1890s

Explore 261 quotes from the 1890s

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.

George Bernard Shaw

Read Mrs. Warren's Profession at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Locus of control Turning dreams into reality

Speaker

Vivie

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

The Philanderer Plays Unpleasant

Medium

Play

Genre

Drama (play) Satire

Language

English

Time

1898 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "The Philanderer." Plays Unpleasant. London: Grant Richards, 1898, act 2.

Current Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "Mrs. Warren's Profession." Plays Unpleasant. Penguin Classics, 2001, act 2.

There are reverent minds who ceaselessly scan the fields of Nature and the books of Science in search for gaps-gaps which they will fill up with God. As if God lived in gaps?

Henry Drummond

More information about this quote

Topic

God of the gaps Science and religion Science Religion God

Author

Henry Drummond

Source

The Ascent of Man

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1894 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Drummond, Henry. The Ascent of Man. New York City: James Pott & Co., 1894, ch. 10.

Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.

Edwin Markham

More information about this quote

Topic

Farming

Author

Edwin Markham

Source

The Man with the Hoe

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1899 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Markham, Edwin. "The Man with the Hoe." San Francisco Examiner, Jan. 1899.

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it—and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again—and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one any more.

Mark Twain

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

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Topic

Learning from experience Learning

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

Genre

Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World. Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1897, ch. 11.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "Following the Equator." Mark Twain: A Tramp Abroad, Following the Equator, Other Travels, edited by Roy Blount Jr. Library of America, 2010, ch. 11.

The man who really counts in the world is the doer, not the mere critic, the man who actually does the work, even if roughly and imperfectly, not the man who only talks or writes about how it ought to be done.

Theodore Roosevelt

More information about this quote

Topic

Words vs. actions Critics

Author

Theodore Roosevelt

Language

English

Time

1891 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Roosevelt, Theodore, Jr. Historic Towns: New York. London and New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1891, ch. 14.

Of all God's creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Cats

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Journals of Mark Twain

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1894 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Notebook, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. The Mark Twain Company, 1932, ch. 21. Originally from Notebook, 2 Feb. 1894.

Up to and including 1880 the country had a frontier of settlement, but at present the unsettled area has been so broken into by isolated bodies of settlement that there can hardly be said to be a frontier line. In the discussion of its extent, its westward movement, etc., it can not, therefore, any longer have a place in the census reports.

Robert P. Porter

On the closing of the American frontier.

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Topic

American frontier

Author

Robert P. Porter

Source

Report on Population of the United States at the Eleventh Census

Language

English

Time

1891 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Porter, Robert P. Census Bureau's bulletin declaring the closing of the frontier. c. 1891.

The more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote.

Albert A. Michelson

More information about this quote

Topic

Scientific progress Laws of physics

Speaker

Albert A. Michelson

Medium

Lecture

Statement Type

Prophecies and predictions

Language

English

Time

1899 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Michelson, Albert A. "Comparison of the Microscope and Telescope with the Interferometer." Light Waves and Their Uses lecture series. 1899, Lowell Institute, Boston, MA, USA.

Be good and you will be lonesome.

Mark Twain

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

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Topic

Holding to one's principles Loneliness Moral principles Morality

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

Genre

Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Twain, Mark. Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World. Hartford: The American Publishing Company, 1897, frontispiece.

A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs.

Mark Twain

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

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Topic

Appetite Desire Excess Human nature

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

Genre

Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World. Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1897, ch. 14.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "Following the Equator." Mark Twain: A Tramp Abroad, Following the Equator, Other Travels, edited by Roy Blount Jr. Library of America, 2010, ch. 14.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray

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Topic

Resisting temptation Temptation

Author

Oscar Wilde

Source

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Medium

Novel Magazine

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wilde, Oscar. "The Picture of Dorian Gray." Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Philadelphia, July 1890, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray, edited by Robert Mighall. Penguin Classics, 2003, ch. 2.

There is no such thing as "the Queen's English." The property has gone into the hands of a joint stock company and we own the bulk of the shares!

Mark Twain

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

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Topic

English language America and the UK

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

Genre

Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World. Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1897, ch. 24.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "Following the Equator." Mark Twain: A Tramp Abroad, Following the Equator, Other Travels, edited by Roy Blount Jr. Library of America, 2010, ch. 24.

The more things are forbidden, the more popular they become.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Forbidden fruit Coveting

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Journals of Mark Twain

Medium

Personal journal

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

English

Time

1895 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Notebook, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. The Mark Twain Company, 1932, ch. 23. Originally from Notebook, c. 1895.

Anybody can be good in the country.

Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray

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Topic

Resisting temptation Temptation

Speaker

Lord Henry "Harry" Wotton

Author

Oscar Wilde

Source

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Medium

Novel Magazine

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wilde, Oscar. "The Picture of Dorian Gray." Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Philadelphia, July 1890, ch. 19.

Current Citation

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray, edited by Robert Mighall. Penguin Classics, 2003, ch. 19.

Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.

Oscar Wilde

More information about this quote

Topic

Women Gender relations Men and women

Author

Oscar Wilde

Source

The Sphinx Without a Secret Lord Arthur Savile's Crime: The Portrait of Mr. W.H. and Other Stories

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1891 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Wilde, Oscar. "The Sphinx Without a Secret." Lord Arthur Savile's Crime: The Portrait of Mr. W.H. and Other Stories. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1891.

Current Citation

Wilde, Oscar. "The Sphinx Without a Secret." The Model Millionaire: Stories. Harper Perennial, 2009.

Truth is on the march, and nothing will stop it.

Émile Zola

On the Dreyfus affair.

More information about this quote

Topic

Truth Progress

Author

Émile Zola

Source

J'Accuse…!

Medium

Open letter Letter

Language

French

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Zola, Emile. "J'Accuse…!" L'Aurore, 13 Jan. 1898.

Current Citation

Zola, Emile. "J'Accuse...!" The Dreyfus Affair: 'J'Accuse' and Other Writings, edited by Alain Pagès, translated by Eleanor Levieux. Yale University Press, 1998.

Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime.

Oscar Wilde

Fortnightly Review

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Topic

Hunger Causes of crime Crime Moral theory Morality

Author

Oscar Wilde

Source

The Soul of Man Under Socialism Fortnightly Review

Medium

Essay Magazine

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1891 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Wilde, Oscar. "The Soul of Man Under Socialism." Fortnightly Review. London: Chapman and Hall, Feb. 1891.

Current Citation

Wilde, Oscar. "The Soul of Man Under Socialism." The Soul of Man Under Socialism and Selected Critical Prose, edited by Linda Dowling. Penguin Classics, 2001.

The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.

Oscar Wilde

Intentions

Read The Critic as Artist at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

History

Speaker

Gilbert

Author

Oscar Wilde

Source

The Critic as Artist Intentions

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1891 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wilde, Oscar. "The Critic as Artist." Intentions. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1891, pt. 1.

Current Citation

Wilde, Oscar. "The Critic as Artist Part I." Oscar Wilde: The Major Works, edited by Isobel Murray. Oxford University Press, 2008.

To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.

Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray

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Topic

Lost youth Youth Slovenliness

Speaker

Lord Henry "Harry" Wotton

Author

Oscar Wilde

Source

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Medium

Novel Magazine

Statement Type

Misdirection

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wilde, Oscar. "The Picture of Dorian Gray." Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Philadelphia, July 1890, ch. 12.

Current Citation

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray, edited by Robert Mighall. Penguin Classics, 2003, ch. 19.

Memory, my dear Cecily, is the diary that we all carry about with us.

Oscar Wilde

The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People

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More information about this quote

Topic

Memory

Speaker

Miss Prism

Author

Oscar Wilde

Source

The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People

Medium

Play

Language

English

Time

1895 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. 1895, St James's Theatre, London, England, UK, act 2.

Current Citation

Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest, edited by Michael Patrick Gillespie. W. W. Norton & Company, 2022, act 2.