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I heard the old, old men say,
"All that's beautiful drifts away
Like the waters."

W.B. Yeats

More information about this quote

Topic

Loss

Author

W.B. Yeats

Source

The Old Men Admiring themselves in the Water

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Yeats, William Butler. "The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water." In the Seven Woods. Elizabeth Yeats's Dun Emer Press, 1903.

Current Citation

Yeats, William Butler. "The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water." Yeats's Poetry, Drama and Prose. W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.

In the business world... The rear-view mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

Warren Buffett

1991 Letter to Shareholders

Read this letter at Berkshire Hathaway's website

More information about this quote

Topic

Business forecasts Business

Author

Warren Buffett

Source

1991 Letter to Shareholders

Medium

Letter

Genre

Letter to shareholders

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1992 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Buffett, Warren. Letter to Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders. 1991.

Character—the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life—is the source from which self-respect springs.

Joan Didion

Self-respect: Its Source, Its Power

Buy Slouching Towards Bethlehem at Amazon Buy Slouching Towards Bethlehem at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Character Self-respect Taking responsibility

Author

Joan Didion

Source

Self-respect: Its Source, Its Power Vogue

Medium

Essay Magazine

Language

English

Time

1961 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Didion, Joan. "Self-respect: Its Source, Its Power." Vogue, 1 Aug. 1961.

Current Citation

Didion, Joan. "On Self-Respect." Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968.

It is splendid to be a great writer, to put men into the frying pan of your words and make them pop like chestnuts.

Gustave Flaubert

More information about this quote

Topic

Pleasures of writing Writing

Author

Gustave Flaubert

Source

Letters of Gustave Flaubert

Medium

Letter

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

French

Time

1851 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. Letter to Louise Colet. 3 Nov. 1851.

Current Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. The Letters of Gustave Flaubert 1830-1857, translated and edited by Francis Steegmuller. Faber and Faber, 1981.

Wonder... And not any expectation of advantage from its discoveries, is the first principle which prompts mankind to the study of Philosophy, of that science which pretends to lay open the concealed connections that unite the various appearances of nature.

Adam Smith

More information about this quote

Topic

Wonder Curiosity Philosophy

Author

Adam Smith

Source

The History of Astronomy Essays on Philosophical Subjects

Medium

Essay

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1790 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Smith, Adam. "The History of Astronomy." Essays on Philosophical Subjects. London: T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies/Edinburgh: W. Creech, 1795, sect. 3, para. 3.

Current Citation

Smith, Adam. "The History of Astronomy." Essays on Philosophical Subjects, edited by W. P. D. Wightman. Liberty Fund, 1982, sect. 3, para. 3.

That which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Alfred Tennyson

Poems

Buy a book containing Ulysses at Amazon Buy a book containing Ulysses at Amazon
Read Ulysses at Poetry Foundation

More information about this quote

Topic

Determination Human nature

Author

Alfred Tennyson

Source

Ulysses (Tennyson) Poems

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1842 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Tennyson, Alfred. "Ulysses." Poems. Vol. 2, London: Edward Moxon, 1842, I. 74.

Current Citation

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. "Ulysses." Alfred Tennyson: The Major Works, edited by Adam Roberts. Oxford University Press, 2009, I. 74.

Entertainment is about the way things should be. Art is about the way they are.

Roger Ebert

More information about this quote

Topic

Art Entertainment

Author

Roger Ebert

Source

A Depression-era Story of Old Age, Tough and Level in its Gaze rogerebert.com

Language

English

Time

2010 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ebert, Roger. "A Depression-Era Story of Old Age, Tough and Level in its Gaze." rogerebert.com, 11 Feb. 2010, www.rogerebert.com/reviews/make-way-for-tomorrow-1937.

Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.

Gore Vidal

More information about this quote

Topic

Envy Friends Friendship

Speaker

Gore Vidal

Source

Sunday Times Magazine

Medium

Interview Magazine

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Vidal, Gore. Quoted in "Behind the Face of the Gifted Bitch" by Susan Barnes. The Sunday Times Magazine, 16 Sept. 1973.

Whence it is that in our law the goodness of a custom depends upon its having been used time out of mind; or, in the solemnity of our legal phrase, time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.

William Blackstone

Commentaries on the Laws of England

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Read Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book I at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Custom and convention Legal theory

Author

William Blackstone

Source

Commentaries on the Laws of England

Medium

Treatise

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1765 1760s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Law of England: Book the First. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1765, introduction, sec. 3.

Current Citation

Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England: Book I Of the Rights of Persons, edited by David Lemmings. Oxford University Press, 2016, introduction, sec. 3.

All of our people all over the country-except the pure-blooded Indians-are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, including even those who came over here on the Mayflower.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

More information about this quote

Topic

Immigration America

Speaker

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1944 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano. Campaign speech in Boston. 4 Nov. 1944, Fenway Park, Boston, MA, USA.

Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything, for 'tis the only thing in this world that lasts...'Tis the only thing worth working for, worth fighting for—worth dying for.

Margaret Mitchell

Gone with the Wind

Buy Gone with the Wind at Amazon Buy Gone with the Wind at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Land Property rights

Author

Margaret Mitchell

Source

Gone with the Wind

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1936 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Mitchell, Margaret. Gone with the Wind. Macmillan Publishers, 1936, pt. 1, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Mitchell, Margaret. Gone with the Wind. Scribner, 2007, pt. 1, ch. 2.

Fair Daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon.

Robert Herrick

More information about this quote

Topic

Flowers

Author

Robert Herrick

Source

To Daffodils Hesperides

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1648 1640s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Herrick, Robert. "To Daffodils." Hesperides. London: John Williams, 1648.

Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people.

Angela Carter

More information about this quote

Topic

Comedy Tragedy

Author

Angela Carter

Source

Wise Children

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1991 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Carter, Angela. Wise Children. Chatto & Windus, 1991, ch. 5.

Current Citation

Carter, Angela. Wise Children. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007, ch. 5.

You're on earth, there's no cure for that!

Samuel Beckett

More information about this quote

Topic

The human condition

Speaker

Hamm

Author

Samuel Beckett

Source

Endgame

Medium

Play

Genre

Modernist literature

Language

French

Time

1957 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Beckett, Samuel. Fin de partie. Directed by Roger Blin. Performed by Roger Blin, Jean Martin, Georges Adet, and Christine Tsingos. 3 Apr. 1957, Royal Court Theatre, London, England, UK.

Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.

William Hazlitt

Read the lecture "On Wit and Humour" at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Humor Good conversation Conversation

Author

William Hazlitt

Source

On Wit and Humour

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1819 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hazlitt, William. "On Wit and Humour." Lectures on the English Comic Writers. c. 1818, Surrey Institution, London, England, UK.

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

T.S. Eliot

More information about this quote

Topic

Curiosity Exploration Travel

Author

T.S. Eliot

Source

Little Gidding

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1942 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eliot, T. S. "Little Gidding." New English Weekly, Oct. 1942, pt. 5.

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

Carl Sagan

Buy a DVD of Cosmos at Amazon Buy a DVD of Cosmos at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Apple pie Origin of the universe The universe

Speaker

Carl Sagan

Source

Cosmos

Medium

TV program

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

"The Lives of Stars." Presented by Carl Sagan. Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, season 1, episode 8. PBS, 23 Nov. 1980.

Those that perished in Hitler's gas chambers were the last Jews to die without standing up to defend themselves.

Golda Meir

More information about this quote

Topic

The Holocaust The Jewish people

Author

Golda Meir

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1967 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Meir, Golda. Speech at the United Jewish Appeal Rally. United Jewish Appeal Benefit Gala. 11 June 1967, Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY, USA.

Nor dread nor hope attend
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all.

W.B. Yeats

More information about this quote

Topic

Mystery of death Death Man and animals

Author

W.B. Yeats

Source

Death

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Yeats, William Butler. "Death." The Winding Stair and Other Poems. Macmillan and Company, 1933, I. 1.

A woman without a man cannot meet a man, any man, of any age, without thinking, even if it's for a half-second, Perhaps this is the man.

Doris Lessing

More information about this quote

Topic

Men and women

Author

Doris Lessing

Source

The Golden Notebook

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1962 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lessing, Doris. The Golden Notebook. Michael Joseph, 1962.