Writer

Explore 5101 quotes by Writers

Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth
A youth to fortune and to fame unknown.
Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy marked him for her own.

Thomas Gray

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

More information about this quote

Author

Thomas Gray

Source

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Epitaph

Language

English

Time

1751 1750s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Gray, Thomas. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. London: Robert Dodsley, 1751.

Current Citation

Gray, Thomas. "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." Elegy Written In Country Churchyard and Other Poems. Penguin Classics, 2009.

The scrupulous and the just, the noble, humane, and devoted natures; the unselfish and the intelligent may begin a movement—but it passes away from them. They are not the leaders of a revolution. They are its victims.

Joseph Conrad

Under Western Eyes

Read Under Western Eyes at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Conscientious people Revolution

Author

Joseph Conrad

Source

Under Western Eyes

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1911 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Conrad, Joseph. Under Western Eyes. Harper & Brothers/Methuen Publishing, 1911, pt. 2, ch. 3.

Current Citation

Conrad, Joseph. Under Western Eyes. Dover Publications, 2003, pt. 2, ch. 3.

The car, the furniture, the wife, the children-everything has to be disposable. Because you see the main thing today is-shopping.

Arthur Miller

The Price

More information about this quote

Topic

Consumerism

Speaker

Gregory Solomon

Author

Arthur Miller

Source

The Price

Medium

Play

Language

English

Time

1968 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Miller, Arthur. The Price. 7 Feb. 1968, Morosco Theatre, New York City, NY, USA, act 1.

Young people, who are still uncertain of their identity, often try on a succession of masks in the hope of finding the one which suits them-the one, in fact, which is not a mask.

W.H. Auden

More information about this quote

Topic

Finding oneself Personal identity Youth Personal growth

Author

W.H. Auden

Source

One of the Family Forewords and Afterwords

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Auden, W. H. "One of the Family." Forewords and Afterwords. Random House/Faber and Faber, 1973.

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of life Life

Author

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

Source

Journals of Samuel Butler

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Butler, Samuel. The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, edited by Henry Festing Jones. A. C. Fifield, 1912, ch. 1.

The Night is mother of the Day,
The Winter of the Spring,
And ever upon old Decay
The greenest mosses cling.

John Greenleaf Whittier

A Dream of Summer

More information about this quote

Topic

Night and day Season Circle of life

Author

John Greenleaf Whittier

Source

A Dream of Summer

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1847 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Wittier, John Greenleaf. A Dream of Summer. c. 1847, st. 4.

A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.

Archibald MacLeish

More information about this quote

Topic

Birds Poetry

Author

Archibald MacLeish

Source

Ars Poetica (MacLeish)

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

MacLeish, Archibald. "Ars Poetica." Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, June 1926.

Current Citation

MacLeish, Archibald. "Ars Poetica." From Collected Poems 1917 to 1982. Mariner Books, 1985.

Only through art can we get outside of ourselves and know another's view of the universe which is not the same as ours and see landscapes which would otherwise have remained unknown to us like the landscapes of the moon. Thanks to art, instead of seeing a single world, our own, we see it multiply until we have before us as many worlds as there are original artists.

Marcel Proust

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of art

Author

Marcel Proust

Language

French

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Proust, Marcel. Le Temps retrouvé [Time Regained]. Paris: Gallimard, 1927.

Current Citation

Proust, Marcel. Finding Time Again, edited and translated by Ian Patterson. Penguin Classics, 2023.

When you're young—when I was young—you want your emotions to be like the ones you read about in books. You want them to overturn your life, create and define a new reality. Later, I think, you want them to do something milder, something more practical: you want them to support your life as it is and has become. You want them to tell you that things are OK. And is there anything wrong with that?

Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending

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More information about this quote

Topic

Emotions Youth vs. old age Aging

Author

Julian Barnes

Source

The Sense of an Ending

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

2011 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending. Jonathan Cape/Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, ch. 2.

God of forgiveness, do not forgive those murderers of Jewish children here.

Elie Wiesel

Quoted in The Times of London

Spoken at Auschwitz.

More information about this quote

Topic

The Holocaust Forgiveness

Speaker

Elie Wiesel

Source

The Times of London

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1995 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Wiesel, Elie. The Times. 27 Jan. 1995.

I know I am but summer to your heart,
And not the full four seasons of the year.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

More information about this quote

Topic

Summer love Flings

Author

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Source

I Know I Am But Summer

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Millay, Edna St. Vincent. "I Know I Am But Summer." The Harp-Weaver, and Other Poems. Harper & Brothers, 1923, I. 1.

Death! great proprietor of all! 'tis thine
To tread out empire, and to quench the stars.

Edward Young

Night Thoughts

Read Night Thoughts at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Inevitability of death Effects of time

Author

Edward Young

Source

Night Thoughts

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1742 1740s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Young, Edward. The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality. London: R. Dodsley, 1742, Night 1, I. 204.

Current Citation

Young, Edward. Edward Young: Night Thoughts, edited by Stephen Cornford. Cambridge University Press, 2008, Night 1, I. 204.

I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one's business on earth, like the male spider, who is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in his courtship. I like a state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind.

George Bernard Shaw

More information about this quote

Topic

Goals

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

Letters of George Bernard Shaw

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1896 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. Letter to Ellen Terry. 28 Aug. 1896.

If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found the flower in his hand when he awoke-Aye! and what then?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

More information about this quote

Topic

Dreams Heaven

Author

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Source

Anima Poetae

Medium

Personal journal

Statement Type

Hypothetical situations

Language

English

Time

1816 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Notebook entry. c. 1816.

Of all means to regeneration Remorse is surely the most wasteful. It cuts away healthy tissues with the poisoned. It is a knife that probes far deeper than the evil.

E.M. Forster (Edward Morgan Forster)

Howards End

More information about this quote

Topic

Remorse Regrets Guilt Self-improvement Personal growth

Author

E.M. Forster (Edward Morgan Forster)

Source

Howards End

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1910 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Forster, E.M. Howards End. Edward Arnold, 1910, ch. 41.

Beauty for some provides escape,
Who gain a happiness in eyeing
The gorgeous buttocks of the ape
Or autumn sunsets exquisitely dying.

Aldous Huxley

More information about this quote

Topic

Beauty

Author

Aldous Huxley

Source

Sententious Song Jonah

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1917 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Huxley, Aldous. "Sententious Song." Jonah. Holywell Press, 1917.

Life is a horizontal fall.

Jean Cocteau

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of life Life

Author

Jean Cocteau

Language

French

Time

1930 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cocteau, Jean. Opium, Journal d'une Desintoxication [Opium: Diary of a Cure]. Librairie Stock, 1930.

Time will rust the sharpest sword,
Time will consume the strongest cord;
That which moulders hemp and steel,
Mortal arm and nerve must feel.

Sir Walter Scott

Harold the Dauntless

More information about this quote

Topic

Time as destroyer Effects of time Time

Author

Sir Walter Scott

Source

Harold the Dauntless

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1817 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Scott, Walter, Sir. Harold the Dauntless. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co. /London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1817, canto 1, st. 4.

Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.

Carl Jung

The Psychology of the Unconscious

More information about this quote

Topic

Love Power Yin and y ang

Author

Carl Jung

Source

The Psychology of the Unconscious

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

German

Time

1912 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Jung, Carl. Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido [The Psychology of the Unconscious]. F. Deuticke, 1912.

Current Citation

Jung, Carl. "On the Psychology of the Unconscious." The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, translated by R. F. C. Hull. Vol. 7, Princeton University Press, 1972, pt. 4.

Sex and religion are bordering states. They use the same vocabulary, share like ecstasies, and often serve as a substitute for one another.

Jessamyn West

More information about this quote

Topic

Sex Religion

Author

Jessamyn West

Source

Hide and Seek: A Continuing Journey

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

West, Jessamyn. Hide and Seek: A Continuing Journey. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973, ch. 21.