Advanced Search

Drill down into our database of quotes.

Currently showing 10,076 quotes

As in political revolutions, so in paradigm choice-there is no standard higher than the the assent of the relevant community. To discover how scientific revolutions are effected, we shall therefore have to examine not only the impact of nature and of logic, but also the techniques of persuasive argumentation effective within the quite special groups that constitute the community of scientists.

Thomas S. Kuhn

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Buy The Structure of Scientific Revolutions at Amazon Buy The Structure of Scientific Revolutions at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Scientific progress Science

Author

Thomas S. Kuhn

Source

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Genre

Historical literature Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1962 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press, 1962, ch. 9.

Time has too much credit... It is not a great healer. It is an indifferent and perfunctory one. Sometimes it does not heal at all. And sometimes when it seems to, no healing has been necessary.

Ivy Compton-Burnett

More information about this quote

Topic

Effects of time Healing

Author

Ivy Compton-Burnett

Source

Darkness and Day

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1951 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Compton-Burnett, Ivy. Darkness and Day. David & Charles/Alfred A. Knopf, 1951, ch. 7.

And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house
With a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself
Well, how did I get here?

Talking Heads

Once in a Lifetime

Listen to Once in a Lifetime at Amazon Listen to Once in a Lifetime at Amazon
Read the lyrics to Once in a Lifetime at genius.com

More information about this quote

Topic

Existential questions

Speaker

Talking Heads

Source

Once in a Lifetime

Medium

Song

Genre

New wave

Statement Type

Question

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Byrne, David and Brian Eno. "Once in a Lifetime." Performed by Talking Heads. Remain in Light. Sire Records, 1980.

For all our failings, despite our limitations and fallibilities, we humans are capable of greatness. What new wonders, undreamt of in our time, will we have wrought in another generation?

Carl Sagan

Buy A Pale Blue Dot at Amazon Buy A Pale Blue Dot at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Technological progress Progress Human potential Human nature

Speaker

Carl Sagan

Source

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Language

English

Time

1994 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl. Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. Random House, 1994.

The subtlest and most pervasive of all influences are those which create and maintain the repertory of stereotypes. We are told about the world before we see it. We imagine most things before we experience them.

Walter Lippmann

Public Opinion

More information about this quote

Topic

Stereotypes

Author

Walter Lippmann

Source

Public Opinion

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Lippmann, Walter. Public Opinion. Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1922, pt. 3, ch. 6.

Current Citation

Lippmann, Walter. Public Opinion. Dover Publications, 2004, pt. 3, ch. 6.

God is on everyone's side…and, in the last analysis, he is on the side of those with plenty of money and large armies.

Jean Anouilh

More information about this quote

Topic

God taking sides God Justice

Speaker

Charles, the dauphin

Author

Jean Anouilh

Source

L'Alouette

Medium

Play

Language

French

Time

1952 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Anouilh, Jean. L'Aloutte [The Lark]. Paris: La Table Ronde, 1953.

Current Citation

Anouilh, Jean. "The Lark." Anouilh Plays: One: Antigone, Léocadia, The Waltz of the Toreadors, The Lark, and Poor Bitos. Methuen Drama, 1987.

Every act of perception, is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination.

Gerald M. Edelman

More information about this quote

Topic

Perception Observation Creation Memory Imagination

Author

Gerald M. Edelman

Source

A Universe of Consciousness

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

2000 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Edelman, Sam and Giulio Tononi. A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination. Basic Books, 2000.

The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children.

Edward VIII

More information about this quote

Topic

America

Speaker

Edward VIII

Source

Look Magazine

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1957 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Edward VIII. "Edward VIII, Afterwards Duke of Windsor." Look Magazine, 5 Mar. 1957.

Up to the moment of this writing... The Nazi concentration camp system still remains a unicum, both in its extent and its quality. At no other place or time has one seen a phenomenon so unexpected and so complex: never have so many human lives been extinguished in so short a time, and with so lucid a combination of technological ingenuity, fanaticism, and cruelty.

Primo Levi

The Drowned and the Saved

Buy The Drowned and the Saved at Amazon Buy The Drowned and the Saved at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

The Holocaust

Author

Primo Levi

Source

The Drowned and the Saved

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Italian

Time

1986 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Levi, Primo. I sommersi e i salvati [The Drowned and the Saved]. Einaudi, 1986, preface.

Current Citation

Levi, Primo. The Drowned and the Saved, translated by Raymond Rosenthal. Simon & Schuster, 2017, preface.

Every one of the great revolutionists, from Isaiah to Shelley, have been optimists. They have been indignant, not about the badness of existence, but about the slowness of men in realizing its goodness.

G.K. Chesterton

More information about this quote

Topic

Revolutionaries Revolution Optimism Progress

Author

G.K. Chesterton

Source

The Defendant

Language

English

Time

1901 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Chesterton, G.K. "The Defendant." The Wit, Whimsy and Wisdom of G.K. Chesterton. Vol. 6, Coachwhip Publications, 2009, introduction. Originally published by R. Brinley Johnson, 1901.

I believe that we are lost here in America, but I believe we shall be found.

Thomas Wolfe

More information about this quote

Topic

America

Author

Thomas Wolfe

Source

You Can't Go Home Again

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1938 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Wolfe, Thomas. You Can't Go Home Again. Harper & Row, 1940, ch. 48.

Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right.

Laurens van der Post

More information about this quote

Topic

Certainty

Author

Laurens van der Post

Source

Lost World of the Kalahari

Genre

Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1958 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Post, Laurens van der. The Lost World of the Kalahari. William Morrow, 1958, ch. 3.

Christ of his gentleness
Thirsting and hungering,
Walked in the wilderness;
Soft words of grace He spoke
Unto lost desert-folk
That listened wondering.

Robert Graves

More information about this quote

Topic

Jesus The Gospel Christianity

Author

Robert Graves

Source

In the Wilderness

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1916 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Graves, Robert. "In the Wilderness." Over the Brazier. c. 1916.

Current Citation

Graves, Robert. "In the Wilderness." The Complete Poems: In One Volume. Penguin Books, 2003, l. 1-6.

If all be true that I think,
There are five reasons we should drink;
Good wine-a friend-or being dry-
Or lest we should be by and by-
Or any other reason why.

Henry Aldrich

More information about this quote

Topic

Reasons to drink Alcohol

Author

Henry Aldrich

Source

Reasons for Drinking

Medium

Poem

Language

Latin

Time

1689 1680s 17th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Aldrich, Henry. Reasons for Drinking. c. 1689.

You risk your skin catchin' killers and the juries turn 'em loose so they can come back and shoot at ya again. If you're honest, you're poor your whole life, and in the end you wind up dyin' all alone on some dirty street. For what? For nothin'. For a tin star.

High Noon

Watch High Noon at Amazon Watch High Noon at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Police Law enforcement

Speaker

Martin Howe

Actor

Lon Chaney Jr.

Source

High Noon

Medium

Film

Genre

Western (film) Western

Language

English

Time

1952 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

High Noon. Directed by Fred Zinnemann. Stanley Kramer Productions, 1952.

To have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.

The Book of Common Prayer

Buy The Book of Common Prayer at Amazon Buy The Book of Common Prayer at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Marriage

Source

Solemnization of Matrimony The Book of Common Prayer

Genre

Religious literature

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Book of Common Prayer (American). Episcopal Church, 1928.

In the arts of life man invents nothing; but in the arts of death he outdoes Nature herself, and produces by chemistry and machinery all the slaughter of plague, pestilence and famine.

George Bernard Shaw

Buy Man and Superman at Amazon Buy Man and Superman at Amazon
Read Man and Superman at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Man's inhumanity to man War

Speaker

The devil

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

Man and Superman

Medium

Play

Genre

Drama (play)

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "Man and Superman." Man and Superman, John Bull's Other Island, and Major Barbara. Oxford University Press, 2021, act 3. Originally published by Archibald and Constable & Co., Ltd, 1903.

The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything.

David Ogilvy

Confessions of an Advertising Man

More information about this quote

Topic

Advertising and marketing

Author

David Ogilvy

Source

Confessions of an Advertising Man

Medium

Treatise

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Ogilvy, David. Confessions of an Advertising Man. Atheneum, 1963, ch. 5.

This whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, "Is there a meaning to music?" My answer to that would be, "Yes." And "Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?" My answer to that would be, "No." Therein lies the difficulty.

Aaron Copland

What to Listen for in Music

Buy What to Listen for in Music at Amazon Buy What to Listen for in Music at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Music

Author

Aaron Copland

Source

What to Listen for in Music

Language

English

Time

1939 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Copland, Aaron. What to Listen for in Music. McGraw-Hill, 1939, ch. 2.

The effect of boredom on a large scale in history is underestimated. It is a main cause of revolutions, and would soon bring to an end all the static Utopias and the farmyard civilization of the Fabians.

William Ralph Inge

More information about this quote

Topic

Forces of history History Boredom

Author

William Ralph Inge

Source

End of an Age

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1948 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Inge, William Ralph. The End of an Age and Other Essays. Putnam, 1948, ch. 6.