1930s

Explore 357 quotes from the 1930s

Summer time and the livin' is easy,
Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high.
Oh, yo' daddy's rich and yo' ma' is good-lookin',
So hush, little baby, don' yo' cry.

Ira Gershwin

Summertime

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Topic

Summer Seasons

Author

Ira Gershwin

Source

Summertime

Medium

Song

Genre

Great American songbook

Language

English

Time

1935 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Gershwin, Ira and DuBose Heyward. "Summertime." Porgy and Bess. Composed by George Gershwin. 1935, Colonial Theatre, Boston, MA, USA.

There is nothing impossible, therefore, in the existence of the supernatural: its existence seems to me decidedly probable; there is infinite room for it on every side.

George Santayana

More information about this quote

Topic

The supernatural

Author

George Santayana

Source

The Genteel Tradition at Bay

Language

English

Time

1931 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Santayana, George. The Genteel Tradition at Bay. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1931, ch. 2.

It was framed upon the theory that the peoples of the several states must sink or swim together, and that, in the long run, prosperity and salvation are in union, and not division.

Benjamin Cardozo

Baldwin v. G. A. F. Seelig

On the U.S. Constitution.

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Topic

Constitutional theory

Author

Benjamin Cardozo

Source

Baldwin v. G. A. F. Seelig

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1935 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Cardozo, Benjamin Nathan. United States, Supreme Court. Baldwin v. G. A. F. Seelig. United States Reports, vol. 294, 4 Mar 1935, pp. 511-528. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/294/511/.

The Court bows to the lessons of experience and the force of better reasoning, recognizing that the process of trial and error, so fruitful in the physical sciences, is appropriate also in the judicial function.

Louis Brandeis

Burnet v. Coronado Oil and Gas Co.

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Topic

Legal theory Constitutional law

Author

Louis Brandeis

Source

Burnet v. Coronado Oil and Gas Co.

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1932 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Brandeis, Louis. Dissenting Opinion. Burnet v. Coronado Oil and Gas Co. United States Reports, vol. 285, 11 Apr. 1932, pp. 393-413. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/285/393/.

Two cheers for Democracy: one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism. Two cheers are quite enough: there is no occasion to give three.

E.M. Forster (Edward Morgan Forster)

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Topic

Democracy

Author

E.M. Forster (Edward Morgan Forster)

Source

What I Believe The Nation

Medium

Essay Magazine

Language

English

Time

1938 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Forster, E.M. "What I Believe." Two Cheers for Democracy. Hogarth Press, 1951. Originally published in the Nation, 16 July 1938.

From the intrinsic evidence of his creation, the Great Architect of the Universe now begins to appear as a pure mathematician.

James Jeans

More information about this quote

Topic

God Origin of the universe The universe

Author

James Jeans

Source

The Mysterious Universe

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1930 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jeans, James. The Mysterious Universe. Cambridge University Press/Macmillan, 1930, ch. 5.

There is enough in the world for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.

Frank Buchman

More information about this quote

Topic

Environmental destruction Natural resources Capitalism

Author

Frank Buchman

Source

Moral Re-Armament

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1938 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Buchman, Frank. "Moral Re-Armament." 29 May 1938, East Ham Town Hall, London, England, UK.

Neither the truth nor the character of history depend, in any way, upon its having some lesson to teach us. And if ever we persuade ourselves that the past has taught us something, we may be certain that it is not the historical past which has been our teacher.

Michael Oakeshott

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Topic

Learning from the past

Author

Michael Oakeshott

Source

Experience and Its Modes

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Oakeshott, Michael. Experience and Its Modes. Cambridge University Press, 1933, ch. 3, sect. 4.

Patriotism is a lively sense of collective responsibility. Nationalism is a silly cock crowing on its own dunghill.

Richard Aldington

The Colonel's Daughter

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Topic

Patriotism Nationalism

Speaker

Mr. Purfleet

Author

Richard Aldington

Source

The Colonel's Daughter

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1931 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Aldington, Richard. The Colonel's Daughter. Chatto and Windus, 1931.

In olden days, a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now, God knows,
Anything goes.

Cole Porter

Anything Goes

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Topic

Moral decline Custom and convention

Author

Cole Porter

Source

Anything Goes

Medium

Song

Genre

Great American songbook

Language

English

Time

1934 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Porter, Cole. "Anything Goes." Anything Goes. Performed by Ethel Merman. 1934, Alvin Theatre, New York, NY, USA.

Architecture, of all the arts, is the one which acts the most slowly, but the most surely, on the soul.

Ernest Dimnet

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Topic

Architecture

Author

Ernest Dimnet

Source

What We Live By

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1932 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Dimnet, Ernest. What We Live By. Simon & Schuster, 1932, pt. 2, ch. 12.

I believe that we are lost here in America, but I believe we shall be found.

Thomas Wolfe

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Topic

America

Author

Thomas Wolfe

Source

You Can't Go Home Again

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1938 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Wolfe, Thomas. You Can't Go Home Again. Harper & Row, 1940, ch. 48.

This whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, "Is there a meaning to music?" My answer to that would be, "Yes." And "Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?" My answer to that would be, "No." Therein lies the difficulty.

Aaron Copland

What to Listen for in Music

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Topic

Music

Author

Aaron Copland

Source

What to Listen for in Music

Language

English

Time

1939 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Copland, Aaron. What to Listen for in Music. McGraw-Hill, 1939, ch. 2.

The people will live on.
The learning and blundering people will live on.
They will be tricked and sold and again sold
And go back to the nourishing earth for rootholds.

Carl Sandburg

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Topic

Societal collapse The human condition

Author

Carl Sandburg

Source

The People, Yes

Medium

Poem

Genre

Epic poem

Language

English

Time

1936 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sandburg, Carl. The People, Yes. Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1936, no. 107.

The Law is the killy-loo bird of the sciences. The killy-loo, of course, was the bird that insisted on flying backward because it didn't care where it was going but was mightily interested in where it had been... Only The Law, inexorably devoted to all its most ancient principles and precedents, makes a vice of innovation and a virtue of hoariness.

Fred Rodell

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of law Law

Author

Fred Rodell

Source

Woe Unto You, Lawyers!

Language

English

Time

1939 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Rodell, Fred. Woe Unto You, Lawyers! Reynal & Hitchcock, 1939, ch. 2.

Hold fast the time! Guard it, watch over it, every hour, every minute! Unregarded it slips away, like a lizard, smooth, slippery, faithless, a pixy wife. Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfillment.

Thomas Mann

Lotte in Weimar

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Topic

Being present Living in the moment Ephemeral nature of time

Author

Thomas Mann

Source

Lotte in Weimar

Medium

Novel

Language

German

Time

1939 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Mann, Thomas. Lotte in Weimar [The Beloved Returns]. Stockholm: Gottfried Bermann Fischer, 1939, ch. 7.

it wont be long now it wont be long
man is making deserts of the earth
it wont be long now
before man will have it used up
so that nothing but ants
and centipedes and scorpions
can find a living on it

Don Marquis

More information about this quote

Topic

Environmental destruction

Author

Don Marquis

Source

What the Ants are Saying

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1935 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Marquis, Donald. "What the Ants are Saying." Archy Does His Part. The Evening Sun, c. 1935.

Men wiser and more learned than I have discerned in history a plot, a rhythm, a predetermined pattern. These harmonies are concealed from me. I can see only one emergency following upon another as wave follows upon wave.

H.A.L. Fisher

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Topic

Nature of history History

Author

H.A.L. Fisher

Source

A History of Europe

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1935 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fisher, Herbert Albert Laurens. A History of Europe. Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1935, preface.

The significance of man is that he is that part of the universe that asks the question, What is the significance of Man? He alone can stand apart imaginatively and, regarding himself and the universe in their eternal aspects, pronounce a judgement. The significance of man is that he is insignificant and is aware of it.

Carl Becker

More information about this quote

Topic

Man and nature Man The human condition

Author

Carl Becker

Source

Progress and Power

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1936 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Becker, Carl. Progress and Power. A. A. Knopf, 1936.

I renounce war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatred it arouses, for the dictatorships it puts in the place of democracy, for the starvation that stalks after it.

Harry Emerson Fosdick

More information about this quote

Topic

Anti-war Consequences of war War

Speaker

Harry Emerson Fosdick

Source

The Unknown Soldier

Medium

Sermon

Genre

Religious literature

Statement Type

Denunciation

Language

English

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fosdick, Harry Emerson. "The Unknown Soldier." The Secret Of Victorious Living. Harper & Brothers, 1934. Originally a sermon delivered on 12 Nov. 1933, Riverside Church, New York, NY, USA.