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Explore 5101 quotes by Writers

Though philosophers like to define poetry as irrational fancy, for us it is practical, humorous, reasonable way of being ourselves. Of never acquiescing in a fraud; of never accepting the secondary-rate in poetry, painting, music, love, friends.

Robert Graves

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Topic

Poetry

Author

Robert Graves

Source

The Case for Xanthippe

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1969 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Graves, Robert. "The Case for Xanthippe." The Crane Bag. Cassell & Company, 1969.

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

Wilfred Owen

More information about this quote

Topic

World War I Horrors of war War

Author

Wilfred Owen

Source

Anthem for Doomed Youth

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1917 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Owen, Wilfred. "Anthem for Doomed Youth." Poems. Chatto & Windus, 1920.

Current Citation

Owen, Wilfred. "Anthem for Doomed Youth." The War Poems Of Wilfred Owen. Random House UK, 2018.

To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant seeds, and watch their renewal of life-this is the commonest delight of the race, the most satisfactory thing a man can do.

Charles Dudley Warner

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Topic

Farming

Author

Charles Dudley Warner

Source

My Summer in a Garden

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1870 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Warner, Charles Dudley. "Preliminary." My Summer in a Garden. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1870.

We keep saying old people are square. Then when they suddenly aren't-we don't like it!

Peter Shaffer

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Topic

Old people

Speaker

Jill Mason

Author

Peter Shaffer

Source

Equus

Medium

Play

Genre

Drama (play) Drama

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Shaffer, Peter. Equus. 1973, Royal National Theatre, London, England, UK, act 2, sc. 31.

Current Citation

Shaffer, Peter. Equus. Scribner, 2005, act 2, sc. 31.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

More information about this quote

Topic

Political theory Politics and lies Politics

Author

H.L. Mencken

Source

In Defense of Women

Genre

Feminist literature

Language

English

Time

1918 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Mencken, HL. "Women as Outlaws." A Mencken Chrestomathy. Alfred A. Knopf, 1949, ch. 3. Originally published In Defense of Women. Philip Goodman, 1918, ch. 2, sec. 13.

The zipless fuck is absolutely pure. It is free of ulterior motives. There is no power game. The man is not "taking" and the woman is not "giving." No one is attempting to cuckold a husband or humiliate a wife. No one is trying to prove anything or get anything out of anyone. The zipless fuck is the purest thing there is. And it is rarer than the unicorn.

Erica Jong

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Topic

Casual sex Sex

Author

Erica Jong

Source

Fear of Flying

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jong, Erica. Fear of Flying. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973, ch. 1.

In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book, or goes to an American play, or looks at an American picture or statue?... Under which of the old tyrannical governments of Europe is every sixth man a slave, whom his fellow-creatures may buy, and sell and torture?

Sydney Smith

More information about this quote

Topic

Criticism of America America

Author

Sydney Smith

Source

The Edinburgh Review

Language

English

Time

1820 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Smith, Sydney. "Review of Seybert's Annals of the United States." The Edinburgh Review, Jan. 1820 - May 1820.

We Americans are great on fillers, as if what we have, what we are, is not enough... We have only to look at the houses we build to see how we build against space, the way we drink against pain and loneliness. We fill up space as if it were a pie shell, with things whose opacity further obstructs our ability to see what is already there.

Gretel Ehrlich

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Topic

American character

Author

Gretel Ehrlich

Source

The Solace of Open Spaces

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1985 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ehrlich, Gretel. The Solace of Open Spaces. Viking Press, 1985.

It was none the less a perfectly ordinary horse, such as convergent evolution has produced in many of the places that life is to be found. They have always understood a great deal more than they let on. It is difficult to be sat on all day, every day, by some other creature, without forming an opinion about them.

Douglas Adams

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

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Topic

Horses Animals Man and animals

Author

Douglas Adams

Source

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Medium

Novel

Genre

Detective fiction

Language

English

Time

1987 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Adams, Douglas. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. William Heinemann Ltd./Pocket Books, 1987, ch. 2.

We owe it to our ancestors to preserve entire those rights, which they have delivered to our care: we owe it to our posterity, not to suffer their dearest inheritance to be destroyed.

Junius

More information about this quote

Topic

Debt to the past Preservation of freedom

Author

Junius

Medium

Open letter Letter

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1769 1760s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Junius. Letter to the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 8 Aug. 1769.

When we, the Workers, all demand: "What are we fighting for?"…
Then, then we'll end that stupid crime, that Devil's madness-War.

Robert W. Service

More information about this quote

Topic

End of war War

Author

Robert W. Service

Source

Michael

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1921 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Service, Robert W. "Michael." Ballads of a Bohemian. Barse & Hopkins/T. Fisher Unwin, 1921, I. 31.

The name of this infinite and inexhaustible depth and ground of all being is God.

Paul Tillich

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of God God

Speaker

Paul Tillich

Source

The Shaking of the Foundations

Medium

Sermon

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Tillich, Paul. "The Depth of Existence." Sunday services sermon. c. 1965, Union Theological Seminary Chapel, New York, NY, USA.

Every time you open your wardrobe, you look at your clothes and wonder what you are going to wear. What you are really saying is "Who am I going to be today?"

Fay Weldon

More information about this quote

Topic

Clothing Identity

Author

Fay Weldon

Source

The New Yorker

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1995 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Weldon, Fay. Quoted in The New Yorker. 26 June 1995.

You should feel slightly incompetent at what you're trying to do. The minute you start to feel like an expert, what you really are is a hack.

Michael Cunningham

More information about this quote

Topic

Pushing one's limits Incompetence Expertise

Speaker

Michael Cunningham

Source

The Independent

Medium

Interview Newspaper

Language

English

Time

2014 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cunningham, Michael. "Michael Cunningham Interview: Shining a Light on Ageing, Love, and Innocence." Interviewed by Hephzibah Anderson. Independent, 23 May 2014.

Ah, this, that we call happiness, how intimate a part of the soul it is, and of what little importance are the outside elements which seem to go to its making!

Andre Gide

More information about this quote

Topic

Happiness

Author

Andre Gide

Source

Strait is the Gate

Medium

Novel

Language

French

Time

1909 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Gide, Andre. La Porte Etroite [Strait is the Gate]. Mercure de France, 1909, ch. 5.

Current Citation

Gide, Andre. Strait is the Gate. Penguin Books, 2001, ch. 5.

Whatever they may be in public life, whatever their relationships with men, in their relationships with women, all men are rapists, and that's all they are. They rape us with their eyes, their laws, and their codes.

Marilyn French

More information about this quote

Topic

Rape Oppression of women Men and women Women

Speaker

Mira

Author

Marilyn French

Source

The Women's Room

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1977 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

French, Marilyn. The Women's Room. Simon & Schuster, 1977, ch. 19.

Relationships should be based on value and fact, on how you get on, on what things you enjoy together. I think romance has caused more unhappiness almost than anything.

Diana Athill

More information about this quote

Topic

Romance Relationships Love Unhappiness

Speaker

Diana Athill

Source

Write, Never Marry, and Other Love Advice from Simone de Beauvoir's Editor Lenny's Letter

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

2017 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Athill, Diana. "Write, Never Marry, and Other Love Advice from Simone de Beauvoir's Editor." Written by Anya Raza. Lenny Letter, 21 Apr. 2017.

The arousing from sleep, after a recent misfortune, is a bitter moment; the mind at first habitually recurs to its previous tranquility, but is soon depressed by the thought of the contrast that awaits it.

Alessandro Manzoni

The Betrothed

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Topic

Hard times Waking up Sleep

Author

Alessandro Manzoni

Source

The Betrothed

Medium

Novel

Language

Italian

Time

1842 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Manzoni, Alessandro. I promessi sposi [The Betrothed]. Brusselle: Meline, Cans e Compagnia, 1842, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Manzoni, Alessandro. The Betrothed, translated by Michael F. Moore. Modern Library, 2022, ch. 2.

Shall I wasting in despair
Die because a woman's fair?
Or make pale my cheeks with care
'Cause another's rosy are?
Be she fairer than the day,
Or the flow'ry meads in May,
If she be not so to me,
What care I how fair she be?

George Wither

Fair Virtue

More information about this quote

Topic

Women's attractiveness

Author

George Wither

Source

Fair Virtue

Language

English

Time

1622 1620s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Gent, George Wither. Fair Virtue, The Mistress of Phil'arete. London: John Grismand, 1622, sonnet 4, st. 1.

Unbidden guests
Are often welcomest when they are gone.

William Shakespeare

Henry VI, Part 1

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Read Henry VI, Part 1 at The Folger Shakespeare Library

More information about this quote

Topic

Guests and visitors

Speaker

Bedford

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

Henry VI, Part 1

Medium

Play

Genre

History (play)

Language

English

Time

1592 1590s 16th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. Henry VI, Part 1. Lord Strange's Men, 1592, Rose Theatre, London, England, UK, act 2, sc. 3.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "The First Part of Henry the Sixth." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 2, sc. 3.