“No scientist or student of science, need ever read an original work of the past. As a general rule, he does not think of doing so. Rutherford was one of the greatest experimental physicists, but no nuclear scientist today would study his researches of fifty years ago. Their substance has all been infused into the common agreement, the textbooks, the contemporary papers, the living present.” ThinkingNeedsYearsDoeTodayPastScienceCommonStudyStudentsPaperResearchYears AgoScientistOriginalsNuclearContemporarySubstanceFiftyAgreementPapersPhysicistTextbooks Author:C.P. Snow
“My boyfriend got me a computer three years ago. I'll admit it does make things a lot easier. When I was working on a typewriter and I whited out a line, often I would choose a word to go in the space just because it fit. Now I don't have to do that.” YearsDoeThreeLinesSpaceFitEasierComputerYears AgoThree YearsTypewritersMy Boyfriend Author:David Sedaris
“Two years ago, I was saying as I planted seeds in the garden, "I must believe in these seeds, that they fall into the earth and grow into flowers and radishes and beans." It is a miracle to me because I do not understand it. The very fact that they use glib technical phrases does not make it any less a miracle, and a miracle we all accept. Then why not accept God's miracles?” YearsBelieveDoeTwoFactsUseEarthFallGrowsAcceptingFlowerYears AgoGardenMiraclePlantSeedsPhrasesTwo YearsWhy NotBeansTwo Years AgoRadishes Author:Dorothy Day
“There's no such thing as post-feminism. It's like saying post-democracy, excuse me, what does that mean? We're nowhere near equality, so the very idea of post-feminism is ridiculous. The same people who 30-40 years ago said the women's movement is not necessary, 'it's going against nature, my wife is not interested' [are] the same people now saying 'well it used to be necessary but not anymore.' The very invention of the word post-feminism is the current form of resistance.” PeopleYearsWellsMeanDoeSaidIdeasFormUsedDemocracyWifeFeminismMovementYears AgoCurrentsExcuseMy WifeRidiculousInventionResistanceUsed To BePostsNot InterestedExcuse Me Author:Gloria Steinem
“[M]y conception of liberty does not permit an individual citizen or a group of citizens to commit acts of depredation against nature in such a way as to harm their neighbors and especially to harm the future generations of Americans. If many years ago we had had the necessary knowledge, and especially the necessary willingness on the part of the Federal Government, we would have saved a sum, a sum of money which has cost the taxpayers of America two billion dollars.” IfsWayYearsDoeTwoGovernmentAmericaIndividualLibertyGenerationsGroupsCitizensCostYears AgoDollarsHarmNeighborBillionsSavedCommitWillingnessConceptionPermitElectricityConservationFederal GovernmentFuture GenerationTaxpayers Author:Franklin D. Roosevelt
“America is a great country. It has many shortcomings, many social inequalities, and it's tragic that the problem of the blacks wasn't solved fifty or even a hundred years ago, but it's still a great country, a country full of opportunities, of freedom! Does it seem nothing to you to be able to say what you like, even against the government, the Establishment?” YearsDoeStillsCountryProblemSeemsGovernmentAbleAmericaOpportunitySocialHundredYears AgoInequalityFiftyTragicEstablishmentShortcomingsFreedom Of ExpressionGreat CountrySocial Inequality Author:Golda Meir
“... woman does not see what people of intellect perceived fifty years ago: that suffrage is an evil, that it has only helped to enslave people, that it has but closed their eyes that they may not see how craftily they were made to submit.” PeopleYearsMayDoeMadeEyeEvilDemocracyYears AgoIntellectFiftySubmitSuffrage Book:Anarchism and Other Essays Source: Anarchism and Other Essays
“I understand that unless you have a government of laws, rather than a government of people, you cannot protect dissent. And I understand, as a woman who probably would have been burned in the marketplace for witchcraft only about 200 years ago, that I need the First Amendment more than anybody does. And that even if I am repelled by child pornography or Bob Guccione's productions, that I have to protect those things, because essentially it's in my self-interest to do so.” PeopleIfsNeedsYearsFirstsChildrenDoeHas BeensSelfGovernmentLawInterestProtectYears AgoProductionsAmendmentsBobFree SpeechBurnedPornographySelf InterestMarketplaceDissentFirst AmendmentWitchcraft Author:Erica Jong
“Most of us in the baby-boom generation were raised by full-time mothers. Even as recently as 14 years ago, 6 out of 10 mothers with babies were staying at home. Today that is totally reversed. Does that mean we love our children less than our mothers loved us? No, but it certainly causes a lot of guilt trips.” YearsMeanChildrenDoeHomeTodayMotherCausesInspiringGenerationsBabyYears AgoOur ChildrenGuiltRaisedStayingMothers DayLove Our ChildrenGuilt TripBaby BoomFull Time Mother Author:Jane Pauley
“More than fifty-five years ago my father told me, "The Bible does not belong on the shelf but in your hand, under your eye, and in your heart."” YearsHeartDoeHandsEyeFatherFiveYears AgoFive YearsFiftyShelves Author:Martin Niemoller
“I remember a few years ago I was sitting at home with my wife watching the Oscars. I was sitting on the couch and suddenly heard my voice. It's thrilling. It's interesting that a lot of guys do me. I have a friend who does me on his answering machine so when I call him I talk to myself. I don't really know what that comes from. It doesn't seem to me that I speak in a strange way. My wife says Kevin's (Spacey) the best.” KnowsWayYearsDoeHomeSeemsRememberGuySpeakVoiceInterestingWifeHeardStrangeSittingYears AgoMachinesMy WifeOscarsThrillingCouchesKevinAnswering Machines Author:Christopher Walken
“Writing songs does not get any easier, and that might be because I am harder on myself than I was twenty years ago. Hopefully, as we grow older and change, there are fresh topics, new perspectives, or at least there should be.” ShouldWritingYearsDoeMightSongGrowsPerspectiveEasierYears AgoHarderTwentiesHopefullyTopicsWriting SongsNew Perspective Author:Dean Wareham
“When you're filming in Russia in Catherine's Palace, and you're in the real place where the Tsar's ball really happened, all those years ago, it does so much of the work for you. It's so vivid. You escape into this different time through the costumes, the sets and the atmosphere.” YearsDoeDifferentRealHappenedYears AgoBallsRussiaAtmosphereCostumesVividPalacesDifferent Times Author:Lily James
“I didn't get a chance to meet Glen [Beck] for this movie. I did meet him a few years ago, coincidentally, before any of this happened. But I've been familiar with his work, so I felt I wanted to get it right. I wanted to honor him. I respect him and I think the way he does his job is admirable. Yeah, there was an added incentive. I wouldn't call it pressure, but incentive perhaps.” ThinkingWayYearsDoeWantedJobsFeltChanceHappenedHonorYears AgoPressureYeahFamiliarIncentivesAdmirable Author:Zachary Quinto
“I had to perform in Dallas at the W Hotel. I was with my best friend, and I had walked on in to the area where I was meeting the crew. Then my best friend came in, and he's like, "This girl at the front desk asked, 'Is his name Quindon? I know him, he's that guy from Romeo + Juliet, I'm one of his big fans.'" I was just like, how does she recognize me from then to now? I was wowed by that because here I am 34, it was 20 years ago, and how does she recognize me?” KnowsYearsDoeBigsGuyGirlNamesFansFrontsAreasYears AgoMeetingsHotelDesksCrewMy Best FriendThat GuyHere I AmJulietDallasThis GirlRomeo JulietFront Desk Author:Quindon Tarver
“We want to use cash. The reason we haven't used our cash two years ago, we just didn't find things that were that attractive. But when people talk about cash being king, it's not king if it just sits there and never does anything. There are times when cash buys more than other times, and this is one of the other times when it buys a fair amount more, so we use it.” PeopleIfsWantYearsDoeTwoReasonUseUsedHavensAmountKingsFairsYears AgoAttractiveTwo YearsCashTwo Years Ago Author:Warren Buffett
“Ten years ago if you would have told me that Mrs. Clinton would be the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, I'd have never believed you. Her only qualifications for office are that she's Mr. Clinton's partner. And what does that mean? The two of them stand for dishonesty and corruption.” IfsYearsMeanDoeTwoWould BeTenOfficeYears AgoDemocraticClintonCorruptionPartnersDishonestyQualificationsNominations Author:Jackie Mason
“I visited Paterson many years ago - 20 some years ago as a kind of day trip because of William Carlos Williams, because of Allen Ginsberg having lived there. And I went to the Great Falls and sat really in the exact same spot as Adam Driver does as Paterson. And I walked around the factory buildings, and I was rereading - I was reading at the time the epic length poem "Paterson" by Williams.” YearsKindDoeFallReadingBuildingYears AgoSpotsSatLengthDriversAdamFactoriesEpicGinsbergRereading Author:Jim Jarmusch
“It's very important to understand that 21st century authoritarian rule does not look like 20th century authoritarian rule. You're not going to have people in parade ground formations. You're not going to have a police state. You're not going to people with decorative armbands bullying people on the sidewalks. And the leaders won't stand at microphones for hours ranting at people. All of that is so 80 years ago.” PeopleYearsLooksDoeImportantStatesHoursLeaderCenturyYears AgoPoliceBullying21st Century20th CenturyFormationParadesMicrophonesSidewalkPolice StatePeople Lie Author:David Frum
“We were doing Scarface many years ago...and I remember having my coffee and looking at the beach, the surf, and I saw a hundred people looking out into the ocean. I thought, what's going on? Did some whale get washed up to shore? So I stood up on the table to see what it was, and it was the director, Brian De Palma, standing there alone by the surf and they were all waiting for him. And I never forgot that because it represented to me what a director is, what a director does.” PeopleYearsDoeRememberWaitingSawsDirectorsOceanHundredYears AgoStandingTablesCoffeeBeachShoreWhalesSurfStood UpBrianStanding ThereScarface Author:Al Pacino
“Even a hundred and fifty years ago, football was popular because it provided a manly spectacle that lots of men needed, after the industrial revolution. We went from a culture that lived out doors and expanded the frontier and fought the Indians to a bunch of guys in offices. So football provided this jolt, a kind of exalted cult of masculinity. And it still does that. Perhaps even more so today.” MenYearsKindDoeStillsTodayGuyCultureDoorsFootballRevolutionNeededOfficeHundredYears AgoBunchFiftyCultMasculinityFrontiersExaltedManlyIndustrial Revolution Author:Steve Almond
“The United States does have the highest rate of incarceration in the world dwarfing the rates of even highly repressive regimes like Russia, China or Iran. This reflects a radical shift in criminal justice policy, a stunning development that virtually no one - not even the best criminologists - predicted forty years ago.” WorldYearsDoeStatesJusticeUnitedUnited StatesPolicyDevelopmentHighestYears AgoRateChinaCriminalsRussiaRadicalFortyIranRegimesStunningCriminal JusticeIncarceration Author:Michelle Alexander
“I think that most people don't think in terms of an American revolution, they think in terms of a Russian revolution, or even a Ukrainian revolution. But the idea of an American revolution does not occur to most people. And when I came down to the movement milieu seventy-five years ago, the black movement was just starting, and the war in Europe had brought into being the "Double V for Victory" [campaign]: the idea was that we ought to win democracy abroad with democracy at home. And that was the beginning of an American revolution, and most people don't recognize that.” PeopleThinkingYearsDoeIdeasWarHomeWinningBlackTermDemocracyFiveMovementRevolutionOughtVictoryEuropeYears AgoStartingCampaignsFive YearsSeventiesAmerican RevolutionUkrainianMilieuRussian Revolution Author:Grace Lee Boggs
“What's missing is leadership in the White House. And the story that Barack Obama does tell, forever shifting blame to the last administration, is getting old. The man assumed office almost four years ago - isn't it about time he assumed responsibility?” MenYearsDoeStoriesLastsHouseLeadershipWhiteResponsibilityForeverFourMissingOfficeYears AgoBlameAdministrationBarackWhite HouseFour YearsGetting OldShifting Author:Paul Ryan
“There is no progress whatever. Everything is just the same as it was thousands, and tens of thousands, of years ago. The outward form changes. The essence does not change.” YearsDoeFormProgressYears AgoEssenceTranscendentalism Author:Robert Louis Stevenson
“I had to resign myself, many years ago, that I'm not too articulate when it comes to explaining how I feel about things. But my music does it for me, it really does.” FeelsYearsDoeYears AgoExplainingMusic And LifeDeath StarTimeless Music Author:David Bowie
“More poignant for us, at Laetoli in Tanzania are the companionable footprints of three real hominids, probably Australopithecus afarensis, walking together 3.6 million years ago in what was then fresh volcanic ash. Who does not wonder what these individuals were to each other, whether they held hands or even talked, and what forgotten errand they shared in a Pliocene dawn?” YearsDoeRealHandsTogetherThreeIndividualWonderMillionsWalkingYears AgoForgottenDawnAshesFootprintPoignantErrandsTanzaniaHominidsWalking Together Author:Richard Dawkins
“A very special case. A few years more, and that pretty creature who you love too much, I think, will, without ever loving them, have known as many men as there are beads on her aunt's rosary. No happy medium! Either a nun or a monster! God's bosom or sensual passions! It would, perhaps, be better to put her in a convent, since we put hysterical women in the Saltpetriere! She does not know vice, she invents it!" That was ten years ago before the day our story begins and... Raoule was not a nun.” ThinkingKnowsMenYearsDoeStoriesPassionKnownCasesToo MuchSpecialTenCreaturesYears AgoVicesMonstersMediumsSensualAuntBosomsNunHystericalBeadsRosary Author:Rachilde
“[...] and as I walked, I tried to see the funny side. It wasn't easy, and I'm still not sure that I managed it properly, but it's just something I like to do when things aren't going well. Because what does it mean, to say that things aren't going well? Compared to what? You can say: compared to how things were going a couple of hours ago, or a couple of years ago. But that's not the point. If two cars are speeding towards a brick wall with no brakes, and one car hits the wall moments before the other, you can't spend those moments saying that the second car is much better off than the first.” IfsYearsFirstsWellsMeanDoeStillsTwoMomentsEasySidesHoursCarWallCoupleYears AgoNot SureBetter OffBricksBrakeSpeedingBrick Wall Author:Hugh Laurie
“Tradition does not mean a dead town; it does not mean that the living are dead but that the dead are alive. It means that it still matters what Penn did two hundred years ago or what Franklin did a hundred years ago; I never could feel in New York that it mattered what anybody did an hour ago.” FeelsYearsMeanDoeStillsTwoMatterHoursAliveNew YorkHundredYears AgoTraditionTownsFranklin Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Sarcastic Science, she would like to know, In her complacent ministry of fear, How we propose to get away from here When she has made things so we have to go Or be wiped out. Will she be asked to show Us how by rocket we may hope to steer To some star off there, say, a half light-year Through temperature of absolute zero? Why wait for Science to supply the how When any amateur can tell it now? The way to go away should be the same As fifty million years ago we came- If anyone remembers how that was I have a theory, but it hardly does.” IfsKnowsWayShouldYearsMayDoeMadeShowsLightRememberScienceStarsWaitingHalfMillionsTheoryYears AgoAccountsAbsolutesFiftyGet AwaySarcasticGoing AwayZeroMinistryTemperatureProposeRocketsSteersComplacentLight Years Author:Robert Frost
“The weeds of a seemingly learned and brilliant but actually trivial and empty philosophy of Nature which, after having been replaced some 50 years ago by the exact sciences, is now once more dug up by pseudo scientists from the lumber room of human fallacies, and like a trollop, newly attired in elegant dress and make-up, is smuggled into respectable company, to which she does not belong.” YearsHumansDoePhilosophyScienceNatureNaturalRoomsCompanyYears AgoEmptyScientistAccountsDressesBrilliantWeedReplacedElegantRespectableFallacyPseudoExact SciencesLumber Author:Hermann Kolbe