Europe

Explore 4622 quotes by people from Europe

The pleasure of talking is the inextinguishable passion of woman.

Alain René Lesage 

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Topic

Women Talking too much

Author

Alain René Lesage 

Source

Gil Blas

Medium

Novel

Genre

Picaresque

Language

French

Time

1724 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Lesage, Alain-Rene. L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane [History of Gil Blas de Santillane]. Paris: Pierre Ribou, 1724, bk. 7, ch. 7.

The only substitute for an experience we ourselves have never lived through is art, literature.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Nobel Prize Lecture

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Topic

Power of art Power of literature

Author

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Source

Nobel Prize Lecture

Medium

Speech

Language

Russian

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. Nobel Lecture in Literature. 1970, Swedish Academy, Stockholm, Sweden.

Discovery is discernment, selection.

Henri Poincaré

Science and Method

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Topic

Discovery

Author

Henri Poincaré

Source

Science and Method

Genre

Scientific literature

Statement Type

Definition

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.

I believe that in many cases the ideal size for the unit of control and organisation lies somewhere between the individual and the modern State. I suggest, therefore, that progress lies in the growth and the recognition of semi-autonomous bodies within the State.

John Maynard Keynes

The End of Laissez-faire

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Topic

Government Political theory

Author

John Maynard Keynes

Source

The End of Laissez-faire

Medium

Essay

Genre

Economic literature

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Keynes, John Maynard. The End Of Laissez-faire. Hogarth Press, 1926, ch. 4.

Current Citation

Keynes, John Maynard. "The End of Laissaz-faire." The Essential Keynes. Penguin, edited by Robert Skidelsky, 2016, ch. 4.

One need only remind oneself of all that we expect from life to see how very strange it is, and to arrive at the conclusion that man has found his way into it by mistake and does not really belong there.

Italo Svevo

Zeno's Conscience

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Topic

Strangeness of life Nature of life

Author

Italo Svevo

Source

Zeno's Conscience

Medium

Novel

Language

Italian

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Svevo, Italo. La coscienza di Zeno [Zeno's Conscience]. Milan: Giuseppe Morreale Editore, 1923.

Current Citation

Svevo, Italo. Zeno's Conscience, translated by William Weaver. Everyman's Library, 2001.

When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part.

George Bernard Shaw

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Topic

Marriage

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

Getting Married: For Better For Worse The Doctor's Dilemma, Getting Married, and The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet

Medium

Play

Genre

Comedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "Getting Married: For Better For Worse." The Doctor's Dilemma, Getting Married, and The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet. Brentano's/Constable & Co., 1908, preface.

In my lifetime I have seen Frenchmen, Italians, Russians, etc.; thanks to Montesquieu, I even know that one can be Persian. But as for man, I declare that I have never in my life met him; if he exists, he exists unknown to me.

Joseph de Maistre

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Topic

The universal vs. the particular Nature of man

Author

Joseph de Maistre

Source

Considerations on France

Genre

Philosophical literature Political literature

Language

French

Time

1796 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Maistre, Joseph. "De l'influence divine dans les constitutions politiques [On Divine Influence in Political Constitutions]." Considérations sur la France [Considerations on France]. Paris, 1796.

Current Citation

Maistre, Joseph. "On Divine Influence in Political Constitutions." Considerations on France, edited by Richard A. Lebrun. Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Dreams are a second life. I have never been able to cross through those gates of ivory or horn which separate us from the invisible world without a sense of dread.

Gerard de Nerval

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Topic

Dreams

Author

Gerard de Nerval

Source

Aurelia

Language

French

Time

1855 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Nerval, Gerard. Aurelia ou le reve et la vie [Aurelia or the Dream and the Life]. Paris: Theophile Gautier and Arsene Houssaye, 1855, pt. 1.

At present an iron curtain of silence has descended, cutting off the Russian zone from the Western Allies.

T. St. Vincent Troubridge

A Curtain Across Europe

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Topic

Cold War

Author

T. St. Vincent Troubridge

Source

A Curtain Across Europe Empire News

Language

English

Time

1945 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Troubridge, Thomas. "A Curtain Across Europe." Empire News, 21 Oct. 1945.

Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children. Life is the other way round.

David Lodge

More information about this quote

Topic

Literature vs. life

Speaker

Adam Appleby

Author

David Lodge

Source

The British Museum Is Falling Down

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lodge, David. The British Museum is Falling Down. MacGibbon & Kee, 1965, ch. 4.

It had been boldly predicted by some of the early Christians that the conversion of the world would lead to the establishment of perpetual peace. In looking back, with our present experience, we are driven to the melancholy conclusion that, instead of diminishing the number of wars, ecclesiastical influence has actually and very seriously increased it.

William E.H. Lecky

History of European Morals

More information about this quote

Topic

Christianity in Europe Christianity

Author

William E.H. Lecky

Source

History of European Morals

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1869 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lecky, William Edward Hartpole. History of European Morals: From Augustus to Charlemagn. Vol. 2. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1869, ch. 4.

I shall use the phrase "time's arrow" to express this one way property of time which has no analogue in space.

Arthur S. Eddington

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Topic

Nature of time

Author

Arthur S. Eddington

Source

The Nature of the Physical World

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eddington, Arthur. "The Nature Of The Physical World." Gifford lecture. January – March 1927, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland.

We aim at something more sublime and more equitable-the common good, or the community of goods... We demand, we would have, the communal enjoyment of the fruits which are for everyone.

Sylvain Marechal

Manifesto of the Equals

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Topic

Redistribution of wealth Communism

Author

Sylvain Marechal

Source

Manifesto of the Equals

Genre

Political literature

Language

French

Time

1796 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Sylvain, Marechal. Quoted in "Manifeste des Egaux [Manifesto of the Equals]." Histoire de la conspiration pour Egalite dite de Babeuf, written by Phillipe Buonarotti. Bruxelles: A la librairie Romantique, 1828.

The mathematician's patterns, like the painter's or the poet's, must be beautiful; the ideas, like the colors or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics.

G.H. Hardy

A Mathematician's Apology

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Topic

Mathematics

Author

G.H. Hardy

Source

A Mathematician's Apology

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hardy, G. H. A Mathematician's Apology. Cambridge University Press, 1940.

Affirmation of life is the spiritual act by which man ceases to live thoughtlessly and begins to devote himself to his life with reverence in order to give it true value. To affirm life is to deepen, to make more inward, and to exalt the will to live.

Albert Schweitzer

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Topic

Mindfulness

Author

Albert Schweitzer

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

German

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Schweitzer, Albert. Aus Meinem Leben und Denken [Out of My Life and Thought]. Leipzig: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1931, ch. 13.

Current Citation

Schweitzer, Albert. Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography, translated by Antji Bultmann Lemke. Johns Hopkins University, 2009, ch. 13.

In the end, belief and the lack of it amount to the same thing. If someone were to prove to me-right this minute-that God, in all his luminousness, exists, it wouldn't change a single aspect of my behavior.

Luis Bunuel

More information about this quote

Topic

Existence of God Beliefs

Author

Luis Bunuel

Source

My Last Sigh

Language

French

Time

1982 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bunuel, Luis. Mon dernier soupir [My Last Sigh]. Alfred A. Knopf, 1983, ch. 15.

The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it. For ignorance is the first requisite of the historian-ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.

Lytton Strachey

Eminent Victorians

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Topic

Nature of history

Author

Lytton Strachey

Source

Eminent Victorians

Genre

Biography

Language

English

Time

1918 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Strachey, Lytton. Eminent Vicorians. Chatto & Windus, 1918, preface.

Current Citation

Strachey, Lytton. Eminent Vicorians. Penguin Classics, 1990, preface.

The soul of man is immortal and imperishable.

Socrates

Quoted in Republic, by Plato

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Topic

The soul

Speaker

Socrates

Author

Plato

Source

Republic

Medium

Philosophical dialogue Dialogue

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

375 BC 370s BC 4th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Socrates. Quoted in Πολιτεία [Republic], written by Plato. c. 375 BCE.

Current Citation

Socrates. Quoted in Republic, written by Plato, translated by Desmond Lee. Penguin Classics, 2007.

There is no more trusting in women.

Homer

The Odyssey

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Topic

Trustworthiness of women Gender relations

Author

Homer

Source

The Odyssey

Medium

Poem

Genre

Epic poem

Language

Greek

Time

700 BC 700s BC 8th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Homer. Ὀδύσσεια [Odyssey]. c. 710 BC, bk. 11, l. 456.

Current Citation

Homer. The Odyssey, edited by Bernard Knox, translated by Robert Fagles. Penguin Classics, 2006, bk. 11, l. 456.

This is the one best omen, to fight in defense of one's country.

Homer

The Iliad

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Topic

Fighting for one's country

Author

Homer

Source

The Iliad

Medium

Poem

Genre

Epic poem

Language

Greek

Time

700 BC 700s BC 8th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Homer. Ἰλιάς [The Iliad], edited by Demetrius Chalcondyles. Florence: Bernardus Nerlius and Demetrius Damilas, 1489, bk. 12, l. 243.

Current Citation

Homer. The Iliad, translated by Robert Fitzgerald. Oxford University Press, 2014, bk. 12, l. 243.