Sourced and curated.

First Inaugural Address of William McKinley · 1897

★ 1.1

Wise people... Are so wise and practical that they always know to a dot just why something cannot be done; they always know the limitations.

Henry Ford

1922

★ 1.2

Interview · Magazine

Being blonde is definitely a different state of mind. I can't really put my finger on it, but the artifice of being blonde has some incredible sort of sexual connotation.

Madonna

1989

★ 1.2

Speech

You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

Greed is all right... Greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.

1965

★ 1.3

Speech · Commencement address

Ivan F. Boesky

1986

★ 1.8

Interview

I keep writing about the ordinary because for me it's the home of the extraordinary.

Philip Levine

2001

★ 1.8

Poem

The best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds.

Edgar A. Guest

1926

★ 1.9

Documentary (film)

So this was GM chairman Roger Smith. And he appeared to have a brilliant plan: First, close 11 factories in the U. S., then open 11 in Mexico where you pay the workers 70 cents an hour. Then, use the money you've saved by building cars in Mexico to take over other companies, preferably high-tech firms and weapons manufacturers. Next, tell the union you're broke and they happily agree to give back a couple billion dollars in wage cuts. You then take that money from the workers, and eliminate their jobs by building more foreign factories. Roger Smith was a true genius.

Michael Moore

Roger and Me · 1989

★ 1.9

Our faith teaches that there is no safer reliance than upon the God of our fathers, who has so singularly favored the American people in every national trial, and who will not forsake us so long as we obey His commandments and walk humbly in His footsteps.

First Inaugural Address of William McKinley · 1897

★ 1.9

Lynchings must not be tolerated in a great and civilized country like the United States; courts, not mobs, must execute the penalties of the law.

First Inaugural Address of William McKinley · 1897

★ 2.0

We are not fighting for integration, nor are we fighting for separation. We are fighting for recognition as human beings. We are fighting for...human rights.

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

1964

★ 2.0

Newspaper

Henry Ford

1919

★ 2.1

I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.

You are not an American, you are the victim of America!

The Ballot or the Bullet · 1964

★ 2.3

Film · Biography (film) · Drama (film) · Biography · Drama

Malcolm X · 1992

★ 2.3

My alma mater was books.

So take a good look at my face. You'll see my smile looks out of place. If you look closer, it's easy to trace The tracks of my tears.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X · 1965

★ 2.4

Life Begins at Forty.

Walter B. Pitkin

1932

★ 2.7

Song · Soul

The Miracles

The Tracks of My Tears · 1965

★ 2.9

Film · Biography (film) · Drama (film) · Biography · Drama

Because of the spiritual rebirth which I was blessed to undergo as a result of my pilgrimage to the Holy City of Mecca, I no longer subscribe to sweeping indictments of one race. I intend to be very careful not to sentence anyone who has not been proven guilty. I'm not a racist and do not subscribe to any of the tenets of racism. In all honesty and sincerity it can be stated that I wish nothing but freedom, justice and equality: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all people. Now my first concern, of course, is with the group to which I belong, for we, more than any others, are deprived of our inalienable rights. But I believe the true practice of Islam can remove the cancer of racism from the hearts and the souls of all Americans.

Malcolm X · 1992

★ 2.9

The path of progress is seldom smooth. New things are often found hard to do. Our fathers found them so. We find them so. They are inconvenient. They cost us something. But are we not made better for the effort and sacrifice, and are not those we serve lifted up and blessed?

Being an old maid is like death by drowning, a really delightful sensation after you cease to struggle.

Second Inaugural Address of William McKinley · 1901

★ 3.5

Edna Ferber

1929

★ 3.5

Newspaper

A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth.

Michael Kinsley

1992

★ 3.5

Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.

Henry Ford

1909

★ 3.6

Political literature

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.

Gerald Ford

1960

★ 3.6

Song · Hip hop

His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgetting What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud He opens his mouth but the words won't come out He's choking, how? Everybody's joking now The clock's run out, time's up, over, blaow!

Eminem

Lose Yourself · 2002

★ 3.7

Speech

Corporations are people, my friend.

Mitt Romney

2011

★ 3.7

Film · Biography (film) · Drama (film) · Biography · Drama

Brothers and sisters, I am here to tell you that I charge the white man. I charge the white man with being the greatest murderer on earth. I charge the white man with being the greatest kidnapper on earth. There is no place in this world that man can go and say he created peace and harmony. Everywhere he's gone, he's created havoc. Everywhere he's gone, he's created destruction. So I charge him.

You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow This opportunity comes once in a lifetime

Malcolm X · 1992

★ 3.8

Song · Hip hop

Eminem

Lose Yourself · 2002

★ 3.8

It'll be ballots, or it'll be bullets. It'll be liberty, or it will be death.

The Ballot or the Bullet · 1964

★ 3.9

We didn't land on Plymouth Rock; the rock was landed on us.

The Ballot or the Bullet · 1964

★ 4.0

You had better make some noise.

1965

★ 4.0

New York was heaven to me. And Harlem was Seventh Heaven!

I can't prove you are a Communist. But when I see a bird that quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, has feathers and webbed feet and associates with ducks-I'm certainly going to assume that he is a duck.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X · 1965

★ 4.0

Emil Mazey

1946

★ 4.2

Novel

I asked him one time what type of writing brought the most money and the agent says, "Ransom notes."

Elmore Leonard

Get Shorty (novel) · 1990

★ 4.3

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what... Who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims...These are people who pay no income tax...And so my job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

Mitt Romney

2012

★ 4.4

Novel

I worry about if and when I'll ever find the right man, if I'll ever be able to exhale. The more I try not to think about it, the more I think about it.

Terry McMillan

Waiting to Exhale · 1992

★ 4.5

Film · Biography (film) · Drama (film) · Biography · Drama

We didn't land on Plymouth Rock—Plymouth Rock landed on us!

Habit and custom may be the wisdom of unlettered men, but they come from the sound ancient heart of humanity.

Malcolm X · 1992

★ 4.8

Political literature

Russell Kirk

The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot · 1953

★ 5.1

Yeah, I try to leave out the parts that people skip.

Elmore Leonard

1985

★ 5.2