Europe

Explore 4622 quotes by people from Europe

What a heavy oar the pen is, and what a strong current ideas are to row in.

Gustave Flaubert

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Topic

Challenges of writing Writing

Author

Gustave Flaubert

Source

Letters of Gustave Flaubert

Medium

Letter

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

French

Time

1851 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. Letter to Louise Colet. 23 Oct. 1851.

Current Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. The Letters of Gustave Flaubert 1830-1857, translated and edited by Francis Steegmuller. Faber and Faber, 1981.

Never seek to tell thy love
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind does move
Silently, invisibly.

I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart;
Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears -
Ah, she doth depart.

William Blake

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Topic

Unrequited love Love

Author

William Blake

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1792 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

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

Current Citation

Blake, William. "Never Pain to Tell Thy Love." William Blake: Selected Poems, edited by Nicholas Shrimpton. Oxford University Press, 2019.

Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.

Oliver Goldsmith

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Topic

Rich vs. poor Law

Author

Oliver Goldsmith

Source

The Traveller

Medium

Poem

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.

It was easier to conquer it than to know what to do with it.

Horace Walpole

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Topic

India Imperialism

Author

Horace Walpole

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1772 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Walpole, Horace. Letter to Horace Mann. 27 March 1772.

Current Citation

Walpole, Horace. "Letter to Horace Mann." Horace Walpole's Correspondence, edited by W. S. Lewis, Warren Hunting Smith, and George Lam. Vol. 23, Yale University Press, 1967.

Hell is more bearable than nothingness.

Philip James Bailey

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Topic

Oblivion Hell

Speaker

Lucifer

Author

Philip James Bailey

Source

Festus

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1839 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Bailey, Philip John. Festus. London: William Pickering, 1839.

Current Citation

Bailey, Philip John. Festus, edited by Mischa Willett. Edinburgh University Press, 2023.

The sky is darkening like a stain;
Something is going to fall like rain,
And it won't be flowers.

W.H. Auden

More information about this quote

Topic

Foreboding

Author

W.H. Auden

Source

The Witnesses

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1935 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Auden, W. H. "The Witnesses." Listener’s poetry supplement, 12 July 1933.

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

G.K. Chesterton

The Man who was Thursday: A Nightmare

More information about this quote

Topic

Rich vs. poor The rich The poor

Speaker

Ratcliffe

Author

G.K. Chesterton

Source

The Man who was Thursday: A Nightmare

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1904 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Chesterton, G.K. "The Man Who Was Thursday." The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton. Vol. 6, Ignatius Press, 1991. Originally published by J.W. Arrowsmith, 1904.

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.

Hannah Arendt

The Origins of Totalinarianism

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Topic

Totalitarianism Truth vs. fiction Truth Disinformation

Author

Hannah Arendt

Source

The Origins of Totalinarianism

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1951 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Arendt, Hannah. The Origins of Totalitarianism. Schocken Books, 1951, pt. 3, ch. 13.

At times I suffer from the strangest sense of detachment from myself and the world about me; I seem to watch it all from the outside, from somewhere inconceivably remote, out of time, out of space, out of the stress and tragedy of it all.

H.G. Wells

The War of the Worlds

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Topic

Alienation from oneself Alienation

Author

H.G. Wells

Source

The War of the Worlds

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wells, H. G. "The War of the Worlds." Pearson's Magazine/Cosmopolitan Magazine, 1897.

Current Citation

Wells, H. G. The War of the Worlds. Signet, 2007, ch. 7.

Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew the Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?

John Milton

Areopagitica

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Read Areopagitica at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Marketplace of ideas Truth and lies

Author

John Milton

Source

Areopagitica

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1644 1640s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Milton, John. Areopagitica; a speech of Mr. John Milton for the liberty of unlicenc'd printing, to the Parlament of England. 1644.

Current Citation

Milton, John. "Areopagitica." John Milton: Major Works, edited by Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg. Oxford University Press, 2008.

That all things are changed, and that nothing really perishes, and that the sum of matter remains exactly the same, is sufficiently certain.

Francis Bacon

More information about this quote

Topic

Laws of physics The only constant is change Physics

Author

Francis Bacon

Source

Thoughts on the Nature of Things

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Latin

Time

1604 1600s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bacon, Francis. Cogitationes de Natura Rerum [Thought on the Nature of Things]. c. 1604.

If there wasn't death, I think you couldn't go on.

Stevie Smith

More information about this quote

Topic

Immortality Death

Author

Stevie Smith

Source

Observer

Medium

Newspaper

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

English

Time

1969 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Smith, Stevie. Observer. 9 Nov. 1969.

War is like love, it always finds a way.

Bertolt Brecht

More information about this quote

Topic

Inevitability of war War

Speaker

The Chaplain

Author

Bertolt Brecht

Source

Mother Courage and Her Children

Medium

Play

Language

German

Time

1939 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Brecht, Bertolt. Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder [Mother Courage and Her Children]. 1941, Schauspielhaus Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Current Citation

Brecht, Bertolt. Mother Courage and Her Children, translated by Eric Bentley. Grove Press, 1991.

Everything that man esteems
Endures a moment or a day.
Love's pleasure drives his love away,
The painter's brush consumes his dreams.

W.B. Yeats

More information about this quote

Topic

The ephemeral

Author

W.B. Yeats

Source

Two Songs From a Play

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Yeats, William Butler. "Two Songs From a Play." The Tower. Macmillan & Company, 1928.

Current Citation

Yeats, William Butler. "Two Songs From a Play." The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats. Wordsworth Editions, 2000.

Where the danger is, also grows the saving power.

Friedrich Hölderlin

More information about this quote

Topic

Opportunities

Author

Friedrich Hölderlin

Source

Patmos

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

German

Time

1808 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Hölderlin, Friedrich. Patmos. c. 1808.

Architecture in general is frozen music.

Friedrich von Schelling

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Topic

Architecture

Author

Friedrich von Schelling

Source

Philosophy of Art

Medium

Lecture

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1803 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Schelling, Friedrich. Philosophie der Kunst [Philosophy of Art]. 1802-1803. Lecture series.

Current Citation

Schelling, Friedrich. The Philosophy of Art, translated by Douglas W. Stott. University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

If there's no money in poetry, neither is there poetry in money.

Robert Graves

More information about this quote

Topic

Poetry

Author

Robert Graves

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Graves, Robert. Speech in London. 6 Dec. 1963, London School of Economics, London, England, UK.

Philosophy may in no way interfere with the actual use of language; it can in the end only describe it... It leaves everything as it is.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Philosophical Investigations

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More information about this quote

Topic

Philosophy

Author

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Source

Philosophical Investigations

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1953 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophische Untersuchungen [Philosophical Investigations]. Suhrkamp, 1953, pt. 1.

Current Citation

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations, translated by G. E. M. Anscombe, et. al., edited by P. M. S. Hacker and Joachim Schulte. Wiley Blackwell, 2009, pt. 1.

Genius is of no country.

Charles Churchill

The Rosciad

More information about this quote

Topic

Genius Talent

Author

Charles Churchill

Source

The Rosciad

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1761 1760s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Churchill, Charles. The Rosciad. London: William Flexney, 1741.

For every man the world is as fresh as it was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for him who has the eyes to see them.

T.H. Huxley

A Liberal Education

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More information about this quote

Topic

Curiosity

Speaker

T.H. Huxley

Source

A Liberal Education

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1868 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Huxley, Thomas Henry. "A Liberal Education." 1868, Working Men's College, London, England, UK.