Europe

Explore 4622 quotes by people from Europe

The greatest gift which God in His bounty
Bestowed in creating,
And the most conformed to His own goodness
And that which He most prizes, was the freedom of the will,
With which the creatures that have intelligence,
They all and they alone, were and are endowed.

Dante Alighieri

Paradiso

Buy Paradiso at Amazon Buy Paradiso at Amazon
Read the Divine Comedy at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Free will

Author

Dante Alighieri

Source

Paradiso The Divine Comedy

Medium

Poem

Genre

Narrative poem Epic poem Religious literature

Language

Italian

Time

1321 1320s 14th century

Era

Middle Ages

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Alighieri, Dante. "Paradiso [Paradise]." La Comedia di Dante Alleghieri [The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri]. Foligno: Johann Numeister and Evangelista Angelini da Trevi, 1472.

Current Citation

Alighieri, Dante. "Paradiso." The Divine Comedy, edited by David H. Higgins, translated by C. H. Sisson. Oxford University Press, 2008.

It is quite a three-pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes.

Arthur Conan Doyle

The Red-Headed League

Buy The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at Amazon Buy The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at Amazon
Read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Solving problems Confoundment

Speaker

Sherlock Holmes

Author

Arthur Conan Doyle

Source

The Red-Headed League

Medium

Short story Magazine

Genre

Detective fiction

Language

English

Time

1891 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Doyle, Arthur Conan. "The Red-Headed League." The Strand Magazine. London: August 1891.

Current Citation

Doyle, Arthur Conan. "The Red-Headed League." The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The Sherlock Holmes Collector's Library. Detective Fiction, 2010.

The centuries roll back to the ancient age of gold.

Horace

Buy the Odes at Amazon Buy the Odes at Amazon
Read the Odes at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

The good old days

Author

Horace

Source

Odes (Horace)

Medium

Poem

Language

Latin

Time

23 BC 20s BC 1st century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Horace. Carmina [Odes]. 23 BC, bk. 4, no. 2.

Current Citation

Horace. "Odes." The Complete Odes and Epodes, translated by David West. Oxford University Press, 2008, bk. 4, no. 2.

All theory, dear friend, is grey, but the golden tree of actual life springs ever green.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Faust

Buy Faust: Part 1 at Amazon Buy Faust: Part 1 at Amazon
Read Faust at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Life

Speaker

Mephistopheles

Author

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Source

Faust

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragedy (play) Tragedy

Language

German

Time

1808 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "Studiezimmer [Study Room]." Faust. Eine Tragödie [Faust: A Tragedy]. Tübingen: J. G. Cotta’schen Buchhandlung, 1808.

Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "Study Room." Faust, Part One, edited by David Luke. Oxford University Press, 2008.

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.

Charles Dickens

Great Expectations

Buy Great Expectations at Amazon Buy Great Expectations at Amazon
Read Great Expectations at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

March Spring Seasons Weather

Speaker

Pip

Author

Charles Dickens

Source

Great Expectations

Medium

Novel

Genre

Coming of age story

Language

English

Time

1861 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Dickens, Charles. "Great Expectations." All the Year Round. London: Chapman and Hall, 13 July 1861, issue 33, ch. 54.

Current Citation

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Penguin Classics, 2002, ch. 54.

Mere cleverness is not wisdom.

Euripides

Bacchae

Buy Bacchae at Amazon Buy Bacchae at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Wisdom Cleverness

Speaker

Chorus

Author

Euripides

Source

Bacchae

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

405 BC 400s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Euripides. The Bacchae. 405 BC, l. 395.

Current Citation

Euripides. "The Baccae." Euripedes V: Bacchae, Iphigenia in Aulis, The Cyclops, Rhesus, translated by Richard Lattimore, et. al. University of Chicago Press, 2013, l. 395.

This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being... This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of his dominion he is wont, to be called Lord God παντοκρατωρ or Universal Ruler.

Isaac Newton

Principia

Buy The Principia at Amazon Buy The Principia at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Origin of the universe Creation of the world Creation God

Author

Isaac Newton

Source

Principia

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

Latin

Time

1713 1710s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Newton, Isaac. Scholium Generale. [General Scolium]. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica [The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy] vol. 2. London: Benjamin Motte, 1729.

Current Citation

Newton, Isaac. "General Scolium." The Principia, translated by Andrew Motte. Prometheus, 1995.

Reader, I married him.

Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre: An Autobiography

Buy Jane Eyre at Amazon Buy Jane Eyre at Amazon
Read Jane Eyre at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Marriage

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. 3, London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1847, ch. 38.

Current Citation

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Penguin Classics, 2006, ch. 38.

Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive them, and are made perfect by habit.

Aristotle

The Nicomachean Ethics

Buy the Nicomachean Ethics at Amazon Buy the Nicomachean Ethics at Amazon
Read the Nicomachean Ethics at MIT's classics department website

More information about this quote

Topic

Habits Virtue Self-improvement Personal growth Human nature

Author

Aristotle

Source

The Nicomachean Ethics

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

322 BC 320s BC 4th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aristotle. Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια, Ēthika Nikomacheia [Nicomachean Ethics]. c. 322 BC.

Current Citation

Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics, translated by Terence Irwin. Hackett Publishing, 2019, bk. 2.

I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.

Charles Dickens

Great Expectations

Buy Great Expectations at Amazon Buy Great Expectations at Amazon
Read Great Expectations at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Being in love Love

Speaker

Pip

Author

Charles Dickens

Source

Great Expectations

Medium

Novel

Genre

Coming of age story

Language

English

Time

1861 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Dickens, Charles. "Great Expectations." All the Year Round. London: Chapman and Hall, 30 Mar. 1861, issue 17, ch. 29.

Current Citation

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Penguin Classics, 2002, ch. 29.

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

Thomas Paine

Common Sense

Buy Common Sense at Amazon Buy Common Sense at Amazon
Read Common Sense at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Changing the world Taking action Politics

Author

Thomas Paine

Source

Common Sense

Medium

Pamphlet

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1776 1770s 18th century

Era

American Revolutionary Period

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Paine, Thomas [published anonymously]. Common Sense. Philadelphia: R. Bell, 1776.

Current Citation

Paine, Thomas. "Common Sense." Rights of Man, Common Sense, and Other Political Writings, edited by Mark Philp. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if death be of such a nature, I say that to die is to gain; for eternity is then only a single night.

Socrates

Quoted in Apology, by Plato

Buy the Apology at Amazon Buy the Apology at Amazon
Read the Apology at MIT's classics department website

More information about this quote

Topic

The unknown Death The afterlife

Speaker

Socrates

Author

Plato

Source

Apology

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

339 BC 330s BC 4th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Plato. Ἀπολογία Σωκράτους [Apology of Socrates]. Speech of legal self-defence which Socrates spoke at his trial for impiety and corruption. 399 BC, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Plato. "Apology." Plato: Euthyphro; Apology; Crito; Phaedo, translated by Christopher Emlyn-Jones and William Preddy. Harvard University Press, 2017.

Work keeps at bay three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.

Voltaire

Candide

Buy Candide at Amazon Buy Candide at Amazon
Read Candide at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Work

Author

Voltaire

Source

Candide

Medium

Novel

Genre

Satire

Language

French

Time

1759 1750s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Voltaire. Candide, ou l'Optimisme [Candide: or, All for the Best]. Geneva: Gabriel Cramer, 1759, ch. 30.

Current Citation

Voltaire. Candide, edited by Nicholas Cronk. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016, ch. 30.

I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.

Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan

Buy Leviathan at Amazon Buy Leviathan at Amazon
Read Leviathan at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Desire for power Power Desire Human nature

Author

Thomas Hobbes

Source

Leviathan

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1651 1650s 17th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil. London: Andrew Crooke, 1651, pt. 1, ch. 11.

Current Citation

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan, edited by Christopher Brooke. Penguin Classics, 2017, pt. 1, ch. 11.

In the strict sense of the term, a true democracy has never existed, and never will exist.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The Social Contract

Buy The Social Contract at Amazon Buy The Social Contract at Amazon
Read The Social Contract at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Democracy

Author

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Source

The Social Contract

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1762 1760s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique [On the Social Contract or Principles of Political Law]. Amsterdam: Marc Michel Rey, 1762, bk. 3, ch. 4.

Current Citation

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "Of the Social Contract." Of the Social Contract and Other Political Writings, translated by Quintin Hoare. Penguin Classics, 2012, bk. 3, ch. 4.

He preferred to be rather than to seem good.

Sallust

On Cato.

More information about this quote

Topic

Appearance vs. reality

Author

Sallust

Source

Catiline

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Latin

Time

42 BC 40s BC 1st century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Sallust. Bellum Catilinae [War of Catiline]. c. 43–40 BC.

Current Citation

Sallust. "The War with Catiline." The War with Catiline and The War with Jugurtha, translated by John T. Ramsey J. C. Rolfe. Harvard University Press, 2013.

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.

Adam Smith

The Wealth of Nations

Buy The Wealth of Nations Books 4-5 at Amazon Buy The Wealth of Nations Books 4-5 at Amazon
Read The Wealth of Nations at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Science and religion Science

Author

Adam Smith

Source

The Wealth of Nations

Genre

Economic literature

Language

English

Time

1776 1770s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations. Vol. 2, London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1776, bk. 5, ch. 1, pt. 2, art. 3.

Current Citation

Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations, edited by Edwin Cannan. The Modern Library, 2000, bk. 5, ch. 1, pt. 2, art. 3.

The childhood shows the man,
As morning shows the day.

John Milton

Paradise Regained

Buy Paradise Regained at Amazon Buy Paradise Regained at Amazon
Read Paradise Regained at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Personality Personal growth

Author

John Milton

Source

Paradise Regained

Medium

Poem

Genre

Religious literature Epic poem

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1671 1670s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Milton, John. "Paradise Regained." Paradise Regained, A Poem in 4 Books, to which is added Samson Agonistes. London: John Starkey, 1671, bk. 4, I. 220.

Current Citation

Milton, John. "Paradise Regained." John Milton: Major Works, edited by Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg. Oxford University Press, 2008, bk. 4, I. 220.

There are more disorders of the mind than of the body, and they are of a more dangerous nature.

Cicero

Tusculan Disputations

More information about this quote

Topic

Body and soul Sickness The soul Human body

Author

Cicero

Source

Tusculan Disputations

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Latin

Time

45 BC 40s BC 1st century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Cicero, Marcus Tullius. Tusculanae Disputationes [Tusculan Disputations]. c. 45 BC, bk. 3, ch. 3.

For man proposes, but God disposes.

Thomas à Kempis

The Imitation of Christ

Buy The Imitation of Christ at Amazon Buy The Imitation of Christ at Amazon
Read The Imitation of Christ at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

God's will Free will Making plans

Author

Thomas à Kempis

Source

The Imitation of Christ

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Latin

Time

1427 1420s 15th century

Era

Middle Ages

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

A Kempis, Thomas. De Imitatione Christi [The Imitation of Christ]. c. 1427.

Current Citation

A Kempis, Thomas. The Complete Imitation of Christ, translated by John Julian. Paraclete Press, 2012.