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Explore 5101 quotes by Writers

Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas,
Ease after war, death after life, does greatly please.

Edmund Spenser

More information about this quote

Topic

Rest

Author

Edmund Spenser

Source

The Faerie Queene

Medium

Poem

Genre

Epic poem

Language

English

Time

1590 1590s 16th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene. London: William Ponsonbie, 1590, bk. 1, canto 9.

Current Citation

Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene, Book 1, edited by Carol V. Kaske. Hackett Publishing Company, 2006, bk. 1 canto 9, st. 40.

A lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of the cause which he undertakes, unless his client asks his opinion, and then he is bound to give it honestly. The justice or injustice of the cause is to be decided by the judge.

Samuel Johnson

Quoted in The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, by James Boswell

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Topic

Lawyers Legal theory

Speaker

Samuel Johnson

Author

James Boswell

Source

The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides

Genre

Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1773 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Johnson, Samuel. Quoted in journal entry, written by James Boswell. 15 Aug. 1773.

Current Citation

Johnson, Samuel and James Boswell. "The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides." A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, edited by Jack Lynch and Celia Barnes. Oxford University Press, 2021.

Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates. The truth is, nobody really possesses it.

Simone Weil

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of power

Author

Simone Weil

Language

French

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Weil, Simone. "L'iliade ou le poeme de la force [The Iliad, or The Poem of Force]." Les Cahiers du Sud, 1940.

Current Citation

Weil, Simone. "The Iliad, or The Poem of Force." Simone Weil: An Anthology, translated by Sian Miles. Grove Press, 2000.

Long after the bomb falls and you and your good deeds are gone, cockroaches will still be here, prowling the streets like armored cars.

Tama Janowitz

More information about this quote

Topic

Nuclear holocaust

Author

Tama Janowitz

Source

Modern Saint #271 Slaves of New York

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1986 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Janowitz, Tama. "Modern Saint #271." Slaves of New York. Simon and Schuster/Crown Publishers, 1986.

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

George Bernard Shaw

More information about this quote

Topic

Redistribution of wealth

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

Everybody's Political What's What?

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1944 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. Everybody's Political What's What? Constable & Company/Dodd, Mead & Company, 1944, ch. 30.

I am convinced that a person doesn't only love himself in others, he also hates himself in others.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Relationships

Author

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Medium

Personal journal

Language

German

Time

1779 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph. Journal "F." c. 1779.

Current Citation

Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph. "Notebook F 1776-1779." The Waste Books, translated by R. J. Hollingdale. NYRB Classics, 2000.

If we had no faults of our own, we would not take so much pleasure in noticing those of others.

François de La Rochefoucauld

Reflections

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More information about this quote

Topic

Character flaws

Author

François de La Rochefoucauld

Source

Reflections

Medium

Epigram

Language

French

Time

1678 1670s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

La Rochefoucauld, Francois. Reflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims]. c. 1665.

Current Citation

La Rochefoucauld, Francois. Collected Maxims and Other Reflections, translated by E. H. and A. M. Blackmore and Francine Giguere. Oxford University Press, 2008.

We're all of us sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life.

Tennessee Williams

More information about this quote

Topic

Existential solitude

Speaker

Valentine Xavier

Author

Tennessee Williams

Source

Orpheus Descending

Medium

Play

Language

English

Time

1957 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Williams, Tennessee. Orpheus Descending. Directed by Harold Clurman. Performed by Elizabeth Eustis and Jane Rose and Warren Kemmerling. 17 Mar. 1957, Martin Beck Theatre, New York City, New York, USA, act 2, sc. 1.

Current Citation

Williams, Tennessee. "Orpheus Descending." Orpheus Descending and Suddenly Last Summer. New Directions, 2012, act 2, sc. 1.

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.

Bertrand Russell

Marriage and Morals

More information about this quote

Topic

Unfounded beliefs Beliefs

Author

Bertrand Russell

Source

Marriage and Morals

Language

English

Time

1929 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Russell, Bertrand. Marriage and Morals. Allen & Unwin, 1929, ch. 5.

The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate anything. It can do whatever to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform. It can follow analysis; but it has no power of anticipating any analytical relations or truths.

Ada Lovelace

On Charles Babbage's vision for a rudimentary computer.

More information about this quote

Topic

Artificial intelligence Computers

Author

Ada Lovelace

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1843 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

King, Augusta Ada. Scientific Memoirs: Selected from the Transactions of Foreign Academies of science and Learned Societies and from Foreign Journals. Vol. 3, London: R. and J. E. Taylor, 1843.

A man who has no mental needs, because his intellect is of the narrow and normal amount, is, in the strict sense of the word, what is called a philistine.

Arthur Schopenhauer

What a Man Is

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More information about this quote

Topic

Philistinism

Author

Arthur Schopenhauer

Source

What a Man Is Parerga and Paralipomena

Language

German

Time

1851 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Schopenhauer, Arthur. "Aphorismen zu Lebensweisheit: Bon Dem, was Einer ist [Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life: What a Man is]." Parerga und Paralipomena. Vol. 1, Berlin: Druck und Verlag von U. W. Haan, 1851.

Current Citation

Schopenhauer, Arthur. "Aphorisms on the wisdom of life." Parerga and Paralipomena, translated by Sabine Roehr and Christopher Janaway. Vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Taste...Is the only morality...Tell me what you like, and I'll tell you what you are.

John Ruskin

More information about this quote

Topic

Taste

Speaker

John Ruskin

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1864 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Ruskin, John. "Traffic." c. 1864, Town Hall, Bradford, England, UK. Lecture.

Current Citation

Ruskin, John. Traffic. Penguin UK, 2015.

One of the best things about love is just recognizing a man's step when he climbs the stairs.

Colette

More information about this quote

Topic

Lifelong love Love

Author

Colette

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

French

Time

1941 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Colette. Looking Backwards. Peter Owen, 1975.

The most decisive actions of our life-I mean those that our most likely to decide the whole course of our future-are more often than not, unconsidered.

Andre Gide

The Counterfeiters

More information about this quote

Topic

Inflection points

Speaker

Hildebrant

Author

Andre Gide

Source

The Counterfeiters

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

French

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Gide, Andre. Les Faux-monnayeurs [The Counterfeiters]. Nouvelle Revue Francaise, 1925, pt. 3, ch. 16.

Current Citation

Gide, Andre. The Counterfeiters, translated by Dorothy Bussy. Penguin Books, 1990, pt. 3, ch. 16.

The pleasure of love is in the loving. We are happier in the passion we feel than in that we arouse.

François de La Rochefoucauld

Reflections

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More information about this quote

Topic

Loving others

Author

François de La Rochefoucauld

Source

Reflections

Medium

Epigram

Language

French

Time

1678 1670s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

La Rochefoucauld, Francois. Reflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims]. c. 1665.

Current Citation

La Rochefoucauld, Francois. Collected Maxims and Other Reflections, translated by E. H. and A. M. Blackmore and Francine Giguere. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Although human life is priceless, we always act as if something had an even greater price than life…but what is that something?

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

More information about this quote

Topic

What really matters Value of life

Speaker

Riviere

Author

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Source

Night Flight

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Question

Language

French

Time

1931 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

De Saint-Exupery, Antoine. Vol de Nuit [Night Flight]. Éditions Gallimard, 1931, ch. 14.

Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists.

Norman Mailer

More information about this quote

Topic

Newspapers

Author

Norman Mailer

Source

She Thought the Russians Was Coming Esquire

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Mailer, Norman. "She Thought the Russians Was Coming." Esquire, 1 June 1960.

It will be convenient to have a name for the ideas which are esteemed at any time for their acceptability, and it should be a term that emphasizes this predictability. I shall refer to these ideas henceforth as the conventional wisdom.

John Kenneth Galbraith

The Affluent Society

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More information about this quote

Topic

Majority opinions Conformity Intellectual history

Author

John Kenneth Galbraith

Source

The Affluent Society

Genre

Sociology Economic literature

Language

English

Time

1958 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Galbraith, John Kenneth. The Affluent Society. Houghton Mifflin, 1958, ch. 2, sect. 1.

A myth is a religion in which no-one any longer believes.

James K. Feibleman

Understanding Philosophy

More information about this quote

Topic

Myth Religion

Author

James K. Feibleman

Source

Understanding Philosophy

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Feibleman, James K. "The Earliest Greek Philosophers." Understanding Philosophy: A Popular History of Ideas. Horizon Press, 1973, ch. 3.

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

Franz Kafka

The Great Wall of China

More information about this quote

Topic

Stillness Paying attention

Author

Franz Kafka

Source

The Great Wall of China

Medium

Short story

Language

German

Time

1931 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kafka, Franz. Betrachtungen über Sünde, Leid, Hoffnung und den wahren Weg [Reflections on Sin, Pain, Hope and the True Way]. Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, 1931, no. 109.