1920s

Explore 345 quotes from the 1920s

Religion is love; in no case is it logic.

Beatrice Potter Webb

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Topic

Religion

Author

Beatrice Potter Webb

Source

My Apprenticeship

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Webb, Beatrice Potter. My Apprenticeship. Cambridge University Press, 1979, ch. 2. Originally published by Longmans, Green and Co., 1926, ch. 2.

The chief business of the American people is business.

Calvin Coolidge

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Topic

American character Americans Business

Speaker

Calvin Coolidge

Source

The Press Under a Free Government (Speech)

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1925 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Coolidge, Calvin. "The Press Under a Free Government." American Society of Newspaper Editors meeting. 17 Jan. 1925, Washington, DC, USA.

Like everybody who is not in love, he imagined that one chose the person whom one loved after endless deliberations and on the strength of various qualities and advantages.

Marcel Proust

In Search of Lost Time

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Topic

Nature of love

Author

Marcel Proust

Source

Sodom and Gomorrah In Search of Lost Time

Medium

Novel

Genre

Modernist literature

Language

French

Time

1921 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Proust, Marcel. Sodom and Gomorrah. Paris: Grasset/Gallimard, 1921-1922.

Current Citation

Proust, Marcel. Sodom and Gomorrah, translated by John Sturrock. Penguin Classics, 2005.

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Langston Hughes

Dreams

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Topic

Dreams

Author

Langston Hughes

Source

Dreams The World Tomorrow

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hughes, Langston. “Dreams.” The World Tomorrow, May 1923, I. 1.

Current Citation

Hughes, Langston. “Dreams.” The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: Essays on Art, Race, Politics, and World Affairs. Vol. 9, University of Missouri Press, 2001.

The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder's lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.

Bertrand Russell

On the Value of Scepticism

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Topic

Unfounded beliefs Beliefs

Author

Bertrand Russell

Source

On the Value of Scepticism Sceptical Essays

Medium

Essay

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Russell, Bertrand. "On the Value of Skepticism." Sceptical Essays. George Allen and Unwin Ltd./W. W. Norton & Company, 1928.

A man lives not only his personal life, as an individual, but also, consciously or unconsciously, the life of his epoch and his contemporaries.

Thomas Mann

The Magic Mountain

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Topic

Society and the individual Man as social animal

Author

Thomas Mann

Source

The Magic Mountain

Medium

Novel

Language

German

Time

1924 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Mann, Thomas. Der Zauberberg [The Magic Mountain]. S. Fischer Verlag, 1924, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Mann, Thomas. The Magic Mountain. Everyman's Library, 2005, ch. 2.

Scepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer.

George Santayana

More information about this quote

Topic

Doubt and skepticism

Author

George Santayana

Source

Scepticism and Animal Faith

Language

English

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Santayana, George. Scepticism and Animal Faith. Charles Scribner's Sons/Constable And Company, 1923, ch. 9.

Love your solitude and bear with sweet-sounding lamentation the suffering it causes you.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Letters to a Young Poet

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Topic

Solitude

Author

Rainer Maria Rilke

Source

Letters to a Young Poet

Medium

Letter

Statement Type

Advice

Language

German

Time

1929 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Rilke, Rainer Maria. Letter to Franz Kappus. 16 July 1903.

Current Citation

Rilke, Rainer Maria. Letters to a Young Poet, translated by Charlie Louth. Penguin Classics, 2014.

The law must be stable, and yet it cannot stand still.

Roscoe Pound

More information about this quote

Topic

Legal theory Law

Speaker

Roscoe Pound

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1921 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Pound, Roscoe. Lecture delivered before Trinity College. Lent Term, 1922, Trinity College, Cambridge, England, UK.

Current Citation

Pound, Roscoe. Interpretations of Legal History. Cambridge University Press, 2013, ch. 1.

Birds do it, bees do it,
Even educated fleas do it.
Let's do it, let's fall in love.

Cole Porter

Let's Do It

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Topic

Falling in love Sex

Author

Cole Porter

Source

Let's Do It

Medium

Song

Genre

Great American songbook

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Porter, Cole. "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love." Paris. Performed by Irene Bordoni. 1928, Music Box Theatre, New York City, NY, USA.

There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and shame the devil.

Walter Lippmann

More information about this quote

Topic

Journalism

Author

Walter Lippmann

Genre

Political literature

Statement Type

Precepts and axioms

Language

English

Time

1920 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lippmann, Walter. "Journalism and the Higher Law." Liberty and the News. Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920.

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did.

T. E. Lawrence

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

More information about this quote

Topic

Dreamers Going for it

Author

T. E. Lawrence

Source

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lawrence, T. E. The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. 1926, introductory chapter.

All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.

Havelock Ellis

More information about this quote

Topic

Civilization Revolution

Author

Havelock Ellis

Source

Little Essays of Love and Virtue

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ellis, Havelock. Little Essays of Love and Virtue. George H. Doran Company/A & C Black, 1922, ch. 7.

If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

Calvin Coolidge

More information about this quote

Topic

Equality Political progress Political theory American founding

Speaker

Calvin Coolidge

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Coolidge, Calvin. Speech on the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 5 July 1926, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

A tough but nervous, tenacious but restless race; materially ambitious, yet prone to introspection, and subject to waves of religious emotion... A race whose typical member is eternally torn between a passion for righteousness and a desire to get on in the world.

Samuel Eliot Morison

On Americans, specifically "Yankees".

More information about this quote

Topic

American character Americans

Author

Samuel Eliot Morison

Source

Maritime History of Massachusetts

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1921 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Maritime History of Massachusetts 1783-1860. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1921, ch. 2.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.

Countee Cullen

Incident

More information about this quote

Topic

Effects of racism Racism Black experience

Author

Countee Cullen

Source

Incident

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1925 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Cullen, Countee. "Incident." Color. Harper & Brothers, 1925, I. 5.

Current Citation

Cullen, Countee. "Incident." Countee Cullen: Collected Poems, edited by Major Jackson. Library of America, 2013, I. 5.

Dancing is the loftiest, the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is no mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself.

Havelock Ellis

The Dance of Life

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Topic

Dancing

Author

Havelock Ellis

Source

The Dance of Life

Language

English

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ellis, Havelock. The Dance of Life. Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1923, ch. 2.

The world today is sick to its thin blood for lack of elemental things, for fire before the hands, for water welling from the earth, for air, for the dear earth itself underfoot.

Henry Beston

More information about this quote

Topic

Man and nature Alienation The elements Nature

Author

Henry Beston

Source

The Outermost House

Genre

Nature writing Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Beston, Henry. The Outermost House. Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1928, ch. 1.

Current Citation

Beston, Henry. The Outermost House. Holt Paperbacks, 2003, ch. 1.

Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father's heart? Which of us has not remained forever prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone?

Thomas Wolfe

More information about this quote

Topic

Existential solitude

Author

Thomas Wolfe

Source

Look Homeward, Angel

Medium

Novel

Genre

Coming of age

Language

English

Time

1929 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Wolfe, Thomas. Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929, foreword.

Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters.

Ernest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises

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Topic

Living life to the fullest

Speaker

Jake Barnes

Author

Ernest Hemingway

Source

The Sun Also Rises

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926, bk. 1, ch. 2.