20th century

Explore 4282 quotes from the 20th century

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total Obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Frank Herbert

Dune

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Topic

Facing one's fears Fear

Author

Frank Herbert

Source

Dune

Genre

Science fiction

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Herbert, Frank. Dune. Chilton Books, 1965. Originally published in Analog Magazine, Dec. 1963 - Feb. 1964.

The highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe!

Nikos Kazantzakis

Zorba the Greek

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Topic

Awe

Author

Nikos Kazantzakis

Source

Zorba the Greek

Medium

Novel

Language

Greek

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Kazantzakis, Nikos. Βίος και Πολιτεία του Αλέξη Ζορμπά [Life and State of Alexis Zorba]. Athens: Dimitrakou, 1946, ch. 24.

Current Citation

Kazantzakis, Nikos. Zorba the Greek, translated by Peter Bien. Simon & Schuster, 2014, ch. 24.

When you reread a classic you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before.

Clifton Fadiman

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of literature Books

Author

Clifton Fadiman

Language

English

Time

1957 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Fadiman, Clifton. Any Number Can Play. The World Publishing Company, 1957.

It will need more than the Nineteenth Amendment to convince me that there are no differences between men and women, or that legislation cannot take those differences into account.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Adkins v. Children's Hospital

Read this opinion at supreme.justia.com.

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Topic

Women's equality Men and women

Author

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Source

Adkins v. Children's Hospital

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. Dissenting Opinion. Adkins v. Children's Hospital. United States Reports, vol. 261, 9 Apr. 1923, pp. 567-571. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/250/616/.

I asked a Burmese why women, after centuries of following their men, now walk ahead. He said there were many unexploded land mines since the war.

Robert Mueller

More information about this quote

Topic

Oppression of women

Speaker

Robert Mueller

Source

Look Magazine

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1957 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Mueller, Robert. Quoted in Look Magazine. 5 Mar. 1957.

He looked down the slope and, at the base, in the shadow of the wall of the Park, he saw some human figures lying. Those venal and furtive loves filled him with despair. He gnawed the rectitude of his life; he felt that he had been outcast from life's feast.

James Joyce

Dubliners

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Topic

FOMO

Author

James Joyce

Source

A Painful Case Dubliners

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1914 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Joyce, James. "A Painful Case." Dubliners. Grant Richards, 1914.

Current Citation

Joyce, James. "A Painful Case." Dubliners: Centennial Edition, edited by Terence Brown. Penguin Classics, 2014.

The social progress, order, security and peace of each country are necessarily connected with the social progress, order, security and peace of all other countries.

Pope John XXIII

Pacem in Terris

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Topic

Interconnectedness of all people International politics

Author

Pope John XXIII

Source

Pacem in Terris

Medium

Letter

Genre

Papal encyclical Religious literature

Language

Latin

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Pope John XXIII. "Pacem in Terris [Peace on Earth]." Litterae Encyclicae [Encyclical Letter]. 11 Apr. 1963, pt. 4.

Capitalism undoubtedly has certain boils and blotches upon it, but has it as many as government? Has it as many as marriage? Has it as many as religion? I doubt it. It is the only basic institution of modern man that shows any genuine health and vigor.

H.L. Mencken

More information about this quote

Topic

Capitalism

Author

H.L. Mencken

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Mencken, H. L. "Editorial." American Mercury, July 1928.

There are moments when everything goes well; don't be frightened, it won't last.

Jules Renard

More information about this quote

Topic

Things get worse Pessimism

Author

Jules Renard

Medium

Personal journal

Language

French

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Renard, Jules. Journal entry. 31 Oct. 1908.

Current Citation

Renard, Jules. The Journal of Jules Renard, edited and translated by Louise Bogan and Elizabeth Roget. Tin House Books, 2017.

A differentiation arises between ourselves, the we-group, or in-group, and everybody else, or the others-groups, out-groups.

William Graham Sumner

Folkways

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Topic

Us vs. them Group conflict

Author

William Graham Sumner

Source

Folkways

Genre

Sociology

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sumner, William Graham. Folkways: A Study of Mores, Manners, Customs and Morals. Ginn & Company, 1906, ch. 1.

Patriotism, as I see it, is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.

George Jean Nathan

More information about this quote

Topic

Downsides of patriotism Patriotism

Author

George Jean Nathan

Language

English

Time

1931 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Nathan, George Jean. Testament of a Critic. A. A. Knopf, 1931, bk. 1.

If you're paying $12, $13, $14 an hour for a factory worker, and you can move your factory south of the border, pay $1 an hour for labor... Have no environmental controls, no pollution controls, and no retirement. And you don't care about anything but making money. There will be a giant sucking sound going south.

Ross Perot

On trade agreements between the U.S. and other countries.

More information about this quote

Topic

Deindustrialization Global capitalism

Speaker

Ross Perot

Medium

Political debate

Language

English

Time

1992 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Perot, Ross. Spoken at a presidential debate. Presidential debate. 15 Oct. 1992, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA, USA.

Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost what it feels about dogs.

Christopher Hampton

More information about this quote

Topic

Critics

Speaker

Christopher Hampton

Language

English

Time

1977 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Hampton, Christopher. Quoted in Sunday Times Magazine. 16 Oct. 1977.

There are more dead people than living. And their numbers are increasing. The living are getting rarer.

Eugene Ionesco

More information about this quote

Topic

Dead people

Speaker

Berenger

Author

Eugene Ionesco

Source

Rhinoceros

Medium

Play

Language

French

Time

1959 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ionesco, Eugene. Rhinoceros. 1959, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Düsseldorf, Germany, act 1.

This universe is not hostile, nor yet is it friendly. It is simply indifferent.

John H. Holmes

The Sensible Man's View of Religion

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of the universe The universe

Author

John H. Holmes

Source

The Sensible Man's View of Religion

Genre

Religious literature

Language

English

Time

1932 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Holmes, John H. The Sensible Man's View of Religion. Harper & Brothers, 1932, ch. 4.

Not one of us knows what effect his life produces, and what he gives to others; that is hidden from us and must remain so, though we are often allowed to see some little fraction of it, so that we may not lose courage.

Albert Schweitzer

More information about this quote

Topic

Interconnectedness of all people

Author

Albert Schweitzer

Source

Memoirs of Childhood and Youth

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

German

Time

1949 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Schweitzer, Albert. Aus Meiner Kindheit und Jugendzeit [Memoirs of Childhood and Youth]. C. H. Beck, 1924.

Current Citation

Scweitzer, Albert. Memoirs of Childhood and Youth, translated by Kurt Bergel and Alice R. Bergel. Syracuse University Press, 1997.

I can't prove you are a Communist. But when I see a bird that quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, has feathers and webbed feet and associates with ducks-I'm certainly going to assume that he is a duck.

Emil Mazey

More information about this quote

Topic

Communism

Speaker

Emil Mazey

Language

English

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Mazey, Emil. Spoken at labor meeting of the United Automobile Workers. Labor meeting. 1946, Detroit, MI, USA.

The conception of political equality from the Declaration of Independence, to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, to the Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Nineteenth Amendments can mean only one thing—one person, one vote.

William O. Douglas

Gray v. Sanders

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More information about this quote

Topic

Voting rights Equality

Author

William O. Douglas

Source

Gray v. Sanders

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Douglas, William O. United States, Supreme Court. Gray v. Sanders. United States Reports, vol. 372, 17 June 1963, pp. 368-372. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/372/368/.

Culture shock is relatively mild in comparison with a much more serious malady that might be called "future shock." Future shock is the dizzying disorientation brought on by the premature arrival of the future.

Alvin Toffler

The Future as a Way of Life

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Topic

The future

Author

Alvin Toffler

Source

The Future as a Way of Life

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Toffler, Alvin. "The Future as a Way of Life." Horizon Magazine, Summer 1965.

It seems reasonable to envision, for a time 10 or 15 years hence, a "thinking center" that will incorporate the functions of present-day libraries together with anticipated advances in information storage and retrieval... The picture readily enlarges itself into a network of such centers, connected to one another by wide-band communication lines and to individual users by leased-wire services.

J.C.R. Licklider

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Topic

The internet

Author

J.C.R. Licklider

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Licklider, J. C. R. "Man-Computer Symbiosis." IRE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics, Mar. 1960.