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Explore 7518 quotes originally in English

I've thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.

Jonathan Safran Foer

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

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Topic

Overthinking Happiness

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. Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

Out of the dark we came, into the dark we go... Life is nothing. Life is all. It is the hand with which we hold off death. It is the glow-worm that shines in the night-time and is black in the morning; it is the white breath of the oxen in the winter; it is the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself at sunset.

H. Rider Haggard

King Solomon's Mines

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of life Ephemeral nature of life Shortness of life Life Death

Speaker

Ignosi (Umbopa)

Author

H. Rider Haggard

Source

King Solomon's Mines

Medium

Novel

Genre

Adventure novel

Language

English

Time

1885 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Haggard, H. Rider. King Solomon's Mines. London: Cassell and Company, 1886.

Current Citation

Haggard, H. Rider. King Solomon's Mines. Penguin Classics, 2008.

Patriotism is a lively sense of collective responsibility. Nationalism is a silly cock crowing on its own dunghill.

Richard Aldington

The Colonel's Daughter

More information about this quote

Topic

Patriotism Nationalism

Speaker

Mr. Purfleet

Author

Richard Aldington

Source

The Colonel's Daughter

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1931 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Aldington, Richard. The Colonel's Daughter. Chatto and Windus, 1931.

No, Thursday's out. How about never-is never good for you?

Robert Mankoff

Caption to a cartoon showing a businessman speaking on the phone.

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Author

Robert Mankoff

Medium

Cartoon

Statement Type

Question

Language

English

Time

1993 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Mankoff, Robert. Cartoon caption. New Yorker, 3 May 1993.

Current Citation

Mankoff, Robert. How About Never-Is Never Good for You? My Life in Cartoons. Henry Holt and Company, 2014, ch. 8.

Remember the war against Franco?
That's the kind where each of us belongs.
Though he may have won all the battles,
We had all the good songs.

Tom Lehrer

The Folk Song Army

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Topic

Fighting fascism Fascism

Speaker

Tom Lehrer

Source

The Folk Song Army

Medium

Song

Genre

Folk music

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lehrer, Tom. "The Folk Song Army." That Was The Year That Was. Reprise Records/Warner Records, 1965.

In olden days, a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now, God knows,
Anything goes.

Cole Porter

Anything Goes

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Topic

Moral decline Custom and convention

Author

Cole Porter

Source

Anything Goes

Medium

Song

Genre

Great American songbook

Language

English

Time

1934 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Porter, Cole. "Anything Goes." Anything Goes. Performed by Ethel Merman. 1934, Alvin Theatre, New York, NY, USA.

O Woman! in our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
And variable as the shade
By the light quivering upon aspen made;
When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou!

Sir Walter Scott

Redgauntlet

Read Marmion at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Nature of women Women

Author

Sir Walter Scott

Source

Redgauntlet

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1808 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Scott, Walter, Sir. Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co./London: William Miller and John Murray, 1808, canto 6, st. 30.

It is my belief that there are "absolutes" in our Bill of Rights, and that they were put there on purpose by men who knew what words meant, and meant their prohibitions to be "absolutes."

Hugo Black

More information about this quote

Topic

Bill of Rights Constitutional theory American politics

Speaker

Hugo Black

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Black, Hugo L. James Madison lecture. 17 Feb. 1960, New York University School of Law, New York University, New York City, NY, USA.

The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either; yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs, and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; So strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which perhaps, no longer exists.

William Jones

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Topic

Language

Speaker

William Jones

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1786 1780s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jones, William. Discourse on the history and culture of the Hindus. Third annual discourse before the Asiatic Society. 2 Feb. 1786, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

Lots of people talk to animals. Not very many listen though. That's the problem.

Benjamin Hoff

More information about this quote

Topic

Man and animals

Author

Benjamin Hoff

Genre

Children's literature

Language

English

Time

1982 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hoff, Benjamin. "Spelling Tuesday." The Tao of Pooh. E. P. Dutton, 1982.

We are the children of our landscape; it dictates behavior and even thought in the measure to which we are responsive to it.

Lawrence Durrell

More information about this quote

Topic

Place Man and nature

Author

Lawrence Durrell

Source

Justine

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1957 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Durrell, Lawrence. Justine. Faber & Faber/E. P. Dutton, 1957.

Too often we give our children the answers to remember rather than the problems to solve.

Roger Lewin

More information about this quote

Topic

Teaching children Parents and children Cultivating independence

Author

Roger Lewin

Source

The Saturday Review

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1974 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lewin, Roger. "Observing the Brain Through a Cat's Eyes." The Saturday Review, 5 Oct. 1974.

The mystery of life is not solved by success, which is an end in itself, but in failure, in perpetual struggle, in becoming.

Patrick White

More information about this quote

Topic

Failure Adversity

Speaker

Le Mesurier

Author

Patrick White

Source

Voss

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1957 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

White, Patrick. Voss. Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1957, ch. 10.

Architecture, of all the arts, is the one which acts the most slowly, but the most surely, on the soul.

Ernest Dimnet

More information about this quote

Topic

Architecture

Author

Ernest Dimnet

Source

What We Live By

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1932 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Dimnet, Ernest. What We Live By. Simon & Schuster, 1932, pt. 2, ch. 12.

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

Abba Eban

More information about this quote

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.

As in political revolutions, so in paradigm choice-there is no standard higher than the the assent of the relevant community. To discover how scientific revolutions are effected, we shall therefore have to examine not only the impact of nature and of logic, but also the techniques of persuasive argumentation effective within the quite special groups that constitute the community of scientists.

Thomas S. Kuhn

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

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Topic

Scientific progress Science

Author

Thomas S. Kuhn

Source

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Genre

Historical literature Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1962 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press, 1962, ch. 9.

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

More information about this quote

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.

And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house
With a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself
Well, how did I get here?

Talking Heads

Once in a Lifetime

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Topic

Existential questions

Speaker

Talking Heads

Source

Once in a Lifetime

Medium

Song

Genre

New wave

Statement Type

Question

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Byrne, David and Brian Eno. "Once in a Lifetime." Performed by Talking Heads. Remain in Light. Sire Records, 1980.

For all our failings, despite our limitations and fallibilities, we humans are capable of greatness. What new wonders, undreamt of in our time, will we have wrought in another generation?

Carl Sagan

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Topic

Technological progress Progress Human potential Human nature

Speaker

Carl Sagan

Source

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Language

English

Time

1994 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl. Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. Random House, 1994.

The subtlest and most pervasive of all influences are those which create and maintain the repertory of stereotypes. We are told about the world before we see it. We imagine most things before we experience them.

Walter Lippmann

Public Opinion

More information about this quote

Topic

Stereotypes

Author

Walter Lippmann

Source

Public Opinion

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Lippmann, Walter. Public Opinion. Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1922, pt. 3, ch. 6.

Current Citation

Lippmann, Walter. Public Opinion. Dover Publications, 2004, pt. 3, ch. 6.