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Currently showing 10,076 quotes

It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanism of friendship.

Colette

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Topic

Politeness Friendship

Author

Colette

Source

The Pure and the Impure

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

French

Time

1932 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

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Original Citation

Colette. Le Pur et l'impur and Ces Plaisirs [The Pure and the Impure and These Pleasures]. J. Ferenczi & fils, 1932, ch. 9.

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Current Citation

Colette. The Pure and the Impure. NYRB Classics, 2000, ch. 9.

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I used to say of him that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men.

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

On Napoleon.

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Topic

Military strategy Great man theory of history

Speaker

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Language

English

Time

1831 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

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Citation

Wellesley, Arthur. Spoken during a conversion with Philip Henry Stanhope. 2 Nov. 1831, England, UK.

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To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

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Topic

Photography

Author

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Source

The Decisive Moment

Language

English

Time

1952 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

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Citation

Cartier-Bresson, Henri. The Decisive Moment. Simon and Schuster, 1952.

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We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.

Douglas Adams

Buy The Salmon of Doubt at Amazon Buy The Salmon of Doubt at Amazon
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Topic

Downsides of technology Technology

Author

Douglas Adams

Source

Little Dongly Things The Salmon of Doubt

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

2001 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

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Citation

Adams, Douglas. "Little Dongly Things." The Salmon of Doubt. William Heinemann/Pocket Books, 2002.

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I worry that patriotism run amok will trample the very values that the country seeks to defend.

Dan Rather

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Topic

Downsides of patriotism Patriotism

Speaker

Dan Rather

Source

BBC

Medium

TV program

Language

English

Time

2002 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 1

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Citation

Rather, Dan. "The Problem with Patriotism." Bring 'Em On: Media and Politics in the Iraq War. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004.

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The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.

Milan Kundera

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Buy The Book of Laughter and Forgetting at Amazon Buy The Book of Laughter and Forgetting at Amazon
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Topic

Fighting injustice Oppression Memory History

Speaker

Mirek

Author

Milan Kundera

Source

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

Czech

Time

1979 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

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Original Citation

Kundera, Milan. Le Livre du rire et de l'oubli [The Book of Laughter and Forgetting]. Gallimard, 1979.

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Current Citation

Kundera, Milan. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, translated by Aaron Asher. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 1999.

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The great decisions of human life have as a rule far more to do with the instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors than with conscious will and well-meaning reasonableness.

Carl Jung

Buy Modern Man in Search of a Soul at Amazon Buy Modern Man in Search of a Soul at Amazon
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Topic

Decisions and choices Reason and emotion Intuition Reason

Author

Carl Jung

Source

Modern Man in Search of a Soul

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

German

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

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Citation

Jung, Carl. "Aims of Psychotherapy." Modern Man in Search of a Soul, translated by Cary F. Baynes and William Stanley Dell. Kegen Paul, Trenche, Trubner & Co., 1933.

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We need spring. We need it desperately and, usually, we need it before God is willing to give it to us.

Peter John Gzowski

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Spring Seasons

Author

Peter John Gzowski

Language

English

Time

1979 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

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Citation

Gzowski, Peter John. Peter Gzowski's Spring Tonic. Hurtig, 1979.

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I would not regard the whole of the remaining cities of Germany as worth the bones of one British Grenadier.

Arthur Harris

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In reference to the UK's continued strategic bombing of German cities during World War II.

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Topic

Total war World War II

Author

Arthur Harris

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1945 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

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Citation

Harris, Arthur. Letter to Norman Bottomly. 29 Mar. 1945.

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It is delightful to read on the spot the impressions and opinions of tourists who visited a hundred years ago, in the vehicles and with the aesthetic prejudices of the period, the places which you are visiting now. The voyage ceases to be a mere tour through space; you travel through time and thought as well.

Aldous Huxley

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Topic

Tourism Travel

Author

Aldous Huxley

Source

Along the Road: Notes and Essays of a Tourist

Medium

Essay

Genre

Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1925 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

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Citation

Huxley, Aldous. Along the Road: Notes and Essays of a Tourist. Chatto & Windus/George H. Doran, 1925.

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Sculpture should walk on the tips of its toes, unostentatious, unpretentious, and light as the spoor of an animal in snow.

Jean Arp

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Topic

Sculpture Art

Speaker

Jean Arp

Source

Arp on Arp: Poems, Essays, Memories

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

German

Time

20th century

Authentication Score 1

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Citation

Arp, Jean. Arp on Arp: Poems, Essays, Memories, edited by Marcel Jean. Viking Press, 1972, p. 327.

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Whether ours shall continue to be a Government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people.

Archibald Cox

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Topic

Watergate American politics

Author

Archibald Cox

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

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Citation

Cox, Archibald. Statement after being dismissed by President Richard Nixon. 20 Oct. 1973, Washington, DC, USA.

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Wind back the tape of life to the early days of the Burgess Shale; let it play again from an identical starting point, and the chance becomes vanishingly small that anything like human intelligence would grace the replay.

Stephen Jay Gould

Buy Wonderful Life at Amazon Buy Wonderful Life at Amazon
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Topic

Intelligent life Randomness Evolution

Author

Stephen Jay Gould

Source

Wonderful Life

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

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Citation

Gould, Stephen Jay. Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. W. W. Norton & Co., 1989, preface.

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I love you... That is what they were all saying down their phones, from the hijacked planes and the burning towers. There is only love, and then oblivion. Love was all they had to set against the hatred of their murderers.

Ian McEwan

On the last messages received from those trapped in the Twin Towers on 9/11.

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Topic

September 11th Terrorism

Author

Ian McEwan

Source

The Guardian

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

2001 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

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Citation

McEwan, Ian. "Love and then Oblivion. Love was all they had against their murderers." The Guardian, 15 Sept. 2001.

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Dinosaurs are a touchstone that separates the mentality of children from that of adults.

Dale Russell

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Topic

Dinosaurs Adults and children

Author

Dale Russell

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

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Citation

Russell, Dale. An Odyssey in Time: The Dinosaurs of North America. NorthWord Press, 1989, preface.

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Europeans often ask, and Americans do not always explain, how it happens that this great office, the greatest in the world, unless we except the Papacy, to which any man can rise by his own merits, is not more frequently filled by great and striking men.

James Bryce

The American Commonwealth

On the American Presidency.

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Topic

American Presidency American politics

Author

James Bryce

Source

The American Commonwealth

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1888 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

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Citation

Bryce, James. The American Commonwealth. Vol. 1, London: Macmillan and Co., 1888, ch. 8.

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Words have weight, sound, and appearance; it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to.

W. Somerset Maugham

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Topic

Words Good writing Writing

Author

W. Somerset Maugham

Source

The Summing Up

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1948 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

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Citation

Maugham, William Somerset. The Summing Up. Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1938, ch. 13.

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To trust your intuition is exactly the opposite of any sort of formal education.

Chris Burden

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Topic

Intuition Education

Speaker

Chris Burden

Source

Failure: Documents of Contemporary Art

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

1993 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

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Citation

Burden, Chris. Failure: Documents of Contemporary Art, edited by Lisa Le Feuvre. MIT Press, 2010. Originally spoken during an interview with John Bewley, c. 2010.

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The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.

James Thurber

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Topic

Comedy

Author

James Thurber

Source

The Duchess and the Bugs Lanterns & Lances

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1953 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

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Citation

Thurber, James. "The Duchess and the Bugs." Lanterns & Lances. Harper & Brothers, 1961.

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Color has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it, I know that it has hold of me forever.. .Color and I are one. I am a painter.

Paul Klee

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Topic

Color Art

Speaker

Paul Klee

Language

German

Time

1959 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

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Citation

Klee, Paul. Quoted in Klee, written by Susanna Partsch. Taschen, 2015. Originally a diary entry, 16 Apr. 1914.

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