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Poetry is the expression, in human language restored to its essential rhythm, of the mysterious meaning of the aspects of existence: in this way it confers authenticity on our time on earth and constitutes the only spiritual task there is.

Stepháne Mallarmé

More information about this quote

Topic

Poetry

Author

Stepháne Mallarmé

Medium

Letter

Language

French

Time

1884 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Mallarme, Stephane. Letter to Leo d'Orfer. 27 June 1884.

Current Citation

Mallarme, Stephane. Selected Letters of Stéphane Mallarmé. University of Chicago Press, 1988.

If Jesus Christ were to come to-day, people would not even crucify him. They would ask him to dinner, and hear what he had to say, and make fun of it.

Thomas Carlyle

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Topic

Jesus Christianity

Speaker

Thomas Carlyle

Language

English

Time

1881 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Carlyle, Thomas. Quoted in Carlyle at his Zenith, by David Alec Wilson. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1927.

There are only two great diseases in the world to-day—Bolshevism and Americanism; and Americanism is the worse of the two, because Bolshevism only smashes your house or your business or your skull, but Americanism smashes your soul.

D.H. Lawrence

The Plumed Serpent

More information about this quote

Topic

Criticism of America

Speaker

Young Henry

Author

D.H. Lawrence

Source

The Plumed Serpent

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lawrence, D.H. The Plumed Serpent. Martin Secker, 1926, ch. 2.

True Happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise: it arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self; and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

Joseph Addison

The Spectator

More information about this quote

Topic

Happiness Contentment

Author

Joseph Addison

Source

The Spectator

Language

English

Time

1711 1710s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Addison, Joseph. The Spectator. London, 17 March 1711, no. 15.

I know you Lawyers can, with ease,
Twist words and meanings as you please;
That language, by your skill made pliant,
Will bend to favour every client.

John Gay

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Topic

Lawyers Rhetoric Language

Author

John Gay

Source

The Dog and the Fox Fables (John Gay)

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1732 1730s 18th century

Era

Used date of death but this work was originally published in 1738. -AAM

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Gay, John. "The Dog and the Fox." Fables. London: John Knapton, Paul Knapton, and T. Cox, 1738, pt. 2, I. 1.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

John McCrae

In Flanders Fields

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Topic

World War I

Author

John McCrae

Source

In Flanders Fields

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1915 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

McCrae, John. "In Flanders Fields." Punch, 8 Dec. 1915.

The Dodo never had a chance. He seems to have been invented for the sole purpose of becoming extinct and that was all he was good for.

William Cuppy

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Topic

Extinction Animals

Author

William Cuppy

Language

English

Time

1941 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cuppy, William. "The Dodo." How to Become Extinct. Farrar & Rinehart, 1941.

Love wakes men, once a lifetime each;
They lift their heavy lids, and look;
And, lo, what one sweet page can teach,
They read with joy, then shut the book.

Coventry Patmore

The Angel in the House

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of love Love

Author

Coventry Patmore

Source

The Angel in the House

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1854 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Patmore, Coventry. The Angel in the House. Self-published, 1854, bk. 1, canto 8, prelude 2.

If what matters in a person's existence is to accept the inevitable consciously, to taste the good and bad to the full and to make for oneself a more individual, unaccidental and inward destiny alongside one's external fate, then my life has been neither empty nor worthless.

Hermann Hesse

Gertrude

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More information about this quote

Topic

Living intentionally Purpose of life Personal growth Authenticity

Author

Hermann Hesse

Source

Gertrude

Medium

Novel

Language

German

Time

1910 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hesse, Herman. Getrud [Gertrude]. Albert Langen, 1910.

Current Citation

Hesse, Herman. Gertrude, translated by Hilda Rosner. Picador, 2005.

Original thoughts are like shy animals. We sometimes have to look the other way - towards a busy street or terminal - before they run out of their burrows.

Alain de Botton

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Topic

Creativity Originality

Author

Alain de Botton

Source

A Week at the Airport

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile Paradox

Language

English

Time

2010 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

De Botton, Alain. A Week at the Airport. Profile Books, 2009.

Every step and every movement of the multitude, even in what are termed enlightened ages, are made with equal blindness to the future; and nations stumble upon establishments, which are indeed the result of human action, but not the execution of any human design.

Adam Ferguson

An Essay on the History of Civil Society

More information about this quote

Topic

Randomness Forces of history

Author

Adam Ferguson

Source

An Essay on the History of Civil Society

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1767 1760s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Ferguson, Adam. "Of the History of Policy and Arts." An Essay on the History of Civil Society. London: A. Millar & T. Caddel, 1767.

Current Citation

Ferguson, Adam. "Of the History of Policy and Arts." Ferguson: An Essay on the History of Civil Society, edited by Fania Oz-Salzberger. Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Perfect freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work and in that work does what he wants to do.

R.G. Collingwood

More information about this quote

Topic

Freedom Dream job Vocation Work

Author

R.G. Collingwood

Source

Speculum Mentis

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1924 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Collingwood, Robin George. Speculum Mentis; or The Map of Knowledge. Clarendon Press, 1924, prologue.

If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.

Jean Cocteau

Barabbas was the criminal released by Pontius Pilate , at the crowd's insistence, instead of Jesus.

More information about this quote

Topic

The mob The masses

Author

Jean Cocteau

Source

The Cock and the Harlequin

Medium

Essay

Language

French

Time

1918 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cocteau, Jean. Le Coq et l'Arlequin [The Cock and the Harlequin]. Paris: Editions de la Sirene, 1918.

Now no joy but lacks salt
That is not dashed with pain
And weariness and fault;
I crave the stain
Of tears, the aftermark
Of almost too much love,
The sweet of bitter bark
And burning clove.

Robert Frost

More information about this quote

Topic

Yin and yang Experiencing things

Author

Robert Frost

Source

To Earthward

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Frost, Robert. "To Earthward." New Hampshire. Henry Holt, 1923, st. 5, I. 1.

Current Citation

Frost, Robert. "To Earthward." Robert Frost: Collected Poems, Prose, and Plays, edited by Richard Poirier and Mark Richardson. Library of America, 1995, st. 5, I. 1.

Coupling doesn't always have to do with sex... Two people holding each other up like flying buttresses. Two people depending on each other and babying each other and defending each other against the world outside. Sometimes it was worth all the disadvantages of marriage just to have that: one friend in an indifferent world.

Erica Jong

Fear of Flying

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More information about this quote

Topic

Relationships

Author

Erica Jong

Source

Fear of Flying

Medium

Novel

Genre

Feminist literature

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jong, Erica. Fear of Flying. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973, ch. 10.

I say that there is no such thing as moral responsibility for past acts, no such thing as real justice in punishing them, for the reason that human beings are not stationary existences, but changing, growing, incessantly progressive organisms, which in no two moments are the same. Therefore justice, whose only possible mode of proceeding is to punish in present time for what is done in past time, must always punish a person more or less similar to, but never identical with, the one who committed the offence, and therein must be no justice.

Edward Bellamy

More information about this quote

Topic

Moral theory Theory of punishment

Speaker

Dr. Heidenhoff

Author

Edward Bellamy

Source

Dr. Heidenhoff's Process

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1880 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bellamy, Edward. Dr. Heidenhoff's Process. D. Appleton & Company, 1880, ch. 11.

The law is not a "light" for you or any man to see by; the law is not an instrument of any kind. The law is a causeway upon which, so long as he keeps to it, a citizen may walk safely.

Robert Bolt

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of law Law

Speaker

Sir Thomas More

Author

Robert Bolt

Source

A Man for All Seasons (play)

Medium

Play

Statement Type

Definition Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bolt, Robert. A Man for All Seasons. 1 July 1960, Globe Theatre, London, England, UK, act 2.

I do not know why the necessity of God
Should feed on grief; but it seems so.

Christopher Fry

More information about this quote

Topic

Need of God Grief

Speaker

Moses

Author

Christopher Fry

Source

The Firstborn

Medium

Play

Language

English

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fry, Christopher. The Firstborn. Cambridge University Press, 1946, act 3, sc. 2.

The withered primrose by the mourning river,
The faded summer’s sun from weeping fountains,
The light-blown bubble vanished for ever,
The molten snow upon the naked mountains,
Are emblems that the treasures we up-lay
Soon wither, vanish, fade, and melt away.

Edmund Bolton

More information about this quote

Topic

Accumulation of wealth Impermanence The ephemeral The only constant is change

Author

Edmund Bolton

Source

A Palinode

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1600 1600s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Bolton, Edmund. A Palinode. c. 1600.

So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury and make sharper the contrast between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent.

Henry George

More information about this quote

Topic

Economic inequality Rich vs. poor

Author

Henry George

Language

English

Time

1879 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

George, Henry. Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth: The Remedy. Doubleday, Page & Co., 1879, introductory.

Current Citation

George, Henry. The Essence of Progress and Poverty. Dover Publications, 2020, ch. 1.