Logo - Feel The Words

World Quotes

Quotes on the world and our place in it.

These quotes look at the world from different angles - one traces a common phrase back to ancient religion, another describes feeling atomized after moving to a new city. A few recall novels depicting a world with tighter social fabric, where people actually knew each other. Related reading: Great Quotes.

The world, as transformed by this creative deed, is better than it would have been had all else remained the same, but had that deed of treason not been done at all.

Quotes by Josiah Royce

So, as one sees, I by no means deprive my world of stubborn reality, if I merely call it a world of ideas.

Quotes by Josiah Royce

Our will makes constantly a sort of agreement with the world, whereby, if the world will continually show some respect to the will, the will shall consent to be strenuous in its industry.

Quotes by Josiah Royce

No baseness or cruelty of treason so deep or so tragic shall enter our human world, but that loyal love shall be able in due time to oppose to just that deed of treason its fitting deed of atonement.

Quotes by Josiah Royce

Interfere with the reality of my world, and you therefore take the very life and heart out of my will.

Quotes by Josiah Royce

I never felt a feeling that I knew or could know to be unlike the feelings of other people. I never consciously thought, except after patterns that the world or my fellows set for me.

Quotes by Josiah Royce

God too longs; and because the Absolute Life itself, which dwells in our life, and inspires these very longings, possesses the true world, and is that world.

Quotes by Josiah Royce

But you are alone. Yet I never tell what you are. And if your face lights up my world as no other can - well, this feeling too, when viewed as the mere psychologist has to view it, appears to...

Quotes by Josiah Royce

I teach at Harvard that the world and the heavens, and the stars are all real, but not so damned real, you see.

Quotes by Josiah Royce

The time is coming when the pressure of population on the means of subsistence will be felt here as it is now felt in Europe and Asia. Then will the world enter upon a new stage of its history -...

Quotes by Josiah Strong

What if it should be God's plan to people the world with better and finer material?

Quotes by Josiah Strong

Heretofore there has always been in the history of the world a comparatively unoccupied land westward, into which the crowded countries of the East have poured their surplus populations.

Quotes by Josiah Strong

Public influence is the real government of the world.

Quotes by Josiah Warren

There's a moment where Jobs says that one day you will wake up and realize that the world was created by people no smarter than you. I want people to believe that; we're so often bound by obstructions and judges.

Quotes by Joshua Michael Stern

At Harvard, direct cinema was the core of the film department, and most of the students were trying to make socially conscious works, but I was trying to combine fiction and non-fiction to show how our seemingly factual world is...

Quotes by Joshua Oppenheimer

I think it's a great pity in the Anglophone world that we conflate cinema verite and Direct Cinema; they're, in fact, ontological opposites. In Direct Cinema, we create a fictional reality with characters and pretend we're not that.

Quotes by Joshua Oppenheimer

We all identify with the people we see, and in a good documentary, we are not just reading an account of the world, we're seeing and hearing our world.

Quotes by Joshua Oppenheimer

You can't just keep telling a story the same way over and over again. And I think it only helps the world to be more honest with young kids, to show them the world that they go walk outside and...

Quotes by Josh Trank

I think maybe there's a part of me that needs adversity from the rest of the world in order to feel motivated to want to prove people wrong. I need people to be like, 'What is this weirdo doing?'

Quotes by Josh Trank

We donate time, expertise, and resources to a wide array of charitable and nonprofit organizations around the world each year through partnership initiatives that make a real difference in our communities.

Quotes by Joshua Bekenstein

Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of quotes are gathered on the "World" page?
A thoughtful mix — from the surprising origin of the word "Amen" in Western prayer, to feeling that "our world was very atomized" after moving to a new city, to an obsession with novels like 'War and Peace' that portrayed a world with a strong social fabric.
Are these quotes optimistic or critical about the world?
Mostly reflective and a little critical — several point out something missing or changed, like a more connected past captured in old novels versus a more fragmented present. If you want something more upbeat about the world, Good quotes or Great quotes might suit better.
Is there a quote here about sports and the world?
Yes — one touches on being "world champions" in the context of how team-building has changed, showing how "world" can apply to competition and money as much as culture.
What connects these quotes to the idea of Life?
Many of them are really about how life feels within a larger world — connected or isolated, spiritual or fragmented. For a broader take on that same territory, see Life quotes.
What's the best way to use a "World" quote?
They work well when you want to make a bigger point — about connection, change, or how things used to be — rather than a quick personal caption. Pair one with a Best quote if you want to round out the message.

Sports also make an appearance, with a line about how money now decides world championships more than loyalty does. See also Best Quotes and Life Quotes.