Europe

Explore 4622 quotes by people from Europe

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.

Abba Eban

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Topic

Learning from the past History Human nature

Speaker

Abba Eban

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1970 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Eban, Abba. Speech in London. 16 Dec. 1970, London, England, UK.

Time has too much credit... It is not a great healer. It is an indifferent and perfunctory one. Sometimes it does not heal at all. And sometimes when it seems to, no healing has been necessary.

Ivy Compton-Burnett

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Topic

Effects of time Healing

Author

Ivy Compton-Burnett

Source

Darkness and Day

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1951 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Compton-Burnett, Ivy. Darkness and Day. David & Charles/Alfred A. Knopf, 1951, ch. 7.

God is on everyone's side…and, in the last analysis, he is on the side of those with plenty of money and large armies.

Jean Anouilh

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Topic

God taking sides God Justice

Speaker

Charles, the dauphin

Author

Jean Anouilh

Source

L'Alouette

Medium

Play

Language

French

Time

1952 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Anouilh, Jean. L'Aloutte [The Lark]. Paris: La Table Ronde, 1953.

Current Citation

Anouilh, Jean. "The Lark." Anouilh Plays: One: Antigone, Léocadia, The Waltz of the Toreadors, The Lark, and Poor Bitos. Methuen Drama, 1987.

The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children.

Edward VIII

More information about this quote

Topic

America

Speaker

Edward VIII

Source

Look Magazine

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1957 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Edward VIII. "Edward VIII, Afterwards Duke of Windsor." Look Magazine, 5 Mar. 1957.

Up to the moment of this writing... The Nazi concentration camp system still remains a unicum, both in its extent and its quality. At no other place or time has one seen a phenomenon so unexpected and so complex: never have so many human lives been extinguished in so short a time, and with so lucid a combination of technological ingenuity, fanaticism, and cruelty.

Primo Levi

The Drowned and the Saved

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Topic

The Holocaust

Author

Primo Levi

Source

The Drowned and the Saved

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Italian

Time

1986 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Levi, Primo. I sommersi e i salvati [The Drowned and the Saved]. Einaudi, 1986, preface.

Current Citation

Levi, Primo. The Drowned and the Saved, translated by Raymond Rosenthal. Simon & Schuster, 2017, preface.

Every one of the great revolutionists, from Isaiah to Shelley, have been optimists. They have been indignant, not about the badness of existence, but about the slowness of men in realizing its goodness.

G.K. Chesterton

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Topic

Revolutionaries Revolution Optimism Progress

Author

G.K. Chesterton

Source

The Defendant

Language

English

Time

1901 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

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

Christ of his gentleness
Thirsting and hungering,
Walked in the wilderness;
Soft words of grace He spoke
Unto lost desert-folk
That listened wondering.

Robert Graves

More information about this quote

Topic

Jesus The Gospel Christianity

Author

Robert Graves

Source

In the Wilderness

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1916 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Graves, Robert. "In the Wilderness." Over the Brazier. c. 1916.

Current Citation

Graves, Robert. "In the Wilderness." The Complete Poems: In One Volume. Penguin Books, 2003, l. 1-6.

If all be true that I think,
There are five reasons we should drink;
Good wine-a friend-or being dry-
Or lest we should be by and by-
Or any other reason why.

Henry Aldrich

More information about this quote

Topic

Reasons to drink Alcohol

Author

Henry Aldrich

Source

Reasons for Drinking

Medium

Poem

Language

Latin

Time

1689 1680s 17th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Aldrich, Henry. Reasons for Drinking. c. 1689.

In the arts of life man invents nothing; but in the arts of death he outdoes Nature herself, and produces by chemistry and machinery all the slaughter of plague, pestilence and famine.

George Bernard Shaw

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Read Man and Superman at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Man's inhumanity to man War

Speaker

The devil

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

Man and Superman

Medium

Play

Genre

Drama (play)

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "Man and Superman." Man and Superman, John Bull's Other Island, and Major Barbara. Oxford University Press, 2021, act 3. Originally published by Archibald and Constable & Co., Ltd, 1903.

The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything.

David Ogilvy

Confessions of an Advertising Man

More information about this quote

Topic

Advertising and marketing

Author

David Ogilvy

Source

Confessions of an Advertising Man

Medium

Treatise

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Ogilvy, David. Confessions of an Advertising Man. Atheneum, 1963, ch. 5.

The effect of boredom on a large scale in history is underestimated. It is a main cause of revolutions, and would soon bring to an end all the static Utopias and the farmyard civilization of the Fabians.

William Ralph Inge

More information about this quote

Topic

Forces of history History Boredom

Author

William Ralph Inge

Source

End of an Age

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1948 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Inge, William Ralph. The End of an Age and Other Essays. Putnam, 1948, ch. 6.

Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall, and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end.

Douglas Haig

More information about this quote

Topic

World War I No surrender War

Author

Douglas Haig

Source

Special Order of the Day

Language

English

Time

1918 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Haig, Douglas. "Special Order of the Day." 11 Apr. 1918, Great Britain, UK.

The weakness of American civilization, and perhaps the chief reason why it creates so much discontent, is that it is so curiously abstract. It is a bloodless extrapolation of a satisfying life... You dine off the advertiser's "sizzling" and not the meat of the steak.

J.B. Priestley

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Topic

Criticism of America America

Author

J.B. Priestley

Source

New Statesman

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1971 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Priestley, J. B. New Statesman. 10 Dec. 1971.

Love wants to enjoy in other ways the human being whom it has enjoyed in bed; it looks forward to having breakfast. But in the morning Lust is always furtive.

Henry Fairlie

More information about this quote

Topic

Sex Nature of love

Author

Henry Fairlie

Language

English

Time

1978 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fairlie, Henry. "Lust or Luxuria." The Seven Deadly Sins Today. New Republic Books, 1978.

There is no human being on earth who is capable of declaring who he is, with certainty. No one knows what he has come to this world to do, to what his acts, feelings, ideas correspond, or what his real name is, his imperishable Name in the registry of Light.

Leon Bloy

More information about this quote

Topic

Self-knowledge The human condition

Author

Leon Bloy

Source

The Soul of Napoleon

Language

French

Time

1912 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Bloy, Leon. L'ame de Napoleon [The Soul of Napoleon]. 1912, introduction.

As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy.

Christopher Dawson

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Topic

End justifies the means Justifications and rationales

Author

Christopher Dawson

Source

The Judgment of the Nations

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1942 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Dawson, Christopher. The Judgment of the Nations. Sheed & Ward, 1942, pt. 1, ch. 1.

The scientist does not study nature because it is useful to do so. He studies it because he takes pleasure in it, and he takes pleasure in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and life would not be worth living.

Henri Poincaré

Science and Method

More information about this quote

Topic

Beauty of nature Nature

Author

Henri Poincaré

Source

Science and Method

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

French

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Poincare, Henri. Science et methode [Science and Method]. Flammarion, 1914, bk. 1, ch. 3.

Out of a few misunderstandings with reality we construct beliefs and hopes, and we live on these crusts, which we call bread, just like poor children who play at being happy.

Fernando Pessoa

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Topic

Erroneous beliefs Worldview

Author

Fernando Pessoa

Source

The Book of Disquiet

Language

Portuguese

Time

1982 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Pessoa, Fernando (published as Bernardo Soares). Livro do Desassossego [The Book of Disquiet]. Attica, 1982.

It is closing time in the gardens of the West and from now on an artist will be judged only by the resonance of his solitude or the quality of his despair.

Cyril Connolly

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Topic

Decline of the West Decline of civilization Western Civilization

Author

Cyril Connolly

Source

Horizon

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1950 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Connolly, Cyril. Quoted in Horizon. Dec. 1949 - Jan. 1950.

Hold fast the time! Guard it, watch over it, every hour, every minute! Unregarded it slips away, like a lizard, smooth, slippery, faithless, a pixy wife. Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfillment.

Thomas Mann

Lotte in Weimar

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More information about this quote

Topic

Being present Living in the moment Ephemeral nature of time

Author

Thomas Mann

Source

Lotte in Weimar

Medium

Novel

Language

German

Time

1939 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Mann, Thomas. Lotte in Weimar [The Beloved Returns]. Stockholm: Gottfried Bermann Fischer, 1939, ch. 7.