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Explore 2893 quotes by people from United States

Our dangers, as it seems to me, are not from the outrageous but from the conforming; not from those who rarely and under the lurid glare of obloquy upset our moral complaisance, or shock us with unaccustomed conduct, but from those, the mass of us, who take their virtues and their tastes, like their shirts and their furniture, from the limited patterns which the market offers.

Learned Hand

More information about this quote

Topic

Conformity The masses

Speaker

Learned Hand

Source

Speeches of Learned Hand

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1927 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hand, Learned. "The Preservation of Personality." Commencement. 2 June 1927, Bryn Mawr College, Byrn Mawr, PA, USA.

Along with success come drugs, divorce, fornication, bullying, travel, meditation, medication, depression, neurosis, and suicide. With failure comes failure.

Joseph Heller

Quoted in Playboy Magazine

More information about this quote

Topic

Success and failure Success Failure

Speaker

Joseph Heller

Source

Playboy Magazine

Medium

Interview Magazine

Language

English

Time

1975 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Heller, Joseph. Conversations with Joseph Heller, edited by Adam J. Sorkin. University Press of Mississippi, 1993. Originally spoken during an interview by Sam Merrill. Playboy, June 1975.

Old and ruined, all rotted and broken up
These plum trees function gorgeously
A few days every year
In a way nobody else does.

Philip Whalen

More information about this quote

Topic

Trees Nature scene

Author

Philip Whalen

Source

Scenes of Life at the Capital

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1970 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Whalen, Philip. Scenes of Life at the Capital. Maya Quartos, 1970.

Democracy is not tearing down; it is a building up. It is not denial of the divine right of Kings; it supplements that claim with the assertion of the divine right of all men. It does not destroy; it fulfills. It is the consummation of all theories of government, to the spirit of which all the nations of the Earth must yield. It is the great constructive course of the ages.

Calvin Coolidge

More information about this quote

Topic

Democracy Democratic triumphalism

Speaker

Calvin Coolidge

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1916 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Coolidge, Calvin. "Equal Rights." 4 July 1916, Daniel Webster's home, Marshfield, MA, USA.

The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems, bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen, or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire. And then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected, dangerous flaming ant epidemic. If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.

Jon Stewart

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Topic

Media

Speaker

Jon Stewart

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

2010 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Stewart, Jon. Speech at the National Mall. Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. 30 Oct. 2010, National Mall, Washington, DC, USA.

There is nothing impossible, therefore, in the existence of the supernatural: its existence seems to me decidedly probable; there is infinite room for it on every side.

George Santayana

More information about this quote

Topic

The supernatural

Author

George Santayana

Source

The Genteel Tradition at Bay

Language

English

Time

1931 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Santayana, George. The Genteel Tradition at Bay. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1931, ch. 2.

Negroes will not break out of the barriers of the ghetto unless whites transcend the barriers of their own minds, for the ghetto in which the white lives imprisoned. The poetic irony of American race relations is that the rejected Negro must somehow also find the strength to free the privileged white.

Kenneth B. Clark

Dark Ghetto

More information about this quote

Topic

Race relations

Author

Kenneth B. Clark

Source

Dark Ghetto

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Clark, Kenneth B. Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power. Harper and Row, 1965, ch. 9.

It's amazing how our attitude on alcohol changes, right? Cause even as a teenager you know it's wrong. You're like, "You know, I don't like the taste of it, but I want to look cool." And then in your twenties you're like, "You know what, this kinda gives me confidence to talk to the opposite sex." Then in your forties you're like, "You know what, this is the only thing I like about being alive."

Jim Gaffigan

Obsessed

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More information about this quote

Topic

Alcohol Stages of life

Author

Jim Gaffigan

Source

Obsessed

Medium

Standup comedy

Genre

Comedy

Language

English

Time

2014 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Gaffigian, Jim. "Obsessed." Comedy Central Special. 27 Apr. 2014, Comedy Central. Originally presented on 18 Jan. 2014 at the Wilbur Theater, Boston, MA, USA.

I define a recession as when your neighbor loses his job, but a depression is when you lose your own.

Dave Beck

More information about this quote

Topic

Recession Depression

Speaker

Dave Beck

Statement Type

Definition

Language

English

Time

1954 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Beck, Dave. Quoted in Time. 22 Feb. 1954.

Sometimes I think of the books I'll never read that would have changed my life.

Jonathan Safran Foer

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of literature Books

Author

Jonathan Safran Foer

Source

The New York Times

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

2005 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Foer, Jonathan Safran. "The Hum Inside the Skull, Revisited," New York Times, 16 Jan. 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005//01/16/books/review/the-hum-inside-the-skull-revisited.html

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.

Elbert Hubbard

More information about this quote

Topic

Man and machine Genius Human potential

Author

Elbert Hubbard

Source

A Thousand and One Epigrams

Language

English

Time

1911 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hubbard, Elbert. A Thousand & One Epigrams: Selected from the Writings of Elbert Hubbard. The Roycrofters, 1911.

Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.

Jonathan Safran Foer

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

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More information about this quote

Topic

Missed opportunities The road not taken FOMO

Author

Jonathan Safran Foer

Source

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

2005 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Foer, Jonathan Safran. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Houghlin Mifflin, 2005.

It was framed upon the theory that the peoples of the several states must sink or swim together, and that, in the long run, prosperity and salvation are in union, and not division.

Benjamin Cardozo

Baldwin v. G. A. F. Seelig

On the U.S. Constitution.

Read this opinion at supreme.justia.com.

More information about this quote

Topic

Constitutional theory

Author

Benjamin Cardozo

Source

Baldwin v. G. A. F. Seelig

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1935 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Cardozo, Benjamin Nathan. United States, Supreme Court. Baldwin v. G. A. F. Seelig. United States Reports, vol. 294, 4 Mar 1935, pp. 511-528. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/294/511/.

The Court bows to the lessons of experience and the force of better reasoning, recognizing that the process of trial and error, so fruitful in the physical sciences, is appropriate also in the judicial function.

Louis Brandeis

Burnet v. Coronado Oil and Gas Co.

Read this opinion at supreme.justia.com.

More information about this quote

Topic

Legal theory Constitutional law

Author

Louis Brandeis

Source

Burnet v. Coronado Oil and Gas Co.

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1932 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Brandeis, Louis. Dissenting Opinion. Burnet v. Coronado Oil and Gas Co. United States Reports, vol. 285, 11 Apr. 1932, pp. 393-413. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/285/393/.

The chilling effect upon the exercise of First Amendment rights may derive from the fact of the prosecution, unaffected by the prospects of its success or failure.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

Dombrowski v. Pfister

More information about this quote

Topic

First Amendment Freedom of speech and expression

Author

William J. Brennan, Jr.

Source

Dombrowski v. Pfister

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Brennan, William J, Jr. United States, Supreme Court. Dombrowski v. Pfister. United States Reports, vol. 380, 26 Apr. 1965, pp. 479-502. supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/380/479/.

When urgent considerations of the public safety require compromise with the normal principles constraining law enforcement, the normal principles may have to bend. The Constitution is not a suicide pact.

Richard Posner

Edmond v. Goldsmith

More information about this quote

Topic

Rule of law Constitutional law

Author

Richard Posner

Source

Edmond v. Goldsmith

Medium

Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1999 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Edmond v. Goldsmith. 98-4124. 7 July 1999. https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-7th-circuit/1176380.html.

Every man is fully satisfied that there is such a thing as truth, or he would not ask any question.

Charles Sanders Peirce

More information about this quote

Topic

Truth

Author

Charles Sanders Peirce

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Peirce, Charles Sanders. "Three Cotary Propositions of Pragmatism." 14 May 1903, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Current Citation

Peirce, Charles Sanders. "Lecture Seven: Three Cotary Propositions of Pragmatism." Pragmatism as a Principle and Method of Right Thinking: The 1903 Harvard Lectures on Pragmatism. State University of New York Press, 1997.

The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.

John Burroughs

More information about this quote

Topic

Grass is always greener Bloom where you're planted Opportunities

Author

John Burroughs

Source

The Divine Soil The Atlantic

Medium

Essay Magazine

Language

English

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Burroughs, John. "The Divine Soil." The Atlantic, Apr. 1908.

I do not believe there is any sort of distinction between the real moral conditions of the people in and out of jail. One is just as good as the other.... I do not believe that people are in jail because they deserve to be. They are in jail simply because they cannot avoid it on account of circumstances which are entirely beyond their control and for which they are in no way responsible.

Clarence S. Darrow

More information about this quote

Topic

Prison Moral theory

Speaker

Clarence S. Darrow

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Darrow, Clarence. "Crime and Criminals." 1902, Cook County Jail, Chicago, IL, USA.

Current Citation

Darrow, Clarence. "Crime and Criminals." Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom, edited by Arthur Weinberg. University of Chicago Press, 2012.

Is there not a casual connection between the development of these huge, indomitable trusts and the horrible crimes now under investigation?... Is it not irony to speak of the equality of opportunity in a country cursed with their bigness?

Louis Brandeis

More information about this quote

Topic

Big business Monopoly

Author

Louis Brandeis

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1911 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Brandeis, Louis D. Letter to Paul Kellogg. 19 Dec. 1911.