Classic Literature Quotes

“We are what we think, having become what we thought.”

–The Pali Canon (c. 500–c. 250 B.C.). Ten Twin Verses, no. 1

“I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was.”

–William Shakespeare (1564-1616), A Midsummer Night's Dream [1595-1596]

“Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.”

–Paulo Coelho (1944- ), The Alchemist [1988]

Who ran to help me when I fell,
And would some pretty story tell,
Or kiss the place to make it well?
My Mother.

–Ann Taylor (1782-1866), My Mother [1816]

“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”

–Stanislaw Lec (1909-1966), More Unkempt Thoughts [1968]

“I suspect the truth is that we are waiting, all of us, against insurmountable odds, for something extraordinary to happen to us.”

–Khaled Hosseini (1965- ), And the Mountains Echoed [2013]

UNLESS someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It’s not.

–Dr. Seuss (1904-1991), The Lorax [1971]

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

–Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Lady Windermere’s Fan [1892]

“With my pencil, I wrote myself into being.” –Percival Everett (1956- ), James [2024]

"what is only half-jokingly known as the Butterfly Effect—the notion that a butterfly stirring the air today in Peking can transform storm systems next month in New York."

–James Gleick (1954- ), Chaos [1987]

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.”

–Carl Jung (1875-1961), Memories, Dreams, Reflections [1962]

I am what I am
I am made like that.

-Jacques Prévert (1900-1977), Paroles [1945]. Je Suis Comme Je Suis

“A daydreamer is prepared for most things.”

–Joyce Carol Oates (1938- ), The Wheel of Love [1970]. Accomplished Desires

“Let him think I am more man than I am and I will be so.”

–Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), The Old Man and the Sea [1952]

"I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.”

–John Kennedy Toole (1937-1969), A Confederacy of Dunces [1980]

[The tramp character:] "A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure."

–Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977), My Autobiography [1964]

“everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

–Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), Man's Search for Meaning [1946]

They change their skies above them,
But not their hearts that roam.

–Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), The Native-Born [1895]

Change proves true on the day it is finished.

–I Ching (Twelfth century B.C.), No. 49 (translation by Thomas Cleary)

"I looked at my life, and it was also a river."

–Hermann Hesse (1877-1962), Siddhartha [1922]

Seize the day, put no trust in the morrow!
[Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero]

–Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65 BC-8 BC), Odes [23 BC]

Nice reading!

“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”

–Mary Shelley (1797-1851), Frankenstein [1818]

The best way out is always through.

–Robert Frost (1874-1963), A Servant to Servants (1915)

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

–Mary Oliver (1935-2019), The Summer Day [1990]

When you wish upon a star,
Makes no difference who you are,
Anything your heart desires will come to you.

–Ned Washington (1901-1976), Pinocchio [1940]. When You Wish Upon a Star

“A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living.”

–Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), The Death of the Moth, and Other Essays [1974]. The Humane Art

This is how google translates it now: "When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin."

Yes, I've seen many translations use the word vermin. This was the Willa and Edwin Muir translation. I do think think line is very interesting because there are so many different versions between translators.

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."

–Franz Kafka (1883-1924), The Metamorphosis [1915]