Literature

Explore wisdom and insights from Literature

"Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood."

George Orwell

"Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing."

George Orwell

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

George Orwell

Attributed

"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four."

George Orwell

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

George Orwell

Animal Farm·Buy on Amazon

"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears."

George Orwell

"In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

George Orwell

Attributed

"War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength."

George Orwell

"The essential act of war is destruction."

George Orwell

"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously."

George Orwell

"There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others."

Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice·Buy on Amazon

"It is always the silly things that change our lives."

Jane Austen

Attributed

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."

Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey·Buy on Amazon

"Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way."

Jane Austen

Attributed

"There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others."

Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice·Buy on Amazon

"I would rather be a little nobody, then to be a evil somebody."

Jane Austen

Attributed

"I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures."

Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey·Buy on Amazon

"We are all fools in love."

Jane Austen

Attributed

"There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends."

Jane Austen

Attributed

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice·Buy on Amazon

"Do the best you can until you know better."

Maya Angelou

Attributed

"Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life."

Maya Angelou

Attributed

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues."

Maya Angelou

Attributed

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

Maya Angelou

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings·Buy on Amazon

"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive."

Maya Angelou

Attributed

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through."

Maya Angelou

Attributed

"I've learned that no matter what happens, life does go on."

Maya Angelou

Attributed

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude."

Maya Angelou

Attributed

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Maya Angelou

Attributed

"You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them."

Maya Angelou

Attributed

"I can resist everything except temptation."

Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray·Buy on Amazon

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

Oscar Wilde

Attributed

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."

Oscar Wilde

Attributed

"True love is always a fairy tale."

Oscar Wilde

Attributed

"I refuse to explain anything."

Oscar Wilde

Attributed

"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."

Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray·Buy on Amazon

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple."

Oscar Wilde

The Importance of Being Earnest·Buy on Amazon

"I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best."

Oscar Wilde

Attributed

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your existence is an act of rebellion."

Oscar Wilde

Attributed

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else."

Oscar Wilde

Attributed

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."

William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night·Buy on Amazon

"To be, or not to be, that is the question."

William Shakespeare

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet·Buy on Amazon

"If music be the food of love, play on."

William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night·Buy on Amazon

"The course of true love never did run smooth."

William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night's Dream·Buy on Amazon

"Though she be but little, she is fierce."

William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night's Dream·Buy on Amazon

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."

William Shakespeare

The Tempest·Buy on Amazon

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

William Shakespeare

Julius Caesar·Buy on Amazon

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

William Shakespeare

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players."

William Shakespeare

As You Like It·Buy on Amazon