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God is stupidity and cowardice; God is hypocrisy and falsehood. God is tyranny and poverty; God is evil. For as long as men bow before altars, mankind will remain damned, the slaves of kings and priests.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

The System of Economic Contradictions

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More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of God God

Author

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Source

The System of Economic Contradictions

Genre

Philosophical literature Political literature

Language

French

Time

1846 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph. Systeme des contradictions economiques ou Philosophie de la misere [The System of Economic Contractictions, or Philosophy of Misery]. Paris: Chez Guilla umin et Cie, 1846, ch. 8.

Stand before the people you fear and speak your mind-even if your voice shakes.

Maggie Kuhn

More information about this quote

Topic

Speaking up Facing one's fears

Author

Maggie Kuhn

Language

English

Time

1991 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kuhn, Maggie. No Stone Unturned: The Life and Times of Maggie Kuhn. Ballantine Books, 1991, ch. 7.

Are you lost daddy I asked tenderly.
Shut up he explained.

Ring Lardner

More information about this quote

Topic

Parents and children

Author

Ring Lardner

Language

English

Time

1920 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lardner, Ring. "The Young Immigrunts." Ring Lardner: Selected Stories. Penguin Classics, 1997. Originally published by The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1920, ch. 10.

Lighthouses don't go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.

Anne Lamott

More information about this quote

Topic

Being a good example

Author

Anne Lamott

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1994 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions On Writing and Life. Pantheon Books. 1994.

I want a girl just like the girl
That married dear old dad.

William Dillon

More information about this quote

Topic

Oedipal issues Mothers and sons

Author

William Dillon

Source

I Want a Girl

Medium

Song

Language

English

Time

1911 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Dillon, William. I Want a Girl (Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad). Composed by Harry Von Tilzer. Harry Von Tilzer Music Pub. Co., 1911.

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Jesus

Matthew 5:8

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More information about this quote

Topic

Innocence Beatitudes Sermon on the Mount

Speaker

Jesus

Source

Gospel of Matthew The Bible

Medium

Scripture

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Greek

Time

60 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Holy Bible: The King James Version. 1611. (Matthew 5:8).

In this war, things get confused out there. Power, ideals, the old morality, practical military necessity. But out there with these natives, it must be a temptation to be God. 'Cause there's a conflict in every human heart, between the rational and the irrational, between good and evil, and good does not always triumph. Sometimes, the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. Every man has got a breaking point. You and I have one. Walt Kurtz has reached his and very obviously, he has gone insane.

Apocalypse Now

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More information about this quote

Topic

Good and evil Human nature Vietnam War

Speaker

General R. Corman

Actor

G. D. Spradlin

Source

Apocalypse Now

Medium

Film

Genre

Psychological drama (film) War (film) Psychological drama War

Language

English

Time

1979 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Apocolypse Now. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Omni Zoetrope, 1979.

A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car.

Kenneth Tynan

More information about this quote

Topic

Critics

Author

Kenneth Tynan

Statement Type

Definition

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Tynan, Kenneth. Quoted in "Critic Kenneth Tynan Has Mellowed But Is Still England's Stingingest Gadfly." Written by Godfrey Smith. The New York Times, 9 Jan. 1966.

Submit to me as soon as possible a draft showing... Measures already taken for the execution of the intended final solution of the Jewish question.

Hermann Goring

More information about this quote

Topic

The Holocaust

Author

Hermann Goring

Medium

Letter

Language

German

Time

1941 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Goering, Hermann. Directive to Reinhard Heydrich. 31 July 1941.

Facts are the mere dross of history. It is from the abstract truth which interpenetrates them, and lies latent among them, like gold in the ore, that the mass derives its whole value: and the precious particles are generally combined with the baser in such a manner that the separation is a task of the utmost difficulty.

Thomas Babington Macaulay

More information about this quote

Topic

Facts

Author

Thomas Babington Macaulay

Source

History Edinburgh Review

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1828 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Macaulay, Thomas Babington. "History." Edinburgh Review, May 1828.

When is a crisis reached? When questions arise that can't be answered.

Ryszard Kapuscinski

A Warsaw Diary

More information about this quote

Topic

Causes of revolution Inflection points

Author

Ryszard Kapuscinski

Source

A Warsaw Diary

Medium

Essay

Language

Polish

Time

1985 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Kapuściński, Ryszard. "A Warsaw Diary: Part 1." Granta 15: The Fall of Saigon, translated by Adam Czerniawski, Spring 1985.

The arbitrary separation of citizens on the basis of race while they are on a public highway is a badge of servitude wholly inconsistent with the civil freedom and the equality before the law established by the Constitution... We boast of the freedom enjoyed by our people above all other peoples. But it is difficult to reconcile that boast with a state of the law which, practically, puts the brand of servitude and degradation upon a large class of our fellow citizens, our equals before the law. The thin disguise of "equal" accommodations for passengers in railroad coaches will not mislead anyone, nor atone for the wrong this day done.

John Marshall Harlan

Plessy v. Ferguson

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More information about this quote

Topic

Separate but equal Jim Crow

Author

John Marshall Harlan

Source

Plessy v. Ferguson

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Dissenting opinion Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1896 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Harlan, John Marshall. Dissenting Opinion. Plessy v. Ferguson. United States Reports, vol. 163, 18 May 1896, pp. 552-564. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/163/537/.

What people say behind your back is your standing in the community in which you live.

Edgar W. Howe

More information about this quote

Topic

Gossip Reputation

Speaker

Edgar W. Howe

Language

English

Time

1877 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Howe, Edgar W. Country Town Sayings: A Collection of Paragraphs from the Atchison Globe. Crane, 1911.

I am about Courting a Girl I have had but little Acquaintance with; how shall I come to a Knowledge of her Fawlts? and whether she has the Virtues I imagine she has?
Answ. Commend her among her Female Acquaintance.

Benjamin Franklin

More information about this quote

Author

Benjamin Franklin

Source

Miscellaneous Observations Pennsylvania Gazette

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1732 1730s 18th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Franklin, Benjamin. "Miscellaneous Observations." Pennsylvania Gazette. 12 Mar. 1732.

Current Citation

Franklin, Benjamin. "Miscellaneous Observations, 1732." Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-01-02-0091

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The Gulag Archipelago

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More information about this quote

Topic

Duality of man Good and evil

Author

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Source

The Gulag Archipelago

Genre

Political literature Historical literature

Language

Russian

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. Архипелаг ГУЛАГ, Arkhipelag GULAG [The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation]. Vol. 1, YMCA-Press, 1973.

I firmly disbelieve, myself, that our human experience is the highest form of experience extant in the universe. I believe rather that we stand in much the same relation to the whole of the universe as our canine and feline pets do to the whole of human life. They inhabit our drawing-rooms and libraries. They take part in scenes of whose significance they have no inkling. They are merely tangent to curves of history the beginnings and ends and forms of which pass wholly beyond their ken. So we are tangent to the wider life of things.

William James

Pragmatism

More information about this quote

Topic

Man and the universe

Author

William James

Source

Pragmatism

Genre

Philosophical speech

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, William. "Pragmatism and Religion." Dec. 1906, Lowell Institute, Boston, MA, USA. Lecture.

Current Citation

James, William. "Pragmatism and Religion." Pragmatism. Dover Publications, 2018.

I bought a donut, and they gave me a receipt for the donut. I don't need a receipt for the donut, man, I'll just give you the money, then you give me the donut—end of transaction. We don't need to bring ink and paper into this. I just can't imagine a scenario where I would have to prove that I bought a donut.

Mitch Hedberg

Strategic Grill Locations

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More information about this quote

Topic

Donuts

Speaker

Mitch Hedberg

Source

Strategic Grill Locations

Medium

Comedy album

Genre

Comedy (stand up)

Language

English

Time

1999 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hedberg, Mitch. Strategic Grill Locations. 7 Sept. 1999, The Laff Stop Comedy Club, Houston, Texas, USA.

To be misunderstood even by those whom one loves is the cross and bitterness of life. It is the secret of that sad and melancholy smile on the lips of great men which so few understand; it is the cruelest trial reserved for self-devotion; it is what must have oftenest wrung the heart of the Son of man; and if God could suffer, it would be the wound we should be forever inflicting upon Him. He also-He above all-is the great misunderstood, the least comprehended.

Henri-Frederic Amiel

Read Amiel's Journal at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Alienation

Author

Henri-Frederic Amiel

Source

Journals of Henri Frederic Amiel

Medium

Personal journal

Language

French

Time

1849 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Amiel, Henri-Frederic. Journal entry. 27 May 1849.

I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.

Jack Handey

More information about this quote

Topic

World peace

Author

Jack Handey

Statement Type

Joke

Language

English

Time

1999 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Handey, Jack. Quoted in L.A. Times. 18 Jan. 1999.

Yet I doe seriously, and upon good grounds, affirme it possible to make a flying Chariot. In which a man may sit, and give such a motion unto it, as shall convey him through the aire. And this perhaps might bee made large enough to carry divers men at the same time, together with foode for their viaticum, and commodities for traffique. It is not the bignesse of any thing in this kind, that can hinder its motion, if the motive faculty be answerable thereunto. We see a great ship swimmes as well as a small corke, and an Eagle flies in the aire as well as a little gnat... So that notwithstanding all these seeming impossibilities, 'tis likely enough, that there may be a meanes invented of journying to the Moone; And how happy shall they be, that are first successfull in this attempt?

John Wilkins

A Discourse Concerning a New World and Another Planet

More information about this quote

Topic

Airplanes

Author

John Wilkins

Source

A Discourse Concerning a New World and Another Planet

Genre

Scientific literature

Statement Type

Prophecies and predictions

Language

English

Time

1640 1640s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Wilkins, John. A Discourse Concerning a New World and Another Planet. London: John Maynard, 1640, bk. 1, proposition 14.