19th century

Explore 1787 quotes from the 19th century

The most despairing songs are the loveliest of all,
I know immortal ones composed only of tears.

Alfred de Musset

More information about this quote

Topic

Melancholy

Author

Alfred de Musset

Source

A Night in May

Medium

Poem

Language

French

Time

1835 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Musset, Alfred. "La nuit de mai [A Night In May]." Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 June 1835.

The present is the funeral of the past,
And man the living sepulchre of life.

John Clare

More information about this quote

Topic

Effects of the past Past and present

Author

John Clare

Source

The Present is the Funeral of the Past

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1845 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Clare, John. The Present is the Funeral of the Past. c. 1845, I. 1.

Current Citation

Clare, John. "The Present is the Funeral of the Past." The Later Poems of John Clare. Oxford University Press, 1984, I. 1.

Individual liberty is individual power, and as the power of a community is a mass compounded of individual powers, the nation which enjoys the most freedom must necessarily be in proportion to its numbers the most powerful nation.

John Quincy Adams

More information about this quote

Topic

Demography Political theory

Author

John Quincy Adams

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1822 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Adams, John Quincy. Letter to James Lloyd. 1 Oct. 1822.

Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore,
And coming events cast their shadows before.

Thomas Campbell

Lochiels's Warning

More information about this quote

Topic

Old age Approaching death

Speaker

Wizard

Author

Thomas Campbell

Source

Lochiels's Warning

Language

English

Time

1802 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Campbell, Thomas. Lochiel's Warning. c. 1802.

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

William Wordsworth

The World Is Too Much with Us

More information about this quote

Topic

Materialism Industrial revolution

Author

William Wordsworth

Source

The World Is Too Much with Us

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1807 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wordsworth, William. Poems, in Two Volumes. Vol. 1, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme, 1807, pt. 1, no. 18, I. 1.

Current Citation

Wordsworth, William. "The world is too much with us." William Wordsworth: The Major Works: including The Prelude, edited by Stephen Gill. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Let us have done with British-Americans and Irish-Americans and German-Americans, and so on, and all be Americans... If a man is going to be an American at all let him be so without any qualifying adjectives; and if he is going to be something else, let him drop the word American from his personal description.

Henry Cabot Lodge

More information about this quote

Topic

Assimilation America

Speaker

Henry Cabot Lodge

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1888 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lodge, Henry Cabot. "The Day We Celebrate." New England Society of Brooklyn meeting. 21 Dec. 1888, Brooklyn, New York City, NY, USA.

A Woman is a foreign land,
Of which, though there he settle young,
A man will ne'er quite understand
The customs, politics, and tongue.

Coventry Patmore

The Angel in the House

More information about this quote

Topic

Gender relations Men and women

Author

Coventry Patmore

Source

The Angel in the House

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1854 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Patmore, Coventry. The Angel in the House. Self-published, 1854, bk. 2, canto 9, prelude 2.

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

William Wordsworth

More information about this quote

Topic

Rainbows

Author

William Wordsworth

Source

My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1807 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wordsworth, William. Poems, in Two Volumes. Vol. 2, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1807.

Current Citation

Wordsworth, William. "My heart leaps up when I behold." William Wordsworth: The Major Works: including The Prelude, edited by Stephen Gill. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Words, so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become, in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of words Power of literature Literature Writing

Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Source

Journals of Nathaniel Hawthorne

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1848 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Journal entry. 18 May 1848.

The happiness of life, on the contrary, is made up of minute fractions-the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss, a smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment in the disguise of playful raillery, and the countless other infinitesimals of pleasurable thought and genial feeling.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Improvisatore

More information about this quote

Topic

Happiness The little things

Author

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Source

The Improvisatore

Language

English

Time

1828 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. The Improvisatore. c. 1828.

Current Citation

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "The Improvisatore." Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Complete Poems, edited by William Keach. Penguin Classics, 1997.

You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbor.... Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to think other men's thoughts, to speak other men's words, to follow other men's habits.

Walter Bagehot

More information about this quote

Topic

Conformity Custom and convention

Author

Walter Bagehot

Source

The Character of Sir Robert Peel

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1856 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Bagehot, Walter. "The Character of Sir Robert Peel." National Review, July 1856.

Current Citation

Bagehot, Walter. "The Character of Sir Robert Peel." The Best of Bagehot. Hamish Hamilton, 1993.

What a misfortune it is to be born a woman!... Why seek for knowledge, which can prove only that our wretchedness is irremediable? If a ray of light break in upon us, it is but to make darkness more visible; to show us the narrow limits, the Gothic structure, the impenetrable barriers of our prison.

Maria Edgeworth

More information about this quote

Topic

Oppression of women Women

Author

Maria Edgeworth

Source

Leonora

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1806 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Edgeworth, Maria. Leonora. London: J. Johnson, 1806, letter 1.

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

William Morris

More information about this quote

Topic

Simple living How to live Clutter Interior design

Author

William Morris

Source

Hopes and Fears for Art

Medium

Speech

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1882 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Morris, William. "The Beauty of Life." Hopes and Fears for Art: Five Lectures Delivered in Birmingham, London, and Nottingham, 1878 - 1881. London: Ellis & White/Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1882. Originally a lecture before the Birmingham Society of Arts and School of Design. 19 Feb. 1880, Birmingham, England, UK.

It is wrong always, everywhere and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

W.K. Clifford

More information about this quote

Topic

Unjustified beliefs Beliefs Evidence

Author

W.K. Clifford

Source

The Ethics of Belief

Medium

Essay

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Precepts and axioms

Language

English

Time

1877 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Clifford, William Kingdon. "The Ethics of Belief." Contemporary Review, 1877.

Current Citation

Clifford, William Kingdon. "The Ethics of Belief." The Ethics of Belief and Other Essays. Prometheus, 1999.

The mountains are fountains of men as well as of rivers, of glaciers, of fertile soil. The great poets, philosophers, prophets, able men whose thoughts and deeds have moved the world, have come down from the mountains—mountain-dwellers who have grown strong there with the forest trees in Nature's workshops.

John Muir

More information about this quote

Topic

Mountains Man and nature

Author

John Muir

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Muir, John. Journal entry. July 1890.

We have no eternal allies and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and these interests it is our duty to follow.

Henry John Temple

More information about this quote

Topic

Realpolitik International politics Political theory

Speaker

Henry John Temple

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1848 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Temple, Henry John. Address in the House of Commons. House of Commons meeting. 1 Mar. 1848, Palace of Westminster, London, England, UK.

As civilisation advances, poetry almost necessarily declines... In proportion as men know more and think more, they look less at individuals and more at classes. They therefore make better theories and worse poems.

Thomas Babington Macaulay

More information about this quote

Topic

Poetry Downsides of progress

Author

Thomas Babington Macaulay

Source

Milton Edinburgh Review

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1825 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Macaulay, Thomas Babington. "Milton." Edinburgh Review, 1825.

A wet sheet and a flowing sea,
A wind that follows fast
And fills the white and rustling sail
And bends the gallant mast.

Allan Cunningham

More information about this quote

Topic

Sailing Ocean and sea

Author

Allan Cunningham

Source

A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea

Medium

Song

Language

English

Time

1850 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cunningham, Allan. A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea. Performed by Mr. Howard. Baltimore: Howard. G. Willig Jr., 1850, I. 1.

For there is no friend like a sister
In calm or stormy weather;
To cheer one on the tedious way,
To fetch one if one goes astray,
To lift one if one totters down,
To strengthen while one stands.

Christina Rossetti

More information about this quote

Topic

Sisters Siblings

Author

Christina Rossetti

Source

Goblin Market

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1862 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Rossetti, Christina. "Goblin Market." Goblin Market and Other Poems. London: Macmillan, 1862.

Current Citation

Rossetti, Christina. "Goblin Market." The Complete Poems. Penguin Classics, 2001.

It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.

Jerome K. Jerome

More information about this quote

Topic

Procrastination Idleness Killing time

Author

Jerome K. Jerome

Source

On Being Idle Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow

Medium

Essay

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

English

Time

1886 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jerome, Jerome K. "On Being Idle." Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow. Field & Tuer, 1886.