Oscar Wilde
1895 · Ireland · Britain
I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.
The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 2, spoken by Gwendolen
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In the same thread
Emily Dickinson
c. 1862 (published 1890) · Massachusetts, USA
This is my letter to the world, That never wrote to me
Poems, First Series
Ki no Tsurayuki 紀貫之
c. 935 · Heian Japan · The writer was a male official past sixty. At the time men kept diaries only in Chinese
Diaries are things men are said to keep; I, a woman, will try keeping one too.
男もすなる日記といふものを、女もしてみむとてするなり。Tosa Diary (Tosa nikki), the first sentence
Samuel Pepys
May 31, 1669 · London, England · At thirty-six. He stopped the diary for fear of going blind, but he did not lose his sight and lived another thirty-four years
And thus ends all that I doubt I shall ever be able to do with my own eyes in the keeping of my journal, I being not able to do it any longer, having done now as long as to undo my eyes almost every time that I take a pen in my hand.
The last day of the diary
Oscar Wilde
1895 · Ireland · Britain
Memory, my dear Cecily, is the diary that we all carry about with us.
The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 2, spoken by Miss Prism
Sejong 世宗
1446 · Joseon Korea
The sounds of our country's language differ from those of China and do not match the Chinese characters. So among the simple people there are many who have something they wish to say and yet in the end cannot make their meaning known. I am moved to pity by this and have newly made twenty-eight letters. I wish only that everyone may learn them easily and use them with comfort every day.
國之語音。異乎中國。與文字不相流通。故愚民。有所欲言而終不得伸其情者。多矣。予。為此憫然。新制二十八字。欲使人人易習。便於日用耳Hunminjeongeum (the Haerye edition), the king's preface
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us