20th century

Explore 4282 quotes from the 20th century

Young people, who are still uncertain of their identity, often try on a succession of masks in the hope of finding the one which suits them-the one, in fact, which is not a mask.

W.H. Auden

More information about this quote

Topic

Finding oneself Personal identity Youth Personal growth

Author

W.H. Auden

Source

One of the Family Forewords and Afterwords

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Auden, W. H. "One of the Family." Forewords and Afterwords. Random House/Faber and Faber, 1973.

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of life Life

Author

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

Source

Journals of Samuel Butler

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Butler, Samuel. The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, edited by Henry Festing Jones. A. C. Fifield, 1912, ch. 1.

A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.

Archibald MacLeish

More information about this quote

Topic

Birds Poetry

Author

Archibald MacLeish

Source

Ars Poetica (MacLeish)

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

MacLeish, Archibald. "Ars Poetica." Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, June 1926.

Current Citation

MacLeish, Archibald. "Ars Poetica." From Collected Poems 1917 to 1982. Mariner Books, 1985.

Only through art can we get outside of ourselves and know another's view of the universe which is not the same as ours and see landscapes which would otherwise have remained unknown to us like the landscapes of the moon. Thanks to art, instead of seeing a single world, our own, we see it multiply until we have before us as many worlds as there are original artists.

Marcel Proust

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of art

Author

Marcel Proust

Language

French

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Proust, Marcel. Le Temps retrouvé [Time Regained]. Paris: Gallimard, 1927.

Current Citation

Proust, Marcel. Finding Time Again, edited and translated by Ian Patterson. Penguin Classics, 2023.

Right knows no boundaries, and justice no frontiers; the brotherhood of man is not a domestic institution.

Learned Hand

More information about this quote

Topic

Natural law Moral universalism Moral theory Morality

Speaker

Learned Hand

Source

Speeches of Learned Hand

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1945 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hand, Learned. "A Pledge of Allegiance." I Am An American Day. 20 May 1945, Central Park, New York City, NY, USA.

God of forgiveness, do not forgive those murderers of Jewish children here.

Elie Wiesel

Quoted in The Times of London

Spoken at Auschwitz.

More information about this quote

Topic

The Holocaust Forgiveness

Speaker

Elie Wiesel

Source

The Times of London

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1995 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Wiesel, Elie. The Times. 27 Jan. 1995.

I know I am but summer to your heart,
And not the full four seasons of the year.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

More information about this quote

Topic

Summer love Flings

Author

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Source

I Know I Am But Summer

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Millay, Edna St. Vincent. "I Know I Am But Summer." The Harp-Weaver, and Other Poems. Harper & Brothers, 1923, I. 1.

Of all means to regeneration Remorse is surely the most wasteful. It cuts away healthy tissues with the poisoned. It is a knife that probes far deeper than the evil.

E.M. Forster (Edward Morgan Forster)

Howards End

More information about this quote

Topic

Remorse Regrets Guilt Self-improvement Personal growth

Author

E.M. Forster (Edward Morgan Forster)

Source

Howards End

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1910 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Forster, E.M. Howards End. Edward Arnold, 1910, ch. 41.

How you feel about your family is a complicated thing. Deep down, you'll always love them. But you can forget that you love them, and you can hurt them and they can hurt you, and that's not just because you're young.

Home Alone

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More information about this quote

Topic

Family

Speaker

Marley

Actor

Roberts Blossom

Source

Home Alone

Medium

Film

Genre

Christmas (film) Comedy (film) Christmas Comedy

Language

English

Time

1990 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Home Alone. Directed by Chris Columbus, Hughes Entertainment , 1990.

Beauty for some provides escape,
Who gain a happiness in eyeing
The gorgeous buttocks of the ape
Or autumn sunsets exquisitely dying.

Aldous Huxley

More information about this quote

Topic

Beauty

Author

Aldous Huxley

Source

Sententious Song Jonah

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1917 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Huxley, Aldous. "Sententious Song." Jonah. Holywell Press, 1917.

It's always difficult to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And wherever you run into it, prejudice always obscures the truth. I don't really know what the truth is. I don't suppose anybody will ever really know. Nine of us now seem to feel that the defendant is innocent, but we're just gambling on probabilities—we may be wrong. We may be trying to let a guilty man go free, I don't know. Nobody really can. But we have a reasonable doubt, and that's something that's very valuable in our system. No jury can declare a man guilty unless it's sure.

12 Angry Men

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More information about this quote

Topic

Prejudice and bias Jury system Legal system

Speaker

Juror #8

Actor

Henry Fonda

Source

12 Angry Men

Medium

Film

Genre

Courtroom drama (film) Drama (film) Courtroom drama Drama

Language

English

Time

1957 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

12 Angry Men. Directed by Sidney Lumet, Orion-Nova Productions and Orion-Nova Pictures, 1957.

Life is a horizontal fall.

Jean Cocteau

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of life Life

Author

Jean Cocteau

Language

French

Time

1930 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cocteau, Jean. Opium, Journal d'une Desintoxication [Opium: Diary of a Cure]. Librairie Stock, 1930.

This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my rifle is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy, who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will. Before God I swear this creed: my rifle and myself are defenders of my country, we are the masters of our enemy, we are the saviors of my life. So be it, until there is no enemy, but peace. Amen.

Full Metal Jacket

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More information about this quote

Topic

Guns War

Source

Full Metal Jacket

Medium

Film

Genre

War (film) War

Language

English

Time

1987 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Full Metal Jacket. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, Natant/Harrier Films, 1987.

Affirmative action really isn't about preferential treatment for blacks, but about removing preferential treatment whites have received through history.

Julian Bond

Speech at 89th NAACP Annual Convention, July 12, 1998

More information about this quote

Topic

Affirmative action

Speaker

Julian Bond

Source

Speech at 89th NAACP Annual Convention, July 12, 1998

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1998 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bond, Julian. Speech at the NAACP annual convention. 89th NAACP Annual Convention. 12 July 1998, Atlanta, GA, USA.

You have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the "falling domino" principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

More information about this quote

Topic

Domino theory Cold War International politics Politics

Speaker

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1954 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eisenhower, Dwight D. Speech on domino theory. News conference. 7 Apr. 1954, Washington, DC, USA.

I distrust a close-mouthed man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says the wrong things. Talking's something you can't do judiciously, unless you keep in practice.

The Maltese Falcon

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More information about this quote

Topic

Quiet people

Speaker

Kasper Gutman

Actor

Sydney Greenstreet

Source

The Maltese Falcon

Medium

Film

Genre

Film noir Crime (film) Crime

Language

English

Time

1941 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Maltese Falcon. Directed by John Huston, Warner Bros., 1941.

I know what you’re thinking, 'cause right now I'm thinking the same thing. Actually, I've been thinking it ever since I got here: Why, oh why, didn't I take the blue pill?

The Matrix

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More information about this quote

Topic

Ignorance is bliss

Speaker

Cypher

Actor

Joe Pantoliano

Source

The Matrix

Medium

Film

Genre

Science fiction (film) Action (film) Science fiction Action

Language

English

Time

1999 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Matrix. Directed by The Wachowskis. Warner Bros./Village Roadshow Pictures/Groucho II Film Partnership/Silver Pictures, 1999.

Most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything.

Chinatown

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More information about this quote

Topic

Capacity for evil Human nature

Speaker

Noah Cross

Actor

John Huston

Source

Chinatown

Medium

Film

Genre

Neo-noir Mystery (film) Mystery

Language

English

Time

1974 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Chinatown. Directed by Roman Polanski, Long Road Productions/Robert Evans Company, 1974.

Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.

Carl Jung

The Psychology of the Unconscious

More information about this quote

Topic

Love Power Yin and y ang

Author

Carl Jung

Source

The Psychology of the Unconscious

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

German

Time

1912 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Jung, Carl. Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido [The Psychology of the Unconscious]. F. Deuticke, 1912.

Current Citation

Jung, Carl. "On the Psychology of the Unconscious." The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, translated by R. F. C. Hull. Vol. 7, Princeton University Press, 1972, pt. 4.

Sex and religion are bordering states. They use the same vocabulary, share like ecstasies, and often serve as a substitute for one another.

Jessamyn West

More information about this quote

Topic

Sex Religion

Author

Jessamyn West

Source

Hide and Seek: A Continuing Journey

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

West, Jessamyn. Hide and Seek: A Continuing Journey. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973, ch. 21.