1900s

Explore 234 quotes from the 1900s

What interests me most is neither still life nor landscape, but the human figure. It is through it that I best succeed in expressing the almost religious feeling I have towards life.

Henri Matisse

More information about this quote

Topic

Human body

Author

Henri Matisse

Source

Notes d'un Peintre

Language

French

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Matisse, Henri. "Notes d'un peintre [Notes of a Painter]." Le Grande Revue, 25 Dec. 1908.

Current Citation

Matisse, Henri. "Notes of a Painter." Matisse on Art, translated and edited by Jack Flam. University of California Press, 1995, ch. 2.

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of style.

Matthew Arnold

More information about this quote

Topic

Writing

Speaker

Matthew Arnold

Source

Collections and Recollections

Statement Type

Writing advice

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Arnold, Matthew. Quoted in Collections and Recollections, written by G. W. E. Russell. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1898, ch. 14. Originally stated to Russell by Arnold c. 1890.

One friend in a life-time is much; two are many; three are hardly possible. Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, a community of thought, a rivalry of aim.

Henry Adams

The Education of Henry Adams

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Topic

Friendship

Author

Henry Adams

Source

The Education of Henry Adams

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1907 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Adams, Henry. The Education of Henry Adams. 1907, ch. 20.

Current Citation

Adams, Henry. "The Education of Henry Adams." Henry Adams: Democracy, Esther, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, The Education of Henry Adams, edited by Ernest Samuels and Jayne Samuels. Library of America, 1983, ch. 20.

All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

More information about this quote

Topic

Forces of history Progress

Author

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

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

Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that what have you had?

Henry James

North American Review

More information about this quote

Topic

Carpe diem Living life to the fullest Life

Speaker

Lewis Lambert Strether

Author

Henry James

Source

The Ambassadors North American Review

Medium

Novel Magazine

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, Henry. "The Ambassadors." North American Review, 1903.

Current Citation

James, Henry. The Ambassadors, edited by Christopher Butler. Oxford University Press, 2009, bk. 5.

Now and then a visitor wept, to be sure; but this slaughtering machine ran on, visitors or no visitors. It was like some horrible crime committed in a dungeon, all unseen and unheeded, buried out of sight and of memory.

Upton Sinclair

The Jungle

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Topic

Animal cruelty Man and animals

Author

Upton Sinclair

Source

The Jungle

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1905 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sinclair, Upton. "The Jungle." Appeal to Reason, 25 Feb. 1905-4 Nov. 1905.

Current Citation

Sinclaire, Upton. The Jungle. Dover Publications, 2001, ch. 3.

There's only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there's no reason why you shouldn't have a fairly good time.

Edith Wharton

More information about this quote

Topic

Happiness

Author

Edith Wharton

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Wharton, Edith. "The Last Asset." The Hermit and the Wild Woman and Other Stories. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908.

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty—a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show.

Bertrand Russell

More information about this quote

Topic

Beauty of math Mathematics

Author

Bertrand Russell

Source

The Study of Mathematics The New Quarterly

Medium

Essay Magazine

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1907 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Russell, Bertrand. "The Study of Mathematics." The New Quarterly, Nov. 1907.

Current Citation

Russell, Bertrand. The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, edited by Robert E. Egner and Lester E. Denonn. Routledge, 2009, ch. 31.

Success. Four flights Thursday morning. All against twenty-one mile wind. Started from level with engine power alone. Average speed through air thirty-one miles. Longest 57 seconds. Inform press. Home Christmas.

Orville Wright

More information about this quote

Topic

Flying Moments of discovery

Author

Orville Wright

Medium

Telegram

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wright, Orville. Telegram to Reverend Milton Wright. 17 Dec. 1903.

Current Citation

Wright, Orville. Quoted in To Fly: The Story of the Wright Brothers, written by Wendie C. Old. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002.

A man is literally what he thinks.

James Allen

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of man

Author

James Allen

Source

As a Man Thinketh

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Allen, James. As a Man Thinketh. 1903.

Current Citation

Allen, James. As a Man Thinketh: The Complete Original Edition. St. Martin's Essential, 2019.

The photographer is like the cod which produces a million eggs in order that one may reach maturity.

George Bernard Shaw

More information about this quote

Topic

Photography

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

Bernard Shaw's Appreciation of Coburn Camera Work

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "Bernard Shaw's Appreciation of Coburn." Camera Work, edited and published by Alfred Stieglitz, 1906, no. 15, p. 33.

Lack of ornament is a sign of spiritual strength.

Adolf Loos

More information about this quote

Topic

Simplicity

Speaker

Adolf Loos

Source

Ornament and Crime

Medium

Speech

Language

German

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Loos, Adolf. "Ornament und Verbrechen [Ornament and Crime]." 21 Jan. 1910, Academic Association for Literature and Music, Vienna, Austria. Lecture.

Current Citation

Loos, Adolf. Ornament and Crime. Penguin Classics, 2019.

Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation.

William James

The Varieties of Religious Experience

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More information about this quote

Topic

Consciousness

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. "Mysticism." Gifford Lecture. c. 1902, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. Lecture.

Current Citation

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

The customer is never wrong.

Cesar Ritz

More information about this quote

Topic

Customers Business management

Speaker

Cesar Ritz

Statement Type

Precepts and axioms

Language

French

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ritz, Cesar. Quoted in Piccadilly to Pall Mall: Manners, Morals and Man, by Ralph Nevill and Charles Edward Jerningham. Duckworth & Co, 1908.

No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.

Carrie Chapman Catt

More information about this quote

Topic

Custom and convention Law and culture Law

Speaker

Carrie Chapman Catt

Source

Why We Ask for the Submission of an Amendment

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1900 1900s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Catt, Carrie Chapman. "Why We Ask for the Submission of an Amendment." U.S. Senate Committee meeting. 13 Feb. 1900, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Truth must of necessity be stranger than fiction...For fiction is the creation of the human mind, and therefore is congenial to it.

G.K. Chesterton

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of truth Truth vs. fiction Truth

Speaker

Basil Grant

Author

G.K. Chesterton

Source

The Singular Speculation of the House-Agent The Club of Queer Trades

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1905 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Chesterton, G.K. "The Club of Queer Trades." The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton. Vol. 6, Ignatius Press, 1991. Originally published by Harper & Brothers, 1905.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.

Dorothea Mackellar

Core of My Heart

More information about this quote

Topic

Australia

Author

Dorothea Mackellar

Source

Core of My Heart

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Mackellar, Dorothea. "Core of My Heart." The Spectator, 5 Sept. 1908.

Current Citation

Mackellar, Dorothea. "My Country." My Country and Other Poems. Viking, 1988.

To men a man is but a mind. Who cares
What face he carries or what form he wears?
But woman's body is the woman.

Ambrose Bierce

More information about this quote

Topic

Women's bodies Patriarchy Men and women

Author

Ambrose Bierce

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Bierce, Ambrose. The Cynic's Word Book. Arthur F. Bird, 1906.

Current Citation

Bierce, Ambrose. The Devil's Dictionary. Dover Publications, 1993.

Where torture has been long applied we find that it is developed to grades of incredible horror.

William Graham Sumner

More information about this quote

Topic

Torture

Author

William Graham Sumner

Source

Folkways

Genre

Sociology Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sumner, William Graham. Folkways: A Study of Mores, Manners, Customs and Morals. Ginn & Company, 1906, ch. 5.

Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger. Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.

William James

More information about this quote

Topic

Human potential

Author

William James

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. Letter to W. Lutoslawski. 6 May 1906.