Samuel Johnson? Noah Webster? Orison Swett Marden? Charles Caleb Colton? Tryon Edwards? Question for Quote Investigator: If one’s contentment depends upon external forces and events that one cannot control then one should expect continual heartache. Seeking happiness requires changing one’s own dispositions. This notion has been attributed to the famous English lexicographer Samuel Johnson, the …
Tag Archives: Tryon Edwards
Quote Origin: No Truth So Sublime But It May Be Trivial Tomorrow in the Light of New Thoughts
Ralph Waldo Emerson? Tryon Edwards? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: During one’s lifetime one may discover a truth that appears deep and beautiful. Yet, one must be willing to continuously grow and change. That supposed truth may later seem trivial or misleading. Personal development demands regular reevaluations. The transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson made a …
Quote Origin: We First Make Our Habits and Then Our Habits Make Us
John Dryden? Frederick Langbridge? Tryon Edwards? Nathanael Emmons? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A remarkably insightful statement about patterns of behavior is usually credited to the famous English poet John Dryden who died in 1700: We first make our habits, and then our habits make us. I have not been able to find a solid …
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Quote Origin: Leave Him With a Favorable Opinion of Himself
Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Tryon Edwards? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: My favorite poem is “Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I love the poem’s opium inspired image of a “stately pleasure dome”. Serendipitously, I came across an insightful remark ascribed to Coleridge that contrasted different types of …
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Quote Origin: We Are Too Prone to Judge Ourselves by Our Ideals and Other People by Their Acts
Dwight Morrow? Harold Nicolson? Harold Nicholson? William Nevins? Tryon Edwards? Edward Wigglesworth? Stephen R. Covey? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a pervasive problem in human psychology of a self-serving double-standard that can be stated as follows: We judge ourselves by our ideals, but we judge others by their actions. This remark has been attributed …