1900s

Explore 234 quotes from the 1900s

A good idea, he thought, to sleep off to death. It was like taking an anaesthetic. Freezing was not so bad as people thought. There were lots worse ways to die... Then the man drowsed off into what seemed to him the most comfortable and satisfying sleep he had ever known.

Jack London

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Topic

Moment of death Facing death Death

Author

Jack London

Source

To Build a Fire

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

London, Jack. "To Build a Fire." The Youth's Companion, 29 May 1902.

Current Citation

London, Jack. "To Build a Fire." The Call of the Wild and Selected Stories. Signet, 2009.

One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them by chance, in a lucky hour, at the world's end somewhere, and holds fast to the days, as to fortune or fame.

Willa Cather

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Topic

Happiness

Author

Willa Cather

Source

Le Lavandou

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cather, Willa. Willa Cather in Europe: Her Own Story of the First Journey. Alfred A. Knopf, 1956, ch. 13. Originally a notebook entry in Le Lavandou. 10 Sept. 1902.

Look at that sea, girls-all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn't enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds.

L.M. Montgomery

Anne of Green Gables

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Topic

Ocean and sea

Speaker

Anne Shirley

Author

L.M. Montgomery

Source

Anne of Green Gables

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Montgomery, L. M. Anne of Green Gables. L. C. Page & Co., 1908.

Current Citation

Montgomery, L. M. Anne of Green Gables. Puffin Books, 2014.

Love isn't there to make us happy. I believe it exists to show us how much we can endure.

Hermann Hesse

Peter Camenzind

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of love Love

Speaker

Erminia Aglietti

Author

Hermann Hesse

Source

Peter Camenzind

Medium

Novel

Genre

Coming of age story

Language

German

Time

1904 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hesse, Herman. Peter Camenzind. Samuel Fischer, 1904.

Current Citation

Hesse, Herman. Peter Camenzind, translated by Michael Roloff. Picador, 2003.

Young people have a marvellous faculty of either dying or adapting themselves to circumstances. Even if they are unhappy-very unhappy-it is astonishing how easily they can be prevented from finding it out, or at any rate from attributing it to any other cause than their own sinfulness.

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

The Way of All Flesh

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Topic

Adaptability

Author

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

Source

The Way of All Flesh

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Butler, Samuel. The Way of All Flesh. Grant Richards, 1903, ch. 6.

Current Citation

Butler, Samuel. The Way of All Flesh. Everyman's Library, 1993, ch. 6.

When the girl returned, some hours later, she carried a tray, with a cup of fragrant tea steaming on it; and a plate piled up with very hot buttered toast, cut thick, very brown on both sides, with the butter running through the holes in great golden drops, like honey from the honeycomb. The smell of that buttered toast simply talked to Toad, and with no uncertain voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts on bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour firesides on winter evenings, when one's ramble was over, and slippered feet were propped on the fender, of the purring of contented cats, and the twitter of sleepy canaries.

Kenneth Grahame

The Wind in the Willows

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Topic

Toast Comfort Home

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. 8.

Current Citation

Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows. Barnes & Noble, 2013, ch. 8.

The God whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.

William James

The Varieties of Religious Experience

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Topic

Nature of God

Author

William James

Source

The Varieties of Religious Experience

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, William. "Conclusions." Gifford Lecture. c. 1902, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. Lecture.

Current Citation

James, William. "Conclusions." The Varieties of Religious Experience, edited by Martin E. Marty. Penguin Classics, 1982.

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of life Life

Author

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

Source

Journals of Samuel Butler

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Butler, Samuel. The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, edited by Henry Festing Jones. A. C. Fifield, 1912, ch. 1.

Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.

Kenneth Grahame

The Wind in the Willows

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Topic

Spring Seasons

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. 1.

Current Citation

Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows. Barnes & Noble, 2013, ch. 1.

That life is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions and, were it not assumed, the most impossible of conclusions.

George Santayana

The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress

More information about this quote

Topic

Meaning of life Absurdity of life Life

Author

George Santayana

Source

The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1905 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Santayana, George. The Life of Reason: Introduction and Reason in Common Sense, edited by Marianne S. Wokeck and Martin A. Coleman. Vol. 7, The MIT Press, 2011, bk. 1, ch. 10. Originally published by Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905.

He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars.

Jack London

The Saturday Evening Post

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Topic

Loving life Life

Author

Jack London

Source

The Call of the Wild The Saturday Evening Post

Medium

Novel Magazine

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

London, Jack. "The Call of the Wild." The Saturday Evening Post, 1903.

Current Citation

London, Jack. "The Call of the Wild." The Call of the Wild and Selected Stories. Signet, 2009, ch. 3.

A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.

George Bernard Shaw

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Topic

Happiness

Speaker

John Tanner

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

Man and Superman

Medium

Play

Genre

Drama (play)

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "Man and Superman." Man and Superman, John Bull's Other Island, and Major Barbara. Oxford University Press, 2021, act 1. Originally published by Archibald and Constable Co., Ltd., 1903.

We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is.

Charles Evans Hughes

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Topic

Constitutional law US Constitution Legal theory

Speaker

Charles Evans Hughes

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1907 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hughes, Charles Evans. Speech before the Chamber of Commerce. 3 May 1907, Elmira, NY, USA.

I myself believe that the evidence for God lies primarily in inner personal experiences.

William James

Pragmatism

More information about this quote

Topic

Existence of God

Author

William James

Source

Pragmatism

Genre

Philosophical speech

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, William. "Some Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered." Nov. 1906, Lowell Institute, Boston, MA, USA. Lecture.

Current Citation

James, William. "Some Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered." Pragmatism. Dover Publications, 2018.

Every time a child says, "I don't believe in fairies," there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.

James M. Barrie

Peter Pan

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Topic

Fairies

Speaker

Peter Pan

Author

James M. Barrie

Source

Peter Pan

Medium

Play

Language

English

Time

1904 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Barrie, James M. Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. Performed by Gerald du Maurier, Nina Boucicault, Joan Burnett, Christine Silver, A.W. Baskcomb, and Alice DuBarry. 27 Dec. 1904, Duke of York's Theatre, Westminster, London, England, UK, act 1.

Current Citation

Barrie, James M. Peter Pan. Reader's Library Classics, 2022, ch. 3.

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.

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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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.

The natural man has only two primal passions, to get and beget.

William Osler

More information about this quote

Topic

Sex Greed Nature of men

Author

William Osler

Source

Science and Immortality

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1904 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Osler, William. Science and Immortality. Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1904, ch. 2.

The more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.

G. K. Chesterton

Orthodoxy

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Topic

Christianity

Author

G. K. Chesterton

Source

Orthodoxy

Genre

Religious literature

Language

English

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Chesterton, G. K. Orthodoxy. John Lane Company, 1908, ch. 6.

Our civilization has decided, and very justly decided, that determining the guilt or innocence of men is a thing too important to be trusted to trained men.... When it wants a library catalogued, or the solar system discovered, or any trifle of that kind, it uses up its specialists. But when it wishes anything done which is really serious, it collects twelve of the ordinary men standing round.

G.K. Chesterton

Tremendous Trifles

More information about this quote

Topic

Jury system

Author

G.K. Chesterton

Source

The Twelve Men Tremendous Trifles

Medium

Essay

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1909 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Chesterton, G.K. "The Twelve Men." In Defense of Sanity: The Best Essays of G.K. Chesterton. Ignatius Press, 2011. Originally published by Methuen, 1909.