1940s

Explore 416 quotes from the 1940s

The happy ending is our national belief.

Mary McCarthy

America the Beautiful

On Americans.

More information about this quote

Topic

American culture

Author

Mary McCarthy

Source

America the Beautiful Commentary Magazine

Medium

Essay Magazine

Language

English

Time

1947 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

McCarthy, Mary. "America the Beautiful: The Humanist in the Bathtub." Commentary Magazine, Sept. 1947.

Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty-never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.

Winston Churchill

Speech at Harrow School, October 29, 1941

More information about this quote

Topic

Never giving up Persistence

Speaker

Winston Churchill

Source

Speech at Harrow School, October 29, 1941

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1941 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Churchill, Winston. "Never Give In." 29 Oct. 1941, Harrow School, Harrow, England, UK. Speech.

Current Citation

Churchill, Winston. "'Never give in!', 29 October 1941, Harrow School." Never Give In!: Winston Churchill's Speeches. A&C Black, 2013.

A culture is in its finest flower before it begins to analyze itself.

Alfred North Whitehead

More information about this quote

Topic

Culture

Author

Alfred North Whitehead

Language

English

Time

1941 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Whitehead, Alfred North. Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, edited by Lucien Price. David. R. Godine, 2008, ch. 22. Originally from dialogue with Lucien Price, 30 Aug. 1941.

Anything you can do, I can do better, I can do anything better than you.

Irving Berlin

Anything You Can Do

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Read the lyrics to Anything You Can Do

More information about this quote

Topic

Men and women

Author

Irving Berlin

Source

Anything You Can Do

Medium

Song

Genre

Great American songbook

Language

English

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Berlin, Irving. "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)." Annie Get Your Gun. Directed by Joshua Logan. Performed by Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton. 16 May 1946, Imperial Theatre, New York City, NY, USA.

Show me a good loser and I will show you a failure.

Knute Rockne

More information about this quote

Topic

Sportsmanship Losers

Speaker

Knute Rockne

Language

English

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Rockne, Knute. Quoted in Washington Post. 15 Aug. 1943.

Evil is unspectacular and always human,
And shares our bed and eats at our table.

W.H. Auden

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of evil Evil

Author

W.H. Auden

Source

Herman Melville

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Auden, W. H. "Herman Melville." Another Time. Faber and Faber/Random House, 1940.

There ain't any answer, there ain't going to be any answer, there never has been any answer, that’s the answer.

Gertrude Stein

More information about this quote

Topic

Meaning of life

Author

Gertrude Stein

Source

Brewsie and Willie

Language

English

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Stein, Gertrude. Brewsie and Willie. Random House, 1946, ch. 5.

Oh, what a beautiful mornin'
Oh, what a beautiful day.
I got a beautiful feelin'
Everything's going my way.

Rodgers and Hammerstein

More information about this quote

Topic

Optimism

Author

Rodgers and Hammerstein

Source

Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' Oklahoma!

Medium

Song Musical

Genre

Great American songbook

Language

English

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hammerstein, Oscar, II. "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'." Oklahoma! Composed by Richard Rodgers. 1943, St. James Theatre, New York City, New York, USA.

I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and a sword in my hands.

Zora Neale Hurston

Dust Tracks on a Road

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More information about this quote

Topic

Experiencing things

Author

Zora Neale Hurston

Source

Dust Tracks on a Road

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1942 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hurston, Zora Neale. Dust Tracks on a Road. J. B. Lippincott Company, 1942, ch. 16.

We have not journeyed all this way across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy.

Winston Churchill

Speech to the Canadian Parliament, December 30, 1941

More information about this quote

Topic

The British people World War II

Speaker

Winston Churchill

Source

Speech to the Canadian Parliament, December 30, 1941

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1941 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Churchill, Winston. "Some Chicken! Some Neck!" Joint session of Canadian Parliament. 30 Dec. 1941, Ottawa, Canada. Address.

Current Citation

Churchill, Winston. "Some chicken! Some neck!', 30 December 1941, Parliament, Ottawa." Never Give In!: Winston Churchill's Speeches. A&C Black, 2013.

Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of a witness.

Margaret Millar

More information about this quote

Topic

Conversation

Speaker

Prye

Author

Margaret Millar

Language

English

Time

1942 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Millar, Margaret. The Weak-Eyed Bat. Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1942, ch. 8.

Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats. Not all things are black nor all things white. It is a fundamental of taxonomy that nature rarely deals with discrete categories. Only the human mind invents categories and tries to force facts into separated pigeon-holes. The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects. The sooner we learn this concerning human sexual behavior the sooner we shall reach a sound understanding of the realities of sex.

Alfred C. Kinsey

Sexual Behavior in the Human Male

More information about this quote

Topic

Sexuality

Author

Alfred C. Kinsey

Source

Sexual Behavior in the Human Male

Language

English

Time

1948 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kinsey, Alfred C. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. W. B. Saunders Co., 1948, ch. 21.

What is hell?
Hell is oneself,
Hell is alone, the other figures in it
Merely projections. There is nothing to escape from
And nothing to escape to. One is always alone.

T.S. Eliot

More information about this quote

Topic

Hell

Speaker

Edward

Author

T.S. Eliot

Source

The Cocktail Party

Medium

Play

Language

English

Time

1949 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eliot, T. S. The Cocktail Party. 1949, Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland, act 1, sc. 5.

The history of liberty has largely been the history of observance of procedural safeguards.

Felix Frankfurter

McNabb v. United States

Read this opinion at supreme.justia.com.

More information about this quote

Topic

Rule of law Freedom

Author

Felix Frankfurter

Source

McNabb v. United States

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Frankfurter, Felix. United States, Supreme Court. McNabb v. United States. United States Reports, vol. 318, 1 Mar. 1943, pp. 339-349. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/318/332/.

Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima... The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.

Harry Truman

More information about this quote

Topic

Nuclear weapons World War II

Speaker

Harry Truman

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1945 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Truman, Harry S. First announcement of the atomic bomb. 6 Aug. 1945, The White House, Washington, DC, USA.

The enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is indeed incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight, it would not only result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization. Such being the case, how are we to save the millions of our subjects, or to atone ourselves before the hallowed spirits of our imperial ancestors?... It is according to the dictate of time and fate that we have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unavoidable and suffering what is insufferable.

Emperor Hirohito

More information about this quote

Topic

Nuclear weapons World War II

Speaker

Emperor Hirohito

Medium

Radio broadcast Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

Japanese

Time

1945 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Emperor Hirohito. The Jewel Voice. 15 Aug. 1945, Imperial Palace, Tokyo, Japan. Broadcast.

The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process of industrial mutation...That incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism.

Joseph Schumpeter

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

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More information about this quote

Topic

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.

You've got to be taught
Before it's too late
Before you are six, or seven, or eight
To hate all the people your relatives hate
You've got to be carefully taught.

Rodgers and Hammerstein

More information about this quote

Topic

Hate Prejudice and bias

Author

Rodgers and Hammerstein

Source

You've Got to Be Carefully Taught South Pacific

Medium

Song Musical

Genre

Great American songbook

Language

English

Time

1949 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hammerstein, Oscar, II. "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught." South Pacific. Composted by Richard Rodgers. 1949, Majestic Theatre, New York City, New York, USA.

It is a funny thing about life, if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it: if you utterly decline to make do with what you can get, then somehow or other you are very likely to get what you want.

W. Somerset Maugham

More information about this quote

Topic

Getting what you want

Author

W. Somerset Maugham

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Maugham, William Somerset. "The Treasure." The Mixture as Before. William Heinemann/Doubleday Doran, 1940.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Henry S. Haskins

More information about this quote

Topic

Inner strength

Author

Henry S. Haskins

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Haskins, Henry S [published anonymously]. "Metapsychics." Meditations in Wall Street. William Morrow & Company, 1940.