The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
William J. Brennan, Jr.10 quotes
If the right of privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child. — William J. Brennan, Jr. · 1972Whether, to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interest. — William J. Brennan, Jr. · 1957All ideas having even the slightest redeeming social importance—unorthodox ideas, controversial ideas, even ideas hateful to the prevailing climate of opinion—have the full protection of the guaranties... But implicit in the history of the First Amendment is the rejection of obscenity as utterly without redeeming social importance... We hold that obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press. — William J. Brennan, Jr. · 1957We current Justices read the Constitution in the only way that we can: as Twentieth Century Americans. We look into the history of the time of framing and to the intervening history of interpretation. But, the ultimate question must be, what do the words of the text mean in our time. For the genius of the Constitution rests not in any static meaning it might have had in a world that is dead and gone, but it's in the adaptability of its great principles to cope with current problems and current needs. — William J. Brennan, Jr. · 1985We hold that obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press. — William J. Brennan, Jr. · 1957The constitutional guarantees require, we think, a federal rule that prohibits a public official from recovering damages for a defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves that the statement was made with "actual malice"—that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not. — William J. Brennan, Jr. · 1964All 10 quotes →Ulysses S. Grant8 quotes
The greatest good to the greatest number is the object to be attained. — Ulysses S. Grant · 1869I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution. — Ulysses S. Grant · 1869The war is over-the rebels are our countrymen again. — Ulysses S. Grant · 1865No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works. — Ulysses S. Grant · 1862I believe that our Great Maker is preparing the world, in His own good time, to become one nation, speaking one language, and when armies and navies will be no longer required. — Ulysses S. Grant · 1873I would respect the rights of all nations, demanding equal respect for our own. If others depart from this rule in their dealings with us, we may be compelled to follow their precedent. — Ulysses S. Grant · 1869All 8 quotes →Milton Friedman7 quotes
History suggests only that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition. — Milton Friedman · 1962Inflation is the one form of taxation which can be imposed without any legislative action. — Milton Friedman · 1973There is an invisible hand in politics that operates in the opposite direction to the invisible hand in the market. In politics, individuals who seek to promote only the public good are led by an invisible hand to promote special interests that it was no part of their intention to promote. — Milton Friedman · 1983Freedom in economic arrangements is itself a component of freedom broadly understood, so economic freedom is an end in itself...economic freedom is also an indispensable means toward the achievement of political freedom. — Milton Friedman · 1962Very few people spend other people's money as carefully as they spend their own. — Milton Friedman · 1975With some notable exceptions, businessmen favor free enterprise in general but are opposed to it when it comes to themselves. — Milton Friedman · 1983All 7 quotes →Bernard Baruch5 quotes
We are in the midst of a cold war which is getting warmer. — Bernard Baruch · 1947Behind the black portent of the new atomic age lies a hope which, seized upon with faith, can work our salvation…we must elect world peace or world destruction. — Bernard Baruch · 1946To me old age is always fifteen years older than I am. — Bernard Baruch · 1955A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren't still there, he's no longer a political leader. — Bernard BaruchLet us not be deceived-we are today in the midst of a cold war. Our enemies are to be found abroad and at home. Let us not forget this: our unrest is the heart of their success. — Bernard Baruch · 1947Logan Pearsall Smith5 quotes
The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves. — Logan Pearsall Smith · 1931People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading. — Logan Pearsall Smith · 1931There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. — Logan Pearsall Smith · 1931There is more felicity on the far side of baldness than young men can possibly imagine. — Logan Pearsall Smith · 1933Thank heavens, the sun has gone in, and I don't have to go out and enjoy it. — Logan Pearsall Smith · 1931Dorothy Parker4 quotes
Come on down to my apartment-I want to show you some remarkably fine etchings I just bought. — Dorothy Parker · 1931By the time you say you're his,
Shivering and sighing
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying-
Lady, make a note of this:
One of you is lying. — Dorothy Parker · 1937Men seldom make passes
At girls who wear glasses. — Dorothy Parker · 1937There's a helluva distance between wise-cracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words. — Dorothy Parker · 1956Allen Ginsberg3 quotes
America, I've given you all and now I'm nothing. — Allen Ginsberg · 1956What if someone gave a war & Nobody came?
Life would ring the bells of Ecstasy and Forever be Itself again. — Allen Ginsberg · 1973What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!-and you, Garcia Lorca what were you doing down by the watermelons? — Allen Ginsberg · 1956Andrea Dworkin3 quotes
Seduction is often difficult to distinguish from rape. In seduction, the rapist bothers to buy a bottle of wine. — Andrea Dworkin · 1979The power of money is a distinctly male power. Money speaks, but it speaks with a male voice. In the hands of women, money stays literal; count it out, it buys what it is worth or less. In the hands of men, money buys women, sex, status, dignity, esteem, recognition, loyalty, all manner of possibility. — Andrea Dworkin · 1981Women do not believe that men believe what pornography says about women. But they do. From the worst to the best of them, they do. — Andrea Dworkin · 1981Bruce Springsteen3 quotes
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man
Born in the U. S. A. — Bruce Springsteen · 1984We gotta get out while we're young
'Cause tramps like us, baby, we were born to run. — Bruce Springsteen · 1975Is a dream a lie if it don't come true,
Or is it something worse? — Bruce Springsteen · 1980Edmund Wilson3 quotes
The wars fought by human beings are stimulated as a rule primarily by the same instincts as the voracity of the sea slug. — Edmund Wilson · 1962It may be that there is nothing more demoralizing than a small but adequate income. — Edmund Wilson · 1946I have had a good many more uplifting thoughts, creative and expansive visions-while soaking in comfortable baths or drying myself after bracing showers-in well-equipped American bathrooms than I have ever had in any cathedral. — Edmund Wilson · 1956Fran Lebowitz3 quotes
Original thought is like original sin: both happened before you were born to people you could not possibly have met. — Fran Lebowitz · 1981If you removed all of the homosexuals and homosexual influence from what is generally regarded as American culture you would be pretty much left with "Let's Make a Deal." — Fran Lebowitz · 1987Remember that as a teenager you are at the last stage in your life when you will be happy to hear that the phone is for you. — Fran Lebowitz · 1981Patti Smith3 quotes
The people have the power
The power to dream, to rule
To wrestle the earth from fools. — Patti Smith · 1988We headed home holding hands. For a moment I dropped back to watch him walk. His sailor's gait always touched me. I knew one day I would stop and he would keep on going, but until then nothing could tear us apart. — Patti Smith · 2010There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book. — Patti Smith · 2010Paul Robeson3 quotes
The artist must take sides. — Paul Robeson · 1937You are the un-Americans and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. — Paul Robeson · 1956My father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I'm going to stay right here and have a part of it, just like you. And no Fascist-minded people like you will drive me from it. Is that clear? — Paul Robeson · 1956Alfred Kinsey2 quotes
Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats. Not all things are black nor all things white. It is a fundamental of taxonomy that nature rarely deals with discrete categories. Only the human mind invents categories and tries to force facts into separated pigeon-holes. The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects. The sooner we learn this concerning human sexual behavior the sooner we shall reach a sound understanding of the realities of sex. — Alfred Kinsey · 1948The only unnatural sex act is that which you cannot perform. — Alfred Kinsey · 1966Amiri Baraka2 quotes
God has been replaced, as he has all over the West, with respectability and air conditioning. — Amiri Baraka · 1963A man is either free or he is not. There cannot be any apprenticeship for freedom. — Amiri Baraka · 1962Buzz Aldrin2 quotes
Magnificent desolation. — Buzz Aldrin · 1969Nobody cares about the bronze or silver medals. — Buzz Aldrin · 2010Charles Dudley Warner2 quotes
Politics makes strange bedfellows. — Charles Dudley Warner · 1870To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant seeds, and watch their renewal of life-this is the commonest delight of the race, the most satisfactory thing a man can do. — Charles Dudley Warner · 1870Grover Cleveland2 quotes
Legitimate strife in business should not be superseded by an enforced concession to the demands of combinations that have the power to destroy, nor should the people to be served lose the benefit of cheapness which usually results from wholesome competition. These aggregations and combinations frequently constitute conspiracies against the interests of the people, and in all their phases they are unnatural and opposed to our American sense of fairness. — Grover Cleveland · 1893Every citizen owes to the country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of its public servants and a fair and reasonable estimate of their fidelity and usefulness. — Grover Cleveland · 1885John McPhee2 quotes
On the geologic time scale, a human lifetime is reduced to a brevity that is too inhibiting to think about. The mind blocks the information. — John McPhee · 1981Neon looks good in Nevada. — John McPhee · 1981Alfred Whitney Griswold1 quote
Creative ideas do not spring from groups. They spring from individuals. — Alfred Whitney Griswold · 1957Anne Morrow Lindbergh1 quote
The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere. — Anne Morrow Lindbergh · 1955Archibald Cox1 quote
Whether ours shall continue to be a Government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people. — Archibald Cox · 1973Arnold Newman1 quote
Everybody I have ever known or read about who was really a great artist has worked until they dropped dead. — Arnold Newman · 2009Bhairavi Desai1 quote
The best way to get inside city hall is to make noise on the street. — Bhairavi Desai · 2011Bridget Anne Kelly1 quote
Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee. — Bridget Anne Kelly · 2013Esther Eberstadt Brooke1 quote
Luck, if you will, is something you work for, and the harder you work the more luck you have. — Esther Eberstadt Brooke · 1940Frank Sinatra1 quote
I've lived a life that's full, I've travelled each and ev'ry highway
And more, much more than this. I did it my way. — Frank Sinatra · 1969Herbert L. Packer1 quote
Crime is a sociopolitical artifact, not a natural phenomenon. We can have as much or as little crime as we please, depending on what we choose to count as criminal. — Herbert L. Packer · 1968Herm Edwards1 quote
You play to win the game. — Herm Edwards · 2002J. Parnell Thomas1 quote
Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? — J. Parnell Thomas · 1947