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Miscellaneous quotes

973 quotes from 439 people

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Once again I feel beneath my heels the ribs of Rocinante. Once more, I’m on the road with my shield on my arm.
Che Guevara1928–1967Last Letter to his Parents (1965)
I think that if a person doesn’t feel cynical then they’re out of phase with the 20th century. Being cynical is the only way to deal with modern civilization — you can’t just swallow it whole.
Frank Zappa1940–1993The Dub Room Special (1982).
Though we see the same world, we see it through different eyes. Any help we can give you must be different from that you can give yourselves, and perhaps the value of that help may lie in the fact of that difference.
Virginia Woolf1882–1941Three Guineas (1938), Ch. 1, p. 18
As soon as you put men together, they somehow sink, corporatively, below the level of the worst of the individuals composing it.
Aleister Crowley1875–1947Magick Without Tears (1954), Ch LXXIII
The greatest changes in social life are wrought imperceptibly, and are only seen from afar.
Anatole France1844–1924The White Stone (1905), Ch. III, p. 135
- Change
- History
We patch and tinker more than we renew. The novelty soaks in; it stains the ancient mass; but it is also tinged by what absorbs it.
William James1842–1910Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907), Lecture V, Pragmatism and Common Sense
- Change
If we would bring about a sane and happy society we must begin with ourselves and not with another, not outside of ourselves, but with ourselves.
Jiddu Krishnamurti1895–1986Second Public Talk at Ojai (21 May 1944), in Authentic Report of Ten Talks, Ojai, 1944 (1945), p. 7
- Change
It is only through the ordinary that the extraordinary can make itself perceived.
P. L. Travers1899–1996The Paris Review interview (1982)
The progressive world is necessarily divided into two classes — those who take the best of what there is and enjoy it — those who wish for something better and try to create it.
Florence Nightingale1820–1910Cassandra (1860)
- Change
- Motivation & Goals
Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.
Nelson Mandela1918–2013Inaugural celebration address (1994)
- Change
- Hope
We are told we must choose — the old or the new. In fact, we must choose both. What is a life if not a series of negotiations between the old and the new?
Susan Sontag1933–2004Frankfurt Book Fair speech (2003)
- Change
- Life & Death
If the world is to change for the better it must start with a change in human consciousness, in the very humanness of modern man.
Václav Havel1936–2011Disturbing the Peace (1986), Ch. 1: Growing Up “Outside”, p. 11
- Change
A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other’s lives.
Wendell Berry1934–2026The Long-Legged House (1969)
To be sane in a mad time
is bad for the brain, worse
for the heart.
Wendell Berry1934–2026“The Mad Farmer Manifesto: The First Amendment” in The Country of Marriage (1973)
There are no problems which we cannot solve together, and there are very few which any of us can settle by himself.
Lyndon B. Johnson1908–1973News conference at the LBJ Ranch, Johnson City, Texas (28 November 1964)