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These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed.... Great necessities call out great virtues.

Abigail Adams

Letter to John Adams, 1780

Read this letter at the National Archives website

More information about this quote

Topic

Interesting times Benefits of adversity

Author

Abigail Adams

Source

Letter to John Adams, 1780 Letters of Abigail Adams

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1780 1780s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Adams, Abigail. Letter to John Quincy Adams. 12 Jan. 1780.

Current Citation

Adams, Abigail. Quoted in John Adams, written by David McCullough. Simon and Schuster, 2001.

Objective evidence and certitude are doubtless very fine ideals to play with, but where on this moonlit and dream-visited planet are they found?

William James

The Will to Believe

More information about this quote

Topic

Evidence Certainty

Author

William James

Source

The Will to Believe

Genre

Psychological literature Religious literature

Language

English

Time

1896 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, William. "The Will to Believe." Philosophical Club of Yale University. Apr. 1896, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. Lecture.

Current Citation

James, William. "The Will to Believe." William James: Essays and Lectures, edited by Richard Kamber. Routledge, 2016.

Meditation is not a means to an end. It is both the means and the end.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

More information about this quote

Topic

Meditation Mindfulness

Author

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Krishnamurti, Jiddu. The Second Penguin Krishnamurti Reader, edited by Mary Lutyens. Penguin Books, 1973, pt. 1.

I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish...in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon—if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.

John F. Kennedy

Read this speech at UVA's Miller Center website

More information about this quote

Topic

The moon landing Space race

Speaker

John F. Kennedy

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1961 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kennedy, John F. Special Message to Congress on Urgent National Needs. 25 May 1961, U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

I will offer a choice, not an echo.

Barry Goldwater

More information about this quote

Topic

Political campaigns American politics

Speaker

Barry Goldwater

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1964 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Goldwater, Barry. Remarks announcing candidacy for the republican presidential nomination. 3 Jan. 1964, Paradise City, AZ, USA. News conference.

We have a degree of delight, and that no small one, in the real misfortunes and pains of others.

Edmund Burke

Philosophical Enquiry in the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

More information about this quote

Topic

Schadenfreude

Author

Edmund Burke

Source

Philosophical Enquiry in the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1757 1750s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Burke, Edmund. Philosophical Enquiry in the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. London: R and J. Dodsley, 1757, pt. 1, sec. 14.

Current Citation

Burke, Edmund. "Philosophical Enquiry in the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful." The Portable Edmund Burke, edited by Isaac Kramnick. Penguin, 2009, pt. 1, sec. 14.

I fought the law, and the law won.

The Crickets

I Fought the Law

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Topic

Law Resisting authority The man

Speaker

The Crickets

Source

I Fought the Law

Genre

Rock and roll

Language

English

Time

1961 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Curtis, Sonny. "I Fought the Law." Performed by The Crickets. In Style With the Crickets. Coral Records, 1960.

Religion is love; in no case is it logic.

Beatrice Potter Webb

More information about this quote

Topic

Religion

Author

Beatrice Potter Webb

Source

My Apprenticeship

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Webb, Beatrice Potter. My Apprenticeship. Cambridge University Press, 1979, ch. 2. Originally published by Longmans, Green and Co., 1926, ch. 2.

Show me a good loser and I will show you a failure.

Knute Rockne

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Topic

Sportsmanship Losers

Speaker

Knute Rockne

Language

English

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Rockne, Knute. Quoted in Washington Post. 15 Aug. 1943.

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

John Adams

Read this letter at the National Archives website

More information about this quote

Topic

Morality and politics Political theory American experiment

Author

John Adams

Source

Letters of John Adams

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1798 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Adams, John. Letter to the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts. 11 Oct. 1798.

They are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first.

Margaret Thatcher

More information about this quote

Topic

Society Family Role of government Political theory Conservatism

Speaker

Margaret Thatcher

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

1987 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Thatcher, Margaret. "No Such Thing as Society." Interviewed by Douglas Keay. Woman's Own, 23 Sept. 1987.

To die will be an awfully big adventure.

James M. Barrie

Peter Pan

Read Peter Pan at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Death

Author

James M. Barrie

Source

Peter Pan

Medium

Play

Language

English

Time

1904 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Barrie, James M. Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. Performed by Gerald du Maurier, Nina Boucicault, Joan Burnett, Christine Silver, A.W. Baskcomb, and Alice DuBarry. 27 Dec. 1904, Duke of York's Theatre, Westminster, London, England, UK, act 3.

Current Citation

Barrie, James M. Peter Pan. Reader's Library Classics, 2022, ch. 8.

Back then, government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

Ronald Reagan

More information about this quote

Topic

Government regulation

Speaker

Ronald Reagan

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1986 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Reagan, Ronald. Remarks to state chairs in Washington, DC. National White House Conference on Small Business. 15 Aug. 1986, Old Executive Office Building, Washington, DC, USA.

We're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado, anybody want to see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired.

Alec Baldwin

Glengarry Glen Ross

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More information about this quote

Topic

Incentives Capitalism

Speaker

Blake

Actor

Alec Baldwin

Source

Glengarry Glen Ross

Medium

Film

Genre

Drama (film) Drama

Language

English

Time

1992 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Glengarry Glen Ross. Directed by James Foley, Zupnik Enterprises, 1992.

Every successful revolution puts on in time the robes of the tyrant it has deposed.

Barbara W. Tuchman

Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45

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Topic

Revolution

Author

Barbara W. Tuchman

Source

Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Tuchman, Barbara W. Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45. Macmillan, 1972, ch. 8.

A minimum of comfort is necessary for the practice of virtue.

Patrice Lumumba

Congo, My Country

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Topic

Moral theory

Author

Patrice Lumumba

Source

Congo, My Country

Language

English

Time

1962 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lumumba, Patrice. Congo, My Country. Praeger, 1962, ch. 3.

If you can't say anything good about someone, sit right here by me.

Alice Roosevelt Longworth

More information about this quote

Topic

Gossip Criticizing others

Author

Alice Roosevelt Longworth

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Longworth, Alice Roosevelt. Embroidered on a pillow in her sitting room. c. 1980.

If you trap the moment before it's ripe,
The tears of repentance you'll certainly wipe;
But if once you let the ripe moment go
You can never wipe off the tears of woe.

William Blake

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Topic

Missed opportunities Timing

Author

William Blake

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1792 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Blake, William. Poem written in his notebook. c. 1792.

Current Citation

Blake, William. "If you trap the moment before its ripe." William Blake: Selected Poems, edited by Nicholas Shrimpton. Oxford University Press, 2019.

There are no necessary evils in the government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favor alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing.

Andrew Jackson

More information about this quote

Topic

Government Political theory

Speaker

Andrew Jackson

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1832 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jackson, Andrew. Veto message on bank bill. Congress meeting. 10 July 1832, U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter

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Topic

Public vs. private person False appearances

Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Source

The Scarlet Letter

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1850 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter: A Romance. Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 1850, ch. 20.

Current Citation

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter, edited by Brian Harding. Oxford University Press, 2009, ch. 20.