19th century

Explore 1787 quotes from the 19th century

The North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction... They move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche.

Samuel Houston

More information about this quote

Topic

American Civil War

Speaker

Samuel Houston

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1861 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Houston, Samuel. Speech warning the people of Texas against secession. 19 Apr. 1861, Unnamed hotel window, Galveston, TX, USA.

Current Citation

Houston, Samuel. Quoted in Sam Houston, written by James L. Haley. University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.

An unlearned carpenter of my acquaintance once said in my hearing: "There is very little difference between one man and another; but what little there is, is very important." This distinction seems to me to go to the root of the matter.

William James

The Will to Believe

More information about this quote

Topic

Difference

Author

William James

Source

The Will to Believe

Language

English

Time

1896 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. "The Importance of Individuals." The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy. New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1897.

We walked up to the house and stood some minutes watching the swallows that flew about restlessly, and flung their shadows upon the sunbright walls of the old building; the shadows glanced and twinkled, interchanged and crossed each other, expanded and shrunk up, appeared and disappeared every instant.

Dorothy Wordsworth

More information about this quote

Topic

Birds Nature scene

Author

Dorothy Wordsworth

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1803 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wordsworth, Dorothy. Journal Entry. 16 Aug. 1803.

Current Citation

Wordsworth, Dorothy. "Journal entry 16 Aug. 1803." Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland. Yale University Press, 1997.

The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; thats the essence of inhumanity.

George Bernard Shaw

Read The Devil's Disciple at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Indifference

Speaker

Anderson

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

The Devil's Disciple

Medium

Play

Genre

Drama (play)

Language

English

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. The Devil's Disciple. 4 Oct. 1897, Fifth Avenue Theatre, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA, act 2.

Current Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "The Devil's Disciple." Arms and the Man, the Devil's Disciple, and Caesar and Cleopatra. Oxford UP, 2021, act 2.

If thou wilt ease thine heart
Of lover and all its smart
Then sleep, dear, sleep.

Thomas Lovell Beddoes

More information about this quote

Topic

Broken heart Moving forward Sleep as balm Sleep

Author

Thomas Lovell Beddoes

Source

Death's Jest Book

Language

English

Time

1850 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Beddoes, Thomas Lovell. Death's Jest-book; Or, The Fool's Tragedy. London: William Pickering, 1850.

Current Citation

Beddoes, Thomas Lovell. Death's Jest Book. Routledge, 2020.

Achilles exists only through Homer. Take away the art of writing from this world, and you will probably take away its glory.

François-Rene de Chateaubriand

Les Natchez

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of literature

Author

François-Rene de Chateaubriand

Source

Les Natchez

Medium

Novel

Language

French

Time

1826 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

De Chateaubriand, François-René. Les Natchez. c. 1826, preface.

It is a fine thing to be out on the hills alone. A man can hardly be a beast or a fool alone on a great mountain.

Francis Kilvert

More information about this quote

Topic

Spending time in nature Man and nature Nature

Author

Francis Kilvert

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1871 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kilvert, Francis. Diary entry. 29 May 1871.

With the dead there is no rivalry. In the dead there is no change. Plato is never sullen. Cervantes is never petulant. Demosthenes never comes unseasonably. Dante never stays too long. No difference of political opinion can alienate Cicero. No heresy can excite the horror of Bossuet.

Thomas Babington Macaulay

More information about this quote

Topic

Western intellectual tradition

Author

Thomas Babington Macaulay

Source

Lord Bacon Edinburgh Review

Medium

Essay Magazine

Language

English

Time

1837 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Macaulay, Thomas Babington. "Lord Bacon." Edinburgh Review, July 1837.

Nothing begins, and nothing ends,
That is not paid with moan;
For we are born in other's pain,
And perish in our own.

Francis Thompson

More information about this quote

Topic

Life and death The human condition

Author

Francis Thompson

Source

Daisy

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1893 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Thompson, Francis. "Daisy." Poems. London: Elkin Mathews and John Lane, 1893, st. 15.

I never saw daffodils so beautiful. They grew among the mossy stones about and about them; some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness; and the rest tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake.

Dorothy Wordsworth

More information about this quote

Topic

Daffodils Flowers Nature scene

Author

Dorothy Wordsworth

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1802 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wordsworth, Dorothy. Journal Entry. 15 Apr. 1802.

Current Citation

Wordsworth, Dorothy. "The Grasmere Journal, Journal entry 15 April 1802." The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals, edited by Pamela Woof. Oxford University Press, 2008.

The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year,
Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sere.

William Cullen Bryant

The Death of the Flowers

More information about this quote

Topic

Autumn

Author

William Cullen Bryant

Source

The Death of the Flowers

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1832 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bryant, William Cullen. "The Death of the Flowers." Poems. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1839, st. 1.

All the wilderness seems to be full of tricks and plans to drive and draw us up into God's light.

John Muir

Buy John Muir: Nature Writings at Amazon Buy John Muir: Nature Writings at Amazon
Read My First Summer in the Sierra at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of nature Wilderness Nature

Author

John Muir

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1869 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Muir, John. Journal entry. 1869.

Current Citation

Muir, John. "My First Summer in the Sierra." John Muir: Nature Writings. Library of America, 1997, ch. 10.

Danger is a good teacher, and makes apt scholars. So are disgrace, defeat, exposure to immediate scorn, and laughter.

William Hazlitt

The Indian Jugglers

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Read The Indian Jugglers at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

School of hard knocks Learning from adversity

Author

William Hazlitt

Source

The Indian Jugglers Table Talk (Hazlitt)

Language

English

Time

1821 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hazlitt, William. "The Indian Jugglers." Table-Talk; Or, Original Essays. Vol. 1, London: John Warren, 1821.

Current Citation

Hazlitt, William. "The Indian Jugglers." The Spirit of Controversy and Other Essays, edited by Jon Mee and James Grande. Oxford University Press, 2021.

The years that are gone seem like dreams—if one might go on sleeping and dreaming—but to wake up and find—oh! well! Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one's life.

Kate Chopin

The Awakening

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Read The Awakening at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Eye opening experience Illusions

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. 38.

Current Citation

Chopin, Kate. "The Awakening." The Awakening and Selected Stories. Penguin Classics, 2003, ch. 38.

There are in nature neither rewards nor punishments — there are consequences.

Robert G. Ingersoll

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature Actions have consequences

Author

Robert G. Ingersoll

Source

Some Reasons Why

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1881 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Ingersoll, Robert Green. "The Christian Religion." The North American Review, Aug. 1881.

The Night is mother of the Day,
The Winter of the Spring,
And ever upon old Decay
The greenest mosses cling.

John Greenleaf Whittier

A Dream of Summer

More information about this quote

Topic

Night and day Season Circle of life

Author

John Greenleaf Whittier

Source

A Dream of Summer

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1847 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Wittier, John Greenleaf. A Dream of Summer. c. 1847, st. 4.

I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one's business on earth, like the male spider, who is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in his courtship. I like a state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind.

George Bernard Shaw

More information about this quote

Topic

Goals

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

Letters of George Bernard Shaw

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1896 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. Letter to Ellen Terry. 28 Aug. 1896.

If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found the flower in his hand when he awoke-Aye! and what then?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

More information about this quote

Topic

Dreams Heaven

Author

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Source

Anima Poetae

Medium

Personal journal

Statement Type

Hypothetical situations

Language

English

Time

1816 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Notebook entry. c. 1816.

Time will rust the sharpest sword,
Time will consume the strongest cord;
That which moulders hemp and steel,
Mortal arm and nerve must feel.

Sir Walter Scott

Harold the Dauntless

More information about this quote

Topic

Time as destroyer Effects of time Time

Author

Sir Walter Scott

Source

Harold the Dauntless

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1817 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Scott, Walter, Sir. Harold the Dauntless. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co. /London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1817, canto 1, st. 4.

There are two sorts of laws, those of absolute equity and universality, and the bizarre ones which owe their autonomy only to blindness or to the force of circumstance. The latter merely cover the man who is breaking them with a passing disgrace, which time then transfers to the judges and the nations, on whom it remains forever.

Denis Diderot

More information about this quote

Topic

Natural law Custom and convention Law

Author

Denis Diderot

Source

Rameau's Nephew

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1805 1800s 19th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Diderot, Denis. Le Neveu de Rameau, ou La Satire seconde [The Nephew of Rameau, or the Second Satire]. 1805 (German); 1891 (original French manuscript).

Current Citation

Diderot, Denis. "Rameau's Nephew." Rameau's Nephew and Other Works, translated by Jacques Barzun and Ralph H. Bowen. Hackett Publishing Company, 2001.