Quotes · Skopia

33 quotes

1944

★ 0.9

Supreme Court opinion · Legal opinion · Dissenting opinion · Legal writing

Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.

John Paul Stevens

Bush v. Gore · 2000

★ 1.0

Newspaper

Mother Nature always bats last and she always bats 1000.

Rob Watson

The New York Times · 2010

★ 1.0

The erotic or the sexual is the root of "art"; its first impulse.

Claes Oldenburg

★ 1.0

Speech

Don't ever make decisions based on fear. Make decisions based on hope and possibility. Make decisions based on what should happen, not what shouldn't.

Michelle Obama

2008

★ 1.3

Novel

If the dreams of any so-called normal man were exposed... There would be no more gravity and dignity left for mankind.

Vera Caspary

1943

★ 1.8

Novel

New York makes one think of the collapse of civilization, about Sodom and Gomorrah, the end of the world. The end wouldn't come as a surprise here. Many people already bank on it.

Saul Bellow

1970

★ 1.8

Novel

Gluttony is an emotional escape, a sign something is eating us.

Peter De Vries

1956

★ 1.9

Magazine

Tragedy plus time equals comedy.

Steve Allen

1957

★ 1.9

Short story

The body, she says, is subject to the forces of gravity. But the soul is ruled by levity, pure.

Saul Bellow

1984

★ 1.9

Poem

Exhaust the little moment. Soon it dies. And be it gash or gold it will not come Again in this identical disguise.

Gwendolyn Brooks

1949

★ 1.9

Interview · Newspaper

There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror.

Orson Welles

1985

★ 1.9

Years ago we discovered the exact point, the dead center of middle age. It occurs when you are too young to take up golf and too old to rush up the net.

Franklin P. Adams

1944

★ 3.4

Man is the result of a purposeless and materialistic process that did not have him in mind.

George Gaylord Simpson

1949

★ 3.5

Novel

The value of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults.

Peter De Vries

1954

★ 3.5

Novel

Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.

Nelson Algren

A Walk on the Wild Side · 1956

★ 3.5

Novel

It is the final proof of God's omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us.

Peter De Vries

The Mackerel Plaza · 1958

★ 3.5

I am for an art that tells you the time of day, or where such and such a street is. I am for an art that helps old ladies across the street.

Claes Oldenburg

1961

★ 3.5

Interview

Art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness which characterizes prayer, too, and the eye of the storm... An arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.

Saul Bellow

1967

★ 3.5

Scientific literature

Not in innocence, and not in Asia, was mankind born.

Robert Ardrey

1961

★ 3.5

Poem

Listen to the MUSTN’TS, child, Listen to the DON’TS Listen to the SHOULDN’TS The IMPOSSIBLES, the WONT’S Listen to the NEVER HAVES Then listen close to me- Anything can happen, child, ANYTHING can be.

Shel Silverstein

Listen to the Mustn'ts · 1974

★ 3.5

Historical literature

Hope has never trickled down. It has always sprung up.

Studs Terkel

2003

★ 3.5

For anyone trying to discern what to do with their life: pay attention to what you pay attention to.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal

2013

★ 3.5

Speech

Though it be a thrilling and marvelous thing to be merely young and gifted in such times, it is doubly so, doubly dynamic-to be young, gifted and black.

Lorraine Hansberry

1964

★ 3.6

You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.

Rahm Emanuel

2008

★ 3.6

Song · Soul music

Ooh, child, things are gonna get easier Ooh child, things'll get brighter.

The Five Stairsteps

Ooh Child (song) · 1970

★ 3.7

Political literature

History is a relay of revolutions.

Saul Alinsky

Rules for Radicals · 1971

★ 3.7

Letter

Being born a slave in a captive society and never experiencing any objective basis for expectation had the effect of preparing me for the progressively traumatic misfortunes that lead so many black men to the prison gate. I was prepared for prison. It required only minor psychic adjustments.

George Jackson

1970

★ 4.3

Song · Rock music

Send lawyers, guns, and money The shit has hit the fan.

Warren Zevon

Lawyers, Guns and Money · 1978

★ 4.5

The technocratic imperative: "What can be done must be done."

Theodore Roszak

The Making of the Counter Culture · 1969

★ 5.2

Personal journal

Eventually it comes to you: the thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely.

Lorraine Hansberry

1962

★ 5.3

Patience has its limits. Take it too far and it's cowardice.

George Jackson

1965

★ 5.3

Song

I was born by the river In a little tent And just like the river I've been runnin' ever since It's been a long, a long time comin' But I know a change gon' come.

Sam Cooke

A Change Is Gonna Come · 1964

★ 7.0

Sourced and curated.