1980s

Explore 532 quotes from the 1980s

Never marry a man who hates his mother, because he'll end up hating you.

Jill Bennett

More information about this quote

Topic

Mothers and sons

Author

Jill Bennett

Source

The Observer

Medium

Newspaper

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1982 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Bennett, Jill. "Sayings of the Week." The Observer, 12 Sept. 1982.

Man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.

Eric Hoffer

More information about this quote

Topic

Overcoming obstacles Opportunities

Author

Eric Hoffer

Source

On Nature and Human Nature

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1982 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hoffer, Eric. "On Nature and Human Nature." Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer. Harper & Row, 1982.

There's no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you'll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?

Airplane!

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Topic

Flying

Speaker

Elaine Dickinson

Actor

Julie Hagerty

Source

Airplane!

Medium

Film

Genre

Comedy (film) Comedy

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Airplane! Directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker. Paramount Pictures/Howard W. Koch Productions, 1980.

Men and women suffer alone, over the choices they've made. And young boys, full of confusion... Full of fear... Full of love and courage... Grow up stealthily in their sleep.

The Wonder Years

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More information about this quote

Topic

Growing up The human condition

Speaker

Narrator (Adult Kevin Arnold)

Actor

Daniel Stern

Source

The Wonder Years

Medium

TV program

Genre

Coming of age (TV) Comedy (TV) Coming of age Comedy

Language

English

Time

1988 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

"Angel." The Wonder Years, written by Neal Marlens and Carol Black, directed by Art Wolff, season 1, episode 4, The Black/Marlens Company and New World Television, 1988.

The seaweed is always greener
In somebody else's lake
You dream about going up there
But that is a big mistake
Just look at the world around you
Right here on the ocean floor
Such wonderful things around you
What more is you lookin' for?
Under the sea
Under the sea
Darlin', it's better
Down where it's wetter
Take it from me
Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we devotin'
Full time to floatin'
Under the sea!

The Little Mermaid

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Topic

Grass is always greener Bloom where you're planted

Speaker

Sebastian

Actor

Samuel E. Wright

Source

The Little Mermaid

Medium

Film

Genre

Animation (film) Musical (film) Animation Musical

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

"Under the Sea." The Little Mermaid. Directed by Rob Clements and John Musker, performed by Samuel E. Wright, Walt Disney Pictures/Walt Disney Feature Animation/Silver Scrreen Partners IV, 1989.

Jenny, I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast and when I run I feel His pleasure.

Chariots of Fire

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More information about this quote

Topic

Running

Speaker

Eric Liddell

Actor

Ian Charleson

Source

Chariots of Fire

Medium

Film

Genre

Sports (film) Historical drama (film) Sports Historical drama

Language

English

Time

1981 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Chariots of Fire. Directed by Hugh Hudson, Allied Stars Ltd/Goldcrest Films/Enigma Productions, 1981.

There are several quintessential moments in a man's life: losing his virginity, getting married, becoming a father, and having the right girl smile at you.

St. Elmo's Fire

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More information about this quote

Topic

Special moments

Speaker

Kirby Keger

Actor

Emilio Estevez

Source

St. Elmo's Fire

Medium

Film

Genre

Coming of age (film) Coming of age

Language

English

Time

1985 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

St. Elmo's Fire. Directed by Joel Schumacher, Channel-Lauren Shuler, 1985.

Success is more dangerous than failure, (the ripples break over a wider coastline).

Graham Greene

More information about this quote

Topic

Success and failure Success Failure

Author

Graham Greene

Source

Ways of Escape

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Greene, Graham. Ways of Escape. The Bodley Head, 1980, ch. 8, sec. 3.

Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road.

Stewart Brand

More information about this quote

Topic

Technological progress Technology Change Progress

Author

Stewart Brand

Source

The Media Lab

Language

English

Time

1987 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Brand, Stewart. The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at M. I. T. Viking, 1987, pt. 1, ch. 1.

For there is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one's own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels with someone, for someone, a pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes.

Milan Kundera

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

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More information about this quote

Topic

Empathy Compassion

Author

Milan Kundera

Source

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Medium

Novel

Language

Czech

Time

1984 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Kundera, Milan. L'insoutenable légèreté de l'être [The Unbearable Lightness of Being]. Gallimard, 1984.

Current Citation

Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, translated by Michael Henry Heim. Harper Perennial, 2009.

If you hire only those people whom you understand, the company will never get better people than you are.

Soichiro Honda

More information about this quote

Topic

Employees Management Business

Speaker

Soichiro Honda

Source

Honda Motor

Genre

Biography

Language

Japanese

Time

1982 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Honda, Soichiro. Quoted in Honda Motor: The Men, the Management, the Machines by Tetsuo Sakiya. Kodansha, 1985.

You think God belongs only to you? He doesn't. God is an immortal spirit who belongs to everybody, to the whole world. You think you're special? God is not an Israelite!

The Last Temptation of Christ

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More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of God God

Speaker

Jesus

Actor

Willem Dafoe

Source

The Last Temptation of Christ

Medium

Film

Genre

Drama (film) Epic (film) Drama Epic

Language

English

Time

1988 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Last Temptation of Christ. Directed by Martin Scorsese, Universal Pictures/Cineplex Odeon Films/Testament Productions, 1988.

What is love? There is nothing in the world, neither man nor Devil nor any thing, that I hold as suspect as love, for it penetrates the soul more than any other thing. Nothing exists that so fills and binds the heart as love does. Therefore, unless you have those weapons that subdue it, the soul plunges through love into an immense abyss.

Umberto Eco

The Name of the Rose

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More information about this quote

Topic

Dangers of love Nature of love Love

Author

Umberto Eco

Source

The Name of the Rose

Medium

Novel

Language

Italian

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Eco, Umberto. Il nome della rosa [The Name of the Rose]. Bompiani, 1980.

Current Citation

Eco, Humberto. The Name of the Rose, translated by William Weaver. HarperVia, 2014.

Are all men in disguise except those crying?

Dannie Abse

More information about this quote

Topic

Crying Masculinity Vulnerability Authenticity

Author

Dannie Abse

Source

Encounter at a Greyhound Bus Station

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Question

Language

English

Time

1986 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Abse, Dannie. "Encounter at a Greyhound Bus Station." Ask the Moon. Hutchinson, 2014.

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.

Elie Wiesel

Nobel Prize Lecture, 1986

Read this speech at nobelprize.org

More information about this quote

Topic

Political neutrality Standing up for what's right Oppression Politics

Speaker

Elie Wiesel

Source

Nobel Prize Lecture, 1986

Medium

Nobel Prize Lecture Speech

Language

English

Time

1986 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Wiesel, Elie. Acceptance speech. Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. 10 Dec 1986, Oslo City Hall, Oslo, Norway.

The truth about the world, he said, is that anything is possible. Had you not seen it all from birth and thereby bled it of its strangeness it would appear to you for what it is, a hat trick in a medicine show, a fevered dream, a trance bepopulate with chimeras having neither analogue nor precedent, an itinerant carnival, a migratory tentshow whose ultimate destination after many a pitch in many a mudded field is unspeakable and calamitous beyond reckoning.

Cormac McCarthy

Blood Meridian; or The Evening Redness in the West

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Topic

The world

Author

Cormac McCarthy

Source

Blood Meridian; or The Evening Redness in the West

Medium

Novel

Genre

Western literature

Language

English

Time

1985 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

McCarthy, Cormac. Blood Meridian; or The Evening Redness in the West. Random House, 1985, ch. 17.

We campaign in poetry. But when we're elected we're forced to govern in prose.

Mario Cuomo

More information about this quote

Topic

Campaign promises Political campaigns Politics

Speaker

Mario Cuomo

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1985 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cuomo, Mario. "E Pur Si Muove." Chubb Fellowship lecture. 1 Feb. 1985, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.

These are great days we're living, bros. We are jolly green giants, walking the Earth with guns. These people we wasted here today are the finest human beings we will ever know. After we rotate back to the world, we're gonna miss not having anyone around that's worth shooting.

Full Metal Jacket

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Topic

Vietnam War

Speaker

Crazy Earl

Actor

Kieron Jecchinis

Source

Full Metal Jacket

Medium

Film

Genre

War (film) War

Language

English

Time

1987 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Full Metal Jacket. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, Natant/Harrier Films, 1987.

I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living.

Harvey Milk

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More information about this quote

Topic

Hope

Speaker

Harvey Milk

Source

The Times of Harvey Milk

Medium

Film

Genre

Documentary

Language

English

Time

1984 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

The Times of Harvey Milk. Directed by Rob Epstein, Pacific Arts/Black Sand Productions, 1984.

Think big, think positive, never show any sign of weakness. Always go for the throat. Buy low, sell high. Fear? That's the other guy's problem. Nothing you have ever experienced will prepare you for the unbridled carnage you are about to witness. Superbowl, The World Series—they don't know what pressure is. In this building, it's either kill or be killed. You make no friends in the pits and you take no prisoners. One minute you're up half a million in soybeans and the next, boom, your kids don't go to college and they've repossessed your Bentley. Are you with me?

Trading Places

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More information about this quote

Topic

Finance Capitalism Pressure

Speaker

Louis Winthorpe III

Actor

Dan Aykroyd

Source

Trading Places

Medium

Film

Genre

Comedy (film) Comedy

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1983 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Trading Places. Directed by John Landis, Paramount Pictures Studios/Cinema Group Ventures, 1983.