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Mendacity is a system that we live in. Liquor is one way out and death's the other.

Tennessee Williams

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Topic

Alcohol as balm Death as a blessing The human condition

Speaker

Brick

Author

Tennessee Williams

Source

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Medium

Play

Genre

Drama (play) Drama Southern Gothic

Language

English

Time

1955 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Williams, Tennessee. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Directed by Elia Kazan. Performed by Barbara Bel Geddes and Burl Ives and Ben Gazzara. 24 Mar. 1955, Morosco Theatre, New York City, New York, USA, act 2.

Current Citation

Williams, Tennessee. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. New Directions, 2004, act 2.

Love is a joint experience between two persons-but the fact it is a joint experience does not mean it is a similar experience to the two people involved. There are the lover and beloved, but these two come from different countries.

Carson McCullers

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe

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Topic

Nature of love

Author

Carson McCullers

Source

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe

Medium

Novella

Language

English

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

McCullers, Carson. "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe." Harper's Bazaar, 1943.

Current Citation

McCullers, Carson. "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe." The Ballad Of The Sad Cafe and Other Stories. Mariner Books, 2005.

Time rushes toward us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal operation.

Tennessee Williams

The Timeless World of a Play

More information about this quote

Topic

Relentlessness of time

Author

Tennessee Williams

Source

The Timeless World of a Play The New York Times

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1951 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Williams, Tennessee. "The Timeless World of a Play." The New York Times, 14 Mar. 1951.

His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate'er he can,
And looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Knickerbocker

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Read The Village Blacksmith at poets.org

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Topic

Dignity of work Work

Author

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Source

The Village Blacksmith The Knickerbocker

Medium

Poem Magazine

Language

English

Time

1840 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. "The Village Blacksmith." The Knickerbocker. New York City: Lewis Gaylord Clark, Nov. 1840, I. 9.

Current Citation

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. "The Village Blacksmith." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Poems and Other Writings, edited by J. D. McClatchy. Library of America, 2000, I. 9.

The pleasure of talking is the inextinguishable passion of woman.

Alain René Lesage 

Read The Adventures of Gil Blas at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Women Talking too much

Author

Alain René Lesage 

Source

Gil Blas

Medium

Novel

Genre

Picaresque

Language

French

Time

1724 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Lesage, Alain-Rene. L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane [History of Gil Blas de Santillane]. Paris: Pierre Ribou, 1724, bk. 7, ch. 7.

The only substitute for an experience we ourselves have never lived through is art, literature.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Nobel Prize Lecture

Read this speech at nobelprize.org

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Topic

Power of art Power of literature

Author

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Source

Nobel Prize Lecture

Medium

Speech

Language

Russian

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. Nobel Lecture in Literature. 1970, Swedish Academy, Stockholm, Sweden.

I believe that in many cases the ideal size for the unit of control and organisation lies somewhere between the individual and the modern State. I suggest, therefore, that progress lies in the growth and the recognition of semi-autonomous bodies within the State.

John Maynard Keynes

The End of Laissez-faire

More information about this quote

Topic

Government Political theory

Author

John Maynard Keynes

Source

The End of Laissez-faire

Medium

Essay

Genre

Economic literature

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Keynes, John Maynard. The End Of Laissez-faire. Hogarth Press, 1926, ch. 4.

Current Citation

Keynes, John Maynard. "The End of Laissaz-faire." The Essential Keynes. Penguin, edited by Robert Skidelsky, 2016, ch. 4.

One need only remind oneself of all that we expect from life to see how very strange it is, and to arrive at the conclusion that man has found his way into it by mistake and does not really belong there.

Italo Svevo

Zeno's Conscience

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Topic

Strangeness of life Nature of life

Author

Italo Svevo

Source

Zeno's Conscience

Medium

Novel

Language

Italian

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Svevo, Italo. La coscienza di Zeno [Zeno's Conscience]. Milan: Giuseppe Morreale Editore, 1923.

Current Citation

Svevo, Italo. Zeno's Conscience, translated by William Weaver. Everyman's Library, 2001.

When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part.

George Bernard Shaw

More information about this quote

Topic

Marriage

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

Getting Married: For Better For Worse The Doctor's Dilemma, Getting Married, and The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet

Medium

Play

Genre

Comedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "Getting Married: For Better For Worse." The Doctor's Dilemma, Getting Married, and The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet. Brentano's/Constable & Co., 1908, preface.

In my lifetime I have seen Frenchmen, Italians, Russians, etc.; thanks to Montesquieu, I even know that one can be Persian. But as for man, I declare that I have never in my life met him; if he exists, he exists unknown to me.

Joseph de Maistre

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Topic

The universal vs. the particular Nature of man

Author

Joseph de Maistre

Source

Considerations on France

Genre

Philosophical literature Political literature

Language

French

Time

1796 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Maistre, Joseph. "De l'influence divine dans les constitutions politiques [On Divine Influence in Political Constitutions]." Considérations sur la France [Considerations on France]. Paris, 1796.

Current Citation

Maistre, Joseph. "On Divine Influence in Political Constitutions." Considerations on France, edited by Richard A. Lebrun. Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Dreams are a second life. I have never been able to cross through those gates of ivory or horn which separate us from the invisible world without a sense of dread.

Gerard de Nerval

More information about this quote

Topic

Dreams

Author

Gerard de Nerval

Source

Aurelia

Language

French

Time

1855 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Nerval, Gerard. Aurelia ou le reve et la vie [Aurelia or the Dream and the Life]. Paris: Theophile Gautier and Arsene Houssaye, 1855, pt. 1.

Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children. Life is the other way round.

David Lodge

More information about this quote

Topic

Literature vs. life

Speaker

Adam Appleby

Author

David Lodge

Source

The British Museum Is Falling Down

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lodge, David. The British Museum is Falling Down. MacGibbon & Kee, 1965, ch. 4.

The newspaper is in all literalness the bible of democracy, the book out of which a people determines its conduct. It is the only serious book most people most people read. It is the only book they read every day.

Walter Lippmann

What Modern Liberty Means

More information about this quote

Topic

Newspapers

Author

Walter Lippmann

Source

What Modern Liberty Means The Atlantic

Medium

Essay Magazine

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1920 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lippmann, Walter. "What Modern Liberty Means." Liberty and the News. Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920. Originally published in the Atlantic Monthly, Nov. 1919.

It had been boldly predicted by some of the early Christians that the conversion of the world would lead to the establishment of perpetual peace. In looking back, with our present experience, we are driven to the melancholy conclusion that, instead of diminishing the number of wars, ecclesiastical influence has actually and very seriously increased it.

William E.H. Lecky

History of European Morals

More information about this quote

Topic

Christianity in Europe Christianity

Author

William E.H. Lecky

Source

History of European Morals

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1869 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lecky, William Edward Hartpole. History of European Morals: From Augustus to Charlemagn. Vol. 2. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1869, ch. 4.

We aim at something more sublime and more equitable-the common good, or the community of goods... We demand, we would have, the communal enjoyment of the fruits which are for everyone.

Sylvain Marechal

Manifesto of the Equals

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Topic

Redistribution of wealth Communism

Author

Sylvain Marechal

Source

Manifesto of the Equals

Genre

Political literature

Language

French

Time

1796 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Sylvain, Marechal. Quoted in "Manifeste des Egaux [Manifesto of the Equals]." Histoire de la conspiration pour Egalite dite de Babeuf, written by Phillipe Buonarotti. Bruxelles: A la librairie Romantique, 1828.

Without the means to prevent, and to control the timing of, conception, economic and political rights have limited meaning and women. If women cannot plan their pregnancies, they can plan little else in their lives.

Alice S. Rossi

The Feminist Papers

More information about this quote

Topic

Abortion

Author

Alice S. Rossi

Source

The Feminist Papers

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. 3.

To be a slave was to be a human being under conditions in which that humanity was denied. They were not slaves. They were people. Their condition was slavery.

Julius Lester

To Be a Slave

More information about this quote

Topic

Slavery

Author

Julius Lester

Source

To Be a Slave

Language

English

Time

1968 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lester, Julius. To Be a Slave. Dial Books for Young Readers, 1968, ch. 1.

What factors are at play, for example, when people of high IQ flounder and those of modest IQ do surprisingly well? I would argue that the difference quite often lies in the abilities called here emotional intelligence, which include self control, zeal and persistence, and the ability to motivate oneself.

Daniel Goleman

More information about this quote

Topic

Emotional intelligence

Author

Daniel Goleman

Language

English

Time

1995 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Goleman, Daniel. "Aristotle's Challenge." Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. Bantam Books, 1995.

Affirmation of life is the spiritual act by which man ceases to live thoughtlessly and begins to devote himself to his life with reverence in order to give it true value. To affirm life is to deepen, to make more inward, and to exalt the will to live.

Albert Schweitzer

More information about this quote

Topic

Mindfulness

Author

Albert Schweitzer

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

German

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Schweitzer, Albert. Aus Meinem Leben und Denken [Out of My Life and Thought]. Leipzig: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1931, ch. 13.

Current Citation

Schweitzer, Albert. Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography, translated by Antji Bultmann Lemke. Johns Hopkins University, 2009, ch. 13.

The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it. For ignorance is the first requisite of the historian-ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.

Lytton Strachey

Eminent Victorians

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More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of history

Author

Lytton Strachey

Source

Eminent Victorians

Genre

Biography

Language

English

Time

1918 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Strachey, Lytton. Eminent Vicorians. Chatto & Windus, 1918, preface.

Current Citation

Strachey, Lytton. Eminent Vicorians. Penguin Classics, 1990, preface.