English quotes

English quotes with translation | page 23

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Misattributed

Variant: In order to rise
From its own ashes
A phoenix
First
Must
Burn.
Source: Parable of the Talents

Ce qu’on ne peut dire et ce qu’on ne peut taire, la musique l’exprime.
Part I, Book II, Chapter IV
William Shakespeare (1864)
Variant: Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent
Source: Hugo's Works: William Shakespeare

Variant: Multiple exclamation marks,' he went on, shaking his head, 'are a sure sign of a diseased mind.
Source: Reaper Man

Variant: The grief that does not speak whispers the o'erfraught heart and bids it break.
Source: Macbeth

To the Young People's Society, Greenpoint Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn (February 16, 1901).
Variant: Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.

Source: 1930s, The Conquest of Happiness (1930)

Often misquoted as: "I have found that most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." or "People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be."
This quote is not found in the various Lincoln sources which can be searched online (e.g. Gutenberg). Niether does Lincoln appear more generally to use the phrase "making up {one's} mind". The saying was first quoted, ascribed to Lincoln but with no source given, in 1914 by Frank Crane and several times subsequently by him in altered versions. It was later quoted in How to Get What You Want (1917) by Orison Swett Marden (Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1917), 74, again without source. Alternative versions quoted are: "I have found that most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be" and "People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be."


Source: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/10/20/happy-minds/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CPeople%20are%20about%20as%20happy,up%20their%20minds%20to%20be.%E2%80%9D&text=Remember%20Lincoln's%20saying%20that%20%E2%80%9Cfolks,up%20their%20minds%20to%20be.%E2%80%9D

Curiously in later books Crane, e.g. Four Minute Essays, 1919, Adventures in Common Sense, 1920, "21", 1930, Crane mentions other routes to happiness and does not again use this quote.

Marden used a great many quotes in his writings, without giving sources. Whilst sources for many of the quotes can be found, this is not true for all. For instance he mentions another story in which Lincoln says "Madam, you have not a peg to hang your case on"; this also does not seem to found in Lincoln sources.

Source: The Voices of Marrakesh: A Record of a Visit

Widely attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson on the internet; however, a presumably definitive source of Emerson's works at http://www.rwe.org fails to confirm any occurrence of this phrase across his works. This phrase is found in remarks attributed to Charles A. Beard in Arthur H. Secord, "Condensed History Lesson", Readers' Digest, February 1941, p. 20; but the origin has not been determined. Possibly confused with a passage in "Illusions" in which Emerson discusses his experience in the "Star Chamber": "our lamps were taken from us by the guide, and extinguished or put aside, and, on looking upwards, I saw or seemed to see the night heaven thick with stars glimmering more or less brightly over our heads, and even what seemed a comet flaming among them. All the party were touched with astonishment and pleasure. Our musical friends sung with much feeling a pretty song, “The stars are in the quiet sky,” &c., and I sat down on the rocky floor to enjoy the serene picture. Some crystal specks in the black ceiling high overhead, reflecting the light of a half–hid lamp, yielded this magnificent effect."
Misattributed

His response when "accused of treating his opponents with too much courtesy and kindness, and when it was pointed out to him that his whole duty was to destroy them", as quoted in More New Testament Words (1958) by William Barclay; either this anecdote or Lincoln's reply may have been adapted from a reply attributed to Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund:
:* Some courtiers reproached the Emperor Sigismond that, instead of destroying his conquered foes, he admitted them to favour. “Do I not,” replied the illustrious monarch, “effectually destroy my enemies, when I make them my friends?”
::* "Daily Facts" in The Family Magazine Vol. IV (1837), p. 123 http://books.google.de/books?id=aW0EAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA123&dq=destroy; also quoted as simply in "Do I not effectually destroy my enemies, in making them my friends?" in The Sociable Story-teller (1846)
Disputed

Source: Sense and Sensibility

Lady Bracknell, Act I
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

Source: I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau

Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 121
Source: Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living

The Analects, as reported in Chambers Dictionary of Quotations (1997), p. 279.
Attributed

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Merchant of Venice

Source: Ulysses

Die Philosophen haben die Welt nur verschieden interpretirt; es kommt aber darauf an, sie zu verändern.
http://books.google.com/books?id=xyc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22Die+Philosophen+haben+die+Welt+nur+verschieden%22+%22es+kommt+aber+darauf+an+sie+zu+ver%C3%A4ndern%22&pg=PA72#v=onepage
"Theses on Feuerbach" (1845), Thesis 11, Marx Engels Selected Works,(MESW), Volume I, p. 15; these words are also engraved upon his grave.
First published as an appendix to the pamphlet Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy by Friedrich Engels (1886)
Source: Eleven Theses on Feuerbach

Source: The Great Gatsby

Variant: I'd rather regret the things that I have done than the things that I have not.
Variant: Id rather regret the things that I have done than the things that I have not done.

Source: Gabriel García Márquez: a Life

Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People

Source: The Green Mile

Source: The Critic as Artist (1891), Part II

In his letter to Theo, from The Hague, 22 October 1882, http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/11/237.htm
1880s, 1882

1960s, A Christmas Sermon (1967)
Variant: We must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools.

Book 1, Ch. 3, sec. 3
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)
Variant: The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.

Variant: Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you anywhere.

1930s, The Conquest of Happiness (1930)

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Variant: If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my ax.

Source: Factotum (1975), Ch. 31

"Confession" in Complete Works of Jack London, Delphi Classics, 2013
Variant: Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.

The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War (1898), Chapter X.
Early career years (1898–1929)
Variant: There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at with no result.

Source: Hamlet

Source: Life's Little Instruction Book

Source: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

"My Hates" (1866).

Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 43

The Motto Book (1907).
Variant: Never explain — your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyhow.

This quotation was not crafted by Ernest Hemingway. Its exact genesis is uncertain, but QI hypothesizes that the 1929 statement by Hemingway and the 1992 lyric by Leonard Cohen both strongly influenced the evolution of the expression and its ascription. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/11/16/light/

Source: You Only Live Twice (1964), Ch. 11 : Anatomy Class

Variant: Sex is the consolation you have when you can’t have love.
Source: Memories of My Melancholy Whores

p.32 -->
Variant: Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
Source: Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice

The New Quotable Einstein
1950s, Essay to Leo Baeck (1953)

Source: Night Watch

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 18
Variant translations of portions of this passage:
Every one admits how praiseworthy it is in a prince to keep faith, and to live with integrity and not with craft. Nevertheless our experience has been that those princes who have done great things have held good faith of little account, and have known how to circumvent the intellect of men by craft, and in the end have overcome those who have relied on their word.
Ch. 18. Concerning the Way in which Princes should keep Faith (as translated by W. K. Marriott)
A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.
You must know there are two ways of contesting, the one by the law, the other by force; the first method is proper to men, the second to beasts; but because the first is frequently not sufficient, it is necessary to have recourse to the second.
Context: A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from snares, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognise snares, and a lion to frighten wolves. Those that wish to be only lions do not understand this.
Context: How laudable it is for a prince to keep good faith and live with integrity, and not with astuteness, every one knows. Still the experience of our times shows those princes to have done great things who have had little regard for good faith, and have been able by astuteness to confuse men's brains, and who have ultimately overcome those who have made loyalty their foundation. You must know, then, that there are two methods of fighting, the one by law, the other by force: the first method is that of men, the second of beasts; but as the first method is often insufficient, one must have recourse to the second. It is therefore necessary to know well how to use both the beast and the man. This was covertly taught to princes by ancient writers, who relate how Achilles and many others of those princes were given to Chiron the centaur to be brought up, who kept them under his discipline; this system of having for teacher one who was half beast and half man is meant to indicate that a prince must know how to use both natures, and that the one without the other is not durable. A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from snares, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognise snares, and a lion to frighten wolves. Those that wish to be only lions do not understand this. Therefore, a prudent ruler ought not to keep faith when by so doing it would be against his interest, and when the reasons which made him bind himself no longer exist. If men were all good, this precept would not be a good one; but as they are bad, and would not observe their faith with you, so you are not bound to keep faith with them.... those that have been best able to imitate the fox have succeeded best. But it is necessary to be able to disguise this character well, and to be a great feigner and dissembler.

Source: Aleph

Source: Women

The Words (1964), speaking of his grandmother.

Source: Psychological Types, or, The Psychology of Individuation (1921), Ch. 1, p. 82
Context: The dynamic principle of fantasy is play, a characteristic also of the child, and as such it appears inconsistent with the principle of serious work. But without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable. It is therefore short-sighted to treat fantasy, on account of its risky or unacceptable nature, as a thing of little worth.

As quoted in "Lincoln's Imagination" by Noah Brooks, in Scribner's Monthly (August 1879), p. 586 http://books.google.com/books?id=jOoGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA586
Posthumous attributions
Variant: Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

August 19, 1851
Journals (1838-1859)
Variant: How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten