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Explore 7518 quotes originally in English

A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.

Adlai Stevenson

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Topic

Nature of freedom Freedom Political theory

Speaker

Adlai Stevenson

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1952 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Stevenson, Adlai. "Safeguards Against Communism." 7 Oct. 1952, Masonic Temple, Detroit, MI, USA.

Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden.

T.S. Eliot

Burnt Norton

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Topic

The road not taken Grass is always greener Counterfactual history

Author

T.S. Eliot

Source

Burnt Norton Four Quartets

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1936 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eliot, T. S. “Burnt Norton.” Collected Poems 1909–1935. Harcourt, Brace And Company, 1936, pt. 1.

The very touch of the letter was as if you had taken me all into your arms.

Anaïs Nin

More information about this quote

Topic

Letters

Author

Anaïs Nin

Source

Letters of Anaïs Nin

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1932 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Nin, Anaïs and Henry Miller. "August 6, 1932." A Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin & Henry Miller, 1932-1953, edited by Gunther Stuhlmann. Harcourt Brace & Company, 1987.

I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve it through not dying.

Woody Allen

More information about this quote

Topic

Immortality through art Artistic legacy Immortality Death

Speaker

Woody Allen

Source

On Being Funny: Woody Allen and His Comedy

Language

English

Time

1975 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Allen, Woody. Quoted in On Being Funny: Woody Allen and Comedy, written by Eric Lax. Charterhouse, 1975.

The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence

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Topic

Zen Hiking Climbing mountains Spending time in nature Nature

Author

Robert M. Pirsig

Source

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1974 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Pirsig, Robert M. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. William Morrow and Company, 1974.

We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression-everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way-everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want... Everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear... Anywhere in the world.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Read this speech at UVA's Miller Center website

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Topic

Freedom of speech and expression Freedom American politics

Speaker

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1941 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano. "The Four Freedoms." State of the Union Message to Congress. 6 Jan. 1941, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, had always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

Henry Adams

The Education of Henry Adams

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Topic

Political division Nature of politics Political theory Politics

Author

Henry Adams

Source

The Education of Henry Adams

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1907 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Adams, Henry. The Education of Henry Adams. 1907, ch. 1.

Current Citation

Adams, Henry. "The Education of Henry Adams." Henry Adams: Democracy, Esther, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, The Education of Henry Adams, edited by Ernest Samuels and Jayne Samuels. Library of America, 1983, ch. 1.

Birth, and copulation, and death.
That's all the facts when you come to brass tacks.

T.S. Eliot

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of life Life

Speaker

Sweeney

Author

T.S. Eliot

Source

Fragment of an Agon

Language

English

Time

1932 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eliot, T. S. "Fragment of an Agon." Sweeney Agonistes: Fragments of an Aristophanic Melodrama. Faber & Faber, 1932.

This was never about money for us, it was about us against the system. That system that kills the human spirit. We stand for something. To those dead souls inching along the freeways in their metal coffins, we show them that the human sprit is still alive.

Point Break

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Topic

Sticking it to the man The man Working stiffs Taking a different path

Speaker

Bodhi

Actor

Patrick Swayze

Source

Point Break

Medium

Film

Genre

Action (film) Crime (film) Action Crime

Language

English

Time

1991 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Point Break. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Johnny Utah Productions/Largo Entertainment, 1991.

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

Taken

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Speaker

Bryan Mills

Actor

Liam Neeson

Source

Taken

Medium

Film

Genre

Action (film) Thriller (film) Action Thriller

Statement Type

Threat

Language

English

Time

2008 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Taken. Directed by Pierre Morel, EuropaCorp/M6 Films/Grive Productions/Canal+ TPS Star/M6, 2008.

All the world over, I will back the masses against the classes.

William E. Gladstone

More information about this quote

Topic

Class warfare

Speaker

William E. Gladstone

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1886 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Gladstone, William E. Speech in Liverpool. 28 June 1886, Hengler's Circus, Liverpool, England, UK.

Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.

Louis Brandeis

More information about this quote

Topic

Transparency in government

Author

Louis Brandeis

Source

What Publicity Can Do Harper's Magazine

Medium

Essay Magazine

Language

English

Time

1913 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Brandeis, Louis. "What Publicity Can Do." Harper's Weekly, 20 Dec. 1913.

If you remember the 60's, you really weren't there.

Charles Fleischer

More information about this quote

Topic

The 60s

Author

Charles Fleischer

Source

Los Angeles Times

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1982 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fleischer, Charles. "If You Remember the 60's, You Really Weren't There." LA Times, 13 June 1982.

The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves.

Logan Pearsall Smith

More information about this quote

Topic

Vocation Work

Author

Logan Pearsall Smith

Language

English

Time

1931 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Smith, Logan Pearsall. "Art and Letters." Afterthoughts. Constable & Company, 1931.

Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is just going to cave in.

American Beauty

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Topic

Beauty The world Feeling overwhelmed

Speaker

Ricky Fitts

Actor

Wes Bentley

Source

American Beauty

Medium

Film

Genre

Black comedy (film) Comedy drama (film) Black comedy Comedy drama

Language

English

Time

1999 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

American Beauty. Directed by Sam Mendes, Jinks/Cohen Company, 1999.

You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?"

George Bernard Shaw

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More information about this quote

Topic

Thinking outside the box Thinking big Creativity

Speaker

The Serpent

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

In the Beginning: B.C. 4004 (In the Garden of Eden) Back to Methuselah

Medium

Play

Language

English

Time

1921 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "In the Beginning: B.C. 4004." Back to Methuselah. Penguin, 1988, pt. 1, act 1. Originally published by Constable/Brentano's, 1921.

It's what we learn after we think we know it all that counts.

Frank McKinney Hubbard

More information about this quote

Topic

Life lessons Personal growth

Author

Frank McKinney Hubbard

Language

English

Time

1913 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hubbard, Frank McKinney. "Abe Martin Says." The Fairmount News, c. 1913.

It was not the power of the Spaniards that destroyed the Aztec Empire but the disbelief of the Aztecs in themselves.

E.F. Schumacher

More information about this quote

Topic

Societal collapse Self-doubt

Author

E.F. Schumacher

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1962 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Schumacher, Ernst Friedrich. Roots of Economic Growth. Gandhian Institute of Studies, 1962.

To be born is to be wrecked on an island.

J.M. Barrie

More information about this quote

Topic

The human condition

Author

J.M. Barrie

Source

The Coral Island

Language

English

Time

1913 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Barrie, J. M. Quoted in The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean, by R. M. Ballantyne. James Nisbet and Co., 1913, preface.

No man is an Island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

John Donne

Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, and severall steps in my Sicknes

More information about this quote

Topic

Interconnectedness of all people Man as social animal

Author

John Donne

Source

Meditation XVII Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, and severall steps in my Sicknes

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1624 1620s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Donne, John. "Meditation XVII." Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, and severall steps in my Sicknes. London, 1624.

Current Citation

Donne, John. "Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions." Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Death's Duel. Vintage, 1999, meditation 17.