Autobiography and memoir

Explore 215 quotes from the following genre: Autobiography and memoir

Loneliness is an aspect of the land. All things in the plain are isolate; there is no confusion of objects in the eye, but one hill or one tree or one man. To look upon that landscape in the early morning, with the sun at your back, is to lose the sense of proportion. Your imagination comes to life, and this, you think, is where Creation was begun.

N. Scott Momaday

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Topic

Landscape Nature

Author

N. Scott Momaday

Source

The Way to Rainy Mountain

Genre

Historical literature Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1967 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Momaday, Navarre Scott. The Way to Rainy Mountain. University of New Mexico Press, 1969, introduction. Originally appeared in The Reporter, 26 Jan. 1967.

The astonishing thing is not that so many of us went to concentration camps or died there, but that some us survived. Caution did not help. Only chance could save you.

Nadezhda Mandelstam

Hope Abandoned

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Topic

The gulag Soviet Union

Author

Nadezhda Mandelstam

Source

Hope Abandoned

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

Russian

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Mandelstam, Nadezhda. Hope Abandoned. Collins & Harvill Press/Atheneum Books, ch. 6.

The only credential the city asked was the boldness to dream. For those who did, it unlocked its gates and its treasures, not caring who they were or where they came from.

Moss Hart

On New York City.

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Topic

New York City

Author

Moss Hart

Source

Act One

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1959 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hart, Moss. Act One. Random House, 1959, pt. 2.

When men are employ'd, they are best content'd; for on the days they worked they were good-natur'd and cheerful, and, with the consciousness of having done a good day's work, they spent the evening jollily; but on our idle days they were mutinous and quarrelsome.

Benjamin Franklin

Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin

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Topic

Work Idleness

Author

Benjamin Franklin

Source

Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1790 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Franklin, Benjamin. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin. Vol. 1, London: Henry Colburn, 1818, pt. 2.

Current Citation

Franklin, Benjamin. "The Autobiography." Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography, Poor Richard, and Later Writings, edited by J. A. Leo Lemay. Library of America, 2005, pt. 3.

Affirmation of life is the spiritual act by which man ceases to live thoughtlessly and begins to devote himself to his life with reverence in order to give it true value. To affirm life is to deepen, to make more inward, and to exalt the will to live.

Albert Schweitzer

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Topic

Mindfulness

Author

Albert Schweitzer

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

German

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Schweitzer, Albert. Aus Meinem Leben und Denken [Out of My Life and Thought]. Leipzig: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1931, ch. 13.

Current Citation

Schweitzer, Albert. Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography, translated by Antji Bultmann Lemke. Johns Hopkins University, 2009, ch. 13.

My alma mater was books.

Malcolm X

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

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Topic

Books Education

Author

Malcolm X

Source

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley. Grove Press, 1965.

It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

Henry David Thoreau

Walden

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Topic

Prejudice and bias Changing oneself Personal growth

Author

Henry David Thoreau

Source

Economy Walden

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1854 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Economy." Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854.

Current Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Economy." Walden and Civil Disobedience. Signet, 2012.

For poems are like rainbows: they escape you quickly.

Langston Hughes

Read I've Known Rivers at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Poetry Rainbows The ephemeral

Author

Langston Hughes

Source

The Big Sea

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Hughes, Langston. "I've Known Rivers." The Big Sea. Alfred A. Knopf, 1940.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.

Henry David Thoreau

Walden

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Topic

Personal growth Self-improvement

Author

Henry David Thoreau

Source

Where I Lived, And What I Lived For Walden

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1854 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Where I Lived, And What I Lived For." Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854.

Current Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Where I Lived, And What I Lived For." Walden and Civil Disobedience. Signet, 2012.

People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true... No. The only tired I was was tired of giving in.

Rosa Parks

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Topic

Civil rights Standing up for what's right Fighting for justice Racial equality Equality American politics

Author

Rosa Parks

Source

My Story

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1992 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Parks, Rosa. Rosa Parks: My Story. Dial Books, 1992, ch. 8.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.

Henry David Thoreau

Walden

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Topic

Attachment (Buddhism) Wealth Materialism

Author

Henry David Thoreau

Source

Where I Lived, And What I Lived For Walden

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1854 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Where I Lived, And What I Lived For." Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854.

Current Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Where I Lived, And What I Lived For." Walden and Civil Disobedience. Signet, 2012.

Within certain limits, it is actually true that the less money you have, the less you worry.

George Orwell

Down and Out in Paris and London

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Topic

Freedom in poverty Worry Poverty

Author

George Orwell

Source

Down and Out in Paris and London

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Orwell, George. Down and Out in Paris and London. Victor Gollancz, 1933, ch. 3.

There are occasions when it pays better to fight and be beaten than not to fight at all.

George Orwell

Homage to Catalonia

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Topic

Resistance Defeat War

Author

George Orwell

Source

Homage to Catalonia

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1938 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Orwell, George. Homage to Catalonia. Secker and Warburg, 1938, ch. 4.

To abstain from politics is in itself a political attitude.

Simone de Beauvoir

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Topic

Civic duty Political neutrality Politics

Author

Simone de Beauvoir

Source

La Force de l'âge

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

French

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

De Beauvoir, Simone. La force de l'âge [The Prime of Life]. Gallimard, 1960.

All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.

George Orwell

Homage to Catalonia

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Topic

Warmongering Politics in war War

Author

George Orwell

Source

Homage to Catalonia

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1938 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Orwell, George. Homage to Catalonia. Secker and Warburg, 1938, ch. 5.

Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.

Henry David Thoreau

Walden

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Topic

Materialism Possessions

Author

Henry David Thoreau

Source

Economy Walden

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1854 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Economy." Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854.

Current Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Economy." Walden and Civil Disobedience. Signet, 2012.

There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you.

Zora Neale Hurston

Dust Tracks on a Road

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Topic

Creative impulse Stories Writing

Author

Zora Neale Hurston

Source

Dust Tracks on a Road

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1942 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Hurston, Zora Neale. Dust Tracks on a Road. J. B. Lippincott Company, 1942, ch. 11.

What I understand by "philosopher": a terrible explosive in the presence of which everything is in danger.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Ecce Homo

More information about this quote

Topic

Philosophers

Author

Friedrich Nietzsche

Source

Ecce Homo

Genre

Autobiography and memoir Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Definition

Language

German

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Ecce homo: Wie man wird, was man ist [Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is]. Leipzig: Insel-Verlag, 1908.

Current Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is, translated by Duncan Large. Oxford University Press, 2009.

He was an embittered atheist (the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him).

George Orwell

Down and Out in Paris and London

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Topic

Atheism

Author

George Orwell

Source

Down and Out in Paris and London

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Orwell, George. Down and Out in Paris and London. Victor Gollancz, 1933, ch. 30.

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, not even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live accordingly to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.

Henry David Thoreau

Walden

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Topic

Philosophy

Author

Henry David Thoreau

Source

Economy Walden

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1854 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Economy." Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854.

Current Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Economy." Walden and Civil Disobedience. Signet, 2012.