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
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Said in the 1700s
“Ne tenir dans la main de personne, être homme de son cœur, de ses principes, de ses sentiments, c'est ce que j'ai vu de plus rare.”
Nicolas Chamfort (1740–1794) said by 1794 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our conjectures pass upon us for truths; we will know what we do not know, and often, what we cannot know: so mortifying to our pride is the base suspicion of ignorance.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) first seen 1756 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 14 December 1756
“With kings, nations, and private individuals, the strongest assume to themselves rights over the weakest, and the same rule is followed by animals, by matter, by the elements, so that everything is performed in the universe by violence. And that order which we blame with some appearance of justice is the most universal, most absolute, most unchangeable, and most ancient law of nature.”
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. 176
“Posterity always degenerates till it becomes our ancestors.”
Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "The Works of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford" in The Monthly Review, or, Literary Journal, Vol. 27 (1798) edited by Ralph Griffiths, p. 187
“Time flies, death urges, knells call, Heaven invites, Hell threatens.”
Edward Young (1683–1765) said by 1765 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This cold weather has set all the young Folks to providing Bedfellows. I have signed two or three Licences every Day [as a Fairfax Justice of the Peace] since I have been at Home. I wish I knew where to get a good one myself; for I find cold Sheets extremely disagreeable.”
George Mason (1725–1792) first seen 1780 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to his cousin, James Mercer (5 February 1780)
“Hawkesworth said of Johnson, "You have a memory that would convict any author of plagiarism in any court of literature in the world.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Corn is a necessary, silver is only a superfluity.”
Adam Smith (1723–1790) said by 1790 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A flower, when offered in the bud, Is no vain sacrifice.”
Isaac Watts (1674–1748) said by 1748 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Upon the whole, a contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.”
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1714 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 574 (30 July 1714)
“An agreeable figure and winning manner, which inspire affection without love, are always new. Beauty loses its relish, the graces never; after the longest acquaintance, they are no less agreeable than at first.”
Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696–1782) said by 1782 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tant pis and tant mieux, being two of the great hinges in French conversation, a stranger would do well to set himself right in the use of them before he gets to Paris.”
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) said by 1768 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge is the consequence of time, and multitude of days are fittest to teach wisdom.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hands that the rod of empire might have sway'd, Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.”
Thomas Gray (1716–1771) said by 1771 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“[Pitt] said that he saw so many Lords great in themselves and in their influence in the House of Commons, differing so much in opinion from him, and inclined to make concessions for the sake of peace than he could come into; that it was impossible for him to remain; that for the sake of unanimity he had gone as far as his conscience and even his sleep would permit him.”
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham (1708–1778) first seen 1759 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to the Council (10 September 1761), quoted in Peter D. Brown and Karl W. Schweizer (eds.), The Devonshire Diary. William Cavendish, Fourth Duke of Devonshire. Memoranda on State Affairs. 1759–1762 (1982), p. 119
“We shall not consider any part of space or time as indivisible, or infinitely little; but we shall consider a point as a term or limit of a line, and a moment as a term or limit of time: nor shall we resolve curve lines, or curvilineal spaces, into rectilineal elements of any kind.”
Colin Maclaurin (1698–1746) said by 1746 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So sang the syrens, with enchanting sound, Enticing all to listen and be drown'd.”
George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne (1666–1735) said by 1735 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The human body is a machine which winds its own springs.”
Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709–1751) said by 1751 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They please, are pleas'd; they give to get esteem, Till seeming blest, they grow to what they seem.”
Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) said by 1774 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Любая страсть, владеющая человеком, как бы открывает прямой доступ к нему.”
Люк де Клапье Вовенарг (1715–1747) said by 1747 at the latest wikiquote:ru, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Reason, it is true, is DICTATOR in the Society of Mankind; from her there ought to lie no Appeal; But here we want a Pope in our Philosophy, to be the infallible Judge of what is or is not Reason.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) first seen 1710 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Essay upon Publick Credit (1710).
“Therefore they who say our thoughts are not our own because they resemble the Ancients, may as well say our faces are not our own, because they are like our Fathers: And indeed it is very unreasonable, that people should expect us to be Scholars, and yet be angry to find us so.”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) said by 1744 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Useful Things, though Mechanical, are justly preferable to useless Speculations in Geometry, as we learn from Pappus.”
Isaac Newton (1643–1727) said by 1727 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Envy is a kind of praise.”
John Gay (1685–1732) said by 1732 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source