Sourced and curated.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never is, but always to be blessed.

He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.

An Essay on Man · 1733

★ 8.8

Essay · Philosophical literature · Political literature

I can't get no satisfaction, I can't get no girl reaction.

On Liberty · 1859

★ 7.9

Song · Rock music

The Rolling Stones

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction · 1965

★ 7.9

Long is the way And hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light.

Paradise Lost · 1667

★ 7.8

O fairest of Creation, last and best Of all God's works.

Paradise Lost · 1667

★ 7.8

How little do we know that which we are! How less what we may be!

Don Juan · 1824

★ 7.5

No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell · 1793

★ 7.3

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell · 1793

★ 7.3

Everything that lives, Lives not alone, nor for itself.

1789

★ 7.2

Great things are done when men and mountains meet.

1807

★ 7.2

Her rash hand in evil hour Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate: Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe That all was lost.

Paradise Lost · 1667

★ 7.1

I am ashes where once I was fire.

1824

★ 7.1

Of Man's First Disobedience, and the fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, Sing, Heav'nly Muse.

No man chooses evil, because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.

Paradise Lost · 1667

★ 7.1

Political literature

Mary Wollstonecraft

A Vindication of the Rights of Men · 1790

★ 7.1

What in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That to the height of this great Argument I may assert Eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men.

You have deeply ventured; But all must do so who would greatly win.

Paradise Lost · 1667

★ 7.1

Play · Tragic play

1821

★ 7.1

All rising to great place is by a winding stair.

A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for...is a miserable creature, who has no chance of being free.

1625

★ 7.0

Essay · Philosophical literature · Political literature

Ancient times were the youth of the world.

1862

★ 7.0

Philosophical literature

1605

★ 7.0

Chiefly, the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands.

For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes.

1625

★ 7.0

Philosophical literature

Novum Organum · 1620

★ 7.0

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

An Essay on Criticism · 1711

★ 7.0

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears.

1625

★ 7.0

To err is human, to forgive divine.

An Essay on Criticism · 1711

★ 7.0

To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour

Auguries of Innocence · 1803

★ 7.0

We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams.

Arthur O'Shaughnessy

1874

★ 7.0

Other people's words are the bridge you use to cross from where you were to wherever you're going.

Zadie Smith

2010

★ 7.0

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.

1625

★ 6.9

God Almighty first planted a garden; and, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.

1625

★ 6.9

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the Lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I Love not Man the Less, but Nature more.

Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends.

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage · 1818

★ 6.9

No man is an Island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

1996

★ 6.9

John Donne

Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, and severall steps in my Sicknes · 1624

★ 6.9

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles to-day, To-morrow will be dying.

Robert Herrick

1648

★ 6.9

Hymn · Song

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.

John Newton

Amazing Grace · 1779

★ 6.9

Speech · Political speech

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom: it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham

1783

★ 6.9

Song · Pop rock

Don't stop thinking about tomorrow, Don't stop, it'll soon be here. It'll be here better than before, Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone.

Fleetwood Mac

Don't Stop · 1977

★ 6.3

Essay · Philosophical literature

Human existence is girt round with mystery: the narrow region of our experience is a small island in the midst of a boundless sea.

I propose to consider the question, "Can machines think?"

The Utility of Religion · 1873

★ 6.2

Scientific literature

Alan Turing

Computing Machinery and Intelligence · 1950

★ 6.1

Who overcomes By force hath overcome but half his foe.

Paradise Lost · 1667

★ 5.6

The cistern contains: the fountain overflows.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell · 1794

★ 5.5

For every thing that lives is Holy.

We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell · 1794

★ 5.5

Essay · Philosophical literature · Political literature

The fatal tendency of mankind to leave off thinking about a thing when it is no longer doubtful, is the cause of half their errors.

On Liberty · 1859

★ 5.5

Essay · Philosophical literature · Political literature

Nature to be commanded must be obeyed.

On Liberty · 1859

★ 5.5

Philosophical literature

Novum Organum · 1620

★ 5.5

Can I see another's woe, And not be in sorrows too? Can I see another's grief, And not seek for kind relief?

Songs of Innocence · 1789

★ 5.5

I was angry with my friend; I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe; I told it not, my wrath did grow.

Songs of Experience · 1794

★ 5.5

Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair.

Songs of Experience · 1794

★ 5.5

And throughout all eternity I forgive you, you forgive me.

1804

★ 5.5

Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?

An opinion that corn-dealers are starvers of the poor, or that private property is robbery, ought to be unmolested when simply circulated through the press, but may justly incur punishment when delivered orally to an excited mob assembled before the house of a corn-dealer.

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage · 1818

★ 5.5

Essay · Philosophical literature · Political literature

You can't always get what you want But if you try sometimes You just might find You get what you need.

On Liberty · 1859

★ 5.5

Song · Rock music

The Rolling Stones

You Can't Always Get What You Want · 1969

★ 5.5

Song · Pop music

Well, I've been afraid of changing 'Cause I've built my life around you But time makes you bolder Even children get older And I'm getting older too.

Fleetwood Mac

Landslide · 1975

★ 5.5

Tragedy (play) · Tragedy

Boast not of what thou would'st have done, but do What then thou would'st.

Woman's at best a contradiction still.

1671

★ 5.4

Letter

Letters of Alexander Pope · 1735

★ 5.4

He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity's sunrise.

1792

★ 5.4

Love to faults is always blind, Always is to joy inclin'd, Lawless, wing'd, and unconfin'd, And breaks all chains from every mind.

All inequality that has no special utility to justify it is injustice.

1792

★ 5.4

Jeremy Bentham

1795

★ 5.4

Man was made for joy and woe, And when this we rightly know Through the world we safely go.