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Currently showing 10,076 quotes

It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

Edmund Burke

Read this letter at Project Gutenberg
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Topic

Restraint Self-control

Author

Edmund Burke

Source

Letters of Edmund Burke

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1791 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

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Original Citation

Burke, Edmund. Letter to a Member of the National Assembly. London: J. Dodsley, 1791.

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Current Citation

Burke, Edmund. Letter to a Member of the National Assembly." The Portable Edmund Burke, edited by Isaac Kramnick. Penguin, 2009.

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See, Winter comes to rule the varied year,
Sullen and sad.

James Thomson

The Seasons: Winter

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Winter Seasons

Author

James Thomson

Source

The Seasons: Winter

Language

English

Time

1726 1720s 18th century

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Citation

Thomson, James. Winter. London: John Millan, 1726.

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Orientalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient-dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.

Edward Said

Orientalism

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Topic

The Middle East

Author

Edward Said

Source

Orientalism

Language

English

Time

1978 1970s 20th century

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Citation

Said, Edward. Orientalism. Pantheon Books, 1978, introduction.

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I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

James Madison

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Topic

Threats to freedom Freedom Political theory

Speaker

James Madison

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1788 1780s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

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Original Citation

Madison, James. "General Defense of the Constitution." Virginia Ratifying Convention. 5 June 1788, Richmond, VA, USA.

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Current Citation

Madison, James. "Speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention in Defense of the Constitution, June 6, 1788." James Madison: Writings. Library of America, 1999.

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I sometimes hold it half a sin
To put in words the grief I feel;
For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within.

Alfred Tennyson

In Memoriam A.H.H.

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Topic

Limits of language

Author

Alfred Tennyson

Source

In Memoriam A.H.H.

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1850 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

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Original Citation

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. In Memoriam A.H.H. London: Edward Moxon, 1850, pt. 4, st. 5.

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Current Citation

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. "In Memoriam A.H.H." Alfred Tennyson: The Major Works, edited by Adam Roberts. Oxford University Press, 2009 pt. 4, st. 5.

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I would earnestly ask my sisters to keep clear of both the jargons now current everywhere... Of the jargon, namely about the "rights" of women, which urges women to do all that men do... Merely because men do it, and without regard to whether this is the best that women can do; and of the jargon which urges women to do nothing that men do, merely because they are women... Woman should bring the best she has, whatever that is... Without attending to either of these cries.

Florence Nightingale

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Topic

Women Men and women Women's rights

Author

Florence Nightingale

Source

Notes on Nursing

Medium

Treatise

Language

English

Time

1860 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

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Original Citation

Nightingale, Florence. Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not. London: Harrison and Sons, 1859.

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Current Citation

Nightingale, Florence. Notes on Nursing: What It Is, and What It Is Not. Dover Publications, 1969.

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Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the Mohican, the Pokanoket, and many other once powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and oppression of the white man, as snow before the summer sun.

Tecumseh

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

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Topic

US and Native American relations Native Americans

Speaker

Tecumseh

Source

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1799 1790s 18th century

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Original Citation

Tecumseh. 1799. Tribal councils with White Men. Urbana, Ohio, USA.

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Current Citation

Tecumseh. Quoted in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, written by Dee Brown. Picador, 2007, ch. 1.

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I know it when I see it.

Potter Stewart

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Jacobellis v. Ohio

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On the nature of "obscenity".

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Obscenity First Amendment Bill of Rights Constitutional law

Author

Potter Stewart

Source

Jacobellis v. Ohio

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1964 1960s 20th century

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Citation

Stewart, Potter. United States, Supreme Court. Jacobellis v. Ohio. United States Reports, vol. 378, 22 June 1964, pp. 184-204. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/378/184/.

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There's something about this that's so black, it's like how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.

This is Spinal Tap

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Topic

Black Color

Speaker

Nigel Tufnel

Actor

Christopher Guest

Source

This is Spinal Tap

Medium

Film

Genre

Mockumentary Comedy (film) Comedy

Language

English

Time

1984 1980s 20th century

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Citation

This is Spinal Tap. Directed by Rob Reiner, Spinal Tap Prod., 1984.

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The evil that men should turn their brothers into beasts of burden, to slave and suffer in dumb anguish, to be stripped of spirit, and hope, and faith—only because they are of another race, another creed. If there is a god, he did not mean this to be so.

Moses

The Ten Commandments

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Topic

Slavery

Speaker

Moses

Actor

Charlton Heston

Source

The Ten Commandments

Medium

Film

Genre

Epic (film) Drama (film) Epic Drama

Language

English

Time

1956 1950s 20th century

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Citation

The Ten Commandments. Directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Cecil B. DeMille Productions, 1956.

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A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.

George Bernard Shaw

Read A Treatise on Parents and Children at Project Gutenberg
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Vacation Time off Too much of a good thing

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

Children's Happiness A Treatise on Parents and Children

Medium

Treatise

Language

English

Time

1910 1910s 20th century

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Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "Children's Happiness." A Treatise on Parents and Children. Binker North, 1910.

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Who knows when some slight shock, disturbing the delicate balance between social order and thirsty aspiration, shall send the skyscrapers in our cities toppling?

Richard Wright

Native Son

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Topic

Riots Civil disorder

Speaker

Max

Author

Richard Wright

Source

Native Son

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

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Citation

Wright, Richard. Native Son. Harper & Brothers, 1940, bk. 3.

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Though it be a thrilling and marvelous thing to be merely young and gifted in such times, it is doubly so, doubly dynamic-to be young, gifted and black.

Lorraine Hansberry

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Topic

Black experience

Author

Lorraine Hansberry

Source

The Nation Needs Your Gifts

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1964 1960s 20th century

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Citation

Hansberry, Lorraine. "The Nation Needs Your Gifts." Reader's Digest/United Negro College Fund creative writing contest winners meeting. 1 May 1964, New York City, NY, USA.

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The long habit of living indisposeth us for dying.

Sir Thomas Browne

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Topic

Life and death Fear of death Death Life

Author

Sir Thomas Browne

Source

Hydriotaphia

Language

English

Time

1658 1650s 17th century

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Original Citation

Browne, Thomas, Sir. "Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, or, a Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns lately found in Norfolk." Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, or, a Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns lately found in Norfolk Together with the Garden of Cyrus. London: Henry Brome, 1658, ch. 5.

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Current Citation

Browne, Thomas, Sir. "Hydriotaphia or Urne Buriall (1658)." Thomas Browne: Selected Writings, edited by Kevin Killeen. Oxford University Press, 2018, ch. 5.

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I entered the world a slave-in the midst of a country whose most honoured writings declare that all men have a right to liberty.

Henry Box Brown

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Topic

Slavery Equality American hypocrisy America

Author

Henry Box Brown

Source

Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown

Genre

Slave narrative Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1849 1840s 19th century

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Original Citation

Brown, Henry Box. Narrative of Henry Box Brown. Boston: Brown & Stearns, 1849.

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Current Citation

Brown, Henry Box. Narrative of the Live of Henry Box Brown. Dover Publications, 2015.

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Better build schoolrooms for "the boy",
Than cells and gibbets for "the man".

Eliza Cook

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Topic

Education

Author

Eliza Cook

Source

A Song for the Ragged Schools

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1853 1850s 19th century

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Citation

Cook, Eliza. A Song for the Ragged Schools. c. 1853.

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And I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

Revelation 21:1

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Read this verse at Bible Hub
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Topic

New creation End times

Source

Revelation The Bible

Medium

Scripture

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Greek

Time

96 90s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

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Citation

The Holy Bible: The King James Version. 1611. (Revelation 21:1).

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Teach me to feel another's wo,
To hide the fault I see:
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.

Alexander Pope

Read The Universal Prayer at bartleby.com
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Topic

Empathy Mercy Compassion

Author

Alexander Pope

Source

The Universal Prayer

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1738 1730s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 3

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Citation

Pope, Alexander. "The Universal Prayer." London: R. Dodsley, 1738, I. 37-40.

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Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day.

Bertrand Russell

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Topic

Delusion

Author

Bertrand Russell

Source

Dreams and Facts Sceptical Essays

Medium

Essay

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

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Citation

Russell, Bertrand. "Dreams and Facts." Sceptical Essays. George Allen and Unwin Ltd./W. W. Norton & Company, 1928.

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In many a piece of music, it's the pause or the rest that gives the piece its beauty and its shape.

Pico Iyer

The Art of Stillness

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Topic

Music

Author

Pico Iyer

Source

The Art of Stillness

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

English

Time

2014 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

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Citation

Iyer, Pico. The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere. Simon & Schuster/TED Books, 2014, ch. 5. Originally a TED Talk, 2013.

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