1920s

Explore 345 quotes from the 1920s

Oh how am I to face the odds
Of man's bedevilment and God's?
I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.

A.E. Housman

Buy a book containing this poem at Amazon Buy a book containing this poem at Amazon
Read this poem at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Alienation Courage The human condition

Author

A.E. Housman

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Question

Language

English

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Housman, Alfred Edward. Last Poems. Henry Holt & Company, 1922, no. 12.

Current Citation

Housman, Alfred Edward. "Last Poems." A Shropshire Lad and Other Poems, edited by Archie Burnett. Penguin Classics, 2010, no. 12.

The religious vision, and its history of persistent expansion, is our one ground for optimism. Apart from it, human life is a flash of occasional enjoyments lighting up a mass of pain and misery, a bagatelle of transient experience.

Alfred North Whitehead

Religion and Science

More information about this quote

Topic

Religion

Speaker

Alfred North Whitehead

Source

Religion and Science

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1925 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Whitehead, Alfred North. "Religion and Science." Lowell lecture. Feb. 1925, Phillips Brooks House, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

And waiting means hurrying on ahead, it means regarding time and the present moment not as a boon, but an obstruction; it means making their actual content null and void, by mentally overleaping them. Waiting we say is long. We might just as well-or more accurately-say it is short, since it consumes whole spaces of time without our living them or making any use of them as such.

Thomas Mann

More information about this quote

Topic

Waiting Living in the present

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. 5.

Current Citation

Mann, Thomas. The Magic Mountain. Everyman's Library, 2005, ch. 5.

It is only that which cannot be expressed otherwise that is worth expressing in music.

Frederick Delius

More information about this quote

Topic

Limits of language Power of music Music

Author

Frederick Delius

Source

At the Cross-Roads The Sackbut

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1920 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Delius. "At the Cross-Roads." The Sackbut, Sept. 1920.

It is not the attainment of the goal that matters, it is the things that are met with by the way.

Havelock Ellis

More information about this quote

Topic

Philosophy Journey vs. destination

Author

Havelock Ellis

Source

The Dance of Life

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Ellis, Havelock. The Dance of Life. Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1923, ch. 3.

Too much consistency is as bad for the mind as it is for the body. Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead.

Aldous Huxley

More information about this quote

Topic

Consistency Variety Nature

Author

Aldous Huxley

Source

Wordsworth in the Tropics Do What You Will

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1929 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Huxley, Aldous. "Wordsworth in the Tropics." Do What You Will. Chatto & Windus, 1929.

If an army of monkeys were strumming on typewriters they might write all the books in the British Museum.

Arthur Eddington

More information about this quote

Topic

Man and animals Probability Randomness

Author

Arthur Eddington

Source

The Nature of the Physical World

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eddington, Arthur. "The Nature Of The Physical World." Gifford lecture. January – March 1927, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland.

We were challenged with a peace-time choice between the American System of rugged individualism and a European philosophy of diametrically opposed doctrines-doctrines of paternalism and static socialism.

Herbert Hoover

More information about this quote

Topic

America and Europe

Speaker

Herbert Hoover

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Hoover, Herbert. Campaign speech about the principles and ideals of the United States Government. 22 Oct. 1928, New York City, NY, USA.

It is not that the Englishman can't feel—it is that he is afraid to feel. He has been taught at his public school that feeling is bad form. He must not express great joy or sorrow, or even open his mouth too wide when he talks—his pipe might fall out if he did.

E.M. Forster (Edward Morgan Forster)

More information about this quote

Topic

Stiff upper lip Emotion English people

Author

E.M. Forster (Edward Morgan Forster)

Source

Notes on the English Character Atlantic Monthly

Medium

Essay Magazine

Language

English

Time

1920 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Forster, E.M. "Notes on the English Character." Abinger Harvest. Edward Arnold & Co., 1936. Originally published in the Atlantic Monthly, 1920.

Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed thy hand hath provided.
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.

Thomas O. Chisholm

Great is Thy Faithfulness

Read the lyrics to this hymn at hymnary.org

More information about this quote

Topic

God's love God and man

Author

Thomas O. Chisholm

Source

Great is Thy Faithfulness

Medium

Hymn Song

Language

English

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Chisholm, Thomas. Great is thy Faithfullness. Hope Publishing, 1923.

Advertising may be described as the science of arresting human intelligence long enough to get money from it.

Stephen Leacock

More information about this quote

Topic

Advertising and marketing

Author

Stephen Leacock

Source

Garden of Folly

Medium

Essay

Genre

Satire

Language

English

Time

1924 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Leacock, Stephen. Garden of Folly. S. B. Gundy/Dodd, Mead and Company, 1924, ch. 4.

Operationally, God is beginning to resemble not a ruler but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire cat.

Julian Huxley

More information about this quote

Topic

God of the gaps Science and religion Existence of God Nature of God God

Author

Julian Huxley

Source

Religion without Revelation

Genre

Philosophical literature Religious literature

Language

English

Time

1927 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Huxley, Julian. Religion without Revelation. New American Library, 1957, ch. 3. Originally published by Harper & Brothers, 1927, ch. 3.

The government ought not to use evidence obtained and only obtainable, by a criminal act...for my part I think it a less evil that some criminals could escape than that, the Government should play an ignoble part.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Olmstead v. United States

Read this opinion at supreme.justia.com.

More information about this quote

Topic

Fourth Amendment Constitutional law

Author

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Source

Olmstead v. United States

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. United States, Supreme Court. Olmstead v. United States. United States Reports, vol. 277, 4 June 1928, pp. 438-485. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/277/438/.

Fear of serious injury alone cannot justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burned women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.

Louis Brandeis

Whitney v. California

Read this opinion at supreme.justia.com.

More information about this quote

Topic

Freedom of speech and expression

Author

Louis Brandeis

Source

Whitney v. California

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1927 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Brandeis, Louis. United States, Supreme Court. Whitney v. California. United States Reports, vol. 274, 16 May 1927, pp. 357-379. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/274/357/.

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

More information about this quote

Topic

Inevitability of death Death

Author

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Source

Dirge Without Music

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Millay, Edna St. Vincent. "Dirge Without Music." The Buck in the Snow, and Other Poems. Harper & Brothers, 1928, st. 1.

Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now—always, and indeed then most truly when it seems most unsuitable to actual circumstances.

Albert Schweitzer

Buy On the Edge of the Primeval Forest at Amazon Buy On the Edge of the Primeval Forest at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Inconvenient truth Truth

Author

Albert Schweitzer

Source

On the Edge of the Primeval Forest

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

German

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Schweitzer, Albert. Zwischen Wasser un Unwald [On the Edge of the Primeval Forest]. A. and C. Black, 1922, ch. 11.

Current Citation

Schweitzer. "On the Edge of the Primeval Forest." The Primeval Forest. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.

Our dangers, as it seems to me, are not from the outrageous but from the conforming; not from those who rarely and under the lurid glare of obloquy upset our moral complaisance, or shock us with unaccustomed conduct, but from those, the mass of us, who take their virtues and their tastes, like their shirts and their furniture, from the limited patterns which the market offers.

Learned Hand

More information about this quote

Topic

Conformity The masses

Speaker

Learned Hand

Source

Speeches of Learned Hand

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1927 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hand, Learned. "The Preservation of Personality." Commencement. 2 June 1927, Bryn Mawr College, Byrn Mawr, PA, USA.

There are only two great diseases in the world to-day—Bolshevism and Americanism; and Americanism is the worse of the two, because Bolshevism only smashes your house or your business or your skull, but Americanism smashes your soul.

D.H. Lawrence

The Plumed Serpent

More information about this quote

Topic

Criticism of America

Speaker

Young Henry

Author

D.H. Lawrence

Source

The Plumed Serpent

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lawrence, D.H. The Plumed Serpent. Martin Secker, 1926, ch. 2.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints, the Forgiveness of sins: The Resurrection of the body and life everlasting.

The Book of Common Prayer

Buy The Book of Common Prayer at Amazon Buy The Book of Common Prayer at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Belief in God

Source

The Book of Common Prayer

Genre

Religious literature

Statement Type

Profession of faith

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Book of Common Prayer (American). Episcopal Church, 1928.

Perfect freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work and in that work does what he wants to do.

R.G. Collingwood

More information about this quote

Topic

Freedom Dream job Vocation Work

Author

R.G. Collingwood

Source

Speculum Mentis

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1924 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Collingwood, Robin George. Speculum Mentis; or The Map of Knowledge. Clarendon Press, 1924, prologue.