Europe

Explore 4622 quotes by people from Europe

You will laugh when you learn that I thought nothing of deceiving idiots, scoundrels and fools when I needed to do so. As for my deceptions of women, these are not of the sort to be tallied, since when love has a hand in things, each party usually dupes the other.

Giacomo Casanova

Histoire de Ma Vie

More information about this quote

Topic

Men and women Deception

Author

Giacomo Casanova

Source

Histoire de Ma Vie

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

French

Time

1791 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Casanova, Giacomo. Aus den Memoiren des Venetianers Jacob Casanova de Seingalt [From the Memoirs of the Venetian Jacob Casanova de Seingalt]. Vol. 1, Leipzig: Brodhaus, 1822, preface.

Current Citation

Casanova, Giacomo. History of My Life, vols. 1-2, translated by Willard R. Trask. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966.

Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears.

Italo Calvino

Invisible Cities

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Topic

Cities

Author

Italo Calvino

Source

Invisible Cities

Medium

Novel

Language

Italian

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Calvino, Italo. Le citta invisibili [Invisible Cities]. Giulio Einaudi, 1972.

Of all sexual aberrations perhaps the most curious is chastity.

Remy de Gourmont

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Topic

Chastity

Author

Remy de Gourmont

Source

The Natural Philosophy of Love

Language

French

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

De Gourmont, Remy. Physique de l'Amor: Essai Sur l'Instinct Sexuel [Physics of Love - Essay on Sexual Instinct]. Mercure de France, 1903, ch. 18.

A service beyond all recompense
Weighs so heavy that it almost gives offense.

Pierre Corneille

Surena

More information about this quote

Topic

Favors

Speaker

Orode

Author

Pierre Corneille

Source

Surena

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragedy (play) Tragedy

Language

French

Time

1674 1670s 17th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Corneille, Pierre. Surena. 1674, act 3, sc. 2.

To be happy is to be able to become aware of oneself without fright.

Walter Benjamin

One Way Street

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Topic

Self-knowledge Happiness

Author

Walter Benjamin

Source

One Way Street

Language

German

Time

1979 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Benjamin, Walter. Einbahnstraße [One Way Street]. Ernst Rowohlt Verlag, 1928.

Current Citation

Benjamin, Walter. One-Way Street, translated by Edmund Jephcott, edited by Michael W. Jennings. Belknap Press, 2016.

God is stupidity and cowardice; God is hypocrisy and falsehood. God is tyranny and poverty; God is evil. For as long as men bow before altars, mankind will remain damned, the slaves of kings and priests.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

The System of Economic Contradictions

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Topic

Nature of God God

Author

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Source

The System of Economic Contradictions

Genre

Philosophical literature Political literature

Language

French

Time

1846 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph. Systeme des contradictions economiques ou Philosophie de la misere [The System of Economic Contractictions, or Philosophy of Misery]. Paris: Chez Guilla umin et Cie, 1846, ch. 8.

A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car.

Kenneth Tynan

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Topic

Critics

Author

Kenneth Tynan

Statement Type

Definition

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Tynan, Kenneth. Quoted in "Critic Kenneth Tynan Has Mellowed But Is Still England's Stingingest Gadfly." Written by Godfrey Smith. The New York Times, 9 Jan. 1966.

Submit to me as soon as possible a draft showing... Measures already taken for the execution of the intended final solution of the Jewish question.

Hermann Goring

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Topic

The Holocaust

Author

Hermann Goring

Medium

Letter

Language

German

Time

1941 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Goering, Hermann. Directive to Reinhard Heydrich. 31 July 1941.

Facts are the mere dross of history. It is from the abstract truth which interpenetrates them, and lies latent among them, like gold in the ore, that the mass derives its whole value: and the precious particles are generally combined with the baser in such a manner that the separation is a task of the utmost difficulty.

Thomas Babington Macaulay

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Topic

Facts

Author

Thomas Babington Macaulay

Source

History Edinburgh Review

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1828 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Macaulay, Thomas Babington. "History." Edinburgh Review, May 1828.

When is a crisis reached? When questions arise that can't be answered.

Ryszard Kapuscinski

A Warsaw Diary

More information about this quote

Topic

Causes of revolution Inflection points

Author

Ryszard Kapuscinski

Source

A Warsaw Diary

Medium

Essay

Language

Polish

Time

1985 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Kapuściński, Ryszard. "A Warsaw Diary: Part 1." Granta 15: The Fall of Saigon, translated by Adam Czerniawski, Spring 1985.

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The Gulag Archipelago

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Topic

Duality of man Good and evil

Author

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Source

The Gulag Archipelago

Genre

Political literature Historical literature

Language

Russian

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. Архипелаг ГУЛАГ, Arkhipelag GULAG [The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation]. Vol. 1, YMCA-Press, 1973.

To be misunderstood even by those whom one loves is the cross and bitterness of life. It is the secret of that sad and melancholy smile on the lips of great men which so few understand; it is the cruelest trial reserved for self-devotion; it is what must have oftenest wrung the heart of the Son of man; and if God could suffer, it would be the wound we should be forever inflicting upon Him. He also-He above all-is the great misunderstood, the least comprehended.

Henri-Frederic Amiel

Read Amiel's Journal at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Alienation

Author

Henri-Frederic Amiel

Source

Journals of Henri Frederic Amiel

Medium

Personal journal

Language

French

Time

1849 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Amiel, Henri-Frederic. Journal entry. 27 May 1849.

Yet I doe seriously, and upon good grounds, affirme it possible to make a flying Chariot. In which a man may sit, and give such a motion unto it, as shall convey him through the aire. And this perhaps might bee made large enough to carry divers men at the same time, together with foode for their viaticum, and commodities for traffique. It is not the bignesse of any thing in this kind, that can hinder its motion, if the motive faculty be answerable thereunto. We see a great ship swimmes as well as a small corke, and an Eagle flies in the aire as well as a little gnat... So that notwithstanding all these seeming impossibilities, 'tis likely enough, that there may be a meanes invented of journying to the Moone; And how happy shall they be, that are first successfull in this attempt?

John Wilkins

A Discourse Concerning a New World and Another Planet

More information about this quote

Topic

Airplanes

Author

John Wilkins

Source

A Discourse Concerning a New World and Another Planet

Genre

Scientific literature

Statement Type

Prophecies and predictions

Language

English

Time

1640 1640s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Wilkins, John. A Discourse Concerning a New World and Another Planet. London: John Maynard, 1640, bk. 1, proposition 14.

The pebble
is a perfect creature

equal to itself
mindful of its limits

filled exactly
with a pebbly meaning

Zbigniew Herbert

Pebble

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature

Author

Zbigniew Herbert

Source

Pebble

Medium

Poem

Language

Polish

Time

1966 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Herbert, Zbigniew. "Kamyk [Pebble]." Studium przedmiotu [Subject Study]. Czytelnik, 1961.

Pessimism (or rather what is called such) is, in brief, playing the sure game. You cannot lose at it; you may gain. It is the only view of life in which you can never be disappointed.

Thomas Hardy

More information about this quote

Topic

Pessimism Low expectations

Author

Thomas Hardy

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hardy, Thomas. Notebook entry. 1 Jan. 1902.

Current Citation

Hardy, Thomas. Quoted in The Poetry of Thomas Hardy: A Handbook and Commentary, written by J. O. Bailey. UNC Press Books, 2018.

Given for one instant an intelligence which could comprehend all the forces by which nature is animated and the respective positions of the beings which compose it, if moreover this intelligence were vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in the same formula both the movements of the largest bodies in the universe and those of the lightest atom; to it nothing would be uncertain. And the future as the past would be present to its eyes.

Pierre-Simon Laplace

More information about this quote

Topic

Predicting the future Determinism

Author

Pierre-Simon Laplace

Source

A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities

Language

French

Time

1812 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Laplace, Pierre-Simon. Theorie Analytique des Probabilities [Analytic Theory of Probability]. Paris: Madame Va Courcier, 1812.

Human contact seemed to her so frail a thing that the hope that two people might want each other in the same way, at the same time and with the possibility of doing something about it, seemed infinitely remote.

Margaret Drabble

The Waterfall

More information about this quote

Topic

Connecting with others

Author

Margaret Drabble

Source

The Waterfall

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1969 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Drabble, Margaret. The Waterfall. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1969.

My center is giving way, my right is retreating, situation excellent, I am attacking.

Ferdinand Foch

More information about this quote

Topic

Aggression Battle

Speaker

Ferdinand Foch

Language

French

Time

1914 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Foch, Ferdinand. Message sent during the first Battle of the Marne. 8 Sept. 1914.

I decided it is better to scream. This pitiful sound, which sometimes, goodness knows how, reaches into the remotest prison cell, is a concentrated expression of the last vestige of human dignity. It is a man's way of leaving a trace, of telling people how he lived and died. By his screams he asserts his right to live, sends a message to the outside world demanding help and calling for resistance. If nothing else is left, one must scream. Silence is the real crime against humanity.

Nadezhda Mandelstam

Hope Against Hope

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Topic

Soviet Union

Author

Nadezhda Mandelstam

Source

Hope Against Hope

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

Russian

Time

1970 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Mandelstam, Nadezhda. Hope Against Hope. The Chekov Press/Atheneum, 1970, ch. 11.

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen

Dulce et Decorum Est

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Topic

Horrors of war War

Author

Wilfred Owen

Source

Dulce et Decorum Est

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1920 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Owen, Wilfred. "Dulce et Decorum Est." Poems by Wilfred Owen. Chatto & Windus, 1920.

Current Citation

Owen, Wilfred. "Dulce et Decorum Est." The War Poems Of Wilfred Owen. Random House UK, 2018.