The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Love4 quotes
If equal affection cannot be
let the more loving one be me. — W.H. Auden · 1957I 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. — Jeanette Winterson · 2011He 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. — W.H. Auden · 1936Like love we don't know where or why
Like love can't compel or fly
Like love we often weep
Like love we seldom keep — W.H. Auden · 1939War4 quotes
Now tell us all about the war,
And what they kill'd each other for. — Robert Southey · 1805History is littered with the wars which everybody knew would never happen. — Enoch Powell · 1967In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers. — Neville Chamberlain · 1938War is hell, and all that, but it has a good deal to recommend it. It wipes out all the small nuisances of peace-time. — Ian Hay · 1915Politics3 quotes
Never lose your temper with the Press or the public is a major rule of political life. — Christabel Pankhurst · 1959All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs. — Enoch Powell · 1977We are here not because we are law-breakers. We are here in our efforts to become law-makers. — Emmeline Pankhurst · 1914The universe3 quotes
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? — Stephen Hawking · 1988Now, 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 · 1927If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason-for then we would know the mind of God. — Stephen Hawking · 1988World War II3 quotes
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. — Neville Chamberlain · 1938This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final Note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 0'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany. — Neville Chamberlain · 1939How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing. — Neville Chamberlain · 1938Art2 quotes
Art is born of humiliation. — W.H. Auden · 1951Without Art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without Science, we should always worship false gods. — W.H. Auden · 1962Freedom2 quotes
Money is the necessity that frees us from necessity. — W.H. Auden · 1973Discipline allows creative freedom. No discipline equals no freedom. — Jeanette Winterson · 2010Gender relations2 quotes
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 · 1799In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly. — Laura Mulvey · 1975Human nature2 quotes
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return. — W.H. Auden · 1939Is it not a fundamental error to consider children as innocent beings, whose little weaknesses may perhaps want some correction, rather than as beings who bring into the world a corrupt nature and evil dispositions, which it should be the great end of education to rectify? — Hannah More · 1799Law2 quotes
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 · 1960For you'll ne'er mend your fortunes, nor help the just cause,
By breaking of windows, or breaking of laws. — Hannah More · 1817Moral progress2 quotes
Life can be wonderful as well as terrible, and we shall increasingly have the power to make life good. Since human history may be only just beginning, we can expect that future humans, or supra-humans, may achieve some great goods that we cannot now even imagine. In Nietzsche’s words, there has never been such a new dawn and clear horizon, and such an open sea. — Derek Parfit · 2017The part of our moral theory... That covers how we affect future generations... Is the most important part of our moral theory, since the next few centuries will be the most important in human history. — Derek Parfit · 1984Moral theory2 quotes
On all plausible theories, everyone’s well-being consists at least in part in being happy, and avoiding suffering. — Derek Parfit · 2011The part of our moral theory... That covers how we affect future generations... Is the most important part of our moral theory, since the next few centuries will be the most important in human history. — Derek Parfit · 1984Nature of love2 quotes
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. — Jeanette Winterson · 2011Like love we don't know where or why
Like love can't compel or fly
Like love we often weep
Like love we seldom keep — W.H. Auden · 1939Oppression of women2 quotes
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 · 1799In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly. — Laura Mulvey · 1975Origin of the universe2 quotes
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? — Stephen Hawking · 1988If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason-for then we would know the mind of God. — Stephen Hawking · 1988Patriarchy2 quotes
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 · 1799In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly. — Laura Mulvey · 1975Progress2 quotes
Life can be wonderful as well as terrible, and we shall increasingly have the power to make life good. Since human history may be only just beginning, we can expect that future humans, or supra-humans, may achieve some great goods that we cannot now even imagine. In Nietzsche’s words, there has never been such a new dawn and clear horizon, and such an open sea. — Derek Parfit · 2017We are here not because we are law-breakers. We are here in our efforts to become law-makers. — Emmeline Pankhurst · 1914Science2 quotes
Without Art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without Science, we should always worship false gods. — W.H. Auden · 1962In effect, we have redefined the task of science to be the discovery of laws that will enable us to predict events up to the limits set by the uncertainty principle. — Stephen Hawking · 1988The human condition2 quotes
Man is a history-making creature who can neither repeat his past nor leave it behind. — W.H. Auden · 1962The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews.
Not to be born is the best for man. — W.H. Auden · 1937Adventure1 quote
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. — J.R.R. Tolkien · 1937Advice1 quote
Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill. — J.R.R. Tolkien · 1954Angels1 quote
Whether a Million of Angels may not sit upon a needle's point? — William Chillingworth · 1637Appeasement1 quote
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. — Neville Chamberlain · 1938Art and science1 quote
Without Art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without Science, we should always worship false gods. — W.H. Auden · 1962Artists1 quote
Though the great artists of the past could not change the course of history, it is only through their work that we are able to break bread with the dead, and without communion with the dead a fully human life is impossible. — W.H. Auden · 1967Being in love1 quote
A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces,
An airline ticket to romantic places;
And still my heart has wings
These foolish things
Remind me of you. — Holt Marvell · 1935Books1 quote
Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered. — W.H. Auden · 1962Breaking the law1 quote
For you'll ne'er mend your fortunes, nor help the just cause,
By breaking of windows, or breaking of laws. — Hannah More · 1817Broken heart1 quote
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. — W.H. Auden · 1936Brutality1 quote
That girls are raped, that two boys knife a third.
Were axioms to him, who'd never heard
Of any world where promises were kept,
Or one could weep because another wept. — W.H. Auden · 1952