20th century

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Our civilization has decided, and very justly decided, that determining the guilt or innocence of men is a thing too important to be trusted to trained men.... When it wants a library catalogued, or the solar system discovered, or any trifle of that kind, it uses up its specialists. But when it wishes anything done which is really serious, it collects twelve of the ordinary men standing round.

G.K. Chesterton

Tremendous Trifles

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Chesterton, G.K. "The Twelve Men." In Defense of Sanity: The Best Essays of G.K. Chesterton. Ignatius Press, 2011. Originally published by Methuen, 1909.

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Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world's phenomena intersect, only once in this way and never again.

Hermann Hesse

Demian

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Hesse, Herman. Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend [Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth]. Fischer Verlag, 1919.

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Hesse, Herman. Demian, translated by Damion Searls. Penguin Classics, 2013.

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It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.

Robert H. Jackson

American Communications Assn. v. Douds

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Read this opinion at supreme.justia.com.

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Jackson, Robert H. United States, Supreme Court. American Communications Assn. v. Douds. United States Reports, vol. 339, 8 May 1950, pp. 382-453. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/339/382/.

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The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death. It's indifference.

Elie Wiesel

Quoted in U.S. News and World Report

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Wiesel, Elie. Quoted in "One Must Not Forget." Interviewed by Alvin P. Sanoff. US News & World Report, 27 Oct. 1986.

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The world is gradually becoming a place where I do not care to be any more.

John Berryman

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Berryman, John. His Toy, His Dream, His Rest. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1968, poem no. 149.

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The power of the press is very great, but not so great as the power of suppress.

Alfred Harmsworth

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Harmsworth, Alfred. Daily Mail. c. 1918.

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If you take the game of life seriously, if you take your nervous system seriously, if you take your sense organs seriously, if you take the energy process seriously, you must turn on, tune in and drop out.

Timothy Leary

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Leary, Timothy. The Politics of Ecstasy. Ronin Publishing, 1990, ch. 21. Originally stated during a lecture, June 1966.

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Heaven,-I'm in heaven-And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak
And I seem to find the happiness I seek
When we're out together dancing, cheek to cheek.

Fred Astaire

Cheek to Cheek

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Berlin, Irving. "Cheek-to-Cheek." Top Hat. Directed by Mark Sandrich. Performed by Fred Astaire. RKO Radio Pictures, 1935.

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Any coward can sit in his home and criticize a pilot for flying into a mountain in fog. But I would rather, by far, die on a mountainside than in a bed.

Charles Lindbergh

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Lindbergh, Charles. Journal entry. 26 Aug. 1938.

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When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

Eric Hoffer

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Hoffer, Eric. The Passionate State of Mind, and Other Aphorisms. Harper & Row, 1955, no. 33.

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Egypt's might is tumbled down
Down a-down the deeps of thought;
Greece is fallen and Troy town,
Glorious Rome hath lost her crown,
Venice' pride is nought.
But the dreams their children dreamed
Fleeting, unsubstantial, vain
Shadowy as the shadows seemed
Airy nothing, as they deemed,
These remain.

Mary Coleridge

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Egypt's Might is Tumbled Down

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Coleridge, Mary. "Egypt's Might is Tumbled Down." Poems. London: Elkin Mathews, 1908, I. 1.

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You have riches and freedom here but I feel no sense of faith or direction. You have so many computers, why don't you use them in the search for love?

Lech Walesa

Quoted in The Daily Telegraph

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Walesa, Lech. Quoted in Daily Telegraph. 14 Dec. 1988.

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Killing them, therefore, cannot be equated with killing normal human beings, or any other self-conscious beings...No infant-disabled or not-has as strong a claim to life as beings capable of seeing themselves as distinct entities, existing over time.

Peter Singer

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Practical Ethics

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On killing infants.

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Singer, Peter. Practical Ethics. Cambridge University Press, 1979, ch. 7.

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Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subject only in outline, but that every word tell.

William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White.

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Strunk, William, Jr. The Elements of Style. Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1920, ch. 2, sec. 13.

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Strunk, William, Jr. and E. B. White. The Elements of Style. Penguin Books, 2007, ch. 2, sec. 13.

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It is only that which cannot be expressed otherwise that is worth expressing in music.

Frederick Delius

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Delius. "At the Cross-Roads." The Sackbut, Sept. 1920.

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All genuine political theories presuppose man to be evil, i. E., by no means an unproblematic but a dangerous and dynamic being.

Carl Schmitt

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The Concept of the Political

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Schmitt, Carl. Der Begriff des Politischen [The Concept of the Political]. Duncker & Humblot, 1932, sect. 7.

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Schmitt, Carl. The Concept of the Political, translated by George Schwab. University of Chicago Press, 2007, sect. 7.

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I think Bigfoot is blurry, that's the problem. It's not the photographer's fault. Bigfoot is blurry, and that's extra scary to me. There's a large, out of focus monster, roaming the countryside.

Mitch Hedberg

Strategic Grill Locations

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Hedberg, Mitch. Strategic Grill Locations. 7 Sept. 1999, The Laff Stop Comedy Club, Houston, Texas, USA.

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It is not the attainment of the goal that matters, it is the things that are met with by the way.

Havelock Ellis

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Ellis, Havelock. The Dance of Life. Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1923, ch. 3.

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Love, love, you know what love is? Love is an illusion created by lawyer types like yourself to perpetuate another illusion called marriage to create the reality of divorce and the illusionary need for divorce lawyers.

St. Elmo's Fire

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St. Elmo's Fire. Directed by Joel Schumacher, Channel-Lauren Shuler, 1985.

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The words "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," which I saw on an Italian movie poster, are perhaps the briefest statement imaginable of the basic appeal of movies.

Pauline Kael

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Kael, Pauline. Quoted in "Pauline Kael Is Still At The Movies." Written by Jacob Siskind. The Montreal Gazette, 29 May 1968.

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