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Only the tiniest fraction of mankind want freedom.
All the rest want someone to tell them they are free.

Irving Layton

More information about this quote

Topic

True freedom Delusion

Author

Irving Layton

Language

English

Time

1969 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Layton, Irving. "Aphs." The Whole Bloody Bird: Obs, Aphs & Pomes. McClelland & Stewart, 1969.

To believe in God is to yearn for His existence and, furthermore, it is to act as if He did exist.

Miguel de Unamuno

The Tragic Sense of Life

More information about this quote

Topic

Belief in God

Author

Miguel de Unamuno

Source

The Tragic Sense of Life

Language

Spanish

Time

1912 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

De Unamuno, Miguel. Del Sentimiento Tragico de la Vida [The Tragic Sense of Life]. Sociedad anónima Editorial, 1913, ch. 8.

The foregoing cases suggest that specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance… Various guarantees create zones of privacy.

William O. Douglas

Grisworld v. Connecticut

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More information about this quote

Topic

Right to privacy Bill of Rights Constitutional law

Author

William O. Douglas

Source

Grisworld v. Connecticut

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Douglas, William O. United States, Supreme Court. Griswold v. Connecticut. United States Reports, vol. 381, 7 June 1965, pp. 479–531. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/381/479/.

The awe and dread with which the untutored savage contemplates his mother-in-law are amongst the most familiar facts of anthropology.

James George Frazer

The Golden Bough

More information about this quote

Topic

Mother in law

Author

James George Frazer

Source

The Golden Bough

Language

English

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Frazer, James George. The Golden Bough. London: The Macmillan Company, 1922, ch. 18, sect. 3.

Current Citation

Frazer, James George. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. Oxford University Press, 1998, ch. 18, sect. 3.

A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a living thought, and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Towne v. Eisner

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Topic

Meaning of words Words

Author

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Source

Towne v. Eisner

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1918 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. United States, Supreme Court. Towne v. Eisner. United States Reports, vol. 245, 7 Jan. 1918, pp. 418-427. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/245/418/.

Maybe Jesus was right when he said that the meek shall inherit the earth-but they inherit very small plots, about six feet by three.

Robert A. Heinlein

Time Enough for Love

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More information about this quote

Topic

The meek

Author

Robert A. Heinlein

Source

Time Enough for Love

Medium

Novel

Genre

Science fiction

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Heinlein, Robert A. "The Tale of the Twins Who Weren't." Time Enough for Love. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1973.

Eternal peace is a dream, and not even a beautiful one, and war is a link in God's world order. In him, the noblest virtues of man, courage and renunciation, devotion to duty and willingness to sacrifice, unfold with the institution of life. Without the war, the world would become bogged down in materialism.

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

More information about this quote

Topic

Praise of war War

Author

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

Medium

Letter

Language

German

Time

1880 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Von Moltke, Helmuth. Letter to Johann Caspar Bluntschli. 11 Dec. 1880.

To establish a defence on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or, if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong.

Nicholas Conyngham Tindal

M'Naghten's Case

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More information about this quote

Topic

Insanity Legal theory

Author

Nicholas Conyngham Tindal

Source

M'Naghten's Case

Medium

Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1843 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Tindal, Nicholas Conyngham. Delivering an exposition of the rules. M'Naghten's Case. c. 1843, Palace of Westminster, London, England, UK.

There was peace in their hearts. They were filled with the fearlessness of those who have lost everything, the fearlessness which is not easy to come by but which endures.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

In the First Circle

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More information about this quote

Topic

Fearlessness

Author

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Source

In the First Circle

Medium

Novel

Language

Russian

Time

1968 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksander. В круге первом [In the First Circle]. Collins & Harvill Press/‎Harper & Row, 1968, ch. 87.

We believe if you have a family you can't eliminate certain members of that family because profits are down.

Akio Morita

Quoted in The Sunday Telegraph

More information about this quote

Topic

Layoffs Business management

Speaker

Akio Morita

Source

The Sunday Telegraph

Medium

Interview

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1988 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Morita, Akio. Interviewed by U.K. Sunday Telegraph. c. 1988.

To doubt everything and to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; each saves us from thinking.

Henri Poincaré

Science and Hypothesis

More information about this quote

Topic

Critical thinking Doubt and skepticism Credulity

Author

Henri Poincaré

Source

Science and Hypothesis

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

French

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Poincare, Henri. La science et l'hypothese [Science and Hypothesis]. Flammarion, 1902, introduction.

Current Citation

Poincare, Henri. Science and Hypothesis: The Complete Text, translated by Melanie Frappier, Andrea Smith and David J. Stump, edited by Melanie Frappier and David J. Stump. Bloomsbury Academic, 2022, preface.

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.

Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi

More information about this quote

Topic

Discovery Originality Creativity

Speaker

Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi

Language

English

Time

1962 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Szent-Gyorgyi, Albert. Quoted in The Scientist Speculates: An Anthology of Partly-Baked Ideas, written by Irving John Good. Heinemann, 1962, ch. 1, sect. 6.

My diving bell becomes less oppressive, and my mind takes flight like a butterfly. There is so much to do. You can wander off in space or in time, set out for Tierra del Fuego or for King Midas's court. You can visit the woman you love, slide down beside her and stroke her still-sleeping face.

Jean-Dominique Bauby

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

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Topic

Imagination Power of thought

Author

Jean-Dominique Bauby

Source

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Medium

Novel

Language

French

Time

1997 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bauby, Jean-Dominique. Le Scaphandre et le Papillon [The Diving Bell and the Butterfly]. Editions Robert Laffont, 1997, prologue.

We take almost all the decisive steps in our lives as a result of slight inner adjustments of which we are barely conscious.

W.G. Sebald

Austerlitz

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More information about this quote

Topic

Inflection points

Author

W.G. Sebald

Source

Austerlitz

Medium

Novel

Language

German

Time

2001 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sebald, Winfried Georg. Austerlitz. C. Hanser, 2001.

The philosophy which is so important in each of us is not a technical matter; it is our more or less dumb sense of what life honestly and deeply means. It is only partly got from books; it is our individual way of just seeing and feeling the total push and pressure of the cosmos.

William James

Pragmatism

More information about this quote

Topic

Worldview Meaning of life

Author

William James

Source

Pragmatism

Genre

Philosophical speech

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, William. "The Present Dilemma in Philosophy." Nov. 1906, Lowell Institute, Boston, MA, USA. Lecture.

Current Citation

James, William. "The Present Dilemma in Philosophy." Pragmatism. Dover Publications, 2018.

Information is not power. If information were power, than librarians would be the most powerful people on the planet.

Bruce Sterling

More information about this quote

Topic

Information Knowledge is power

Speaker

Bruce Sterling

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1994 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Sterling, Bruce. Speech in Houston. Social Work Futures Conference. 23 May 1994, Houston, TX, USA.

I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived and loved and where all your yesterdays are buried deep-leave it any way except a slow way; leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance.

Beryl Markham

West with the Night

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More information about this quote

Topic

Letting go of the past

Author

Beryl Markham

Source

West with the Night

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1942 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Markham, Beryl. West with the Night. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1942, ch. 11.

Women's Liberation calls it enslavement but the real truth about the sexual revolution is that it has made of sex an almost chaotically limitless and therefore unmanageable realm in the life of women.

Midge Decter

More information about this quote

Topic

Sexual revolution Men and women

Author

Midge Decter

Language

English

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Decter, Midge. The New Chastity and Other Arguments Against Women's Liberation. Coward McCann & Geoghegan, 1972, pt. 2, ch. 2.

It would be hard to find a single instance of a direct assault by positive effort upon poverty, vice, and misery which has not either failed or, if it has not failed directly and entirely, has not entailed other evils greater than the one which it removed.

William Graham Sumner

Sociology

More information about this quote

Topic

Public policy Poverty

Author

William Graham Sumner

Source

Sociology

Medium

Essay

Genre

Sociology

Language

English

Time

1881 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sumner, William Graham. "Sociology." The Princeton Review, May 1881.

This much I think I do know—that a society so riven that the spirit of moderation is gone, no court can save; that a society where the spirit flourishes, no court need save; that in a society which evades its responsibility by thrusting upon the courts the nurture of that spirit, that spirit in the end will perish.

Learned Hand

More information about this quote

Topic

Law and culture Politics is downstream of culture

Speaker

Learned Hand

Language

English

Time

1942 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hand, Learned. "The Contribution of an Independent Judiciary to Civilization." 250th Anniversary of the Founding of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. 21 Nov. 1942, Boston, MA, USA.