quotes from the 19th century

Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.

Stephen Decatur

More information about this quote

Topic

Patriotism

Author

Stephen Decatur

Language

English

Time

1816 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Decatur, Stephen. Toast given at a dinner in Virginia. Apr. 1816, Norfolk, VA, USA.

Of all failures, to fail in a witticism is the worst, and the mishap is the more calamitous in a drawn-out and detailed one.

Walter Savage Landor

More information about this quote

Topic

Jokes Failure

Speaker

Chatham

Author

Walter Savage Landor

Language

English

Time

1825 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Landor, Walter Savage. "Chesterfield and Chatham." Imaginary Conversations. c. 1825.

We are one people-our enemies have made us one whether we will or not, as has repeatedly happened in history. Affliction binds us together, and thus united, we suddenly discover our strength. Yes, we are strong enough to form a State, and, indeed, a model State.

Theodor Herzl

The Jewish State

Read The Jewish State at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

The Jewish people

Author

Theodor Herzl

Source

The Jewish State

Genre

Political literature

Language

German

Time

1896 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Herzl, Theodore. Der Judenstaat [The Jewish State]. Leipzig: M. Breitenstein's Verlags-Buchhandlung, 1896.

The sea of faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd;
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Matthew Arnold

Dover Beach

Read Dover Beach at Poetry Foundation

More information about this quote

Topic

Decline of religion Disenchanted world Modern life

Author

Matthew Arnold

Source

Dover Beach

Language

English

Time

1867 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." New Poems. London: Macmillan and Co., 1867, st. 3, 4.

Current Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." Dover Beach and Other Poems. Dover Publications, 2012, st. 3, 4.

Theory of the true civilization.
It is not to be found in gas or steam or table turning, It consists in the diminution of the traces of original sin.

Charles Baudelaire

More information about this quote

Topic

Civilization

Author

Charles Baudelaire

Language

French

Time

1867 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Baudelaire, Charles. Mon Coeur mis a nu [My Naked Heart]. Paris, 1887, no. 58.

Current Citation

Baudelaire, Charles. "My Heart Laid Bare." Late Fragments: Flares, My Heart Laid Bare, Prose Poems, Belgium Disrobed, translated by Richard Sieburth. Yale University Press, 2022, no. 58.

Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves suck back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean.

Matthew Arnold

Dover Beach

Read Dover Beach at Poetry Foundation

More information about this quote

Topic

The beach Waves Melancholy

Author

Matthew Arnold

Source

Dover Beach

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1867 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." New Poems. London: Macmillan and Co., 1867, I. 9.

Current Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." Dover Beach and Other Poems. Dover Publications, 2012, I. 9.

When the white men came we gave them lands, and did not wish to hurt them. But the white man drove us back and took our lands. Then the Great Father made us many promises, but they are not kept. He promised to give us large presents, and when they came to us they were small; they seemed to be lost on the way.

Red Cloud

On promises made and broken by the American government.

More information about this quote

Topic

US and Native American relations American expansion

Speaker

Red Cloud

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1870 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Red Cloud. Speech at Council of Peace. 15 June 1870, New York City, NY, USA.

It is always the best policy to speak the truth—unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.

Jerome K. Jerome

More information about this quote

Topic

Telling the truth Lying

Author

Jerome K. Jerome

Source

The Idler

Language

English

Time

1892 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jerome, Jerome K. "The Idler's Club." The Idler. London: Chatto & Windus, Feb. 1892.

If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one Pain
Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in Vain.

Emily Dickinson

Read If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Helping others

Author

Emily Dickinson

Source

If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking Poems

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1886 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Dickinson, Emily. "If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking." Poems by Emily Dickinson. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1890, I. 1.

Current Citation

Dickinson, Emily. "If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking." Emily Dickinson’s Poems: As She Preserved Them, edited by Cristanne Miller. Belknap Press, 2016, I. 1.

The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.

Kate Chopin

Buy The Awakening at Amazon Buy The Awakening at Amazon
Read The Awakening at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Sound of water Ocean and sea

Author

Kate Chopin

Source

The Awakening

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1899 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Chicago and New York: Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1899, ch. 6.

Current Citation

Chopin, Kate. "The Awakening." The Awakening and Selected Stories. Penguin Classics, 2003, ch. 6.

Sorrow comes in great waves—no one can know that better than you—but it rolls over us, and though it may almost smother us it leaves us on the spot, and we know that if it is strong we are stronger, inasmuch as it passes and we remain. It wears us, uses us, but we wear it and use it in return; and it is blind, whereas we after a manner see.

Henry James

More information about this quote

Topic

Learning from suffering Suffering

Author

Henry James

Source

Letters of Henry James

Medium

Letter

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1883 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, Henry. Letter to Grace Norton. 28 July 1883.

Current Citation

James, Henry. "July 28th [1883] To Grace Norton." The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1883-1884, edited by Michael Anesko and Greg W. Zacharias. Vol. 1, University of Nebraska Press, 2018.

Although we are mere sojourners on the surface of the planet, chained to a mere point in space, enduring but for a moment of time, the human mind is not only enabled to number worlds beyond the unassisted ken of mortal eye, but to trace the events of indefinite ages before the creation of our race, and is not even withheld from penetrating into the dark secrets of the ocean, or the interior of the solid globe.

Charles Lyell

Principles of Geology

More information about this quote

Topic

Scientific progress

Author

Charles Lyell

Source

Principles of Geology

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1830 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lyell, Charles, Sir. Principles of Geology: Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface, by Reference to Causes Now in Operation. Vol. 1, London: John Murray, 1830.

How hard to realize that every camp of men or beast has this glorious starry firmament for a roof!...In such places standing alone on the mountain-top it is easy to realize that whatever special nests we make—leaves and moss like the marmots and birds, or tents, or piled stone—we all dwell in a house of one room—the world with the firmament for its roof—and are sailing the celestial spaces without leaving any track.

John Muir

More information about this quote

Topic

The night sky Interconnectedness of all people

Author

John Muir

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Muir, John. Journal entry. 18 July 1890.

Man is everywhere a disturbing agent. Wherever he plants his foot, the harmonies of nature are turned to discords.

George Perkins Marsh

Man and Nature

More information about this quote

Topic

Man and nature Environmental destruction

Author

George Perkins Marsh

Source

Man and Nature

Language

English

Time

1864 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Marsh, George Perkins. Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action. New York: Charles Scribner, 1864, ch. 1.

Current Citation

Marsh, George Perkins. Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action. Dover Publications, 2021, ch. 1.

Over all, rocks, wood, and water, brooded the spirit of repose, and the silent energy of nature stirred the soul to its inmost depths.

Thomas Cole

Essay on American Scenery

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of nature Nature

Author

Thomas Cole

Source

Essay on American Scenery

Genre

Nature writing

Language

English

Time

1836 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cole, Thomas. "Essay on American Scenery." American Monthly Magazine, 1 Jan. 1836.

For the first time in her life she stood naked in the open air, at the mercy of the sun, the breeze that beat upon her, and the waves that invited her.

Kate Chopin

The Awakening

Buy The Awakening at Amazon Buy The Awakening at Amazon
Read The Awakening at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Experiencing things

Author

Kate Chopin

Source

The Awakening

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1899 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Chicago and New York: Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1899, ch. 39.

Current Citation

Chopin, Kate. "The Awakening." The Awakening and Selected Stories. Penguin Classics, 2003, ch. 39.

For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: "It might have been!"

John Greenleaf Whittier

Maud Muller

More information about this quote

Topic

The road not taken Regrets

Author

John Greenleaf Whittier

Source

Maud Muller

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1856 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wittier, John Greenleaf. "Maud Muller." The Panorama and Other Poems. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1856, st. 53.

Current Citation

Wittier, John Greenleaf. "Maud Muller." John Greenleaf Whittier: Selected Poems. Library of America, 2004.

A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."

Stephen Crane

A Man Said to the Universe

Read the poem A Man Said to the Universe at Poetry Foundation

More information about this quote

Topic

Man and the universe

Author

Stephen Crane

Source

A Man Said to the Universe

Language

English

Time

1899 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Crane, Stephen. "A Man Said to the Universe." War is Kind and Other Lines. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1899, I. 1.

Current Citation

Crane, Stephen. "A Man Said to the Universe." War is Kind and Other Lines. Dover Publications, 2016, I. 1.

Some people are far more sensitive to resemblances, and far more ready to point out wherein they consist, than others are. They are the wits, the poets, the inventors, the scientific men, the practical geniuses.

William James

The Principles of Psychology

More information about this quote

Topic

Combinatorial creativity Creativity

Author

William James

Source

The Principles of Psychology

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. The Principles of Psychology. Vol. 1, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1890, ch. 13.

The man of business…goes on Sunday to the church with the regularity of the village blacksmith, there to renounce and abjure before his God the line of conduct which he intends to pursue with all his might during the following week.

George Bernard Shaw

More information about this quote

Topic

Morality and business

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

Economic Fabian Essays in Socialism

Language

English

Time

1889 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "Economic." Fabian Essays in Socialism. The Fabian Society, 1889.

Current Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "Economic." Political Writings. Oxford University Press, 2021.