Writer

Explore 5101 quotes by Writers

Half our days we pass in the shadow of the earth; and the brother of death exacteth a third part of our lives.

Sir Thomas Browne

More information about this quote

Topic

Sleep

Author

Sir Thomas Browne

Source

On Dreams

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1682 1680s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Browne, Thomas, Sir. "On Dreams." The Collected Works of Sir Thomas Browne. Norwich: Fletcher and Son, c. 1835.

Current Citation

Browne, Thomas, Sir. "On Dreams." Sir Thomas Browne: The Major Works, edited by C. A. Patrides. Penguin Classics, 1977.

There was always a minority afraid of something, and a great majority afraid of the dark, afraid of the future, afraid of the past, afraid of the present, afraid of themselves and shadows of themselves.

Ray Bradbury

More information about this quote

Topic

Fear

Speaker

William Stendahl

Author

Ray Bradbury

Source

The Martian Chronicles

Medium

Novel

Genre

Science fiction

Language

English

Time

1950 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bradbury, Ray. "Usher II." The Martian Chronicles. Doubleday, 1950.

Expenditure rises to meet income.

C. Northcote Parkinson

More information about this quote

Topic

Money

Author

C. Northcote Parkinson

Source

The Law and the Profits

Genre

Economic literature

Statement Type

Precepts and axioms

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Parkinson, C. Northcote. The Law and the Profits. Houghton Mifflin, 1960, ch. 1.

Politics hates a vacuum. If it isn't filled with hope, someone will fill it with fear.

Naomi Klein

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature abhors a vacuum Demagoguery Populism Politics

Author

Naomi Klein

Source

The Guardian

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

2003 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Klein, Naomi. "From Pots to Politics." The Guardian, 11 May 2003, www.theguardian.com/world/2003/may/12/argentina.comment

That action is best, which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers.

Francis Hutcheson

An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue

More information about this quote

Topic

Utilitarianism Moral theory Morality

Author

Francis Hutcheson

Medium

Treatise

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Precepts and axioms

Language

English

Time

1725 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hutcheson, Francis. An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue. London: J. Darby, 1726, treatise 2, sect. 3, subsect. 8.

Current Citation

Hutcheson, Francis. An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, edited by Wolfgang Leidhold. Liberty Fund, 2008.

Art is not a thing-it is a way.

Elbert Hubbard

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of art Art

Author

Elbert Hubbard

Source

Thomas Arnold

Statement Type

Zen koan

Language

English

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Hubbard, Elbert. "Thomas Arnold." Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Teachers. The Roycrofters, 1908.

Wit is the only wall
Between us and the dark.

Mark Van Doren

More information about this quote

Topic

Wit Power of humor Humor

Author

Mark Van Doren

Source

Wit

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1939 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Doren, Mark Van. "Wit." Collected Poems 1922–1938. Henry Holt & Company, 1939, st. 1.

Art is born of humiliation.

W.H. Auden

More information about this quote

Topic

Sources of art Art

Speaker

W.H. Auden

Source

World Within World

Language

English

Time

1951 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Auden, W. H. Quoted in World Within World, by Stephen Spender. Hamish Hamilton/Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1951.

O! many a shaft, at random sent,
Finds mark the archer little meant!
And many a word, at random spoken,
May soothe or wound a heart that's broken!

Sir Walter Scott

More information about this quote

Topic

Comforting words Fortuitous occurrences

Author

Sir Walter Scott

Source

The Lord of the Isles

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1815 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Scott, Walter, Sir. The Lord of the Isles. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co./London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1815, canto 5, st. 18.

By the time you say you're his,
Shivering and sighing
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying-
Lady, make a note of this:
One of you is lying.

Dorothy Parker

More information about this quote

Topic

Men and women Relationship challenges Relationships

Author

Dorothy Parker

Source

Unfortunate Coincidence

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1937 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Parker, Dorothy. "Unfortunate Coincidence." Enough Rope. Boni & Liveright, 1926.

Our gadget-filled paradise suspended in a hell of international insecurity.

Reinhold Niebuhr

More information about this quote

Topic

Modern life Cold War

Author

Reinhold Niebuhr

Source

Pious and Secular America

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1957 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Niebuhr, Reinhold. Pious and Secular America. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958.

Here to-day, up and off to somewhere else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing!

Kenneth Grahame

The Wind in the Willows

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Read The Wind in the Willows at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Travel Adventure

Speaker

Toad

Author

Kenneth Grahame

Source

The Wind in the Willows

Medium

Novel

Genre

Children's literature

Language

English

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows. Methuen, 1908, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows. Barnes & Noble, 2013, ch. 2.

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.

Alfred Tennyson

The Princess

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Read The Princess at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Looking back Changing of seasons Passage of time Melancholy

Author

Alfred Tennyson

Source

The Princess

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1847 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Tennyson, Alfred. The Princess. London: Edward Moxon, 1847, pt. 4.

Current Citation

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. "The Princess." Alfred Tennyson: The Major Works, edited by Adam Roberts. Oxford University Press, 2009, pt. 4.

Love is a thing.
It is a prick, it is a sting,
It is a pretty, pretty thing;
It is a fire, it is a coal
Whose flame creeps in at every hole.

George Peele

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of love Love

Author

George Peele

Source

The Hunting of Cupid

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Definition

Language

English

Time

1591 1590s 16th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Peele, George. The Hunting of Cupid. c. 1591.

They that deny a God destroy a man's nobility, for certainly man is of a kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.

Francis Bacon

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Read Of Atheism at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

God and man Man and animals Human nature

Author

Francis Bacon

Source

Of Atheism Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1625 1620s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Bacon, Francis. "Of Atheism." Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall. London: John Haviland, 1625.

Current Citation

Bacon, Francis. "Essays, or Counsels, Civil and Moral (1625): Of Atheism." Francis Bacon: The Major Works, edited by Brian Vickers. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.

John Updike

More information about this quote

Topic

Dreams

Author

John Updike

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Updike, John. Self-Consciousness: Memoirs. Knopf, 1989, ch. 3.

I would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the telephone directory than by the Harvard University faculty.

William F. Buckley

More information about this quote

Topic

Experts Democracy

Speaker

William F. Buckley

Source

Esquire

Medium

Interview Magazine

Language

English

Time

1961 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Buckley, William F., Jr. Quoted in "William F. Buckley, Jr.: Portrait of a Complainer." Interviewed by Dan Wakefield. Esquire Magazine, Jan. 1961.

Music, the greatest good that mortals know,
And all of heaven we have below.

Joseph Addison

Read A Song for St. Cecilia's Day at allpoetry.com

More information about this quote

Topic

Music

Author

Joseph Addison

Source

A Song for St. Cecilia's Day

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1694 1690s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Addison, Joseph. "A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, at Oxford." 1694.

The single most impressive fact about the attempt by American women to obtain the right to vote is how long it took.

Alice Rossi

More information about this quote

Topic

Voting rights Women's rights

Author

Alice Rossi

Source

Along the Suffrage Trail

Genre

Feminist literature

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Rossi, Alice S. The Feminist Papers: From Adams to de Beauvoir. Columbia University Press, 1973, pt. 2.

Style is not something applied. It is something inherent, something that permeates.

Wallace Stevens

More information about this quote

Topic

Style

Speaker

Wallace Stevens

Source

Two or Three Ideas

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1951 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Stevens, Wallace. "Two or Three Ideas." 28 Apr. 1951, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, USA. Speech.