Sourced and curated.

Main Street · 1920

★ 1.9

I think perhaps we want a more conscious life. We're tired of drudging and sleeping and dying. We're tired of seeing just a few people able to be individualists. We're tired of always deferring hope till the next generation. We're tired of hearing politicians and priests and cautious reformers...coax us, "Be calm! Be patient! Wait! We have the plans for a Utopia already made; just give us a bit more time and we’ll produce it; trust us; we're wiser than you." For ten thousand years they've said that. We want our Utopia now-and we're going to try our hands at it.

Main Street · 1920

★ 1.9

But I do know that about ten times as many people find their lives dull, and unnecessarily dull, as ever admit it; and I do believe that if we busted out and admitted it sometimes, instead of being nice and patient and loyal for sixty years, and then nice and patient and dead for the rest of eternity, why, maybe, possibly, we might make life more fun.

Babbitt · 1922

★ 1.9

The Maker of a universe with stars a hundred thousand light-years apart was interested, furious, and very personal about it if a small boy played baseball on Sunday afternoon.

I am convinced that everything that is worth while in the world has been accomplished by the free, inquiring, critical spirit, and that the preservation of this spirit is more important than any social system whatsoever. But the men of ritual and the men of barbarism are capable of shutting up the men of science and of silencing them forever.

Elmer Gantry · 1927

★ 1.9

Novel · Dystopian fiction

In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.

It Can't Happen Here · 1935

★ 1.9

Supreme Court opinion · Legal writing

Harry A. Blackmun

Regents of University of California v. Bakke · 1978

★ 1.9

Sociology · Economic literature

The dog... Commends himself to our favor by affording play to our propensity for mastery, and as he is also an item of expense, and commonly serves no industrial purpose, he holds a well-assured place in men's regard as a thing of good repute.

Thorstein Veblen

1899

★ 1.9

Thus it came to him merely to run away was folly, because he could never run away from himself.

Why, America’s the only free nation on earth. Besides! Country’s too big for a revolution. No, no! Couldn’t happen here!

Babbitt · 1922

★ 1.9

Novel · Dystopian fiction

If you can actually count your money, then you are not really a rich man.

It Can't Happen Here · 1935

★ 1.9

Newspaper

J. Paul Getty

Observer · 1957

★ 1.9

Comedy album · Comedy (stand up)

I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.

Big sisters are the crab grass in the lawn of life.

Strategic Grill Locations · 1999

★ 1.9

Comic strip

Charles M. Schulz

Peanuts · 1961

★ 2.0

Comedy album · Comedy (stand up)

I hate flossing, I just wish I had one long curvy tooth. It didn't need to be split up.

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.

Strategic Grill Locations · 1999

★ 2.0

Novel

They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.

The Great Gatsby · 1925

★ 2.1

Novel

The victor belongs to the spoils.

This Side of Paradise · 1920

★ 2.2

Novel · Magazine

What'll we do with ourselves this afternoon? And the day after that, and the next thirty years?

Metropolitan Magazine · 1922

★ 2.2

Novel

If carrots got you drunk, rabbits would be fucked up.

The Great Gatsby · 1925

★ 2.2

Comedy album · Comedy (stand up)

Whenever I walk people try to hand me out flyers. And when someone tries to hand me out a flyer it's kinda like they're saying, "Here, you throw this away."

Strategic Grill Locations · 1999

★ 2.2

Comedy special · Comedy (stand up)