20th century

Explore 4282 quotes from the 20th century

We come out of the dark and go into the dark again, and in between lie the experiences of our life. But the beginning and end, birth and death, we do not experience; they have no subjective character, they fall entirely in the category of objective events, and that's that.

Thomas Mann

The Magic Mountain

More information about this quote

Topic

The human condition Life and death

Author

Thomas Mann

Source

The Magic Mountain

Medium

Novel

Language

German

Time

1924 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Mann, Thomas. Der Zauberberg [The Magic Mountain]. S. Fischer Verlag, 1924, ch. 6.

Current Citation

Mann, Thomas. The Magic Mountain. Everyman's Library, 2005, ch. 6.

New York makes one think of the collapse of civilization, about Sodom and Gomorrah, the end of the world. The end wouldn't come as a surprise here. Many people already bank on it.

Saul Bellow

More information about this quote

Topic

Decline of New York City New York City

Speaker

Uncle Sammler

Author

Saul Bellow

Source

Mr. Sammler's Planet

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1970 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bellow, Saul. Mr. Sammler's Planet. Viking Press, 1970, pt. 6.

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.

Roald Dahl

The Minpins

More information about this quote

Topic

Secrets Paying attention Magic

Author

Roald Dahl

Source

The Minpins

Medium

Novel

Genre

Children's literature

Language

English

Time

1990 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Dahl, Roald. The Minpins. Jonathan Cape, 1991.

We believe, and I think properly, that when the men who met in 1787 to make a Constitution made the best political document ever made, they did so very largely because they were great compromisers.

Learned Hand

More information about this quote

Topic

Political compromise Political theory American founding American politics Politics

Speaker

Learned Hand

Source

Morals in Public Life

Language

English

Time

1951 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hand, Learned. "Morals in Public Life." Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. 28 June 1951, Washington, DC, USA. Testimony.

Man, biologically considered, and whatever else he may be in the bargain, is simply the most formidable of all the beasts of prey, and, indeed, the only one that preys systematically on its own species.

William James

More information about this quote

Topic

Man's cruelty to man Man and animals Nature of man

Author

William James

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1904 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

James, William. "Remarks At The Peace Banquet." Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1904. Originally remarks at the world peace banquet. 7 Oct. 1904, Boston, MA, USA.

We don't want so much to see a female Einstein become an assistant professor. We want a woman schlemiel to get promoted as quickly as a male schlemiel.

Bella Abzug

"Schlemiel" is a Yiddish term meaning, roughly, an unlucky, incompetent or foolish person.

More information about this quote

Topic

Women's equality

Speaker

Bella Abzug

Source

US News and World Report

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1977 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Abzug, Bella. US News and World Report. 25 Apr. 1977.

The shrewd guess, the fertile hypothesis, the courageous leap to a tentative conclusion-these are the most valuable coin of the thinker at work.

Jerome Bruner

More information about this quote

Topic

Intellectual history Progress

Author

Jerome Bruner

Source

The Process of Education

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bruner, Jerome. The Process of Education. Harvard University Press, 1960, introduction.

I'm wild again,
Beguiled again,
A simpering, whimpering child again-
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I.

Lorenz Milton Hart

More information about this quote

Topic

New love

Author

Lorenz Milton Hart

Source

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered Pal Joey

Medium

Song Musical

Genre

Great American songbook

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hart, Lorenz. "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered." Pal Joey. Composed by Richard Rodgers. 25 Dec. 1940, Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York City, New York, USA.

Zen is a liberation from time. For if we open our eyes and see clearly, it becomes obvious that there is no other time than this instant, and that the past and the future are abstractions without any concrete reality.

Alan Watts

The Way of Zen

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More information about this quote

Topic

Being present The present Time

Author

Alan Watts

Source

The Way of Zen

Genre

Religious literature Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1957 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Watts, Alan. The Way of Zen. Vintage Books, 1957.

Time, you old gipsy man,
Will you not stay,
Put up your caravan
Just for one day?

Ralph Hodgson

More information about this quote

Topic

Relentlessness of time Time

Author

Ralph Hodgson

Source

Time, You Old Gipsy Man

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1917 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hodgson, Ralph. "Time, You Old Gipsy Man." Poems. The Macmillan Company, 1917, I. 1.

You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry. Don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.

Walter Hagen

More information about this quote

Topic

Letting go Living in the moment

Author

Walter Hagen

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1956 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Hagen, Walter C. The Walter Hagen Story. Simon and Schuster, 1956.

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.

Robert Frost

More information about this quote

Topic

Spring Seasons

Author

Robert Frost

Source

Two Tramps in Mud Time

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1934 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Frost, Robert. "Two Tramps in Mud Time." Saturday Review of Literature, 6 Oct. 1934, st. 3.

At its best monogamy may be the wish to find someone to die with; at its worst it is a cure for the terrors of aliveness. They are easily confused.

Adam Phillips

More information about this quote

Topic

Marriage

Author

Adam Phillips

Source

Monogamy

Language

English

Time

1996 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Phillips, Adam. Monogamy. Faber & Faber/Pantheon Books, 1996.

The treatment of the Negro is America's greatest and most conspicuous scandal.

Gunnar Myrdal

More information about this quote

Topic

Race relations

Author

Gunnar Myrdal

Source

An American Dilemma

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1944 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Myrdal, Gunnar. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. Vol. 2, Harper & Brothers, 1944, ch. 45, sect. 9.

If the French noblesse had been capable of playing cricket with their peasants, their chateaux would never have been burnt.

G.M. Trevelyan

More information about this quote

Topic

French Revolution Causes of revolution Revolution Elites Counterfactual history

Author

G.M. Trevelyan

Source

English Social History

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1942 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Trevelyan, George Macaulay. English Social History: A Survey of Six Centuries Chaucer to Queen Victoria. Longmans, Green and Company, 1942, ch. 8.

If the dreams of any so-called normal man were exposed... There would be no more gravity and dignity left for mankind.

Vera Caspary

More information about this quote

Topic

Inner life Dreams

Author

Vera Caspary

Source

Laura

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Caspary, Vera. Laura. Houghton Mifflin, 1943, ch. 2. Originally published in Colliers, Oct. 1942 - Nov. 1942.

Afflicted by the thought that where
Beauty was, nothing ever ran quite straight,
which, no doubt, was why so many people
looked on it as immoral.

John Galsworthy

More information about this quote

Topic

Beauty

Speaker

Jolyon Forsyte

Author

John Galsworthy

Source

In Chancery

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1920 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Galsworthy, John. In Chancery. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920, pt. 1, ch. 13.

My father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I'm going to stay right here and have a part of it, just like you. And no Fascist-minded people like you will drive me from it. Is that clear?

Paul Robeson

More information about this quote

Topic

Black experience

Author

Paul Robeson

Language

English

Time

1956 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Robeson, Paul. Testimony before House Un-American Activities Committee. Un-American Activities Committee meeting. 12 June 1956, Washington, DC, USA.

Children are the future not because they will one day be adults but because humanity is becoming more and more a child, because childhood is the image of the future.

Milan Kundera

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

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More information about this quote

Topic

Children Social change The future

Author

Milan Kundera

Source

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Medium

Novel

Language

Czech

Time

1979 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Kundera, Milan. Le Livre du rire et de l'oubli [The Book of Laughter and Forgetting]. Gallimard, 1979.

Current Citation

Kundera, Milan. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, translated by Aaron Asher. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 1999.

In the twenty-first century, the robot will take the place which slave labor occupied in ancient civilization.

Nikola Tesla

More information about this quote

Topic

Robots

Speaker

Nikola Tesla

Source

A Machine to End War Liberty magazine

Medium

Interview Magazine

Language

English

Time

1935 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Tesla, Nikola. "A Machine to End War." Interviewed by George Sylvester Viereck. Liberty Magazine, 9 Feb. 1935.