Writer

Explore 5101 quotes by Writers

How hard to realize that every camp of men or beast has this glorious starry firmament for a roof!...In such places standing alone on the mountain-top it is easy to realize that whatever special nests we make—leaves and moss like the marmots and birds, or tents, or piled stone—we all dwell in a house of one room—the world with the firmament for its roof—and are sailing the celestial spaces without leaving any track.

John Muir

More information about this quote

Topic

The night sky Interconnectedness of all people

Author

John Muir

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Muir, John. Journal entry. 18 July 1890.

I am a lover and have not found my thing to love.

Sherwood Anderson

More information about this quote

Topic

Looking for love

Speaker

Stranger

Author

Sherwood Anderson

Source

Tandy

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1919 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Anderson, Sherwood. "Tandy." Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life. B. W. Huebsch, 1919.

Current Citation

Anderson, Sherwood. "Tandy." Winesburg, Ohio, edited by Marc K. Dudley. W. W. Norton & Company, 2023.

For the first time in her life she stood naked in the open air, at the mercy of the sun, the breeze that beat upon her, and the waves that invited her.

Kate Chopin

The Awakening

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Topic

Experiencing things

Author

Kate Chopin

Source

The Awakening

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1899 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Chicago and New York: Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1899, ch. 39.

Current Citation

Chopin, Kate. "The Awakening." The Awakening and Selected Stories. Penguin Classics, 2003, ch. 39.

Original thought is like original sin: both happened before you were born to people you could not possibly have met.

Fran Lebowitz

More information about this quote

Topic

Originality

Author

Fran Lebowitz

Source

People Social Studies

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1981 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lebowitz, Fran. "People." Social Studies. Random House, 1981.

The power of money is a distinctly male power. Money speaks, but it speaks with a male voice. In the hands of women, money stays literal; count it out, it buys what it is worth or less. In the hands of men, money buys women, sex, status, dignity, esteem, recognition, loyalty, all manner of possibility.

Andrea Dworkin

Pornography: Men Possessing Women

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of money Money

Author

Andrea Dworkin

Source

Pornography: Men Possessing Women

Genre

Feminist literature

Language

English

Time

1981 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Dworkin, Andrea. Pornography: Men Possessing Women. Putnam, 1981.

For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: "It might have been!"

John Greenleaf Whittier

Maud Muller

More information about this quote

Topic

The road not taken Regrets

Author

John Greenleaf Whittier

Source

Maud Muller

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1856 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wittier, John Greenleaf. "Maud Muller." The Panorama and Other Poems. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1856, st. 53.

Current Citation

Wittier, John Greenleaf. "Maud Muller." John Greenleaf Whittier: Selected Poems. Library of America, 2004.

The first breath of adultery is the freest; after it, constraints aping marriage develop.

John Updike

Couples

More information about this quote

Topic

Infidelity

Author

John Updike

Source

Couples

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1968 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Updike, John. Couples. Alfred A. Knopf, 1968, ch. 5.

I've always wanted to be somebody. But I see now I should have been more specific.

Lily Tomlin

The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe

More information about this quote

Topic

Ambition

Speaker

Lily Tomlin

Author

Jane Wagner

Source

The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe

Medium

Play

Genre

Comedy (play)

Statement Type

Joke

Language

English

Time

1985 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Wagner, Jane. "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe." Performed by Lily Tomlin. 1985, Plymouth Theater, New York City, NY, USA.

A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."

Stephen Crane

A Man Said to the Universe

Read the poem A Man Said to the Universe at Poetry Foundation

More information about this quote

Topic

Man and the universe

Author

Stephen Crane

Source

A Man Said to the Universe

Language

English

Time

1899 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Crane, Stephen. "A Man Said to the Universe." War is Kind and Other Lines. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1899, I. 1.

Current Citation

Crane, Stephen. "A Man Said to the Universe." War is Kind and Other Lines. Dover Publications, 2016, I. 1.

It is Toussaint's supreme merit that while he saw European civilisation as a valuable and necessary thing, and strove to lay its foundations among his people, he never had the illusion that it conferred any moral superiority. He knew French, British, and Spanish imperialists for the insatiable gangsters that they were, that there is no oath too sacred for them to break, no crime, deception, treachery, cruelty, destruction of human life and property which they would not commit against those who could not defend themselves.

C.L.R. James

The Black Jacobins

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More information about this quote

Topic

European imperialism

Author

C.L.R. James

Source

The Black Jacobins

Genre

Political literature Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1938 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, C.L.R. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. Secker & Warburg, 1938, ch. 12.

The man of business…goes on Sunday to the church with the regularity of the village blacksmith, there to renounce and abjure before his God the line of conduct which he intends to pursue with all his might during the following week.

George Bernard Shaw

More information about this quote

Topic

Morality and business

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

Economic Fabian Essays in Socialism

Language

English

Time

1889 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "Economic." Fabian Essays in Socialism. The Fabian Society, 1889.

Current Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "Economic." Political Writings. Oxford University Press, 2021.

The Sultan asked for a Signet motto, that should hold good for Adversity or Prosperity. Solomon gave him, "This also shall pass away."

Edward FitzGerald

More information about this quote

Topic

Equanimity

Author

Edward FitzGerald

Language

English

Time

1852 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fitzgerald, Edward. Polonius: A Collection of Wise Saws and Modern Instances. London: William Pickering, 1852.

There is a silence where hath been no sound,
There is a silence where no sound may be,
In the cold grave-under the deep, deep sea.

Thomas Hood

Silence

More information about this quote

Topic

Silence Death

Author

Thomas Hood

Source

Silence

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1827 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hood, Thomas. "Silence." The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies, Hero and Leander, Lycus the Centaur and Other Poems. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green/Philadelphia: E. Littell, 1827.

Current Citation

Hood, Thomas. "Silence." Selected Poems of Thomas Hood. Harvard University Press, 1970.

The flow'ry way that leads to the broad gate and the great fire.

William Shakespeare

All's Well that Ends Well

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More information about this quote

Topic

Temptation

Speaker

Clown

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

All's Well that Ends Well

Medium

Play

Genre

Comedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1616 1610s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. "All's Well that Ends Well." Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. London: Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, 1623, act 4, sc. 5.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "All's Well That Ends Well." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 4, sc. 5.

I find my wife hath something in her gizzard, that only waits an opportunity of being provoked to bring up; but I will not, for my content-sake, give it.

Samuel Pepys

Read The Diary of Samuel Pepys at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Conflict in marriage

Author

Samuel Pepys

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1668 1660s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Pepys, Samuel. Diary entry. 17 June 1668.

A man who lies, thinking it is the truth, is an honest man, and a man who tells the truth, believing it to be a lie, is a liar.

William Safire

More information about this quote

Topic

Truth and lies

Author

William Safire

Language

English

Time

1975 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Safire, William. Before the Fall: An Inside View of the Pre-Watergate White House. Doubleday, 1975, prologue.

Breathless, we flung us on the windy hill,
Laughed in the sun, and kissed the lovely grass.

Rupert Brooke

More information about this quote

Topic

Experiencing nature

Author

Rupert Brooke

Source

The Hill

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1916 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Brooke, Rupert. "The Hill." Collected Poems. John Lane, 1916, I. 1.

Current Citation

Brooke, Rupert. "The Hill." The Poems of Rupert Brooke. Dover Publications, 2020, I. 1.

There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and shame the devil.

Walter Lippmann

More information about this quote

Topic

Journalism

Author

Walter Lippmann

Genre

Political literature

Statement Type

Precepts and axioms

Language

English

Time

1920 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lippmann, Walter. "Journalism and the Higher Law." Liberty and the News. Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920.

I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home.
I have wasted my life.

James Arlington Wright

More information about this quote

Topic

Regrets Nature scene

Author

James Arlington Wright

Source

Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1961 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Wright, James. "Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota." The Paris Review, 1961.

It came to him that he had turned away from the buffalo not because of a womanish nausea at blood and stench and spilling gut; it came to him that he had sickened and turned away because of his shock at seeing the buffalo, a few moments before proud and noble and full of the dignity of life, now stark and helpless, a length of inert meat, divested of itself, or his notion of its self, swinging grotesquely, mockingly, before him. It was not itself; or it was not that self that he had imagined it to be. That self was murdered; and in that murder he had felt the destruction of something within him, and he had not been able to face it. So he had turned away.

John Williams (novelist)

Butcher's Crossing

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Topic

Animal cruelty Man and animals Interconnectedness of all things

Author

John Williams (novelist)

Source

Butcher's Crossing

Medium

Novel

Genre

Western fiction Western

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Williams, John. Butcher's Crossing. Macmillan, 1960, pt. 2, ch. 5.