Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
Said in the 1700s
“Quiconque est capable de mentir est indigne d'être compté au nombre des hommes; et quiconque ne sait pas se taire est indigne de gouverner.”
François Fénelon (1651–1715) said by 1715 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of all pains, the greatest pain Is to love, and love in vain.”
George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne (1666–1735) said by 1735 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“King William asked Mr. Locke how long he thought the revolution principles might last in England. The philosopher answered, "Till this generation shall have passed away, and our universities shall have had time to breed a new one." Many things I disapprove in our universities, where the country gentlemen are educated in Toryism by Tory clergy.”
Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The supreme enjoyment is in satisfaction with oneself ; it is in order to deserve this satisfaction that we are placed on earth and endowed with freedom.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) said by 1778 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is natural that one cannot understand deep and hidden things. Those things that are easily understood are rather shallow.”
Yamamoto Tsunetomo (1659–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Young people suffer less from their faults than from the prudence of the old.”
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) said by 1747 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tr. E. Lee (1903) p. 174
“It was always my affectation even from a child, in all pieces of Learning or Knowledge, not merely to learn by rote, which is soon forgotten, but to know the grounds or reasons of what I learn; to inform my Judgement, as well as furnish my Memory; and thereby, make a better Impression on both.”
John Wallis (1616–1703) said by 1703 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to everything.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1773 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (17 September 1773)
“From this amphibious ill-born mob began That vain, ill-natured thing, an Englishman.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[I]t is our principle that if a nation wills a bad government it ought to have that government. We have no power, and we have no right, to force men to be free.”
Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763–1798) first seen 1763 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Society of United Irishmen of Dublin to the people of Ireland (3 March 1793), quoted in T. W. Moody, R. B. McDowell and C. J. Woods (eds.), The Writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone, 1763–98, Volume I: Tone's career in Ir…
“Let us be careful to distinguish modesty, which is ever amiable, from reserve, which is only prudent.”
William Shenstone (1714–1763) said by 1763 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nothing is so catching as the plague; now, fanaticism, no matter of what nature, is only the plague of the human mind.”
Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) said by 1798 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“openmozart.net: Friedrich Rochlitz forgery”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) said by 1791 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than in philosophical debates to endeavour to refute any hypothesis by a pretext of its dangerous consequences to religion and morality. When any opinion leads us into absurdities, 'tis certainly false; but 'tis not certain an opinion is false, because 'tis of dangerous consequence.”
David Hume (1711–1776) said by 1776 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“En général, l'art du gouvernement consiste à prendre le plus d'argent qu'on peut à une grande partie des citoyens, pour le donner à une autre partie.”
Voltaire (1694–1778) first seen 1770 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Money" (1770)
“If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God; and to do that, thou must be ruled by him who has given to kings his grace to command themselves and their subjects, and to the people the grace to obey God and their kings.”
William Penn (1644–1718) first seen 1698 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Peter the Great, the Czar of Russia, 2 July 1698, in Samuel McPherson Janney, The Life of William Penn (Philadelphia, 1852), p. 407
“Ossian, sublimest, simplest bard of all, Whom English infidels Macpherson call.”
James Macpherson (1736–1796) first seen 1763 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Charles Churchill, The Prophecy of Famine (1763), lines 269–270.
“When all thy mercies, O my God, My rising soul surveys, Transported with the view, I'm lost In wonder, love and praise.”
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1712 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 453 (9 August 1712)
“Es ist gefährlich, recht zu haben, wenn die Regierung Unrecht hat." - "Catalogue pour la plupart des écrivains français qui ont paru dans Le Siècle de Louis XIV, pour servir à l'histoire littéraire de ce temps," "Le Siècle de Louis XIV" (1752)”
Voltaire (1694–1778) said by 1778 at the latest wikiquote:de, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are well-dressed foolish ideas just as there are well-dressed fools.”
Nicolas Chamfort (1740–1794) said by 1794 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Cynic's Breviary : Maxims and Anecdotes from Nicolas de Chamfort (1902) as translated by William G. Hutchison, p. 37
Also quoted by: Diane Ackerman (misattributed)
“If you give a jest, take one. Let all your jokes be truly jokes. Jesting sometimes ends in sad earnest.”
James Burgh (1714–1775) said by 1775 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Der mitleidigste Mensch ist der beste Mensch." - Lessing, Mendelssohn, Nicolai: Briefwechsel über das Trauerspiel [1756/57], hg. v. Jochen Schulte-Sasse, München 1972, S.55”
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) said by 1781 at the latest wikiquote:de, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Good Lord, what is man! for as simple he looks, Do but try to develop his hooks and his crooks, With his depths and his shallows, his good and his evil, All in all he's a problem must puzzle the devil.”
Robert Burns (1759–1796) said by 1796 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sketch inscribed to Charles James Fox (1800)
“Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source