1871

America, if eligible at all to downfall and ruin, is eligible within herself, not without.

The Descent of Man · 1871

★ 8.5

Portrait · Realism

Whistler's Mother

James McNeill Whistler

1871 · Musee d'Orsay, Paris

Whistler called it Arrangement in Grey and Black and insisted it was about tone, not feeling. The sitter was his mother, and nobody was fooled.

★ 8.0

Essay · Political literature

Walt Whitman

Democratic Vistas · 1871

★ 7.6

Novel

Life, what is it but a dream?

Through the Looking-Glass · 1871

★ 7.1

We thus learn that man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits, and an inhabitant of the Old World.

If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.

The Descent of Man · 1871

★ 6.3

Novel

Lighter than a cork I danced on the waves.

Through the Looking-Glass · 1871

★ 5.5

Poem

Arthur Rimbaud

The Drunken Boat · 1871

★ 5.4

Novel · Children's literature

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes—and ships—and sealing wax— Of cabbages—and kings— And why the sea is boiling hot— And whether pigs have wings."

Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.

Through the Looking-Glass · 1871

★ 5.4

Personal journal

Thomas Hardy

1871

★ 5.2

Religious painting

Ecce Homo (Ciseri)

Antonio Ciseri

1871 · Location unknown

We are standing behind Pilate, looking out over his shoulder at the crowd, which puts us among the officials rather than the mob.

★ 4.2

Political literature

It is a great word, whose history, I suppose, remains unwritten, because that history has yet to be enacted.

Walt Whitman

Democratic Vistas · 1871

★ 3.9

Essay · Political literature

Always vote.

Walt Whitman

Democratic Vistas · 1871

★ 3.9

The Simiadae then branched off into two great stems, the New World and Old World monkeys; and from the latter, at a remote period, Man, the wonder and glory of the Universe, proceeded.

The Descent of Man · 1871

★ 3.8

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

"Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."

The Descent of Man · 1871

★ 3.8

Novel · Children's literature

Prose is for ideas, Verse is for visions.

Through the Looking-Glass · 1871

★ 3.8

Poem

Henrik Ibsen

1871

★ 3.7

Poem

I have bathed in the Poem of the Sea, steeped in Stars, and milky, devouring the green azures.

Arthur Rimbaud

1871

★ 3.6

Personal journal

It is a fine thing to be out on the hills alone. A man can hardly be a beast or a fool alone on a great mountain.

Francis Kilvert

1871

★ 3.5

For my own part I would as soon be descended from that heroic little monkey, who braved his dread enemy in order to save the life of his keeper; or from that old baboon, who descending from the mountains, carried away in triumph his young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs--as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practices infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the grossest superstitions.