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Explore 7518 quotes originally in English

The law is a sort of hocus-pocus science.

Charles Macklin

Love a la Mode

More information about this quote

Topic

Law

Speaker

Sir Archy

Author

Charles Macklin

Source

Love a la Mode

Medium

Play

Language

English

Time

1759 1750s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Macklin, Charles. Love a la Mode. c. 1759, Drury Lane Theatre, London, England, UK, act 2, sc. 1.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

William Shakespeare

Hamlet

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Topic

Brevity Wit Pithiness

Speaker

Lord Polonius

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

Hamlet

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1616 1610s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. London: Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, 1623, act 2, sc. 2.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 2, sc. 2.

So, loath to suffer mute,
We, peopling the void air,
Make Gods to whom to impute
The ills we ought to bear.

Matthew Arnold

Empedocles on Etna

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More information about this quote

Topic

God and man

Author

Matthew Arnold

Source

Empedocles on Etna

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1852 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Arnold, Matthew, [published as A]. "Empedocles on Etna." Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems. London: B. Fellowes, 1852, act 1, sc. 2.

Such is the delight of mental superiority , that none on, whom nature or study have conferred it, would purchase the gifts of fortune by its loss.

Samuel Johnson

More information about this quote

Topic

Intelligence

Author

Samuel Johnson

Language

English

Time

1751 1750s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Johnson, Samuel. The Rambler. London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 24 Aug. 1751.

It is a very great thing to be able to think as you like; but, after all, an important question remains: what you think.

Matthew Arnold

Democracy

More information about this quote

Topic

Freedom of thought Thoughts

Author

Matthew Arnold

Source

Democracy

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1861 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Democracy." The Popular Education of France: With Notices of that of Holland and Switzerland. Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1861.

Current Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Democracy." Culture and Anarchy and Other Selected Prose. Penguin Classics, 2015.

A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, men of the west!

Viggo Mortensen

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

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Topic

Never surrender

Speaker

Aragorn

Actor

Viggo Mortensen

Source

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Medium

Film

Genre

Epic (film) Fantasy (film) Epic Fantasy

Language

English

Time

2003 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Directed by Peter Jackson, New Line Cinema, 2003.

I am haunted by waters.

Norman Maclean

A River Runs Through It

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More information about this quote

Topic

Man and nature Water

Author

Norman Maclean

Source

A River Runs Through It

Medium

Novella

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1976 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Maclean, Norman. "A River Runs Through it." A River Runs Through It and Other Stories. University of Chicago Press, 1976.

An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.

Gerald Ford

More information about this quote

Topic

Impeachment American politics

Speaker

Gerald Ford

Language

English

Time

1970 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ford, Gerald. Remarks in the U.S. House of Representatives in an effort to impeach Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. House of Representatives meeting. 15 Apr. 1970, House of Representatives Chamber, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

I mean, there could be a black president one day, but…You don’t wanna be the first one. I mean the second or third that's fine, but…that first nigga better watch out.

Dave Chappelle

Killin' Them Softly

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Read the full transcript of this special at scrapsfromtheloft.com

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Topic

Black President American Presidency

Speaker

Dave Chappelle

Source

Killin' Them Softly

Medium

Comedy special

Genre

Comedy (stand up)

Language

English

Time

2000 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Chappelle, Dave. Dave Chappelle: Killin' Them Softly. HBO, 26 July 2000.

Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine, that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field.

Edmund Burke

Reflections on the Revolution in France

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Topic

Political agitation

Author

Edmund Burke

Source

Reflections on the Revolution in France

Genre

Political literature

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1790 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Burke, Edmund. Reflections on the Revolution in France. London: James Dodsley, 1790.

Current Citation

Burke, Edmund. "Reflections on the Revolution in France." The Portable Edmund Burke, edited by Isaac Kramnick. Penguin, 2009.

None so blind as those that will not see.

Matthew Henry

Commentaries (Henry)

More information about this quote

Topic

Willful ignorance Ignorance Blindness

Author

Matthew Henry

Source

Commentaries (Henry)

Genre

Religious literature

Statement Type

Proverbs, aphorisms and adages

Language

English

Time

1706 1700s 18th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Henry, Matthew. Matthew Henry's Commentary. c. 1706, Jeremiah 20.

Current Citation

Henry, Matthew. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible. Thomas Nelson, 2003, Jeremiah 20.

An honest God is the noblest work of man.

Robert G. Ingersoll

More information about this quote

Topic

God and man Nature of God Existence of God God

Author

Robert G. Ingersoll

Language

English

Time

1874 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ingersoll, Robert Green. "The Gods." c. 1872. Lecture.

It was as though in those last minutes he was summing up the lesson that this long course in human wickedness had taught us—the lesson of the fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil.

Hannah Arendt

On the trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the organizers of the Holocaust.

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of evil Evil The Holocaust

Author

Hannah Arendt

Source

Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil The New Yorker

Medium

Essay Magazine

Genre

Political literature Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Arendt, Hanna. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Viking Press, 1963. Originally published by The New Yorker, 16 Mar. 1963.

It is not a field of a few acres of ground, but a cause, that we are defending, and whether we defeat the enemy in one battle, or by degrees, the consequences will be the same.

Thomas Paine

The American Crisis

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More information about this quote

Topic

American Revolution

Author

Thomas Paine

Source

The American Crisis

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1777 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Paine, Thomas. The American Crisis: Number 4. Philadelphia: Styner and Cist, 1777.

Current Citation

Paine, Thomas. "The American Crisis, Number IV, September 12, 1777." Common Sense, The Crisis, & Other Writings from the American Revolution. Library of America, 2015.

This country was a lot better off when the Indians were running it.

Vine Deloria, Jr.

Read this article at the New York Times website

More information about this quote

Topic

US and Native American relations America

Speaker

Vine Deloria, Jr.

Source

The New York Times Magazine

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1970 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Deloria, Vine, Jr. "This Country Was a Lot Better Off When the Indians Were Running It." The New York Times, 8 Mar. 1970.

It is my land, my home, my father's land, to which I now ask to be allowed to return. I want to spend my last days there, and be buried among those mountains. If this could be I might die in peace, feeling that my people, placed in their native homes, would increase in numbers, rather than diminish as at present, and that our name would not become extinct.

Geronimo

On Arizona.

More information about this quote

Topic

Home Native American life

Speaker

Geronimo

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1877 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Geronimo. Speech from Fort Sill. 1877, Fort Sill, OK, USA.

Current Citation

Geronimo. Quoted in Geronimo: The Man, His Time, His Place, written by Angie Debo. University of Oklahoma Press, 1976.

Evil is unspectacular and always human,
And shares our bed and eats at our table.

W.H. Auden

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of evil Evil

Author

W.H. Auden

Source

Herman Melville

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Auden, W. H. "Herman Melville." Another Time. Faber and Faber/Random House, 1940.

If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. As if a town had no interest in its forests but to cut them down!

Henry David Thoreau

Life Without Principle

More information about this quote

Topic

Man and nature

Author

Henry David Thoreau

Source

Life Without Principle The Atlantic

Medium

Essay Magazine

Language

English

Time

1862 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Life Without Principle." The Atlantic, Oct. 1863.

Current Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Life Without Principle." Walden and Other Writings. Modern Library, 2000.

My position as regards the moneyed interests can be put in a few words. In every civilized society property rights must be carefully safeguarded; ordinarily, and in the great majority of cases, human rights and property rights are fundamentally and in the long run identical; but when it clearly appears that there is a real conflict between them, human rights must have the upper hand, for property belongs to man and not man to property.

Theodore Roosevelt

More information about this quote

Topic

Property rights

Speaker

Theodore Roosevelt

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1910 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Roosevelt, Theodore, Jr. "Citizenship in a Republic." 23 Apr. 1910, Sorbonne University, Paris, France.

Current Citation

Roosevelt, Theodore, Jr. "Citizenship in a Republic." Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.: Letters and Speeches, edited by Louis Auchincloss. Library of America, 2004.

I will call no being good, who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow-creatures; and if such a being can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go.

John Stuart Mill

Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy

More information about this quote

Topic

Goodness of God Nature of God God

Author

John Stuart Mill

Source

Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy

Medium

Essay

Genre

Philosophical writing

Language

English

Time

1865 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Mill, John Stuart. Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1865, ch. 7.

Current Citation

Mill, John Stuart. An Examination of Sir. William Hamilton's Philosophy. Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, edited by John M. Robson. Vol. 9, Routledge, 2009, ch. 7.