Europe

Explore 4622 quotes by people from Europe

Our constitution is named a democracy, because it is in the hands not of the few but of the many. But our laws secure equal justice for all in their private disputes, and our public opinion welcomes and honors talent in every branch of achievement, not for any sectional reason but on grounds of excellence alone. And as we give free play to all in our public life, so we care the same spirit into our daily relations with one another... Open and friendly in our private intercourse, in our public acts we keep strictly within the control of law. We acknowledge the restraint of authority, and to the laws, more especially to those which offer protection to the oppressed and those unwritten ordinances whose transgression brings admitted shame.

Pericles

Quoted in Funeral Oration, by Thucydides

Buy History of the Peloponnesian War at Amazon Buy History of the Peloponnesian War at Amazon
Read History of the Peloponnesian War at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Democracy Rule of law

Speaker

Pericles

Author

Thucydides

Source

Funeral Oration History of the Peloponnesian War

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech Historical literature

Language

Greek

Time

430 BC 430s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War. c. 431 BC, bk. 2.

Current Citation

Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War, translated by Martin Hammond. Oxford University Press, 2009, bk. 2.

The atoms of Democritus
And Newton’s particles of light
Are sands upon the Red Sea shore,
Where Israel’s tents do shine so bright.

William Blake

Buy a book containing this poem at Amazon Buy a book containing this poem at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Athens and Jerusalem

Author

William Blake

Source

Mock on, Mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1807 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Blake, William. Poem written in his notebook. c. 1792.

Current Citation

Blake, William. "Mock on Mock on Voltaire Rousseau." William Blake: Selected Poems, edited by Nicholas Shrimpton. Oxford University Press, 2019.

To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
Which the false man does easy.

William Shakespeare

Macbeth

Buy Macbeth at Amazon Buy Macbeth at Amazon
Read Macbeth at The Folger Shakespeare Library

More information about this quote

Topic

False appearances

Speaker

Malcolm

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

Macbeth

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1616 1610s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Macbeth." Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. London: Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, 1623, act 2, sc. 3.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Macbeth." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 2, sc. 3.

Whoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before would deserve better of mankind and do more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together.

Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels

Buy Gulliver's Travels at Amazon Buy Gulliver's Travels at Amazon
Read Gulliver's Travels at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Politicians

Author

Jonathan Swift

Source

Gulliver's Travels

Genre

Satire Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1726 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. London: Benjamin Motte, 1726, pt. 2, ch. 7.

Current Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels, edited by Albert J. Rivero. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001, pt. 2, ch. 7.

By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.

William Shakespeare

Macbeth

Buy Macbeth at Amazon Buy Macbeth at Amazon
Read Macbeth at The Folger Shakespeare Library

More information about this quote

Topic

Foreboding Apprehension

Speaker

Second Witch

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

Macbeth

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1616 1610s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Macbeth." Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. London: Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, 1623, act 4, sc. 1.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Macbeth." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 4, sc. 1.

Even brute beasts and wandering birds do not fall into the same traps or nets twice.

St. Jerome

Buy The Letters of Saint Jerome at Amazon Buy The Letters of Saint Jerome at Amazon
Read this letter at newadvent.org

More information about this quote

Topic

Learning from mistakes Man and animals Animals

Author

St. Jerome

Medium

Letter

Language

Latin

Time

394 390s 4th century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Saint Jerome. Letter to Furia. c. 394, sect. 4.

Current Citation

Saint Jerome. "Letter LIV." Select Letters of Saint Jerome. Aeterna Press, 2015, sect. 4.

When love begins to sicken and decay
It useth an enforcèd ceremony.

William Shakespeare

Julius Caesar

Buy Julius Caesar at Amazon Buy Julius Caesar at Amazon
Read Julius Caesar at The Folger Shakespeare Library

More information about this quote

Topic

Fading love Keeping up appearances Broken relationships Relationships Love

Speaker

Brutus

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

Julius Caesar

Medium

Play

Genre

History (play) Tragedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1599 1590s 16th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. The Lord Chamberlain's Men, 1599, Globe Theatre, London, England, UK, act 4, sc. 2.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Julius Caesar." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 4, sc. 2.

Nothing matters very much and very few things matter at all.

Arthur James Balfour

More information about this quote

Topic

Things that don't matter

Speaker

Arthur James Balfour

Source

Discreet Memoirs

Language

English

Time

1931 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Balfour, Arthur James. Quoted in Discreet Memoirs, written by Lady Clodagh Anson. G. Bateman Blackshaw, 1931.

When the imagination sleeps, words are emptied of their meaning.

Albert Camus

Reflections on the Guillotine

More information about this quote

Topic

Imagination

Author

Albert Camus

Source

Reflections on the Guillotine

Medium

Essay

Genre

Political literature

Language

French

Time

1957 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Camus, Albert and Arthur Koestler. "Réflexions sur la peine Capitale [Reflections on Capital Punishment]." Gallimard, 1957.

It is the masculine values that prevail... This is an important book, the critic assumes, because it deals with war. This is an insignificant book because it deals with the feelings of women in a drawing room.

Virginia Woolf

A Room of One's Own

Buy A Room of One's Own at Amazon Buy A Room of One's Own at Amazon
Read A Room of One's Own at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Societal values Gender relations

Author

Virginia Woolf

Source

A Room of One's Own

Medium

Essay

Genre

Feminist literature

Language

English

Time

1929 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One's Own. Hogarth Press/Harcourt Brace & Co., 1929, ch. 4.

Current Citation

Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One's Own. Mariner Books, 2005, ch. 4.

The Continent will not suffer England to be the workshop of the world.

Benjamin Disraeli

More information about this quote

Topic

Industrial revolution Europe

Speaker

Benjamin Disraeli

Source

Speeches of Benjamin Disraeli

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1838 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Disraeli, Benjamin. Address on the abolition of corn laws. House of Commons. 15 March 1838, The Palace of Westminster, London, England, UK.

For without risk, no faith; the more risk, the more faith; the more objective dependability, the less inwardness (since inwardness is precisely subjectivity); the less objective dependability, the deeper the possible inwardness.

Soren Kierkegaard

More information about this quote

Topic

Faith

Author

Soren Kierkegaard

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Danish

Time

1846 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Kierkegaard, Soren. Afsluttende uvidenskabelig Efterskrift til de philosophiske Smuler [Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Fragments]. Copenhagen: University bookshop, 1846, pt. 2, sect. 2, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Kierkegaard, Soren. Concluding Unscientific Postscript, translated by Alastair Hannay. Cambridge University Press, 2009, pt. 2, sect. 2, ch. 2.

Our fathers' age was worse than our grandfathers'. We their sons are more worthless than they: so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more corrupt.

Horace

Buy the Odes at Amazon Buy the Odes at Amazon
Read the Odes at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Kids these days Moral decline Decline

Author

Horace

Source

Odes (Horace)

Medium

Poem

Language

Latin

Time

23 BC 20s BC 1st century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Horace. Carmina [Odes]. 23 BC, bk. 3, no. 6.

Current Citation

Horace. "Odes." The Complete Odes and Epodes, translated by David West. Oxford University Press, 2008, bk. 3, no. 6.

Four things greater than all things are,—
Women and Horses and Power and War.

Rudyard Kipling

More information about this quote

Topic

Women Power War Horses

Author

Rudyard Kipling

Source

The Ballad of the King's Jest

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Kipling, Rudyard. "The Ballad of the King's Jest." Macmillan’s Magazine, Feb. 1890, I. 38.

Current Citation

Kipling, Rudyard. "The Ballad of the King's Jest." The Collected Poems of Rudyard Kipling. Wordsworth Editions, 1999.

Fix your eyes on the greatness of Athens as you have it before you day by day, fall in love with her, and when you feel her great, remember that this greatness was won by men with courage, with knowledge of their duty, and with a sense of honor in action... So they gave their bodies to the commonwealth and received each for his own memory, praise that will never die, and with it the grandest of all memorials, not that in which their mortal bones are laid, but a home in the minds of men, where their glory remains fresh to stir to speech or action as the occasion comes fresh to stir to speech or action as the occasion comes by. For the whole earth is the memorial of famous men; and their story is not graven only on stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives.

Pericles

Quoted in Funeral Oration, by Thucydides

Buy History of the Peloponnesian War at Amazon Buy History of the Peloponnesian War at Amazon
Read History of the Peloponnesian War at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Great men Heroes Dying for one's country

Speaker

Pericles

Author

Thucydides

Source

Funeral Oration History of the Peloponnesian War

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech Historical literature

Language

Greek

Time

430 BC 430s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War. c. 431 BC, bk. 2.

Current Citation

Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War, translated by Martin Hammond. Oxford University Press, 2009, bk. 2.

Vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave.

Edward Gibbon

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Buy this work at Amazon Buy this work at Amazon
Read this work at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Fortune Randomness

Author

Edward Gibbon

Source

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1789 1780s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Gibbon, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. 6, London: Strahan & Cadell, 1789, ch. 71.

Current Citation

Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Volumes 1-6. Vol. 6. Everyman's Library, 2010, ch. 71.

It is a feeling of relief, almost of pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out. You have talked so often of going to the dogs—and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them, and you can stand it. It takes off a lot of anxiety.

George Orwell

Down and Out in Paris and London

Buy Down and Out in Paris and London at Amazon Buy Down and Out in Paris and London at Amazon
Read Down and Out in London and Paris at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Freedom in poverty Poverty

Author

George Orwell

Source

Down and Out in Paris and London

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Orwell, George. Down and Out in Paris and London. Victor Gollancz, 1933, ch. 3.

It is not possible with mortal mind to search out the purposes of the gods.

Pindar

More information about this quote

Topic

Inscrutability of God God's plan

Author

Pindar

Language

Greek

Time

438 BC 430s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Pindar. Fragment 61. c. 418 BC.

For this thing was not done in a corner.

Apostle Paul

Acts 26:26

Buy the Bible (KJV) at Amazon Buy the Bible (KJV) at Amazon
Read this verse at Bible Hub

More information about this quote

Topic

Jesus's resurrection

Speaker

Apostle Paul

Source

Acts The Bible

Medium

Scripture

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Greek

Time

62 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Holy Bible: The King James Version. 1611. (Acts 26:26).

Love, unconquerable,
Waster of rich men, keeper
Of warm lights and all-night vigil
In the soft face of a girl:
Sea-wanderer, forest-visitor!
Even the pure immortals cannot escape you,
And mortal man, in his one day's dusk,
Trembles before your glory.

Sophocles

Antigone

Buy Antigone at Amazon Buy Antigone at Amazon
Read Antigone at the website of the MIT classics department.

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of love Love

Speaker

Chorus

Author

Sophocles

Source

Antigone

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

442 BC 440s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sophocles. Ἀντιγόνη [Antigone]. c. 441 BC, Festival of Dionysus, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Antigone." The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Mariner Books, 2002.