20th century

Explore 4282 quotes from the 20th century

I will write until my knuckles are worn and my brain bewildered, but I will write on and on.

William Styron

More information about this quote

Topic

Perseverance Dedication Writing

Author

William Styron

Source

Letters of William Styron

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1951 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Styron, William. Letter to William C. Styron Sr. 1 June 1951.

My feelings are too intense. I hate bitterly, I love too exaltingly, I pity to extravagantly, I hurt too painfully. We American blacks call that "soul."

Chester Himes

More information about this quote

Topic

Black experience

Author

Chester Himes

Source

The Quality of Hurt

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Himes, Chester. The Quality of Hurt: The Autobiography of Chester Himes. Vol. 1, Doubleday, 1972.

It has often been said, very truly, that religion is the thing that makes the ordinary man feel extraordinary; it is an equally important truth that religion is the thing that makes the extraordinary man feel ordinary.

G.K. Chesterton

More information about this quote

Topic

Religion

Author

G.K. Chesterton

Source

Charles Dickens: A Critical Study

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Chesterton, G.K. Charles Dickens: A Critical Study. Dodd Mead & Company, 1906, ch. 1.

Everybody knows the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows.

Leonard Cohen

Everybody Knows

Listen to Everybody Knows at Amazon Listen to Everybody Knows at Amazon
Read the lyrics to Everybody Knows at genius.com

More information about this quote

Topic

Things are getting worse

Speaker

Leonard Cohen

Source

Everybody Knows

Medium

Song

Language

English

Time

1988 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cohen, Leonard and Sharon Robinson. "Everybody Knows." Performed by Leonard Cohen. I'm Your Man. Columbia Records, 1988.

I must say it's pretty dreary living in the American Age-unless you're an American, of course.

John Osborne

More information about this quote

Topic

America and the world

Speaker

Jimmy Porter

Author

John Osborne

Source

Look Back in Anger

Medium

Play

Language

English

Time

1956 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Osborne, John. Look Back in Anger. 1956, Royal Court Theatre, London, England, UK, act 1.

Current Citation

Osborne, John. Look Back in Anger. Faber & Faber, 2015, act 1.

The only ones who remember when you came in second are your wife and your dog.

Damon Hill

More information about this quote

Topic

Winning and losing Second place Losing

Author

Damon Hill

Source

The Sunday Times

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1994 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Hill, Damon. The Sunday Times. 18 Dec. 1994.

I'm using art as a means of changing myself, as a means of breaking out of a category.

Vito Acconci

More information about this quote

Topic

Self-expression Personal growth Art

Speaker

Vito Acconci

Source

Sexuality: Documents of Contemporary Art

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

1971 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Acconci, Vito. Interviewed by Cindy Nemser. c. 1971.

Current Citation

Acconci, Vito. Sexuality: Documents of Contemporary Art, edited by Amelia Jones. Whitechapel Gallery/The MIT Press, 2014.

The life-history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. From the moment of his birth the customs into which he is born shape his experience and behavior. By the time he can talk, he is the little creature of his culture, and by the time he is grown and able to take part in its activities, its habits are his habits, its beliefs his beliefs, its impossibilities his impossibilities.

Ruth Benedict

Patterns of Culture

More information about this quote

Topic

Custom and convention Formation of character

Author

Ruth Benedict

Source

Patterns of Culture

Genre

Anthropology

Language

English

Time

1934 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Benedict, Ruth. Patterns of Culture. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1934, ch. 1.

Freedom is an indivisible word. If we want to enjoy it, and fight for it, we must be prepared to extend it to everyone, whether they are rich or poor, whether they agree with us or not, no matter what their race or the color of their skin.

Wendell Willkie

More information about this quote

Topic

Freedom

Author

Wendell Willkie

Source

One World

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Willkie, Wendell Lewis. One World. Simon & Schuster, 1943, ch. 13.

Immunities that are valid as against the federal government by force of the specific pledges of particular amendments have been found to be implicit in the concept of ordered liberty, and thus, through the Fourteenth Amendment, become valid as against the states.

Benjamin Cardozo

Palko v. Connecticut

Read this opinion at supreme.justia.com.

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Topic

Citizen and state Constitutional law

Author

Benjamin Cardozo

Source

Palko v. Connecticut

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1937 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Cardozo, Benjamin Nathan. United States, Supreme Court. Palko v. Connecticut. United States Reports, vol. 302, 6 Dec. 1937, pp. 319-329. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/302/319/.

Throughout the ages, man has conquered tragedy with his ability to create works of art.

Will Barnet

More information about this quote

Topic

Art as therapy Purpose of art Art

Speaker

Will Barnet

Source

22 Famous Painters and Illustrators Tell How They Work

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

1964 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Barnet, Will. "Interview with Mary Anne Guitar." 22 Famous Painters and Illustrators Tell How They Work. David McKay, 1964, p. 11.

The march of social progress is like a long and straggling parade, with the seers and prophets at its head and a smug minority bringing up the rear.

Pierre Berton

More information about this quote

Topic

Social progress Progress

Author

Pierre Berton

Source

The Smug Minority

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1968 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Berton, Pierre. The Smug Minority. McLelland & Stewart, 1968.

Britain will be honoured by historians more for the way she disposed of an empire than for the way in which she acquired it.

David Ormsby Gore

Quoted in The New York Times

More information about this quote

Topic

British imperialism Imperialism

Speaker

David Ormsby Gore

Source

The New York Times

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1962 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Ormsby-Gore, David. Quoted in The New York Times. 28 Oct. 1962.

Political agitation, by the passions it arouses or the convictions it engenders, may in fact stimulate men to the violation of law. Detestation of existing policies is easily transformed into forcible resistance of the authority which puts them in execution, and it would be folly to disregard the causal relation between tire two. Yet to assimilate agitation, legitimate as such, with direct incitement to violent resistance, is to disregard the tolerance of all methods of political agitation which in normal times is a safeguard of free government.

Learned Hand

Masses Pub Co. v. Patten

More information about this quote

Topic

First Amendment US Constitution Freedom of speech and expression

Author

Learned Hand

Source

Masses Pub Co. v. Patten

Medium

Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1917 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hand, Learned. US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Masses Pub. Co. v. Patten, 244 F. 535 (1917).

They have invented a phrase, a phrase that is a black and white contradiction in two words—"free-love"—as if a lover ever had been, or ever could be, free. It is the nature of love to bind itself, and the institution of marriage merely paid the average man the compliment of taking him at his word.

G.K. Chesterton

More information about this quote

Topic

Casual sex Sex Commitment (relationships)

Author

G.K. Chesterton

Source

A Defence of Rash Vows The Defendant

Language

English

Time

1901 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Chesterton, G.K. "The Defendant." The Wit, Whimsy and Wisdom of G.K. Chesterton. Vol. 6, Coachwhip Publications, 2009. Originally published by R. Brinley Johnson, 1901, introduction.

In science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs.

Francis Darwin

More information about this quote

Topic

Credit Discovery Science

Author

Francis Darwin

Language

English

Time

1914 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Darwin, Francis. "Francis Galton." Eugenics Review, April 1914.

"You", your joys and your sorrows, your memories and ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.

Francis Crick

More information about this quote

Topic

Free will The soul Nature of man

Author

Francis Crick

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1994 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Crick, Frances. The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994, ch. 1.

My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests.

George Santayana

More information about this quote

Topic

Atheism Man and the universe

Author

George Santayana

Source

On My Friendly Critics Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Santayana, George. "On My Friendly Critics." Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies. Charles Scribner's Sons/Constable and Co., 1922.

Don't tell me that man doesn't belong out there. Man belongs wherever he wants to go-and he'll do plenty well when he gets there.

Wernher von Braun

More information about this quote

Topic

Space travel Space

Speaker

Wernher von Braun

Source

Space: Reach for the Stars Time Magazine

Language

English

Time

1958 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Von Braun, Werner. "Space: Reach for the Stars." Time, 17 Feb. 1958.

There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.

Logan Pearsall Smith

More information about this quote

Topic

Getting what you want How to live

Author

Logan Pearsall Smith

Source

Afterthoughts

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1931 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Smith, Logan Pearsall. "Life and Human Nature." Afterthoughts. Constable & Company, 1931.