"In Wahrheit gehört die Geschichte nicht uns, sondern wir gehören ihr. Lange bevor wir uns in der Rückbesinnung selber verstehen, verstehen wir uns auf selbstverständliche Weise in Familie, Gesellschaft und Staat, in denen wir leben. Der Fokus der Subjektivität ist ein Zerrspiegel. Die Selbstbesinnung des Individuums ist nur ein Flackern im geschlossenen Stromkreis des geschichtlichen Lebens. Darum sind die Vorurteile des einzelnen weit mehr als seine Urteile die geschichtliche Wirklichkeit seines Seins."

"Aristotle established the classical definition of man, according to which man is the living being who has logos. In the tradition of the West, this definition became canonical in a form which stated that man is the animal rationale, the rational being, distinguished from all other animals by his capacity for thought. Thus it rendered the Greek word logos as reason or thought. In truth, however, the primary meaning of this word is language.... The word logos means not only thought and language, but also concept and law."

"[Although the natural sciences are indispensable to human survival,] this does not mean that people would be able to solve the problems that face us, peaceful coexistence of peoples and the preservation of the balance of nature, with science as such. It is obvious that not mathematics but the linguistic nature of people is the basis of human civilization."

"People cannot live without hope; this is one of the statements I can defend without any reservations."

"The more language is a living operation, the less we are aware of it. Thus it follows that from the forgetfulness of language that its real being consists in what is said in it. What is said in it constitutes the common world in which we live. … The real being of language is that into which we are taken up when we hear it — what is said."

"The language of art is constituted precisely by the fact that it speaks to the self-understanding of every person, and it does this as ever present and by means of its own contemporaneousness. Indeed, precisely the contemporaneousness of the work allows it to come to expression in language. Everything depends on how something is said."

"What man needs is not just the persistent posing of ultimate questions, but the sense of what is feasible, what is possible, what is correct, here and now. The philosopher, of all people, must, I think, be aware of the tension between what he claims to achieve and the reality in which he finds himself."

"The hermeneutic consciousness, which must be awakened and kept awake, recognizes that in the age of science philosophy's claim of superiority has something chimerical and unreal about it. But though the will of man is more than ever intensifying its criticism of what has gone before to the point of becoming a utopian or eschatological consciousness, the hermeneutic consciousness seeks to confront that will with something of the truth of remembrance: with what is still and ever again real."

"We cannot understand without wanting to understand, that is, without wanting to let something be said. It would be an inadmissible abstraction to contend that we must first have achieved a contemporaneousness with the author or the original reader by means of a reconstruction of his historical horizon before we could begin to grasp the meaning of what is said. A kind of anticipation of meaning guides the effort to understand from the very beginning."

"I want to plant a few more seeds here and there before they plant me."

"I, for one, am certainly going to continue to raise a little hell."

"I may have lost the election but I have not lost my reason to live."

"Our country is supposed to be of the people, by the people and for the people, and if that's not worth fighting for I don't know what is."

"Democracy is not something we have, it's something we do."

"'Yes I am a lucky guy'"

"I myself am just an ordinary woman. I had a lot of choices"

"'As far as I know, pornography is the only working medicine against seasickness.'"

"'Well, the Belgians aren't a seafaring people, are they?'"

"I don't want to be considered a hero. Imagine young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I am afraid nobody would ever help other people, because who is a hero? I was not. I was just an ordinary housewife and secretary."

"'Majesty, there you see a how a person comes down in the world.'"

"(Gies was asked if Anne Frank would have been in love with Peter (Van Pels) forever.)"

"Brix's portrayal was the only time between the silents and the 1960s that Tarzan was accurately depicted in films. He was mannered, cultured, soft-spoken, a well-educated English lord who spoke several languages, and didn't grunt."

"There was only a single sharpshooter up in the trees to keep the croc away from me."

"I wish I would have had more to do in the film. I hated to get killed so soon."

"I guess the one thing I really learned from participating in sports was to just never say "no", never stop trying, and to always believe that you can do better than the next fellow. I tried to follow this throughout my life, but I always tried to be respectful about it."

"All I knew about shot putting was that my brother could do 44 feet … I decided I wanted to beat him. … So I got a shot and went to work and made up my mind to do 45 feet."

"Herman Brix brought a presence to the screen that many people feel personifies the Tarzan of the books … lean and muscular, articulate and dignified. He moved with the superb athletic grace that my grandfather envisioned."

"To awaken quite alone in a strange town, is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world."

"There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do."

"One can only really travel if one lets oneself go and takes what every place brings without trying to turn it into a healthy private pattern of one's own and I suppose that is the difference between travel and tourism."

"You must develop one all-important ability — being able to enlist the help of other people. You have to reach a state where others want to help you. This includes giving credit...which will come back to you a hundredfold. Your reputation stems from what people say when you’re not present."

"If history has a lesson, it is that the "winner take all" attitude deprives one of the pleasures of being the heir to the best of different traditions, even while avoiding their intolerance against each other."

"Then I went to the Cavendish and there I took Rutherford’s course in nuclear physics. He was a very dramatic lecturer and full of anecdotes. He made it come alive. So this was very impressive--also very phenomenological, everything he did; very simple derivations. I think that’s very important for the first learning and this is perhaps something students now miss. They get the theory of nuclear physics thrown at them; sometimes before they ever know there is a phenomenon they have the complete theory of it. The phenomena are not sufficiently emphasized, I think, in teaching today."

"Mr. Buckles has a vivid recollection of historic times, and one way for me to honor the service of those who wear the uniform in the past and those who wear it today is to herald you, sir, and to thank you very much for your patriotism and your love for America."

"We cherish the chance to say thank you in person to Cpl. Frank Buckles."

"Some of our German passengers on the ship would be crying. The Brits were the same way. They were crying, because they realized a new war was about to break out across Europe, with Hitler at the head of the goose-stepping parade."

"In the Philippines in those last months, it was perfect starvation. They had planned to starve us to death."

"If your country needs you, you should be right there, that is the way I felt when I was young, and that's the way I feel today."

"One day, I came in and she was on the telephone. She was quite pale. She told me that I wouldn't believe what was going on. She was being watched. She said she would not be able to invite me for tea again. She was a nice Jewish lady."

"I don't know anyone my age."

"My job driving the ambulance was not very severe, you did what you were supposed to do. That was my main job."

"I was gung-ho, no question about that."

"Why should I read something someone made up when real events are so interesting?"

"When you start to die, don’t."

"Longevity has never bothered me at all, I have studied longevity for years."

"I feel honored."

"An old sergeant said, if you want to get to France in a hurry, then join the ambulance service, the French are big for ambulance service."

"I had many different assignments and I was doing things that I thought were important... no, I didn't either: I didn't think they were important. But I found out afterwards when I read up on my history that some of the things that I did were quite important."

"I think General Pershing was the most military figure I’ve ever seen."

"I didn't lie; nobody calls me a liar, I may have increased my age."