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When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.

John Muir

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Topic

Interconnectedness of all things Nature of the universe The universe

Author

John Muir

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1869 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Muir, John. Journal entry. 1869.

Current Citation

Muir, John. "My First Summer in the Sierra." John Muir: Nature Writings. Library of America, 1997, ch. 6.

All those who try to go it sole alone,
Too proud to be beholden for relief,
Are absolutely sure to come to grief.

Robert Frost

More information about this quote

Topic

Self-reliance Individualism

Author

Robert Frost

Source

Haec Fabula Docet

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Frost, Robert. "Haec Fabula Docet." Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1946, I. 18.

The universe is no narrow thing and the order within it is not constrained by any latitude in its conception to repeat what exists in one part in any other part. Even in this world more things exist without our knowledge than with it and the order in creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze, so that you shall not lose your way. For existence has its own order and that no man's mind can compass, that mind itself being but a fact among others.

Cormac McCarthy

Blood Meridian; or The Evening Redness in the West

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Topic

The universe

Author

Cormac McCarthy

Source

Blood Meridian; or The Evening Redness in the West

Medium

Novel

Genre

Western literature

Language

English

Time

1985 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

McCarthy, Cormac. Blood Meridian; or The Evening Redness in the West. Random House, 1985, ch. 17.

I often want to cry. That is the only advantage women have over men-at least they can cry.

Jean Rhys

More information about this quote

Topic

Crying Men and women Masculinity

Author

Jean Rhys

Source

Good Morning, Midnight

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1939 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Rhys, Jean. Good Morning, Midnight. Constable Press, 1939.

Current Citation

Rhys, Jean. Good Morning, Midnight. W. W. Norton & Company, 2020.

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of style.

Matthew Arnold

More information about this quote

Topic

Writing

Speaker

Matthew Arnold

Source

Collections and Recollections

Statement Type

Writing advice

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Arnold, Matthew. Quoted in Collections and Recollections, written by G. W. E. Russell. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1898, ch. 14. Originally stated to Russell by Arnold c. 1890.

O eloquent, just, and mighty Death!... Thou hast drawn together all the farstretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, Hic jacet (here lies).

Sir Walter Raleigh

More information about this quote

Topic

Death as equalizer Death

Author

Sir Walter Raleigh

Source

The History of the World

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1614 1610s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Raleigh, Walter. The Historie of the VVorld / In Five Bookes. London: Ben Jonson, 1614, bk. 5, ch. 6.

Absence of occupation is not rest,
A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd.

William Cowper

Retirement

More information about this quote

Topic

Idleness

Author

William Cowper

Source

Retirement Poems by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq.

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1782 1780s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cowper, William. "Retirement." Poems by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq. London: J. Johnson, 1782.

One was never married, and that's his hell; another is, and that's his plague.

Robert Burton

The Anatomy of Melancholy

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Read The Anatomy of Melancholy at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Marriage

Author

Robert Burton

Source

The Anatomy of Melancholy

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1621 1620s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Oxford: Henry Cripps, 1621, pt. 1.

Current Citation

Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy, edited by Holbrook Jackson. New York Review Books, 2001, pt. 1.

Power, like a desolating pestilence,
Pollutes whate'er it touches; and obedience,
Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,
Makes slaves of men, and, of the human frame,
A mechanized automation.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Queen Mab

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Read Queen Mab at marxists.org

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Topic

Nature of power Power relations Power

Author

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Source

Queen Mab

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1813 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. Queen Mab; A Philosophical Poem; With Notes. London, 1813, pt. 3.

Current Citation

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "Queen Mab." Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Major Works, edited by Zachary Leader and Michael O'Neill. Oxford University Press, 2009, pt. 3.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you.

Roald Dahl

The Witches

More information about this quote

Topic

Feeling loved Love

Author

Roald Dahl

Source

The Witches

Medium

Novel

Genre

Children's literature

Language

English

Time

1983 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Dahl, Roald. The Witches. Jonathan Cape, 1983.

I always figured girls knew exactly what they wanted. They knew-they had a plan. Or maybe they didn’t. Maybe they were just as confused as we were. Isn’t that great? It's-it’s horrible. They don’t know either. That means nobody knows.

The Wonder Years

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More information about this quote

Topic

Men and women The human condition

Speaker

Narrator (Adult Kevin Arnold)

Actor

Daniel Stern

Source

The Wonder Years

Medium

TV program

Genre

Coming of age (TV) Comedy (TV) Coming of age Comedy

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

"Just Between Me and You and Kirk and Paul and Carla and Becky." The Wonder Years, written by Neal Marlens and Carol Black and Matthew Carlson, directed by Peter Baldwin, season 2, episode 5, The Black/Marlens Company and New World Television, 1989.

The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and... He does it without destroying something else.

John Updike

Quoted in Paris Review

More information about this quote

Topic

Artists Nature of art Art Creation

Speaker

John Updike

Source

Paris Review

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

1977 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Updike, John. "John Updike, The Art of Fiction No. 43." Interviewed by Charles Thomas Samuels. The Paris Review, Issue 45, Winter 1968.

We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we've had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder. But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land.

Robert F. Kennedy

More information about this quote

Topic

Race relations Political progress

Speaker

Robert F. Kennedy

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1968 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kennedy, Robert F. Remarks on the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. 4 Apr. 1968, Indianapolis, IN, USA.

It's a stinking world because there's no law and order anymore! It's a stinking world because it lets the young get on to the old, like you done. Oh, it's no world for an old man any longer. What sort of a world is it at all? Men on the moon, and men spinning around the earth, and there's not no attention paid to earthly law and order no more.

A Clockwork Orange

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More information about this quote

Topic

Law and order Moral decline Decline of civilization

Speaker

Tramp

Actor

Paul Farrell

Source

A Clockwork Orange

Medium

Film

Genre

Dystopian (film) Crime (film) Dystopian Crime

Language

English

Time

1971 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

A Clockwork Orange. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Polaris Productions/Hawk Films, 1971.

To desire to have many books, and never to use them, is like a childe that will have a candle burning by him all the while he is sleeping.

Henry Peacham

More information about this quote

Topic

Tsundoku Books

Author

Henry Peacham

Source

The Compleat Gentleman

Language

English

Time

1622 1620s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Peacham, Henry. The Compleat Gentleman. London: Francis Constable, 1622.

I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment, to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure-that is all agnosticism means.

Clarence Darrow

More information about this quote

Topic

Agnosticism Intellectual humility

Author

Clarence Darrow

Source

Scopes Monkey Trial

Medium

Courtroom speech Speech

Language

English

Time

1925 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Darrow, Clarence. Criminal Court of Tennessee. The State of Tennessee vs. John Thomas Scopes. 21 July 1925.

As far as "detours" are concerned, they're always more interesting than the main road.

Mary Kelly

More information about this quote

Topic

Journey vs. destination The road less travelled Detours Exploration Wandering

Speaker

Mary Kelly

Source

Mary Kelly

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

1997 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Kelly, Mary. Mary Kelly. Phaidon Press, 1997. Originally stated in an interview with Douglas Crimp. c. 1990.

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men; which, both in affection and means, have married and endowed the public.

Francis Bacon

Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

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Topic

Family as burden Family

Author

Francis Bacon

Source

Of Marriage and the Single Life Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Medium

Essay

Genre

Sociology

Language

English

Time

1625 1620s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Bacon, Francis "Of Marriage and Single Life." Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall. London: John Haviland, 1625.

Current Citation

Bacon, Francis. "Essays, or Counsels, Civil and Moral (1625): Of Marriage and Single Life." Francis Bacon: The Major Works, edited by Brian Vickers. Oxford University Press, 2008.

We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat.

Donald Rumsfeld

More information about this quote

Topic

Weapons of mass destruction Iraq War American politics

Speaker

Donald Rumsfeld

Medium

Interview TV program

Language

English

Time

2003 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Rumsfeld, Donald. This Week with George Stephanopoulous. 30 Mar. 2003. ABC.

If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.

Giuseppe di Lampedusa

The Leopard

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More information about this quote

Topic

The only constant is change Status quo Change

Speaker

Tancredi

Author

Giuseppe di Lampedusa

Source

The Leopard

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

Italian

Time

1957 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Lampedusa, Giuseppe Tomasi. Il Gattopard [The Leopard]. Feltrinelli, 1958, ch. 1.

Current Citation

Lampedusa, Giuseppe. The Leopard, translated by Archibald Colquhoun. Pantheon, 2007, ch. 1.