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Currently showing 10,076 quotes

No permanent elevation of a people can be effected without commerce.

David Livingstone

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Topic

Trade and commerce Capitalism

Author

David Livingstone

Source

Travels and Researches in South Africa

Genre

Travel writing

Statement Type

Precepts and axioms

Language

English

Time

1861 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

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Citation

Livingstone, David. Travels and Researches in South Africa. London: John Murray, 1857, ch. 13.

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Puritanism—The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

H.L. Mencken

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Topic

Puritanism

Author

H.L. Mencken

Source

Arcana Coelestia A Mencken Chrestomathy

Medium

Essay

Statement Type

Definition

Language

English

Time

1949 1940s 20th century

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Citation

Mencken, Henry Louis. "Arcana Coelestia." A Mencken Chrestomathy. Alfred A. Knopf, 1949, ch. 30.

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People will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

Neil Postman

Amusing Ourselves to Death

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Topic

Downsides of technology

Author

Neil Postman

Source

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Language

English

Time

1984 1980s 20th century

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Citation

Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Viking Penguin/Methuen Publishing, 1985, foreword.

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Musique and women I cannot but give way to, whatever my business is.

Samuel Pepys

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Topic

Music

Author

Samuel Pepys

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1666 1660s 17th century

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Citation

Pepys, Samuel. Diary entry. 9 Mar. 1666.

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To be like everyone else. Isn't that what we all want in the end?

Carol Shields

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Topic

Conformity Man as social animal

Author

Carol Shields

Source

Larry's Party

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1997 1990s 20th century

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Citation

Shields, Carol. Larry's Party. Knopf Canada, 1997, ch. 9.

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There is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream—a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought—a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!

Mark Twain

The Mysterious Stranger

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Topic

Nature of reality The human condition

Author

Mark Twain

Source

The Mysterious Stranger

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1910 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

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Original Citation

Twain, Mark. The Mysterious Stranger. Harper & Brothers, 1916, ch. 11

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Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "The Mysterious Stranger." Mark Twain: The Gilded Age and Later Novels, edited by Hamlin Hill. Library of America, 2002, ch. 11.

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Angel, ha! She's a female! And all females is poison! They're full of wicked wiles!

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

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Topic

Dangers of women Men and women

Speaker

Grumpy

Actor

Pinto Colvig

Source

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Medium

Film

Genre

Animation (film) Fantasy (film) Animation Fantasy

Language

English

Time

1937 1930s 20th century

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Citation

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Directed by David Hand, Walt Disney Productions, 1937.

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A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof was to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

Douglas Adams

Mostly Harmless

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Topic

User experience Fools Design

Author

Douglas Adams

Source

Mostly Harmless

Medium

Novel

Genre

Science fiction

Language

English

Time

1992 1990s 20th century

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Citation

Adams, Douglas. Mostly Harmless. William Heinemann/Harmony Books, 1992, ch. 12.

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We headed home holding hands. For a moment I dropped back to watch him walk. His sailor's gait always touched me. I knew one day I would stop and he would keep on going, but until then nothing could tear us apart.

Patti Smith

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Admiring another person Lost love Melancholy

Author

Patti Smith

Source

Just Kids

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

2010 2010s 21st century

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Citation

Smith, Patti. Just Kids. Ecco, 2010.

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He who tells a lie, is not sensible how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.

Alexander Pope

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Topic

Consequences of lying Lying Lies Liars

Author

Alexander Pope

Source

Thoughts on Various Subjects

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1727 1720s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

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Citation

Pope, Alexander. "Thoughts on Various Subjects." Swifts's Miscellanies. London, 1727, no. 31.

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Having looked the beast of the past in the eye, having asked and received forgiveness and having made amends, let us shut the door on the past-not in order to forget it but in order not to allow it to imprison us.

Desmond Tutu

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Moving forward Letting go of the past The past

Author

Desmond Tutu

Source

Report of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Language

English

Time

1998 1990s 20th century

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Citation

Tutu, Desmond. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report. Vol. 1, The Commission, 1998, foreword.

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The new philosophy proceeds from the world, the book of God.

Tommaso Campanella

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Topic

Science and religion

Author

Tommaso Campanella

Source

The Defense of Galileo

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Latin

Time

1622 1620s 17th century

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Original Citation

Campanella, Tommaso. Apologia pro Galileo [In Defense of Galileo]. Frankfurt am Main: Gottfried Tampach, 1622, ch. 4.

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Current Citation

Campanella, Thomas. Defense of Galileo, translated by Richard J. Blackwell. University of Notre Dame Press, 1994, ch. 4.

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You may go over the world and you will find that every form of religion that has breathed upon this earth, has degraded woman. There is not one that has not always made her subject to man.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

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Topic

Oppression of women Religion

Speaker

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1885 1880s 19th century

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Original Citation

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Speech in Washington, DC. Seventeeth Annual Convention of the National Woman Suffrage Assoociation. Jan. 1885, Washington, DC, USA.

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Current Citation

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: When Clowns Make Laws for Queens, 1880-1887. Vol. 4, Rutgers University Press, 1997.

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The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.

Alan Watts

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Topic

Nature of life Life Permanence Impermanence

Author

Alan Watts

Source

Play to Live

Genre

Religious literature Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1982 1980s 20th century

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Citation

Watts, Alan. Play to Live: Selected Seminars. And Books, 1982.

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Man is a Tool-using Animal...without Tools he is nothing, with Tools he is all.

Thomas Carlyle

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Topic

Man and animals Tools Nature of man

Author

Thomas Carlyle

Source

Sartor Resartus

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1834 1830s 19th century

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Original Citation

Carlyle, Thomas. "Sartor Resartus." Fraser's Magazine, Nov. 1833–Aug. 1834. Serial.

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Current Citation

Carlyle, Thomas. Sartor Resartus, edited by Kerry McSweeney and Peter Sabor. Oxford University Press, 2008, bk. 1, ch. 5.

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A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security.

Henry Kissinger

Reflections on Containment

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Topic

Morality in foreign policy Foreign policy International politics

Author

Henry Kissinger

Source

Reflections on Containment Foreign Affairs

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1994 1990s 20th century

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Citation

Kissinger, Henry. "Reflections on Containment." Foreign Affairs, June 1994.

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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

H.P. Lovecraft

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Topic

Making sense of things Contradiction

Author

H.P. Lovecraft

Source

The Call of Cthulhu

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

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Original Citation

Lovecraft, Howard Phillips. "The Call of Cthulhu." Weird Tales, Feb. 1928.

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Current Citation

Lovecraft, Howard Phillips. "The Call of Cthulhu." The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, edited by S. T. Joshi. Penguin Classics, 2016.

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We may say of angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries, "Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did."

Izaak Walton

The Compleat Angler

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Topic

Fishing

Author

Izaak Walton

Source

The Compleat Angler

Medium

Treatise

Language

English

Time

1653 1650s 17th century

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Original Citation

Walton, Izaak. The Compleat Angler. London: Richard Marriot, 1653, pt. 1, ch. 5.

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Current Citation

Walton, Izaak. The Compleat Angler, edited by Marjorie Swann. Oxford University Press, 2014, pt. 1, ch. 5.

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Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or creep or drip or crash. Be water, my friend.

Bruce Lee

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Topic

Adaptability

Speaker

Li Tsung

Actor

Bruce Lee

Source

Longstreet

Medium

TV program

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1971 1970s 20th century

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Citation

"The Way of the Intercepting Fist." Longstreet, written by Stirling Silliphant, season 1, episode 1, Edling Productions, 1971.

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They say travel broadens the mind; but you must have the mind.

G.K. Chesterton

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Topic

Travel Open-mindedness

Speaker

Gabriel Gale

Author

G.K. Chesterton

Source

The Poet and the Lunatics Nash's Magazine

Medium

Novel Magazine

Language

English

Time

1921 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

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Original Citation

Chesterton, G.K. "The Poet and the Lunatics." Nash's Magazine, 1921, ch. 3.

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Current Citation

Chesterton, G.K. The Poet and the Lunatics. Dover, 2010, ch. 3.

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