1940s

Explore 416 quotes from the 1940s

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. It cannot lead, it can only serve; and it is not fastidious in its choice of a leader.

Albert Einstein

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Topic

Intelligence Judgment

Author

Albert Einstein

Source

The Goal of Human Existence

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Einstein, Albert. "The Goal of Human Existence." NBC Broadcast for the United Jewish Appeal. 11 Apr. 1943.

Current Citation

Einstein, Albert. "The Goal of Human Existence." Out of My Later Years. Philosophical Library, 2015, ch. 51.

The history of power politics is nothing but the history of international crime and mass murder.

Karl Popper

The Open Society and Its Enemies

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Topic

International politics

Author

Karl Popper

Source

The Open Society and Its Enemies

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1945 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Popper, Karl. The Open Society and Its Enemies. Vol. 2, Routledge, 1995, ch. 25.

But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer.

Viktor Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning

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Topic

Crying Courage Suffering

Author

Viktor Frankl

Source

Man's Search for Meaning

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

German

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Frankl, Victor. …trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen: Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager [Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy]. Verlag für Jugend und Volk, 1946.

Current Citation

Frankl, Victor. Man's Search for Meaning. Beacon Press, 2006.

Law is where you buy it in this town.

Raymond Chandler

Farewell, My Lovely

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Topic

Corruption Law

Speaker

Philip Marlowe

Author

Raymond Chandler

Source

Farewell, My Lovely

Medium

Novel

Genre

Detective fiction

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Chandler, Raymond. Farewell, My Lovely. Alfred A. Knopf, 1940, ch. 19.

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

John Steinbeck

Quoted in Cosmopolitan

More information about this quote

Topic

Ideas Creativity

Speaker

John Steinbeck

Source

Cosmopolitan

Medium

Interview Magazine

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1947 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Steinbeck, John. "Interview with a Best-Selling Author: John Steinbeck." Interviewed by Robert van Gelder. Cosmopolitan, Apr. 1947.

Every piece of business strategy... Must be seen in its role in the perennial gale of creative destruction.

Joseph Schumpeter

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

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Topic

Business strategy Capitalism

Author

Joseph Schumpeter

Source

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

Genre

Economic literature Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1942 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Schumpeter, Joseph Alois. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. Harper & Brothers, 1942, pt. 2, ch. 7.

England is not the jewelled isle of Shakespeare's much-quoted passage, nor is it the inferno depicted by Dr Goebbels. More than either it resembles a family, a rather stuffy Victorian family, with not many black sheep in it but with all its cupboards bursting with skeletons... A family with the wrong members in control.

George Orwell

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Topic

England

Author

George Orwell

Source

England Your England The Lion and the Unicorn

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1941 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Orwell, George. "England Your England." The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius. Searchlight Books, edited by T. R. Fyvel and George Orwell. Secker & Warburg, 1941, pt. 1, sec. 3.

Current Citation

Orwell, George. "The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius." The Collected Essays, Journalism And Letters Of George Orwell, vol. 2: My Country Right or Left 1940-1943, edited by Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus. David R. Godine, 2007, no. 17, pt. 1, sec. 3.

The sea is the land's edge also, the granite
Into which it reaches, the beaches where it tosses
It hints of earlier and other creation:
The starfish, the hermit crab, the whale's backbone;
The pools where it offers to our curiosity
The more delicate algae and the sea anemone.
It tosses up our losses, the torn seine,
The shattered lobsterpot, the broken oar
And the gear of foreigh dead men. The sea has many voices.

T.S. Eliot

Four Quartets

More information about this quote

Topic

Ocean and sea

Author

T.S. Eliot

Source

The Dry Salvages Four Quartets

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1941 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eliot, T. S. "The Dry Salvages." New English Weekly, Feb. 1941.

Bureaucracy is not an obstacle to democracy but an inevitable complement to it.

Joseph Schumpeter

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

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Topic

Bureaucracy Democracy Political theory

Author

Joseph Schumpeter

Source

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

Genre

Economic literature Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1942 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Schumpeter, Joseph Alois. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. Harper & Brothers, 1942, pt. 3, ch. 18.

The grand aim of all science [is] to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest possible number of hypotheses or axioms.

Albert Einstein

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Topic

Purpose of science Science

Speaker

Albert Einstein

Source

The Universe and Dr. Eistein

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1948 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Einstein, Albert. Quoted in The Universe and Dr. Eistein. Written by Lincoln Barnett. Sloane, 1950. Originally printed in Harpers, 1948.

Exhaust the little moment. Soon it dies.
And be it gash or gold it will not come
Again in this identical disguise.

Gwendolyn Brooks

More information about this quote

Topic

The little things Special moments

Author

Gwendolyn Brooks

Source

Exhaust the Little Moment

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1949 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Brooks, Gwendolyn. "Exhaust the Little Moment." Annie Allen. Harper & Brothers, 1949.

We only want that which is given naturally to all peoples of the world, to be masters of our own fate, only of our fate, not of others, and in cooperation, and friendship with others.

Golda Meir

More information about this quote

Topic

Self-determination Israel

Speaker

Golda Meir

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Meir, Golda. Address to Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry meeting. 25 Mar. 1946.

Don't let's be beastly to the Germans
When our Victory is ultimately won.

Noel Coward

More information about this quote

Topic

World War II Magnanimity in war

Speaker

Noel Coward

Medium

Song

Language

English

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Coward, Noel. Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans. Warner Chappell Music, 1943.

Well, Pa, a woman can change better'n a man. A man lives sorta—well, in jerks. Baby's born or somebody dies, and that's a jerk. He gets a farm or loses it, and that's a jerk. With a woman, it's all in one flow, like a stream—little eddies and waterfalls—but the river, it goes right on. Woman looks at it thata way.

Ma Joad

The Grapes of Wrath

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Topic

Nature of men Nature of women Men and women

Speaker

Ma Joad

Actor

Jane Darwell

Source

The Grapes of Wrath

Medium

Film

Genre

Drama (film) Drama

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Grapes of Wrath. Directed by John Ford. 20th Century Fox, 1940.

A good plan violenty executed now is better than a perfect plan next week.

George S. Patton

More information about this quote

Topic

Military strategy War

Author

George S. Patton

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1947 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Patton, George Smith. War As I Knew It. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1947, pt. 3.

The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not.

Friedrich Hayek

The Road to Serfdom

More information about this quote

Topic

Property rights Freedom

Author

Friedrich Hayek

Source

The Road to Serfdom

Genre

Political literature Economic literature

Language

English

Time

1944 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Von Hayek, Friedrich August. The Road to Serfdom [Der Weg zur Knechtschaft]. Routledge Press/University of Chicago Press, 1944, ch. 8.

A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how.”

Viktor Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning

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Topic

Purpose of life Meaning of life

Author

Viktor Frankl

Source

Man's Search for Meaning

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

German

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Frankl, Victor. …trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen: Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager [Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy]. Verlag für Jugend und Volk, 1946.

Current Citation

Frankl, Victor. Man's Search for Meaning. Beacon Press, 2006.

People of Western Europe: A landing was made this morning on the coast of France by troops of the Allied Expeditionary Force. This landing is part of the concerted United Nations plan for the liberation of Europe, made in conjuction with our great Russian allies... I call upon all who love freedom to stand with us. Keep your faith staunch-our arms are resolute-together we shall achieve victory.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Topic

D-Day Invasion World War II

Speaker

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Medium

Radio broadcast

Language

English

Time

1944 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eisenhower, Dwight D. Broadcast on D-Day. 6 June 1944, Broadcast Room, The White House, Washington, DC, USA. Radio broadcast.

Tyranny is always better organized than freedom.

Charles Peguy

More information about this quote

Topic

Tyranny Threats to freedom

Author

Charles Peguy

Source

Basic Verities

Medium

Epigram

Language

French

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Peguy, Charles. Basic Verities: Prose and Poetry, translated by Ann and Julian Green. Pantheon Books, 1943.

How alike are the groans of love, to those of the dying.

Malcolm Lowry

More information about this quote

Topic

Sex

Author

Malcolm Lowry

Source

Under the Volcano

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1947 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lowry, Malcolm. Under the Volcano. Reynal & Hitchcock/Jonathan Cape, 1947, ch. 12.