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Explore 5101 quotes by Writers

I drank the silence of God from a spring in the woods.

Georg Trakl

More information about this quote

Topic

Silence Stillness Solitude The forest

Author

Georg Trakl

Source

De Profundis Gedichte

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

German

Time

1912 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Trakl, Georg. "De profundis." Gedichte. Contumax, 1913.

Current Citation

Trakl, Georg. "De profundis." To the Silenced, translated by Will Stone. Arc Publications, 2005.

We love well only once, the first time. The loves which follow are less involuntary.

Jean de La Bruyere

More information about this quote

Topic

First love Being in love Love

Author

Jean de La Bruyere

Source

The Characters, or The Manners of the Age

Language

French

Time

1688 1680s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

De La Bruyere, Jean. "Du Coeur [Of the Heart]." Les Caracteres ou Les Moeurs de Ce Siecle [The Characters or The Manners of the Age]. Paris: Chez Estienne Michallet, 1688.

The road to resolution lies by doubt:
The next way home's the farthest way about.

Francis Quarles

Emblems

More information about this quote

Topic

Doubt and skepticism

Author

Francis Quarles

Source

Emblems

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

English

Time

1635 1630s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Quarles, Francis. Emblemes, Divine and Moral. London, 1635, bk. 4, emblem 2.

Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself.

Viktor Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning

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More information about this quote

Topic

Success Dedication Happiness

Author

Viktor Frankl

Source

Man's Search for Meaning

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

German

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Frankl, Victor. …trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen: Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager [Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy]. Verlag für Jugend und Volk, 1946.

Current Citation

Frankl, Victor. Man's Search for Meaning. Beacon Press, 2006.

I've always sensed that language is the great liberator. The fitting phrase, the precise word-these permit us to be more nearly ourselves.

Carol Shields

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of words Language

Speaker

Carol Shields

Source

Larry's Party

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

1993 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Shields, Carol. "An Interview with Carol Shields from Penguin.com," author's website, n.d., http://www.carol-shields.com/larryspartyinterview.pdf.

Why do people have to be this lonely? What's the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?

Haruki Murakami

Sputnik Sweetheart

More information about this quote

Topic

Loneliness Isolation The human condition

Author

Haruki Murakami

Source

Sputnik Sweetheart

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Question

Language

Japanese

Time

1999 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Murakami, Haruki. スプートニクの恋人 [Sputnik Sweetheart]. Kodansha, 1999.

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the Ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle.
Why not I with thine?

Percy Bysshe Shelley

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Read Love's Philosophy at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Interconnectedness of all things Connecting with others

Author

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Source

Love's Philosophy

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1819 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "Love's Philosophy." The Indicator. London: J. Appleyard, 22 Dec. 1819, I. 1.

Current Citation

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "Love's Philosophy." Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Major Works, edited by Zachary Leader and Michael O'Neill. Oxford University Press, 2009, I. 1.

It is humbling to reflect, that in those countries in which the fondness for the mere persons of women is carried to the highest excess, they are slaves; and that their moral and intellectual degradation increases in direct proportion to the adoration which is paid to mere external charms.

Hannah More

More information about this quote

Topic

Oppression of women Gender relations Patriarchy

Author

Hannah More

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1799 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

More, Hannah. Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education. Vol. 1, London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1799, ch. 1.

In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.

David Foster Wallace

2005 Kenyon College commencement address

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Read this speech at purdue.edu

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of God Worship Atheism

Speaker

David Foster Wallace

Source

2005 Kenyon College commencement address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Commencement address

Language

English

Time

2005 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wallace, David Foster. Commencement address at Kenyon College. Commencement. 21 May 2005, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, USA.

Current Citation

Wallace, David Foster. This is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion about Living a Compassionate Life. Little, Brown and Company, 2009.

I never shied away from love's hugeness but I had no idea that love could be as reliable as the sun. The daily rising of love.

Jeanette Winterson

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of love Love

Author

Jeanette Winterson

Source

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

2011 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Winterson, Jeanette. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Jonathan Cape, 2011.

We spend our midday sweat, our midnight oil;
We tire the night in thought, the day in toil.

Francis Quarles

More information about this quote

Topic

Work Fatigue

Author

Francis Quarles

Source

Emblems

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1635 1630s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Quarles, Francis. Emblemes, Divine and Moral. London, 1635, bk. 2, emblem 2.

You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way.

Richard Bach

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

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More information about this quote

Topic

Authenticity

Speaker

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Author

Richard Bach

Source

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Language

English

Time

1970 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bach, Richard. Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The Macmillan Company, 1970, pt. 3.

It was at present a place perfectly accordant with man's nature-neither ghastly, hateful, nor ugly; neither commonplace, unmeaning, nor tame; but, like man, slighted and enduring; and withal singularly colossal and mysterious in its swarthy monotony. As with some persons who have long lived apart, solitude seemed to look out of its countenance. It had a lonely face, suggesting tragical possiblities.

Thomas Hardy

The Return of the Native

A description of Egdon Heath, a fictional place in southeast England.

More information about this quote

Topic

Landscape England

Author

Thomas Hardy

Source

The Return of the Native

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1878 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Hardy, Thomas. "The Return of the Native." Belgravia, 9 Jan. 1878 - 19 Dec. 1878.

Current Citation

Hardy, Thomas. The Return of the Native, edited by Simon Gatrell. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes-including you.

Anne Lamott

More information about this quote

Topic

Recharging Disconnecting

Speaker

Anne Lamott

Medium

Speech

Genre

TED Talk

Language

English

Time

2017 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lamott, Anne. Facebook post. 8 Apr. 2015.

There's nothing so dangerous as sitting still. You've only got one life, one youth, and you can let it slip through your fingers if you want to; nothing easier. Most people do that.

Willa Cather

More information about this quote

Topic

Carpe diem Procrastination Wasting time Youth

Speaker

Nils

Author

Willa Cather

Source

The Bohemian Girl

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1912 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Cather, Willa. "The Bohemian Girl." McClure's Magazine, Aug. 1912.

Current Citation

Cather, Willa. "The Bohemian Girl." The Bohemian Girl: Stories. Harper Perennial, 2009.

One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them by chance, in a lucky hour, at the world's end somewhere, and holds fast to the days, as to fortune or fame.

Willa Cather

More information about this quote

Topic

Happiness

Author

Willa Cather

Source

Le Lavandou

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cather, Willa. Willa Cather in Europe: Her Own Story of the First Journey. Alfred A. Knopf, 1956, ch. 13. Originally a notebook entry in Le Lavandou. 10 Sept. 1902.

Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

Bertolt Brecht

More information about this quote

Topic

Parliamentary democracy Citizen and state Democracy

Author

Bertolt Brecht

Source

The Solution

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Irony Joke

Language

German

Time

1956 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Brecht, Bertolt. "Die Lösung [The Solution]." Die Welt, 1959.

Every civilized human being, whatever his conscious development, is still an archaic man at the deeper levels of his psyche.

Carl Jung

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More information about this quote

Topic

Civilization Progress Human nature

Author

Carl Jung

Source

Modern Man in Search of a Soul

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

German

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Jung, Carl. "Archaic Man." Modern Man in Search of a Soul, translated by Cary F. Baynes and William Stanley Dell. Kegen Paul, Trenche, Trubner & Co., 1933.

Introduce the alphabet to a culture and you change its cognitive habits, its social relations, its notions of community, history and religion. Introduce the printing press with movable type, and you do the same. Introduce speed-of-light transmission of images and you make a cultural revolution. Without a vote. Without polemics. Without guerrilla resistance. Here is ideology, pure if not serene. Here is ideology without words, and all the more powerful for their absence. All that is required to make it stick is a population that devoutly believes in the inevitability of progress.

Neil Postman

Amusing Ourselves to Death

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More information about this quote

Topic

Power of technology Technological progress Technology

Author

Neil Postman

Source

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Language

English

Time

1985 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Viking Penguin/Methuen Publishing, 1985, ch. 11.

A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.

Italo Calvino

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of literature Books

Author

Italo Calvino

Source

L'Espresso

Medium

Magazine

Language

Italian

Time

1981 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Calvino, Italo. "Perché leggere i classici? [Why Read the Classics?]" L'Espresso, 28 June 1981.

Current Citation

Calvino, Italo. Why Read the Classics? Penguin Classics, 2009.