Writer

Explore 5101 quotes by Writers

A single person is missing for you, and the whole world is empty.

Philippe Ariès

More information about this quote

Topic

Missing someone Losing a loved one Grief Mourning

Author

Philippe Ariès

Source

Western Attitudes Toward Death: From the Middle Ages to the Present

Language

English

Time

1976 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Aries, Philippe. Western Attitudes Toward Death: From the Middle Ages to the Present. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Arthur C. Clarke

Also known as Clarke's Third Law.

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of technology Technology

Author

Arthur C. Clarke

Source

Science Magazine

Medium

Open letter Letter

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Clarke, Arthur C. "Clarke's Third Law on UFOs." Science Magazine, 19 Jan. 1968.

But how shall we expect charity towards others, when we are uncharitable to our selves?

Sir Thomas Browne

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Read Religio Medici at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Kindness Perfectionism Self-criticism

Author

Sir Thomas Browne

Source

Religio Medici

Genre

Autobiography and memoir Religious literature

Statement Type

Question

Language

English

Time

1643 1640s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Browne, Thomas, Sir. Religio Medici. London, 1643, pt. 2, sect. 4.

Current Citation

Browne, Thomas, Sir. "Religio Medici (1643)." Thomas Browne: Selected Writings, edited by Kevin Killeen. Oxford University Press, 2018, pt. 2, sect. 4.

Absence is to love what wind is to fire;
It extinguishes the small, it kindles the great.

Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of love Love

Author

Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy

Source

Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules: Maximes d'Amour.

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

French

Time

1665 1660s 17th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

De Bussy-Rabutin, Roger. Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules [Love history of the Gauls]. Cork: Editions à la Croix de Malte, 1665.

The more money an American accumulates the less interesting he himself becomes.

Gore Vidal

Read this essay at nybooks.com

More information about this quote

Topic

Accumulation of wealth Downsides of wealth

Author

Gore Vidal

Source

H. Hughes The New York Review of Books

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Vidal, Gore. "H. Hughes." The New York Review of Books, 20 Apr. 1972.

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.

G.K. Chesterton

More information about this quote

Topic

Christianity

Author

G.K. Chesterton

Source

The Unfinished Temple What's Wrong with the World

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1910 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Chesterton, G.K. "What's Wrong with the World." The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton. Vol. 4, Ignatius Press, 1987, pt. 1. Originally published by Cassell, 1910, pt. 1.

And when the event, the big change in your life, is simply an insight—isn't that a strange thing? That absolutely nothing changes except that you see things differently and you're less fearful and less anxious and generally stronger as a result: isn't it amazing that a completely invisible thing in your head can feel realer than anything you've experienced before? You see things more clearly and you know that you're seeing them more clearly. And it comes to you that this is what it means to love life, this is all anybody who talks seriously about God is ever talking about. Moments like this.

Jonathan Franzen

The Corrections

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More information about this quote

Topic

Inflection points

Author

Jonathan Franzen

Source

The Corrections

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

2001 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Franzen, Jonathan. The Corrections. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.

We walked up to the house and stood some minutes watching the swallows that flew about restlessly, and flung their shadows upon the sunbright walls of the old building; the shadows glanced and twinkled, interchanged and crossed each other, expanded and shrunk up, appeared and disappeared every instant.

Dorothy Wordsworth

More information about this quote

Topic

Birds Nature scene

Author

Dorothy Wordsworth

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1803 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wordsworth, Dorothy. Journal Entry. 16 Aug. 1803.

Current Citation

Wordsworth, Dorothy. "Journal entry 16 Aug. 1803." Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland. Yale University Press, 1997.

O Life! how pleasant in thy morning,
Young Fancy's rays the hills adorning!
Cold-pausing Caution's lesson scorning,
We frisk away,
Like school-boys at th' expected warning,
To joy and play.

Robert Burns

More information about this quote

Topic

Youth

Author

Robert Burns

Source

Epistle to James Smith

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1786 1780s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Burns, Robert. "Epistle to James Smith." Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. Kilmarnock: John Wilson, 1786, st. 16.

Current Citation

Burns, Robert. "To James Smith." Robert Burns: Selected Poems, edited Carol Mcguirk. Penguin Classics, 1994, I. 16.

The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; thats the essence of inhumanity.

George Bernard Shaw

Read The Devil's Disciple at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Indifference

Speaker

Anderson

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

The Devil's Disciple

Medium

Play

Genre

Drama (play)

Language

English

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. The Devil's Disciple. 4 Oct. 1897, Fifth Avenue Theatre, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA, act 2.

Current Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "The Devil's Disciple." Arms and the Man, the Devil's Disciple, and Caesar and Cleopatra. Oxford UP, 2021, act 2.

The trouble
with being best man is, you don't get a chance
to prove it.

Les A. Murray

More information about this quote

Topic

Best man Weddings

Author

Les A. Murray

Source

The Boys Who Stole the Funeral

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Murray, Les A. The Boys Who Stole the Funeral: A Novel Sequence. Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1980.

Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Oliver Goldsmith

The Citizen of the World

More information about this quote

Topic

Overcoming adversity Adversity

Author

Oliver Goldsmith

Source

The Citizen of the World

Medium

Novel

Genre

Satire

Language

English

Time

1761 1760s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Goldsmith, Oliver. "Letter VII." The Citizen of the World; or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher. Dublin: George and Alex. Ewing, 1762. Originally published in The Public Ledger, Jan. 1760 - Aug. 1761.

If thou wilt ease thine heart
Of lover and all its smart
Then sleep, dear, sleep.

Thomas Lovell Beddoes

More information about this quote

Topic

Broken heart Moving forward Sleep as balm Sleep

Author

Thomas Lovell Beddoes

Source

Death's Jest Book

Language

English

Time

1850 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Beddoes, Thomas Lovell. Death's Jest-book; Or, The Fool's Tragedy. London: William Pickering, 1850.

Current Citation

Beddoes, Thomas Lovell. Death's Jest Book. Routledge, 2020.

Look at that sea, girls-all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn't enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds.

L.M. Montgomery

Anne of Green Gables

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Read Anne of Green Gables at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Ocean and sea

Speaker

Anne Shirley

Author

L.M. Montgomery

Source

Anne of Green Gables

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Montgomery, L. M. Anne of Green Gables. L. C. Page & Co., 1908.

Current Citation

Montgomery, L. M. Anne of Green Gables. Puffin Books, 2014.

We must soften into a credulity below the milkiness of infancy, to think all men virtuous. We must be tainted with a malignity truly diabolical, to believe all the world to be equally wicked and corrupt.

Edmund Burke

More information about this quote

Topic

Human nature Original sin Virtue Perspective

Author

Edmund Burke

Source

Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontent

Medium

Pamphlet

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1770 1770s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Burke, Edmund. Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. London: J. Dodsley, 1770.

Current Citation

Burke, Edmund. "Thoughts on the Present Discontents." The Portable Edmund Burke, edited by Isaac Kramnick. Penguin, 2009.

Though collecting quotations could be considered as merely an ironic mimetism-victimless collecting, as it were... In a world that is well on its way to becoming one vast quarry, the collector becomes someone engaged in a pious work of salvage. The course of modern history having already sapped the traditions and shattered the living wholes in which precious objects once found their place, the collector may now in good conscience go about excavating the choicer, more emblematic fragments.

Susan Sontag

Melancholy Objects

More information about this quote

Topic

Quotations

Author

Susan Sontag

Source

Melancholy Objects The New York Review of Books

Medium

Essay Magazine

Language

English

Time

1974 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sontag, Susan. "Melancholy Objects." The New York Review of Books, 18 Apr. 1974.

Whether we like it or not, change comes, and the greater the resistance, the greater the pain.

Alan Watts

Buy Become What You Are at Amazon Buy Become What You Are at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Resistance to change Change Acceptance

Author

Alan Watts

Source

Become What You Are

Genre

Religious literature Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1995 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Watts, Alan. Become What You Are. Shambhala, 1995.

Love isn't there to make us happy. I believe it exists to show us how much we can endure.

Hermann Hesse

Peter Camenzind

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of love Love

Speaker

Erminia Aglietti

Author

Hermann Hesse

Source

Peter Camenzind

Medium

Novel

Genre

Coming of age story

Language

German

Time

1904 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hesse, Herman. Peter Camenzind. Samuel Fischer, 1904.

Current Citation

Hesse, Herman. Peter Camenzind, translated by Michael Roloff. Picador, 2003.

Achilles exists only through Homer. Take away the art of writing from this world, and you will probably take away its glory.

François-Rene de Chateaubriand

Les Natchez

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of literature

Author

François-Rene de Chateaubriand

Source

Les Natchez

Medium

Novel

Language

French

Time

1826 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

De Chateaubriand, François-René. Les Natchez. c. 1826, preface.

I would be married, but I'de have no Wife,
I would be married to a single Life.

Richard Crashaw

More information about this quote

Topic

Single life Marriage

Author

Richard Crashaw

Source

On Marriage Steps to the Temple

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1646 1640s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Crashaw, Richard. "On Marriage." Steps to the Temple. Humphrey Moseley, 1646, I. 1.