Europe

Explore 4622 quotes by people from Europe

We confess to little faults only to persuade ourselves that we have no great ones.

François de La Rochefoucauld

Reflections

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Topic

Character flaws Delusion

Author

François de La Rochefoucauld

Source

Reflections

Medium

Epigram

Language

French

Time

1678 1670s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

La Rochefoucauld, Francois. Reflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims]. c. 1665.

Current Citation

La Rochefoucauld, Francois. Collected Maxims and Other Reflections, translated by E. H. and A. M. Blackmore and Francine Giguere. Oxford University Press, 2008.

The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.

Lord Chesterfield

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Topic

Learning

Author

Lord Chesterfield

Source

Letters of Lord Chesterfield

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1746 1740s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Stanhope, Philip Dormer. Letter to his son. 4 Oct. 1746.

Secrets had an immense attraction to him, because he never could keep one, and he enjoyed the sort of unhallowed thrill he experienced when he went and told another animal, after having faithfully promised not to.

Kenneth Grahame

The Wind in the Willows

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Topic

Secrets

Author

Kenneth Grahame

Source

The Wind in the Willows

Medium

Novel

Genre

Children's literature

Language

English

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows. Methuen, 1908, ch. 11.

Current Citation

Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows. Barnes & Noble, 2013, ch. 11.

Truth-loving Persians do not dwell upon
The trivial skirmish fought near Marathon.

Robert Graves

The Persian Version

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Topic

Different perspectives

Author

Robert Graves

Source

The Persian Version

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Graves, Robert. "The Persian Version." Poems 1938-1945: Satires and Grotesques. Cassell & Company, 1946, I. 1.

In a century which attempts to tear the heart out of every mystery, fashion guards its secret well, and is the best possible proof that there is still magic abroad.

Christian Dior

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Topic

Fashion 20th century

Author

Christian Dior

Language

French

Time

1956 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Dior, Christian. Quoted in Dior by Christian Dior, written by Olivier Saillard. Assouline, 2017.

Art in its perfection is not ostentatious; it lies hid, and works its effect itself unseen.

Joshua Reynolds

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Topic

Subtlety Art

Speaker

Joshua Reynolds

Source

Discourses on Art

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1774 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Reynolds, Joshua. "Discourse VI." 10 Dec. 1774, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England, UK. Lecture.

Where wealth and freedom reign, contentment fails,
And honour sinks where commerce long prevails.

Oliver Goldsmith

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Topic

Moral decline Morality Capitalism

Author

Oliver Goldsmith

Source

The Traveller

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Proverbs, aphorisms and adages

Language

English

Time

1764 1760s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Goldsmith, Oliver. The Traveller; or, a Prospect of Society. London: John Newbery, 1764.

I realize today that nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself.

Hermann Hesse

Demian

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Topic

Facing oneself Existential terror Self-knowledge

Author

Hermann Hesse

Source

Demian

Medium

Novel

Genre

Coming of age story

Language

German

Time

1919 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hesse, Herman. Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend [Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth]. Fischer Verlag, 1919.

Current Citation

Hesse, Herman. Demian, translated by Damion Searls. Penguin Classics, 2013.

A good marriage is that in which each appoints the other guardian of his solitude.

Rainer Maria Rilke

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Topic

Marriage

Author

Rainer Maria Rilke

Medium

Letter

Language

German

Time

1901 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Rilke, Rainer Maria. Letter to Emanuel von Bodman. 17 Aug. 1901.

Current Citation

Rilke, Rainer Maria. Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892-1910, translated by Jane B. Greene and M. D. Herter Norton. W. W. Norton & Company, 1969.

Truth is the object of philosophy, but not always of philosophers.

John Churton Collins

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Topic

Truth Philosophy Philosophers

Author

John Churton Collins

Source

Some Maxims and Reflections The English Review

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1900 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Collins, Churton. "Some Maxims and Reflections." The English Review, c. 1914.

We never have despair without some small hope.

Pier Paolo Pasolini

More information about this quote

Topic

Hope Hopelessness and despair

Author

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Source

The Religion of My Time

Medium

Poem

Language

Italian

Time

1961 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Pasolini, Pier Paolo. "Un'Appendice alla 'Religione': Una luce [An Appendix to 'Religion': The Light]." La religione del mio tempo. [The Religion of My Time]. c. 1961.

Current Citation

Pasolini, Pier Paolo. "Appendice alla 'Religione': Una Luce/Appendix to 'The Religion of My Time: A Light." The Selected Poetry of Pier Paolo Pasolinia: A Bilingual Edition, edited and translated by Stephen Sartarelli. University of Chicago Press, 2015.

An apology for the Devil: It must be remembered that we have only heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

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Topic

The devil

Author

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Samuel Butler. The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, edited by Henry Festing Jones. A. C. Fifield, 1912, ch. 14.

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.

What is life? A frenzy. What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a fiction. And the greatest good is of slight worth, as all life is a dream, and dreams are dreams.

Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Life is a Dream

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Topic

Nature of life Life Dreams

Speaker

Sigismund

Author

Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Source

Life is a Dream

Medium

Play

Statement Type

Question

Language

Spanish

Time

1635 1630s 17th century

Era

Spanish Golden Age

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Calderón de la Barca, Pedro. La vida es sueño [Life Is a Dream]. 1635, Madrid, Spain, act 2.

Current Citation

Calderón de la Barca, Pedro. Life is a Dream. Penguin Classics, 2006, act 2.

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

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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.

A mighty pain to love it is,
And 'tis a pain that pain to miss;
But of all pains the greatest pain
It is to love, but love in vain.

Abraham Cowley

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Topic

Unrequited love Love

Author

Abraham Cowley

Source

Gold Anacreontiques

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1633 1630s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Cowley, Abraham. "Anacreontiques." Poems written by A. Cowley. London: Humphrey Moseley, 1656, no. 7.

Even such is time that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust;
Who in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days.
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust!

Sir Walter Raleigh

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of time Relentlessness of time Time

Author

Sir Walter Raleigh

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1618 1610s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Raleigh, Walter. Even Such is Time. London, c. 1618, I. 1.

Current Citation

Raleigh, Walter. "Even Such is Time." Great Short Poems. Dover Publications, 2000, I. 1.

Sometimes I think the purpose of life is to reconcile us to its eventual loss by wearing us down, by proving, however long it takes, that life isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending

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Topic

Purpose of life The human condition

Author

Julian Barnes

Source

The Sense of an Ending

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

2011 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending. Jonathan Cape/Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, ch. 2.

Is the dwelling place of God anywhere but in the earth and sea, the air and sky, and virtue? Why seek we further for deities? Whatever you see, whatever you touch, that is Jupiter.

Lucan

Pharsalia

More information about this quote

Topic

Animism Nature of God God

Author

Lucan

Source

Pharsalia

Medium

Poem

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Latin

Time

65 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Lucan. Pharsalia, or De Bello Civili. c. 65, bk. 9, l. 578-580.

Current Citation

Lucan. Civil War, translated by Matthew Fox. Penguin Classics, 2012, bk. 9, l. 578-580.