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Imagine that human existence is defined by an Ache: the Ache of our not being, each of us, the center of the universe; of our desires forever outnumbering our means of satisfying them.

Jonathan Franzen

Read this essay at harpers.org

More information about this quote

Topic

The human condition Desire

Author

Jonathan Franzen

Source

Harper's Magazine

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1996 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Franzen, Jonathan. "Perchance to Dream: In the Age of Images, a Reason to Write Novels." Harper's Magazine, Apr. 1996.

Current Citation

Franzen, Jonathan. "Why Bother?" How to Be Alone. Picador, 2002.

A gay Vietnam veteran... They gave me a medal for killing two men-and a discharge for loving one.

Leonard Matlovich

Inscription on his tombstone.

More information about this quote

Topic

Gay rights The military

Author

Leonard Matlovich

Medium

Epitaph Inscription

Language

English

Time

1988 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Matlovich, Leonard. Inscription on tombstone. 1988.

All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.

Havelock Ellis

More information about this quote

Topic

Civilization Revolution

Author

Havelock Ellis

Source

Little Essays of Love and Virtue

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ellis, Havelock. Little Essays of Love and Virtue. George H. Doran Company/A & C Black, 1922, ch. 7.

Conservatism starts from a sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created.

Roger Scruton

How to Be a Conservative

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More information about this quote

Topic

Conservatism

Author

Roger Scruton

Source

How to Be a Conservative

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

2014 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Scruton, Roger. How to Be a Conservative. Bloomsbury Continuum, 2014, preface.

It is a funny thing about life, if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it: if you utterly decline to make do with what you can get, then somehow or other you are very likely to get what you want.

W. Somerset Maugham

More information about this quote

Topic

Getting what you want

Author

W. Somerset Maugham

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Maugham, William Somerset. "The Treasure." The Mixture as Before. William Heinemann/Doubleday Doran, 1940.

A monarchy is a merchantman which sails well, but will sometimes strike on a rock, and go to the bottom; a republic is a raft which will never sink, but then your feet are always in the water.

Fisher Ames

More information about this quote

Topic

Monarchy Democracy Downsides of democracy Political theory

Speaker

Fisher Ames

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1795 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Ames, Fisher. Address in the House of Representatives. House of Representatives. 1795, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Current Citation

Ames, Fisher. Quoted in A Miracle Mirrored: The Dutch Republic in European Perspective, written by Henk van Nierop, edited by Karel Davids and Jan Lucassen. Cambridge University Press, 2011, ch. 2.

Habit and custom may be the wisdom of unlettered men, but they come from the sound ancient heart of humanity.

Russell Kirk

The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot

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Topic

Custom and convention

Author

Russell Kirk

Source

The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1953 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kirk, Russell. The Conservative Mind. Henry Regnery Company, 1953, ch. 2, sect. 4.

There comes a time in a man's life when to get where he has to go-if there are no doors or windows-he walks through a wall.

Bernard Malamud

More information about this quote

Topic

Inflection points

Author

Bernard Malamud

Source

Man in the Drawer

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Malamud, Bernard. "Man in the Drawer." Rembrandt's Hat. Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1973.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Henry S. Haskins

More information about this quote

Topic

Inner strength

Author

Henry S. Haskins

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Haskins, Henry S [published anonymously]. "Metapsychics." Meditations in Wall Street. William Morrow & Company, 1940.

Ignorance of the law excuses no man; not that all men know the law, but because 'tis an excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to confute him.

John Selden

Table Talk (Selden)

More information about this quote

Topic

Legal theory Law

Author

John Selden

Source

Table Talk (Selden)

Language

English

Time

1689 1680s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Selden, John. "Law." The Table-Talk Of John Selden. London: J.M. Dent and Company, 1689.

Markets can remain irrational a lot longer than you and I can remain solvent.

Gary Shilling

More information about this quote

Topic

Financial panics and publics Financial markets

Speaker

Gary Shilling

Language

English

Time

1986 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Shilling, Gary. Quoted in The Advertiser. 1986.

Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, while there is a lower class I am in it, while there is a criminal element I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Eugene Debs

More information about this quote

Topic

Underdogs Outsiders and outcasts

Author

Eugene Debs

Medium

Courtroom speech Speech

Language

English

Time

1918 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Federal Court. US v. Eugene V. Debs. RG 21, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Criminal Case Files, 1912–1977, Criminal Case #4057. 9. NYT, 18 Sept. 1918.

Suicide... Is about life, being in fact the sincerest form of criticism life gets.

Wilfrid Sheed

More information about this quote

Topic

Suicide

Author

Wilfrid Sheed

Source

The Good Word & Other Words

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1978 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sheed, Wilfrid. The Good Word & Other Words. E. P. Dutton, 1978, pt. 1, ch. 15.

Our noise for some seconds passed beyond excitement into a kind of immense open anguish, a wailing, a cry to be saved. But immortality is nontransferable. The papers said that the others players, and even the umpires on the field, begged him to come out and acknowledge us in some way, but he refused. Gods do not answer letters.

John Updike

Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu

More information about this quote

Topic

Athletes Heroes

Speaker

On Ted Williams's final game at Fenway Park.

Author

John Updike

Source

Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu The New Yorker

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Updike, John. "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu." New Yorker, 22 Oct. 1960.

Current Citation

Updike, John. Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu. Library of America, 2010.

We will all go together when we go,
All suffused with an incandescent glow.

Tom Lehrer

We Will All Go Together When We Go

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More information about this quote

Topic

Nuclear holocaust Cold War

Speaker

Tom Lehrer

Source

We Will All Go Together When We Go

Medium

Song

Genre

Protest music Folk music

Language

English

Time

1959 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lehrer, Tom. "We Will All Go Together When We Go." An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer. Lehrer Records/Reprise Records/Warner Records, 1959.

We have two lives...The life we learn with and the life we live with after that.

Bernard Malamud

The Natural

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More information about this quote

Topic

Life lessons

Speaker

Iris Lemon

Author

Bernard Malamud

Source

The Natural

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1952 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Malamud, Bernard. The Natural. Harcourt Brace and Company, 1952.

If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

Moshe Dayan

More information about this quote

Topic

Making peace

Speaker

Moshe Dayan

Language

English

Time

1977 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Dayan, Moshe. Quoted in Newsweek. 17 Oct. 1977.

My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.

Grover Norquist

Quoted in The Nation

More information about this quote

Topic

Government spending Limited government Political theory

Speaker

Grover Norquist

Source

The Nation

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

2001 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Norquist, Grover. Quoted in "Grover Norquist: ‘Field Marshal’ of the Bush Plan." Written by Bob Dreyfuss. The Nation, 26 Apr. 2001.

Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

The Portable Atheist

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More information about this quote

Topic

Living life to the fullest Life and death Life Death

Author

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Source

How (and Why) I Became an Infidel The Portable Atheist

Medium

Essay

Genre

Religious literature

Language

English

Time

2007 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hirsi Ali, Ayaan. "How (and Why) I Became an Infidel." The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever, edited by Christopher Hitchens. Da Capo Press, 2007, ch. 47.

You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Max Ehrmann

Desiderata

More information about this quote

Topic

Man and the universe

Author

Max Ehrmann

Source

Desiderata

Language

English

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ehrmann, Max. Desiderata. Michigan Tradesman, 5 Apr. 1933.