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Explore 5101 quotes by Writers

Hello babies. Welcome to earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies- "God damn it, you've got to be kind."

Kurt Vonnegut

More information about this quote

Topic

Kindness How to behave

Speaker

Eliot Rosewater

Author

Kurt Vonnegut

Source

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965, ch. 7.

The soul of a journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do just as one pleases.

William Hazlitt

On Going on a Journey

Read On Going a Journey at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Purpose of travel Travel

Author

William Hazlitt

Source

On Going on a Journey Table Talk (Hazlitt)

Genre

Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1822 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hazlitt, William. "On Going a Journey." Table-Talk; Or, Original Essays. Vol. 2, London: H. Colburn.

Current Citation

Hazlitt, William. "On Going a Journey." The Selected Writings of William Hazlitt, edited by Duncan Wu. Vol. 6, Routledge, 2020.

Not a "gay science," I should say, like some we have heard of; no, a dreary, desolate, and, indeed, quite abject and distressing one: what we might call, by way of eminence, the dismal science.

Thomas Carlyle

On the discipline of economics.

More information about this quote

Topic

Economics

Author

Thomas Carlyle

Language

English

Time

1849 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Carlyle, Thomas [published anonymously]. "Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question." Fraser's Magazine, Dec. 1849.

Current Citation

Carlyle, Thomas. "The Nigger Question." The Works of Thomas Carlyle, edited by Henry Duff Traill. Vol. 29, Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Oh, the comfort-the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person-having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.

Dinah Craik

Read A Life for a Life at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Connecting with others Value of friendship

Author

Dinah Craik

Source

A Life for a Life

Language

English

Time

1859 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Craik, Dinah Mulock. A Life for a Life. B. Tauchnitz, 1859, ch. 16.

Now there is one outstanding important fact regarding Spaceship Earth, and that is that no instruction book came with it.

Buckminster Fuller

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More information about this quote

Topic

Man and nature Government

Author

Buckminster Fuller

Source

Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth

Language

English

Time

1969 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fuller, Richard Buckminster. Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. Simon and Schuster, 1969, ch. 4.

Longing on a large scale is what makes history.

Don DeLillo

More information about this quote

Topic

Forces of history Desire

Author

Don DeLillo

Source

Underworld

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1997 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

DeLillo, Don. Underworld. Scribner, 1997, prologue.

America is God's crucible, the great melting pot where all the races of Europe are melting and reforming!

Israel Zangwill

Read The Melting-Pot at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Immigration America

Speaker

David Quixano

Author

Israel Zangwill

Source

The Melting Pot

Medium

Play

Genre

Drama (play) Drama

Language

English

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Zangwill, Israel. The Melting Pot. 5 Oct. 1908, Columbia Theatre, Washington, DC, USA, act 1.

In appearance, at least, he being on all occasions glad to be at friendship with me, though we hate one another, and know it on both sides.

Samuel Pepys

Read The Diary of Samuel Pepys at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Keeping up appearances Frenemies

Author

Samuel Pepys

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1668 1660s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Pepys, Samuel. Diary entry. 22 Sept. 1668.

But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed,
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white - then melts for ever.

Robert Burns

Tam o' Shanter

More information about this quote

Topic

Pleasure The ephemeral

Author

Robert Burns

Source

Tam o' Shanter

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1791 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Burns, Robert. "Tam O'Shanter." Edinburgh Herald/Edinburgh Magazine, Mar. 1791.

Current Citation

Burns, Robert. "Tam O'Shanter." Robert Burns: Selected Poems, edited by Carol Mcguirk. Penguin Classics, 1994.

The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less.

Václav Havel

More information about this quote

Topic

Modern life

Author

Václav Havel

Medium

Letter

Language

Czech

Time

1983 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Havel, Vaclav. Letter to Olga Havlova. 5 Oct. 1981.

Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse.

Christopher Hitchens

God Is Not Great

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More information about this quote

Topic

Religion in the modern world Decline of religion Religion

Author

Christopher Hitchens

Source

God Is Not Great

Genre

Religious literature

Language

English

Time

2007 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hitchens, Christopher. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Twelve/Hachette Book Group, 2007, ch. 5.

Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.

Mary Oliver

The Uses of Sorrow

More information about this quote

Topic

Adversity Sadness

Author

Mary Oliver

Source

The Uses of Sorrow

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

2006 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Oliver, Mary. “The Uses of Sorrow.” Thirst. Beacon Press, 2006, I. 1.

The Creator, if He exists, has a special preference for beetles.

J.B.S. Haldane

Reflection on the fact that there are 400,000 species of beetles, as opposed to 8,000 species of mammals.

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of God God and nature

Speaker

J.B.S. Haldane

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1951 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Haldane, J. B. S. Speech given to the British Interplanetary Society. 1951, London, England, UK.

A bird does not sing
because he has an answer.
He sings
because he has a song.

Joan Walsh Anglund

More information about this quote

Topic

Bird songs Birds Self-expression

Author

Joan Walsh Anglund

Language

English

Time

1967 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Anglund, Joan Walsh. A Cup of Sun: A Book of Poems. Harcourt, Brace, & World, 1967.

We have to live without sympathy, don't we? That's impossible of course. We act it to one another, this hardness; but we aren't like that really. I mean... One can't be out in the cold all the time; one has to come in from the cold... Do you see what I mean?

John le Carré

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

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More information about this quote

Topic

Vulnerability

Speaker

Control

Author

John le Carré

Source

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Medium

Novel

Genre

Spy novel Spy

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Carré, John le. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Victor Gollancz & Pan, 1963, ch. 2.

The things which...are esteemed as the greatest good of all…can be reduced to these three headings: to wit, Riches, Fame, and Pleasure. With those three the mind is so engrossed that it cannot scarcely think of any other good.

Baruch Spinoza

More information about this quote

Topic

What the world values

Author

Baruch Spinoza

Language

Latin

Time

1677 1670s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Spinoza, Baruch. Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione [Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect]. 1677, ch. 1, sect. 3.

Current Citation

Spinoza, Baruch. "The Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect." Ethics: with The Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect and Selected Letters, edited by Seymour Feldman, translated by Samuel Shirley. Hackett Publishing Company, 1992, ch. 1, sect. 3.

FIRST LAW: In every animal... A more frequent and continuous use of any organ gradually strengthens, develops and enlarges that organ... While the permanent disuse of any organ imperceptibly weakens and deteriorates it, and progressively diminishes its functional capacity, until it finally disappears.
SECOND LAW: All the acquisitions or losses wrought by nature in individuals... Are preserved by reproductions to the new individuals which arise.

Jean-Baptiste Lamark

Philosophie Zoologique

More information about this quote

Topic

Evolution

Author

Jean-Baptiste Lamark

Source

Philosophie Zoologique

Language

French

Time

1809 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste. Philosophie zoologique [Zoological Philosophy]. Paris: Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, 1809, pt. 1, ch. 7.

Current Citation

Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste. Zoological Philosophy, translated by Hugh Samuel Roger Elliott. Cambridge University Press, 2011, pt. 1, ch. 7.

The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty, unsexy ways, every day.

David Foster Wallace

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More information about this quote

Topic

Caring for others

Speaker

David Foster Wallace

Source

2005 Kenyon College commencement address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Commencement address

Language

English

Time

2005 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wallace, David Foster. Commencement address at Kenyon College. Commencement. 21 May 2005, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, USA.

Current Citation

Wallace, David Foster. This is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion about Living a Compassionate Life. Little, Brown and Company, 2009.

Of all failures, to fail in a witticism is the worst, and the mishap is the more calamitous in a drawn-out and detailed one.

Walter Savage Landor

More information about this quote

Topic

Jokes Failure

Speaker

Chatham

Author

Walter Savage Landor

Language

English

Time

1825 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Landor, Walter Savage. "Chesterfield and Chatham." Imaginary Conversations. c. 1825.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.

Aldous Huxley

More information about this quote

Topic

Learning from the past History repeating itself History Human nature

Author

Aldous Huxley

Source

A Case of Voluntary Ignorance Esquire

Medium

Essay Magazine

Language

English

Time

1956 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Huxley, Aldous. "A Case of Voluntary Ignorance." Collected Essays. Harper & Brothers, 1959. Originally published Esquire, 1 Oct. 1956.