20th century

Explore 4282 quotes from the 20th century

Pessimism (or rather what is called such) is, in brief, playing the sure game. You cannot lose at it; you may gain. It is the only view of life in which you can never be disappointed.

Thomas Hardy

More information about this quote

Topic

Pessimism Low expectations

Author

Thomas Hardy

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hardy, Thomas. Notebook entry. 1 Jan. 1902.

Current Citation

Hardy, Thomas. Quoted in The Poetry of Thomas Hardy: A Handbook and Commentary, written by J. O. Bailey. UNC Press Books, 2018.

Human contact seemed to her so frail a thing that the hope that two people might want each other in the same way, at the same time and with the possibility of doing something about it, seemed infinitely remote.

Margaret Drabble

The Waterfall

More information about this quote

Topic

Connecting with others

Author

Margaret Drabble

Source

The Waterfall

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1969 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Drabble, Margaret. The Waterfall. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1969.

If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought—not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

United States v. Schwimmer

Read this opinion at supreme.justia.com.

More information about this quote

Topic

Freedom of thought Pluralism

Author

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Source

United States v. Schwimmer

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1929 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. Dissenting Opinion. United States v. Schwimmer. United States Reports, vol. 279, 27 May 1929, pp. 653-655. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/279/644/.

My center is giving way, my right is retreating, situation excellent, I am attacking.

Ferdinand Foch

More information about this quote

Topic

Aggression Battle

Speaker

Ferdinand Foch

Language

French

Time

1914 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Foch, Ferdinand. Message sent during the first Battle of the Marne. 8 Sept. 1914.

I decided it is better to scream. This pitiful sound, which sometimes, goodness knows how, reaches into the remotest prison cell, is a concentrated expression of the last vestige of human dignity. It is a man's way of leaving a trace, of telling people how he lived and died. By his screams he asserts his right to live, sends a message to the outside world demanding help and calling for resistance. If nothing else is left, one must scream. Silence is the real crime against humanity.

Nadezhda Mandelstam

Hope Against Hope

Buy Hope Against Hope at Amazon Buy Hope Against Hope at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Soviet Union

Author

Nadezhda Mandelstam

Source

Hope Against Hope

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

Russian

Time

1970 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Mandelstam, Nadezhda. Hope Against Hope. The Chekov Press/Atheneum, 1970, ch. 11.

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen

Dulce et Decorum Est

Read Dulce et Decorum Est at Poetry Foundation

More information about this quote

Topic

Horrors of war War

Author

Wilfred Owen

Source

Dulce et Decorum Est

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1920 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Owen, Wilfred. "Dulce et Decorum Est." Poems by Wilfred Owen. Chatto & Windus, 1920.

Current Citation

Owen, Wilfred. "Dulce et Decorum Est." The War Poems Of Wilfred Owen. Random House UK, 2018.

I never joined the Army because "at ease" was never that easy to me. It seemed rather uptight still. I don't relax by parting my legs slightly and putting my hands behind my back.

Mitch Hedberg

Strategic Grill Locations

Listen to Strategic Grill Locations at Amazon Listen to Strategic Grill Locations at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

The Army The military

Speaker

Mitch Hedberg

Source

Strategic Grill Locations

Medium

Comedy album

Genre

Comedy (stand up)

Statement Type

Joke

Language

English

Time

1999 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

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

There was a famous story, some reporters asked a door gunner, "How can you shoot women and children?" and he'd answered, "It's easy, you just don't lead 'em so much."

Michael Herr

Dispatches

Buy Dispatches at Amazon Buy Dispatches at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Vietnam War

Author

Michael Herr

Source

Dispatches

Genre

War literature War

Language

English

Time

1977 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Herr, Michael. "Breathing In." Dispatches. Alfred A. Knopf, 1977, pt. 3.

There is only one question which really matters: why do bad things happen to good people?

Harold S. Kushner

When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Buy When Bad Things Happen to Good People Buy When Bad Things Happen to Good People

More information about this quote

Topic

Problem of evil

Author

Harold S. Kushner

Source

When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Statement Type

Question

Language

English

Time

1981 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kushner, Harold. When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Schocken Books, 1981, ch. 1.

I live in a rather special world. I know only one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don't know. They're outside my ken. But sometimes when I'm in a theater I can feel them.

Pauline Kael

Remark in an address to the Modern Language Association after Richard Nixon's landslide election win in 1972.

More information about this quote

Topic

Living in a bubble American politics

Speaker

Pauline Kael

Language

English

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kael, Pauline. Quoted in "Critics Here Focus on Films As Language Conference Opens." Written by Israel Shenker. The New York Times, 28 Dec. 1972. Originally stated in a lecture at the Modern Language Association, Dec. 1972.

When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.

Nikola Tesla

More information about this quote

Topic

Predicting the future Technological progress

Speaker

Nikola Tesla

Source

Collier's Magazine

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Tesla, Nikola. "When Woman is Boss." Interviewed by John B. Kennedy. Collier's magazine, 30 Jan. 1926.

Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century beings it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.

Thomas Mann

The Magic Mountain

Buy The Magic Mountain at Amazon Buy The Magic Mountain at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of time

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. 5.

Current Citation

Mann, Thomas. The Magic Mountain. Everyman's Library, 2005, ch. 5.

A society based on the letter of the law and never reaching any higher fails to take advantage of the full range of human possibilities. The letter of the law is too cold and formal to have a beneficial influence on society. Whenever the tissue of life is woven of legalistic relationships, this creates an atmosphere of spiritual mediocrity that paralyzes man’s noblest impulses.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

More information about this quote

Topic

Legalism Laws of physics

Speaker

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Medium

Speech

Genre

Commencement address

Language

English

Time

1978 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander I. "A World Split Apart." Commencement cermony. 8 June 1978, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

The truth which makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.

Herbert Agar

More information about this quote

Topic

Truth hurts Truth Willful ignorance Freedom

Author

Herbert Agar

Source

A Time for Greatness

Statement Type

Irony

Language

English

Time

1942 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Agar, Herbert. A Time for Greatness. Little, Brown and Company, 1942.

We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.

William Ralph Inge

The Idea of Progress

More information about this quote

Topic

Animal cruelty Man and animals

Speaker

William Ralph Inge

Source

The Idea of Progress

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1920 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Inge, William Ralph. "The Idea of Progress." Romanes Lecture. 27 May 1920, The Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, England, UK. Lecture.

Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life-learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Robert Fulghum

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Buy this book at Amazon Buy this book at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

How to live

Author

Robert Fulghum

Source

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1988 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fulghum, Robert. "Credo." All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. 1986.

If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters daydreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.

Gaston Bachelard

The Poetics of Space

Buy The Poetics of Space at Amazon Buy The Poetics of Space at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Houses Home

Author

Gaston Bachelard

Source

The Poetics of Space

Language

French

Time

1958 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Bachelard, Gaston. La Poetique de l'Espace [The Poetics of Space]. Presses Universitaires de France, 1948, ch. 1.

Current Citation

Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space, translated by Maria Jolas. Penguin Classics, 2014, ch. 1.

If we assume that the last breath of, say, Julius Caesar, has by now become thoroughly scattered through the atmosphere, then the chances are that each of us inhales one molecule of it with every breath we take.

James Jeans

An Introduction to the Kinetic Theory of Gases

Buy An Introduction to the Kinetic Theory of Gases at Amazon Buy An Introduction to the Kinetic Theory of Gases at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Interconnectedness of all things

Author

James Jeans

Source

An Introduction to the Kinetic Theory of Gases

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jeans, James. An Introduction to the Kinetic Theory of Gases. Cambridge University Press, 1940, ch. 2.

There can now be no doubt that it is Stalin rather than Hitler, who is the most alarming figure of the twentieth century. I say this-I say this not merely because Stalin killed more people than Hitler-though clearly he did-and not even because of Stalin was more of a psychopath than Hitler-although clearly he was. I say it because Stalin was not a one-off like Hitler, an eruption from nowhere. Stalin stands in a historical tradition of rule by terror which existed before him, which he refined, and which could exist again. His, not Hitler's, is the spectre that should worry us.

Robert Harris

Archangel

More information about this quote

Topic

Totalitarianism

Author

Robert Harris

Source

Archangel

Language

English

Time

1998 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Harris, Robert. Archangel. Hutchinson, 1998, ch. 11.

Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?

Joseph Welch

To Joseph McCarthy, on June 9th, 1954, defending the US Army against allegations of subversive activities.

More information about this quote

Topic

Red Scare Cold War American politics

Speaker

Joseph Welch

Language

English

Time

1954 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Welch, Joseph. Quoted in No Sense of Decency, written by Robert Shogun. Ivan R. Dee, 2009, ch. 10. Originally a speech "Have You No Sense of Decency?" Army-McCarthy Hearings. 9 June 1954, Washington, DC, USA.