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Explore 2893 quotes by people from United States

All the animals, the plants, the minerals, even other kinds of men, are being broken and reassembled every day, to preserve an elite few, who are the loudest to theorize on freedom, but the least free of all.

Thomas Pynchon

Gravity's Rainbow

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More information about this quote

Topic

Capitalism Man and nature Environmental destruction

Author

Thomas Pynchon

Source

Gravity's Rainbow

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Pynchon, Thomas. Gravity's Rainbow. Viking Press, 1973.

Life is made up of constant calls to action, and we seldom have time for more than hastily contrived answers.

Learned Hand

More information about this quote

Topic

Decisions and choices

Speaker

Learned Hand

Source

Speeches of Learned Hand

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1952 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hand, Learned. "At Forescore." Harvard University Annual Dinner. 18 Jan. 1952, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

To men a man is but a mind. Who cares
What face he carries or what form he wears?
But woman's body is the woman.

Ambrose Bierce

More information about this quote

Topic

Women's bodies Patriarchy Men and women

Author

Ambrose Bierce

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Bierce, Ambrose. The Cynic's Word Book. Arthur F. Bird, 1906.

Current Citation

Bierce, Ambrose. The Devil's Dictionary. Dover Publications, 1993.

The frontier is the outer edge of the wave-the meeting-point between savagery and civilization... And line of most rapid and effective Americanization. The wilderness masters the colonist.

Frederick Jackson Turner

The Significance of the Frontier in American History

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Topic

American frontier

Author

Frederick Jackson Turner

Source

The Significance of the Frontier in American History

Medium

Essay

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1893 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Turner, Frederick Jackson. "The Significance of the Frontier in American History." American Historical Association meeting. 1893, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, IL, USA.

Where torture has been long applied we find that it is developed to grades of incredible horror.

William Graham Sumner

More information about this quote

Topic

Torture

Author

William Graham Sumner

Source

Folkways

Genre

Sociology Historical literature

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. 5.

If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generations of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis (or the atomic fact, or whatever you wish to call it) that all things are made of atoms-little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed and into one another.

Richard Feynman

More information about this quote

Topic

Atomism Physics

Speaker

Richard Feynman

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1961 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Feynman, Richard. Lecture at Caltech. c. 1961, Caltech, Pasadena, CA, USA.

Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on the people's vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.

Janet Malcolm

More information about this quote

Topic

Media criticism Journalism

Author

Janet Malcolm

Source

The Journalist and the Murderer The New Yorker

Medium

Essay Magazine

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Malcolm, Janet. "The Journalist and the Murderer." The New Yorker, 13 Mar. 1989 - 20 Mar. 1989.

Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger. Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.

William James

More information about this quote

Topic

Human potential

Author

William James

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. Letter to W. Lutoslawski. 6 May 1906.

There is more felicity on the far side of baldness than young men can possibly imagine.

Logan Pearsall Smith

More information about this quote

Topic

Baldness Aging

Author

Logan Pearsall Smith

Language

English

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Smith, Logan Pearsall. Last Words. Constable & Company, 1933.

Thank heavens, the sun has gone in, and I don't have to go out and enjoy it.

Logan Pearsall Smith

More information about this quote

Topic

Staying in

Author

Logan Pearsall Smith

Language

English

Time

1931 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Smith, Logan Pearsall. "Myself." Afterthoughts. Constable & Company, 1931.

No matter how lonely you get or how many birth announcements you receive, the trick is not to get frightened. There's nothing wrong with being alone.

Wendy Wasserstein

More information about this quote

Topic

Being single

Speaker

Harriet Cornwall

Author

Wendy Wasserstein

Source

Isn't It Romantic

Medium

Play

Genre

Comedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1981 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Wasserstein, Wendy. Isn't It Romantic. 1981, Phoenix Theater, New York City, NY, USA, act 1, sc. 6.

Art is a completed pass. You don't just throw it out into the world-someone has to catch it.

James Turrell

More information about this quote

Topic

Artist and audience Nature of art Art

Speaker

James Turrell

Source

Harper's Bazaar

Medium

Interview Magazine

Language

English

Time

2013 2010s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Turrell, James. "Incredible Lightness: Pace Artist James Turrell Prepares for Superstardom." Interviewed by Julie L. Belcove. Harper's Bazaar, online slideshow, 19 Apr. 2013, http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/g2667/james-turrell-interview-0513/?slide=4.

There are few better measures of the concern a society has for its individual members and its own well being than the way it handles criminals.

Ramsey Clark

More information about this quote

Topic

Criminal justice system Criminals

Speaker

Ramsey Clark

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1967 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Clark, Ramsey. Keynote address. American Correctional Association conference. Aug. 1967, Miami Beach, FL, USA.

The national park idea, the best idea we ever had, was inevitable as soon as Americans learned to confront the wild continent not with fear and cupidity but with delight, wonder, and awe.

Wallace Stegner

More information about this quote

Topic

National parks Conservation Man and nature Nature

Author

Wallace Stegner

Language

English

Time

1983 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Stegner, Wallace. "The Best Idea We Ever Had." Marking the Sparrow's Fall: The Making of the American West. H. Holt, 1998, p. 137.

I say you ought to get rich, and it is your duty to get rich... Money is power, and you ought to be reasonably ambitious to have it! You ought because you can do more good with it than you could without it.

Russell H. Conwell

More information about this quote

Topic

Wealth

Speaker

Russell H. Conwell

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1882 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Conwell, Russell H. "Acres of Diamonds." Chautauqua circuit. c. 1882. Lecture.

I really feel sorry for people who think things like soap dishes or mirrors or Coke bottles are ugly, because they're surrounded by things like that all day long, and it must make them miserable.

Robert Rauschenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Modern life

Speaker

Robert Rauschenberg

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Rauschenberg, Robert. Quoted in The Bride & the Bachelors: The Heretical Courtship in Modern Art, by Calvin Tomkins. Viking Press, 1965.

Instead of holding a position of independence, between the wealthy and the people, prepared to curb the excesses of either, able lawyers have, to a large extent, allowed themselves to become adjuncts of great corporations and have neglected the obligation to use their powers for the protection of the people. We hear much of the "corporation lawyer," and far too little of the "people's lawyer."

Louis Brandeis

More information about this quote

Topic

Lawyers

Speaker

Louis Brandeis

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1905 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Brandeis, Louis D. "The Opportunity in the Law." Harvard Ethical Society meeting. 4 May 1905, Phillips Brooks House, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Current Citation

Brandeis, Louis D. "The Opportunity in the Law" Brandeis on Democracy, edited by Philippa Strum. University Press of Kansas, 1994.

Everybody I have ever known or read about who was really a great artist has worked until they dropped dead.

Arnold Newman

More information about this quote

Topic

Artistic development Hard work Excellence Art

Speaker

Arnold Newman

Source

American Suburban X

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

2009 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Newman, Arnold. Interviewed by Alexis Anne Clements. American Suburb X, 20 Oct. 2009, www.americansuburbx.com/2009/10/interview-interview-with-arnold-newman.html.

Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the State was to make men free to develop their faculties; and that in its government the deliberative forces should prevail over the arbitrary. They valued liberty both as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.

Louis Brandeis

Whitney v. California

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More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of government Freedom

Author

Louis Brandeis

Source

Whitney v. California

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1927 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Brandeis, Louis. United States, Supreme Court. Whitney v. California. United States Reports, vol. 274, 16 May 1927, pp. 357-379. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/274/357/.

The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic... The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Schenck v. United States

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More information about this quote

Topic

First Amendment Freedom of speech and expression Constitutional law Legal theory Law

Author

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Source

Schenck v. United States

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1919 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. United States, Supreme Court. Schenck v. United States. United States Reports, vol. 249, 3 Mar. 1919, pp. 47-53. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/249/47/.