All Quotes
2989 quotes in total
“Great God , I ask thee for no meaner pelf Than that I may not disappoint myself, That in my action I may soar as high As I can now discern with this clear eye. "Prayer", st. 1. The Dial (July 1842) p. 79”
“The life that I aspire to live No man proposeth me”
“My books I'd fain cast off, I cannot read, 'Twixt every page my thoughts go stray at large Down in the meadow, where is richer feed, And will not mind to hit their proper targe. "The Summer Rain", st. 1. The Dial (October 1842) p. 224”
“Here while I lie beneath this walnut bough, What care I for the Greeks or for Troy town, If juster battles are enacted now Between the ants upon this hummock's crown? "The Summer Rain", st. 3. The Dial (October 1842) p. 224”
“When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man? Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson”
“Talk of mysteries!”
“Slavery in Massachusetts”
“[of Henry Fielding's Tom Jones ] [it is] like a vast episode in a sermon preached by a grandly humorous divine; and however we may be entertained by the way, we must not forget that our ultimate duty is to be instructed. An early critical review, North American Review”
“Essays in Criticism by Matthew Arnold ,”
“I haven't a creature to talk to...How in Boston, when the evening arrives, and I am tired of reading, and know it would be better to do something else, can I go to the theater? I have tried it, ad nauseam. Likewise calling. Upon whom?" Letter to William James”
“Everything about Florence seems to be coloured with a mild violet, like diluted wine. Letter to Henry James Sr.”
“The face of nature and civilization in this our country is to a certain point a very sufficient literary field. But it will yield its secrets only to a really grasping imagination... To write well and worthily of American things one need even more than elsewhere to be a master. Letter to Charles Eliot Norton”
“It's a complex fate, being an American, and one of the responsibilities it entails is fighting against a superstitious valuation of Europe. Letter to Charles Eliot Norton”
“Deep experience is never peaceful. Madame de Mauves , Galaxy Magazine (February/March 1874), ch. V, reprinted in A Passionate Pilgrim (1875) and later in The Madonna of the Future and Other Tales (1879) and the New York Edition of James' works, vol. 13”
“Cats and monkeys”
“The Atlantic Monthly, March 1873”
“My choice is the old world”
“Aprender muchas cosas no nutre la inteligencia”
“El camino que sube y bajo es uno y el mismo”
“En la circunferencia se confunden el principio y el fin”
“Ha de luchar el pueblo por su ley, igual que por su muralla”
“τὰ ὄντα ἰέναι τε πάντα καὶ μένειν οὐδέν All entities move and nothing remains still.”
“As quoted by Plato in Cratylus , 401d”
“πάντα χωρεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει Everything changes and nothing stands still.”
“As quoted by Plato in Cratylus , 402a”
“δὶς ἐς τὸν αὐτὸν ποταμὸν οὐκ ἂν ἐμβαίης. You could not step twice into the same river.”
“As quoted in Plato, Cratylus , 402a”
“χαλεπώτερον ἡδονῇ μάχεσθαι ἢ θυμῷ It is harder to fight against pleasure than against anger.”
“As quoted by Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics , Book II”
“τὴν μεταβολὴν ὁδὸν ἄνω κάτω, τόν τε κόσμον γίνεσθαι κατ' αὐτήν. Change he called a pathway up and down, and this determines the birth of the world.”