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A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.

Norman Mailer

More information about this quote

Topic

Democracy

Author

Norman Mailer

Source

The Presidential Papers

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1964 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Mailer, Norman. The Presidential Papers. Bantam Books, 1964, preface.

We are glorious accidents of an unpredictable process with no drive to complexity, not the expected results of evolutionary principles that yearn to produce a creature capable of understanding the mode of its own necessary construction.

Stephen Jay Gould

More information about this quote

Topic

Intelligent life Human evolution Evolution Randomness

Author

Stephen Jay Gould

Source

Full House

Language

English

Time

1996 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Gould, Stephen Jay. Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin. Harmony Books, 1996, pt. 4, ch. 14.

We all make mistakes. We know we make mistakes. I don't know any military commander, who is honest, who would say he has not made a mistake. There's a wonderful phrase: "the fog of war." What "the fog of war" means is: war is so complex it's beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend all the variables. Our judgment, our understanding, are not adequate. And we kill people unnecessarily.

Robert McNamara

Watch The Fog of War at Amazon Watch The Fog of War at Amazon

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Topic

War

Speaker

Robert McNamara

Source

The Fog of War

Medium

Film

Genre

Documentary (film)

Language

English

Time

2003 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Fog of War. Directed by Errol Morris, RadicalMedia/SenArt Films, 2003.

The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach.

Henry Beston

More information about this quote

Topic

Sound of water Rain Wind Waves Nature

Author

Henry Beston

Source

The Outermost House

Genre

Nature writing Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Beston, Henry. The Outermost House. Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1928, ch. 3.

Current Citation

Beston, Henry. The Outermost House. Holt Paperbacks, 2003, ch. 3.

From the earliest times the old have rubbed it into the young that they are wiser than they, and before the young had discovered what nonsense this was they were old too, and it profited them to carry on the imposture.

W. Somerset Maugham

Cakes and Ale

More information about this quote

Topic

Old vs. young Wisdom

Author

W. Somerset Maugham

Source

Cakes and Ale

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1930 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Maugham, William Somerset. Cakes and Ale, or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard. William Heinemann/Garden City Publishing Co., 1930.

Current Citation

Maugham, William Somerset. Cakes and Ale. Vintage, 2000.

We can only pay our debt to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves.

John Buchan

More information about this quote

Topic

Paying it forward

Author

John Buchan

Source

Address to Boy Scouts

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1939 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Buchan, John. Address to the people of Canada on the coronation of George VI. 12 May 1937, Canada.

Journalists belong in the gutter because that is where the ruling classes throw their guilty secrets.

Gerald Priestland

More information about this quote

Topic

Journalism

Speaker

Gerald Priestland

Source

Observer

Language

English

Time

1988 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Priestland, Gerald. Radio broadcast in London. 19 May 1988, London, England, UK.

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

Arthur C. Clarke

Also known as Clarke's Second Law

More information about this quote

Topic

Finding one's limits Pushing oneself Personal development Courage

Author

Arthur C. Clarke

Source

Profiles of the Future

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1962 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Clarke, Arthur C. "Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination." Profiles of the Future. Gollancz, 1962.

Listen! the wind is rising,
and the air is wild with leaves,
We have had our summer evenings,
now for October eves!

Humbert Wolfe

More information about this quote

Topic

Autumn Seasons

Author

Humbert Wolfe

Source

Autumn (Resignation)

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Wolfe, Humbert. "Autumn (Resignation)." Poems. Selections. Ernest Benn Ltd, 1926, st. 2.

Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.

George C. Marshall

Read this speech at oecd.org

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Topic

Marshall Plan World War II

Speaker

George C. Marshall

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1947 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Marshall, George Catlett. Address announcing the Marshall Plan. 5 June 1947, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

The works of art, by being publicly exhibited and offered for sale, are becoming articles of trade, following as such the unreasoning laws of markets and fashion; and public and even private patronage is swayed by their tyrannical influence.

Albert, Prince Consort

More information about this quote

Topic

Art and money Art market Art

Speaker

Albert, Prince Consort

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1851 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Prince Albert, Consort. "At the Dinner of the Royal Academy." 3 May 1851, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England, UK.

And the sun sank again on the grand Australian bush-the nurse and tutor of eccentric minds, the home of the weird, and of much that is different from things in other lands.

Henry Lawson

The Bush Undertaker

More information about this quote

Topic

Australia

Author

Henry Lawson

Source

The Bush Undertaker

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1892 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Lawson, Henry. "The Bush Undertaker." The Antipodean, 1892.

Current Citation

Lawson, Henry. "The Bush Undertaker." The Penguin Henry Lawson Short Stories. Penguin Books, 1986.

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it... An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul.

Max Planck

More information about this quote

Topic

Scientific progress Progress

Author

Max Planck

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

German

Time

1936 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Planck, Max. The Philosophy of Physics. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1936.

There is always something spiritual about the approach of winter. You retire into your innermost chambers and camp near the small glow you find there.

Paul Klee

More information about this quote

Topic

Winter Seasons Nature

Author

Paul Klee

Source

Journals of Paul Klee

Medium

Personal journal

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

German

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Klee, Paul. The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918, edited by Felix Klee. University of California Press, 1968. Originally a diary entry, 8 Oct. 1917.

There is only one success, he said to himself-to be able to spend your life in your own way.

Christopher Morley

More information about this quote

Topic

Success

Author

Christopher Morley

Source

Where the Blue Begins

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Morley, Christopher. Where the Blue Begins. William Heinemann/Doubleday, 1922, ch. 8.

Every man, when he comes to be sensible of his natural rights, and to feel his own importance, will consider himself as fully equal to any other person whatever.

Joseph Priestley

More information about this quote

Topic

Natural law Human rights Equality

Author

Joseph Priestley

Source

An Essay on the First Principles of Government

Medium

Essay

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1768 1760s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Priestley, Joseph. An Essay on the First Principles of Government. London: J. Dodsley, 1768.

Current Citation

Priestley, Joseph. "An Essay on the First Principles of Government." Priestley: Political Writings. Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Your true amateur sips his wine; as he lingers over each separate mouthful, he obtains from each the sum total of pleasure that he would have experienced had he emptied his glass at a single draught.

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Buy The Physiology of Taste at Amazon Buy The Physiology of Taste at Amazon
Read The Physiology of Taste at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Wine Alcohol Drinking alcohol

Author

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Source

The Physiology of Taste

Genre

Food writing

Language

French

Time

1825 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Brillat-Savarin, Jean Anthelme. The Physiology of Taste [Physiologie du Goût]. Paris, 1825, meditation 2.

Current Citation

Brillat-Savarin, Jean Anthelme. The Physiology of Taste: Or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy, translated by M. F. K. Fisher. Vintage, 2011, meditation 2.

Believe me, if all those endearing young charms
Which I gaze on so fondly today,
Were to change by tomorrow and fleet in my arms,
Like fairy gifts fading away,
Thou would'st still be ador'd as this moment thou art,
Let thy loveliness fade as it will,
And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart
Would entwine itself verdantly still.

Thomas Moore

More information about this quote

Topic

True love

Author

Thomas Moore

Source

Irish Melodies

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1808 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Moore, Thomas. "Believe Me, if All Those Endearing Young Charms." A Selection of Irish Melodies. London: J. Power's, 1808.

I have many times asked myself whether there can be more potent advocates of peace upon earth through the years to come than this massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war.

George V

More information about this quote

Topic

Anti-war War

Speaker

George V

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

George V. Speech in France. 13 May 1922, Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille, France.

The first duty of government is to see that people have food, fuel, and clothes. The second, that they have means of moral and intellectual education.

John Ruskin

Fors Clavigera

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of government

Author

John Ruskin

Source

Fors Clavigera

Medium

Open letter Letter

Language

English

Time

1876 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Ruskin, John. "Letter the Sixty-Ninth." Fors Clavigera: Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain. London: Hazell, Watson & Viney/Kent: George Allen, 1 Sept. 1876.

Current Citation

Ruskin, John. Fors Clavigera IV-VI. The Works of John Ruskin, edited by Edward Tyas Cook and Alexander Wedderburn. Vol. 28, Cambridge University Press, 2010, letter 67.