1840s

Explore 210 quotes from the 1840s

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side.

James Russell Lowell

The Present Crisis

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Topic

Decisions and choices Inflection points

Author

James Russell Lowell

Source

The Present Crisis

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1845 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lowell, James Russell. "The Present Crisis." Poems. Cambridge: George Nichols, 1848. Originally published as "Verses Suggested by the Present Crisis." Boston Courier, 11 Dec. 1845.

To love for the sake of being loved is human, but to love for the sake of loving is angelic.

Alphonse de Lamartine

Graziella

More information about this quote

Topic

Selflessness Love Human nature

Author

Alphonse de Lamartine

Source

Graziella

Medium

Novel

Language

French

Time

1849 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

De Lamartine, Alphonse. "Graziella." Les Confidences, 1849.

Current Citation

De Lamartine, Alphonse. Graziella, translated by Raymond N. MacKenzie. University of Minnesota Press, 2018, pt. 4, ch. 5.

The American axe! It has made more real and lasting conquests than the sword of any warlike people that ever lived; but they have been conquests that have left civilization in their train instead of havoc and desolation... A brief quarter of a century has seen these wonderful changes wrought; and at the bottom of them all lies this beautiful, well-prized, ready, and efficient implement, the American axe!

James Fenimore Cooper

The Chainbearer

More information about this quote

Topic

American expansion America

Author

James Fenimore Cooper

Source

The Chainbearer

Language

English

Time

1845 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cooper, James Fenimore. The Chainbearer; or The Littlepage Manuscripts. New York: Burgess, Stringer and Company, 1845, ch. 6.

Does capital punishment tend to the security of the people? By no means. It hardens the hearts of men, and makes the loss of life appear light to them; and it renders life insecure, inasmuch as the law holds out that property is of greater value than life.

Elizabeth Fry

More information about this quote

Topic

Capital punishment Theory of punishment Criminal law Legal theory Law

Author

Elizabeth Fry

Language

English

Time

1848 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Fry, Elizabeth. Note found among her papers. c. 1848.

Current Citation

Fry, Elizabeth. Memoir of the Life of Elizabeth Fry, edited by Katharine Fry and Rachel Elizabeth Cresswell. Vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, 2011, ch. 10.

Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws... The rich and the poor.

Benjamin Disraeli

Sybil

More information about this quote

Topic

Rich vs. poor

Speaker

Young Stranger

Author

Benjamin Disraeli

Source

Sybil

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1845 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Disraeli, Benjamin. Sybil; or, The Two Nations. Vol. 1, London: Henry Colburn, 1845, bk. 2, ch. 5.

Current Citation

Disraeli, Benjamin. Sybil, edited by Sheila Smith. Oxford University Press, 2009, bk. 2, ch. 5.

Pale death, the grand physician, cures all pain;
The dead rest well who lived for joys in vain.

John Clare

More information about this quote

Topic

Death as a blessing Death

Author

John Clare

Source

Child Harold

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1841 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Clare, John. Child Harold. c. 1840, I. 215.

Current Citation

Clare, John. "Child Harold." John Clare: Major Works, edited by Eric Robinson and David Powell. Oxford University Press, 2008, I. 215.

The great problem of legislation is, so to organize the civil government of a community... That in the operation of human institutions upon social action, self-love and social may be made the same.

John Quincy Adams

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of government

Author

John Quincy Adams

Language

English

Time

1845 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Adams, John Quincy. "Society and Civilization." The American Review, July 1845.

America, thou half-brother of the world;
With something good and bad of every land.

Philip James Bailey

More information about this quote

Topic

America

Speaker

Festus

Author

Philip James Bailey

Source

Festus

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1845 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

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

The arousing from sleep, after a recent misfortune, is a bitter moment; the mind at first habitually recurs to its previous tranquility, but is soon depressed by the thought of the contrast that awaits it.

Alessandro Manzoni

The Betrothed

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Topic

Hard times Waking up Sleep

Author

Alessandro Manzoni

Source

The Betrothed

Medium

Novel

Language

Italian

Time

1842 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Manzoni, Alessandro. I promessi sposi [The Betrothed]. Brusselle: Meline, Cans e Compagnia, 1842, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Manzoni, Alessandro. The Betrothed, translated by Michael F. Moore. Modern Library, 2022, ch. 2.

This country of ours is no sandbank, thrown up by some recent caprice of earth. It is an ancient land, honoured in the archives of civilisation, traceable into antiquity by its piety, its valour, and its sufferings. Every great European race has sent its stream to the river of Irish mind.

Thomas Davis

More information about this quote

Topic

Ireland

Author

Thomas Davis

Source

Literary and Historical Essays

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1846 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Davis, Thomas. Literary and Historical Essays. New York: P.M. Haverty, 1879, pt. 3.

Did you ever hear my definition of marriage? It is, that it resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they can not be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing any one who comes between them.

Sydney Smith

More information about this quote

Topic

Marriage

Author

Sydney Smith

Statement Type

Definition

Language

English

Time

1845 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Smith, Sydney. Quoted in A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by Saba Holland. Vol. 1, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855, ch. 11.

And I honor the man who is willing to sink
Half his present repute for the freedom to think,
And, when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,
Will risk t' other half for the freedom to speak.

James Russell Lowell

A Fable of Critics

More information about this quote

Topic

Taking risks Freedom of thought Freedom of speech and expression

Author

James Russell Lowell

Source

A Fable of Critics

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1848 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lowell, James Russell [published anonymously]. A Fable for Critics: A Glance at a Few of Our Literary Progenies. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1848.

The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns. It has created enormous cities, has greatly increased the urban population as compared with the rural, and has thus rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life.

Karl Marx

The Communist Manifesto

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More information about this quote

Topic

Urbanization Small town life Rural vs. urban Bourgeoisie

Author

Karl Marx

Source

The Communist Manifesto

Medium

Pamphlet

Genre

Political literature Economic literature

Language

German

Time

1848 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels [published anonymously]. Manifest der kommunistischen Partei [Manifesto of the Communist Party]. London: Gedruckt in der Office der Bildungs-Gesellschaft für Arbeiter, 1848.

Current Citation

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto, translated by Samuel Moore and Friedrich Engels. Penguin Classics, 2002.

A land that does not like doing things by halves.

Nikolai Gogol

Dead Souls

On Russia.

More information about this quote

Topic

Russia

Author

Nikolai Gogol

Source

Dead Souls

Medium

Novel

Language

Russian

Time

1842 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Gogol, Nikolai. Мёртвые души [Dead Souls]. 1842, pt. 1, ch. 11.

Current Citation

Gogol, Nikolai. Dead Souls, translated Robert A. Maguire. Penguin Classics, 2004, pt. 1, ch. 11.

All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable.

Henry David Thoreau

The Relation of the Individual to the State

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Topic

Revolution Oppression Resisting authority Political theory Politics

Author

Henry David Thoreau

Source

The Relation of the Individual to the State

Medium

Essay

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1848 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Thoreau, Henry. "The Relation of the Individual to the State." 26 Jan. 1848, Concord Lyceum, Concord, MA, USA.

Current Citation

Thoreau, Henry. "Civil Disobedience." Walden and Civil Disobedience. Signet, 2012.

I hate quotation. Tell me what you know.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

More information about this quote

Topic

Thinking for oneself Quotations

Author

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Source

Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1849 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Journal entry. May 1849.

Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.

Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre: An Autobiography

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More information about this quote

Topic

Grudges Resentment Forgiveness

Speaker

Helen Burns

Author

Charlotte Brontë

Source

Jane Eyre: An Autobiography

Medium

Novel

Genre

Coming of age story

Language

English

Time

1847 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Brontë, Charlotte, [published as Currer Bell]. Jane Eyre: An Autobiography. Vol. 1, London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1847, ch. 6.

Current Citation

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Penguin Classics, 2006, ch. 6.

The people of the District of Columbia are not the subjects of the people of the States, but free American citizens.

William Henry Harrison

Inaugural Address of William Henry Harrison

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Topic

Washington, D.C.

Speaker

William Henry Harrison

Source

Inaugural Address of William Henry Harrison Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1841 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Harrison, William Henry. "Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1841, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Essays: First Series (Emerson)

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Topic

Friends

Author

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Source

Friendship Essays: First Series (Emerson)

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1841 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Friendship." Essays: First Series. Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1841.

Current Citation

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Friendship." The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, edited by Brooks Atkinson. Modern Library, 2000.

There is no part of the means placed in the hands of the Executive which might be used with greater effect for unhallowed purposes than the control of the public press.

William Henry Harrison

Inaugural Address of William Henry Harrison

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Topic

Freedom of the press

Speaker

William Henry Harrison

Source

Inaugural Address of William Henry Harrison Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1841 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Harrison, William Henry. "Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1841, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.