20th century

Explore 4282 quotes from the 20th century

To be a teacher is my greatest work of art.

Joseph Beuys

Quoted in Artforum

More information about this quote

Topic

Teaching Art

Speaker

Joseph Beuys

Source

Artforum

Medium

Interview Magazine

Language

German

Time

1969 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Beuys, Joseph. "An Interview with Joseph Beuys." Interviewed by Willoughby Sharp. Artforum, Dec. 1969.

Don't let's be beastly to the Germans
When our Victory is ultimately won.

Noel Coward

More information about this quote

Topic

World War II Magnanimity in war

Speaker

Noel Coward

Medium

Song

Language

English

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Coward, Noel. Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans. Warner Chappell Music, 1943.

Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.

Chinatown

Watch Chinatown at Amazon Watch Chinatown at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Effects of time

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.

No one in this world, so far as I know...has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.

H.L. Mencken

More information about this quote

Topic

The masses

Author

H.L. Mencken

Source

Notes on Journalism Chicago Tribune

Medium

Article Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Mencken, Henry Louis. "Notes on Journalism." Chicago Tribune, 19 Sept. 1926.

A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.

Jack London

More information about this quote

Topic

Charity Sacrifice

Author

Jack London

Source

My Confession The Road

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1907 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

London, Jack. "My Confession." The Road. MacMillan & Company, 1907.

Current Citation

London, Jack. "My Confession." The Road. Dover Publications, 2016.

Madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be break-through.

R.D. Laing

More information about this quote

Topic

Genius and insanity Insanity Creativity Innovation Ideas

Author

R.D. Laing

Source

The Politics of Experience

Language

English

Time

1967 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Laing, Ronald David. The Politics of Experience. Penguin Books, 1967, ch. 6.

Very few people spend other people's money as carefully as they spend their own.

Milton Friedman

More information about this quote

Topic

Moral hazard Government spending Economics Government Political theory

Author

Milton Friedman

Source

Open Mind

Medium

Interview TV program

Language

English

Time

1975 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Open Mind. Interview with Milton Friedman. Hosted by Richard Heffner. The Open Mind Legacy Project. National Educational Telecommunications Association, PBS, 7 Dec. 1975, www.YouTube.com/watch?v=k2Kg2SvsI8Q

You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.

Norman Douglas

More information about this quote

Topic

National character Advertising and marketing

Speaker

Bishop South Wind

Author

Norman Douglas

Source

South Wind

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1917 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Douglas, Norman. South Wind. Martin Secker, 1917, ch. 6.

It's no disgrace t'be poor, but it might as well be.

Frank McKinney Hubbard

More information about this quote

Topic

Poverty Dignity

Author

Frank McKinney Hubbard

Source

Short Furrows

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1911 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hubbard, Kin. "Short Furrows." News, c. 1911.

Autumn is quite beautiful here but all the same has a funereal air, like all beautiful autumns-something like a funereal relaxation of things.

Marcel Duchamp

More information about this quote

Topic

Autumn Death Seasons Nature

Speaker

Marcel Duchamp

Source

The Duchamp Dictionary

Genre

Biography

Language

English

Time

20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Grist, Thomas. The Duchamp Dictionary. Thames & Hudson, 2014, p. 70.

But there was one other thing that the grownups also knew, and it was this: that however small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance was there. The chance had to be there.

Roald Dahl

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Buy Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Amazon Buy Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Luck Probability

Author

Roald Dahl

Source

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Medium

Novel

Genre

Children's literature

Language

English

Time

1964 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Dahl, Roald. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Alfred A. Knopf, 1964.

To live is like to love-all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it.

Samuel Butler

More information about this quote

Topic

Life Love

Author

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

Source

Journals of Samuel Butler

Medium

Personal journal

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. 14.

So this was GM chairman Roger Smith. And he appeared to have a brilliant plan: First, close 11 factories in the U. S., then open 11 in Mexico where you pay the workers 70 cents an hour. Then, use the money you've saved by building cars in Mexico to take over other companies, preferably high-tech firms and weapons manufacturers. Next, tell the union you're broke and they happily agree to give back a couple billion dollars in wage cuts. You then take that money from the workers, and eliminate their jobs by building more foreign factories. Roger Smith was a true genius.

Roger and Me

Watch Roger and Me at Amazon Watch Roger and Me at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Deindustrialization Business strategy

Speaker

Michael Moore

Actor

Michael Moore

Source

Roger and Me

Genre

Documentary (film)

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Roger and Me. Directed by Michael Moore, Dog Eat Dog Films, 1989.

Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real. Love, and so art and morals, is the discovery of reality.

Iris Murdoch

More information about this quote

Topic

Love Vulnerability

Author

Iris Murdoch

Source

Chicago Review

Medium

Magazine

Statement Type

Definition

Language

English

Time

1959 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Murdoch, Iris. "The Sublime and the Good." Chicago Review, vol. 13, no. 3, autumn 1959.

It's not a question of enough, pal. It's a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred from one perception to another.

Gordon Gekko

Wall Street

Watch Wall Street at Amazon Watch Wall Street at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Zero sum games Finance

Speaker

Gordon Gekko

Actor

Michael Douglas

Source

Wall Street

Medium

Film

Genre

Drama (film) Drama

Language

English

Time

1987 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Wall Street. Directed by Oliver Stone, American Entertainment Partners/American Films, 1987.

Chinese-Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese, how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty, insanities, one family, your mother who marked your growing with stories, from what is Chinese? What is Chinese tradition and what is the movies?

Maxine Hong Kingston

More information about this quote

Topic

Immigration Assimilation

Author

Maxine Hong Kingston

Source

The Woman Warrior

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1976 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kingston, Maxine Hong. "No Name Woman." The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts. Alfred A. Knopf, 1976.

Mathematics takes us still further from what is human, into the region of absolute necessity, to which only the actual world, but every possible world, must conform.

Bertrand Russell

More information about this quote

Topic

Mathematics Laws of physics

Author

Bertrand Russell

Source

The Study of Mathematics The New Quarterly

Medium

Essay Magazine

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1907 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Russell, Bertrand. "The Study of Mathematics." The New Quarterly, Nov. 1907.

Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group. Initially our loyalties were to ourselves and our immediate family, next, to bands of wandering hunter-gatherers, then to tribes, small settlements, city-states, nations. We have broadened the circle of those we love... If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth.

Carl Sagan

Cosmos

Buy Cosmos (the book) at Amazon Buy Cosmos (the book) at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Empathy Interconnectedness of all people History

Speaker

Carl Sagan

Source

Cosmos

Medium

TV program

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl. Cosmos. Random House, 1980.

Being alone and liking it is, for a woman, an act of treachery, and infidelity far more threatening than adultery.

Molly Haskell

More information about this quote

Topic

Single women Single life Patriarchy

Author

Molly Haskell

Source

Love and Other Infectious Diseases

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1999 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Haskell, Molly. Love and Other Infectious Diseases: A Memoir. William Morrow, 1990.

Creative ideas do not spring from groups. They spring from individuals.

Alfred Whitney Griswold

More information about this quote

Topic

Creativity Innovation The individual Committees

Speaker

Alfred Whitney Griswold

Source

Address at Yale University

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1957 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Griswold, Alfred Whitney. Address at Yale University. 9 Jun. 1957, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.