20th century

Explore 4282 quotes from the 20th century

I've lived a life that's full, I've travelled each and ev'ry highway
And more, much more than this. I did it my way.

Frank Sinatra

My Way

Listen to My Way at Amazon Listen to My Way at Amazon
Read the lyrics to My Way

More information about this quote

Topic

Living life to the fullest Living on one's own terms Life

Speaker

Frank Sinatra

Source

My Way

Medium

Song

Genre

Pop music

Language

English

Time

1969 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Anka, Paul. "My Way." Composed by Jacques Revaux. Performed by Frank Sinatra. My Way. Reprise Records, 1969.

Only a free society... Can produce the technology that makes tyranny possible.

John Keith Laumer

More information about this quote

Topic

Technological progress

Author

John Keith Laumer

Genre

Science fiction

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

English

Time

1967 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Laumer, John Keith. "Test to Destruction." Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison. Doubleday, 1967.

Neither the truth nor the character of history depend, in any way, upon its having some lesson to teach us. And if ever we persuade ourselves that the past has taught us something, we may be certain that it is not the historical past which has been our teacher.

Michael Oakeshott

More information about this quote

Topic

Learning from the past

Author

Michael Oakeshott

Source

Experience and Its Modes

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Oakeshott, Michael. Experience and Its Modes. Cambridge University Press, 1933, ch. 3, sect. 4.

Not even the Church is so powerfully equipped to serve the public psychologically as is the motion-picture company.

William Moulton Marston

More information about this quote

Topic

Entertainment Hollywood Decline of religion The Church

Author

William Moulton Marston

Source

New York University Daily News

Language

English

Time

1929 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Marston, William Moulton. Quoted in "Professor to Cure Scenarios with Wrong Emotional Content: Dabbled in Movies While at Harvard; Now Sought by Hollywood with Offer of Favorable Contract" written by Henry W. Levy. New York University News, 8 Jan. 1929.

A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

Roald Dahl

The Twits

More information about this quote

Topic

Ugliness Beauty

Author

Roald Dahl

Source

The Twits

Medium

Novel

Genre

Children's literature

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Dahl, Roald. The Twits. Jonathan Cape, 1980.

But there is good and reason in us, in human beings, with whom fortune plays, and we can be stronger than nature and fate, if only for a few hours. And we can draw close to one another in times of need, understand and love one another, and live to comfort each other. And sometimes, when the black depths are silent, we can do even more. We can then be gods for moments, stretch out a commanding hand and create things which were not there before and which, when they are created, continue to live without us.

Hermann Hesse

Gertrude

Buy Gertrude at Amazon Buy Gertrude at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Human potential Creativity Creation

Author

Hermann Hesse

Source

Gertrude

Medium

Novel

Language

German

Time

1910 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hesse, Herman. Getrud [Gertrude]. Albert Langen, 1910.

Current Citation

Hesse, Herman. Gertrude, translated by Hilda Rosner. Picador, 2005.

A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste, and such a society is a house built upon sand.

Dorothy L. Sayers

More information about this quote

Topic

Advertising and marketing Consumerism

Author

Dorothy L. Sayers

Source

Creed or Chaos?

Language

English

Time

1947 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sayers, Dorothy. Creed or Chaos? Methuen & Co., 1947, ch. 6.

Private property is a natural fruit of labor, a product of intense activity of man, acquired trough his energetic determination to ensure and develop with his own strength his own existence and that of his family, and to create for himself and his own an existence of just freedom, not only economic, but also political, cultural and religious.

Pope Pius XII

More information about this quote

Topic

Property rights

Speaker

Pope Pius XII

Medium

Radio broadcast Speech

Language

Italian

Time

1944 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Pope Pius XII. "Radiomessaggio di su Santita Pio XII Nel V Anniversario Dall'inizio della Guerra Mondiale [Radio Message from His Holiness Pius XII on the Fifth Anniversary of the Beginning of the World War]." Federal Communications Commission. 1 Sept. 1944, Vatican City, Rome, Italy.

In those days, when every male who could stand half-way erect was being shipped to Verdun to undergo a radical change of posture from the vertical to the eternal horizontal.

Günter Grass

The Tin Drum

Buy The Tin Drum at Amazon Buy The Tin Drum at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

World War I War

Author

Günter Grass

Source

The Tin Drum

Medium

Novel

Language

German

Time

1959 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Die Blechtrommel [The Tin Drum]. Directed by Volker Schlöndorff. Franz Seitz Filmproduktion/Bioskop Film, 1959.

Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards.

Fred Hoyle

More information about this quote

Topic

Space

Speaker

Fred Hoyle

Source

Sayings of the Week Observer

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1979 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Hoyle, Fred. "Sayings of the Week." The Observer, 9 Sept. 1979.

We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run down.

Aneurin Bevan

More information about this quote

Topic

The political center Political ideology Politics

Author

Aneurin Bevan

Source

The Observer

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1953 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Bevan, Aneurin. The Observer. 6 Dec. 1953.

The astonishing thing is not that so many of us went to concentration camps or died there, but that some us survived. Caution did not help. Only chance could save you.

Nadezhda Mandelstam

Hope Abandoned

Buy Hope Abandoned at Amazon Buy Hope Abandoned at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

The gulag Soviet Union

Author

Nadezhda Mandelstam

Source

Hope Abandoned

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

Russian

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Mandelstam, Nadezhda. Hope Abandoned. Collins & Harvill Press/Atheneum Books, ch. 6.

These are some of the things wilderness can do for us. That is the reason we need to put into effect, for its preservation, some other principle that the principles of exploitation or "usefulness" or even recreation. We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope.

Wallace Stegner

More information about this quote

Topic

Wilderness Man and nature Conservation

Author

Wallace Stegner

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Stegner, Wallace. Letter to David E. Pesonen. 3 Dec. 1960.

Men may have had their own very good reasons for bringing women up in servitude, but the soul of a servant is not an attractive thing, and one of the most infuriating aspects of women's constricted upbringing is that it has made them less attractive, even in the eyes of their constrictors, than they should have been. Man has twisted and pruned women out of all recognition and then not liked the results.

Janet Radcliffe Richards

The Sceptical Feminst

More information about this quote

Topic

Patriarchy Oppression of women

Author

Janet Radcliffe Richards

Source

The Sceptical Feminst

Genre

Feminist literature

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Richards, Janet Radcliffe. The Sceptical Feminst: A Philosophical Enquiry. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980, ch. 5.

When someone tells me a piece of the truth which has been withheld from me, and which I needed in order to see my life more clearly, it may bring acute pain, but it can flood me with a cold, sea-sharp wash of relief.

Adrienne Rich

More information about this quote

Topic

Difficult truths

Speaker

Adrienne Rich

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1975 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Rich, Adrienne. "Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying." Women's Writing Workshop. June 1975, Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY, USA.

Patriotism is a lively sense of collective responsibility. Nationalism is a silly cock crowing on its own dunghill.

Richard Aldington

The Colonel's Daughter

More information about this quote

Topic

Patriotism Nationalism

Speaker

Mr. Purfleet

Author

Richard Aldington

Source

The Colonel's Daughter

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1931 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Aldington, Richard. The Colonel's Daughter. Chatto and Windus, 1931.

While classes exist no one is free.
We are not born to be slaves or to be masters.
We are born to be brothers and sisters.
What is capitalism but buying and selling of people?

Ernesto Cardenal

More information about this quote

Topic

Class conflict Power relations Equality Brotherhood Social hierarchy

Author

Ernesto Cardenal

Source

Canto Nacional

Medium

Poem

Genre

Political literature

Language

Spanish

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Cardenal, Ernesto. Canto nacional. Ediciones Carlos Loblé, 1973.

No, Thursday's out. How about never-is never good for you?

Robert Mankoff

Caption to a cartoon showing a businessman speaking on the phone.

Buy How About Never-Is Never Good for You? at Amazon Buy How About Never-Is Never Good for You? at Amazon

More information about this quote

Author

Robert Mankoff

Medium

Cartoon

Statement Type

Question

Language

English

Time

1993 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Mankoff, Robert. Cartoon caption. New Yorker, 3 May 1993.

Current Citation

Mankoff, Robert. How About Never-Is Never Good for You? My Life in Cartoons. Henry Holt and Company, 2014, ch. 8.

Remember the war against Franco?
That's the kind where each of us belongs.
Though he may have won all the battles,
We had all the good songs.

Tom Lehrer

The Folk Song Army

Listen to The Folk Song Army at Amazon Listen to The Folk Song Army at Amazon
Read the lyrics to The Folk Song Army at genius.com

More information about this quote

Topic

Fighting fascism Fascism

Speaker

Tom Lehrer

Source

The Folk Song Army

Medium

Song

Genre

Folk music

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lehrer, Tom. "The Folk Song Army." That Was The Year That Was. Reprise Records/Warner Records, 1965.

In olden days, a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now, God knows,
Anything goes.

Cole Porter

Anything Goes

Listen to Anything Goes at Amazon Listen to Anything Goes at Amazon
Read the lyrics to Anything Goes

More information about this quote

Topic

Moral decline Custom and convention

Author

Cole Porter

Source

Anything Goes

Medium

Song

Genre

Great American songbook

Language

English

Time

1934 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Porter, Cole. "Anything Goes." Anything Goes. Performed by Ethel Merman. 1934, Alvin Theatre, New York, NY, USA.