Sourced and curated.

Evil is unspectacular and always human, And shares our bed and eats at our table.

The Creator, if He exists, has a special preference for beetles.

1940

★ 5.3

Speech

J.B.S. Haldane

1951

★ 5.2

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did.

T.E. Lawrence

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom · 1926

★ 5.1

Lecture

The best evidence we have that time travel is not possible, and never will be, is that we have not been invaded by hordes of tourists from the future.

Stephen Hawking

1991

★ 5.1

What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.

P.D. James

1986

★ 4.5

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

1954

★ 3.9

I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.

Thou hast the keys of Paradise, oh just, subtle, and mighty opium.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King · 1955

★ 3.9

Magazine · Autobiography and memoir

Thomas De Quincey

London Magazine · 1821

★ 3.8

Magazine · Autobiography and memoir

A duller spectacle this earth of ours has not to show than a rainy Sunday in London.

Thomas De Quincey

London Magazine · 1821

★ 3.7

We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can't think what anybody sees in them.

The Hobbit · 1937

★ 3.7

If equal affection cannot be let the more loving one be me.

1957

★ 3.7

Blue, darkly, deeply, beautifully blue.

Robert Southey

1805

★ 3.6

Now tell us all about the war, And what they kill'd each other for.

Robert Southey

1805

★ 3.6

The sky is darkening like a stain; Something is going to fall like rain, And it won't be flowers.

1935

★ 3.6

I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return.

1939

★ 3.6

I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade

September 1,1939 · 1939

★ 3.6

Man is a history-making creature who can neither repeat his past nor leave it behind.

What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?...Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?

1962

★ 3.6

Scientific literature

Stephen Hawking

A Brief History of Time · 1988

★ 3.6

In many a piece of music, it's the pause or the rest that gives the piece its beauty and its shape.

Pico Iyer

The Art of Stillness · 2014

★ 3.6

Political literature

It is humbling to reflect, that in those countries in which the fondness for the mere persons of women is carried to the highest excess, they are slaves; and that their moral and intellectual degradation increases in direct proportion to the adoration which is paid to mere external charms.

Hannah More

1799

★ 3.5

He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

For the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time.

1936

★ 3.5

Speech · Political speech

Neville Chamberlain

1938

★ 3.5

Speech · Political speech

In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers.

Neville Chamberlain

1938

★ 3.5

Art is born of humiliation.

History is littered with the wars which everybody knew would never happen.

1951

★ 3.5

Speech

Enoch Powell

The Times of London · 1967

★ 3.5

Young people, who are still uncertain of their identity, often try on a succession of masks in the hope of finding the one which suits them-the one, in fact, which is not a mask.

I never shied away from love's hugeness but I had no idea that love could be as reliable as the sun. The daily rising of love.

1973

★ 3.5

Autobiography and memoir

Jeanette Winterson

2011

★ 3.5

In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention.

Pico Iyer

The Art of Stillness · 2014

★ 3.5

Play

I do not know why the necessity of God Should feed on grief; but it seems so.

Christopher Fry

1946

★ 3.5

Play

The law is not a "light" for you or any man to see by; the law is not an instrument of any kind. The law is a causeway upon which, so long as he keeps to it, a citizen may walk safely.

Robert Bolt

1960

★ 3.5

Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose... I suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of, or can be dreamed of, in any philosophy.

J.B.S. Haldane

1927

★ 3.4

Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring · 1954

★ 2.1

The Godhead is broken like bread. We are the pieces.

Herman Melville · 1939

★ 2.0

We must love one another or die.

September 1,1939 · 1939

★ 2.0

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

1954

★ 2.0

It takes little talent to see clearly what lies under one's nose, a good deal of it to know in which direction to point that organ.

1962

★ 2.0

Money is the necessity that frees us from necessity.