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 1800s
“In war-time on the field or in the fleet, a mortal punishment decreed by a drum-head court — on the field sometimes decreed by but a nod from the General — follows without delay on the heel of conviction without appeal.”
Herman Melville (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Il est plus facile d'être amant que mari, par la raison qu'il est plus difficile d'avoir de l'esprit tous les jours que de dire de jolies choses de temps en temps.”
Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But little do or can the best of us: That little is achieved through Liberty.”
Robert Browning (1812–1889) said by 1889 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he effect of that [Crimean] war was ... to substitute a European conscience, expressed by collective guarantee and the concerted and general action of the European Powers for the sole and individual action of one of them. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of that principle.”
William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) first seen 1876 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (31 July 1876)
“My God! O let me call Thee mine! Weak, wretched sinner though I be, My trembling soul would fain be Thine, My feeble faith still clings to Thee.”
Anne Brontë (1820–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And bid them love each other and be blest: And leave the troop which errs, and which reproves, And come and be my guest, — for I am Love's.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) said by 1822 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, Sermons and soda-water the day after.”
Lord Byron (1788–1824) said by 1824 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“One can say everything best over a meal.”
George Eliot (1819–1880) said by 1880 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cappon, Lester J., ed. The Adams-Jefferson Letters (1959)”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) said by 1826 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yes: in the sea of life enisl’d, With echoing straits between us thrown, Dotting the shoreless watery wild, We mortal millions live alone.”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) first seen 1852 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Marguerite: Continued", st. 1 (1852)
“Thanks be to God, that he gave me Stubborness, when I know I am right.”
John Adams (1735–1826) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Edmund Jenings, 27 September 1782, also quoted in John Adams (2008) by David McCullough, p. 272
“The excellency of every art is its intensity, capable of making all disagreeables evaporate, from their being in close relationship with beauty and truth.”
John Keats (1795–1821) first seen 1817 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To G. and F. Keats (December 21, 1817)
“You have obtained the Cession of Hong Kong, a barren Island with hardly a House upon it... it seems obvious that Hong Kong will not be the Mart of Trade... it is impossible that you should continue to hold your appointment in China.”
Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) first seen 1841 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Captain Charles Elliot, RN, 21 April 1841
“By the bye, as I must leave off being young, I find many douceurs in being a sort of chaperon, for I am put on the sofa near the fire and can drink as much wine as I like.”
Jane Austen (1775–1817) first seen 1813 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter (1813-11-06) on ageing [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
“An intellectual dapperling of these times boasts chiefly of his irresistible perspicacity, his “dwelling in the daylight of truth,” and so forth; which, on examination, turns out to be a dwelling in the rush-light of “closet logic,” and a deep unconsciousness that there is any other light to dwell in or any other objects to survey with it.”
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The class of the wholly propertyless, who are obliged to sell their labor to the bourgeoisie in order to get, in exchange, the means of subsistence for their support. This is called the class of proletarians, or the proletariat.”
Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1840 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: April 20, 1840
“Live in the world like a waterfowl. The water clings to the bird, but the bird shakes it off. Live in the world like a mudfish. The fish lives in the mud, but its skin is always bright and shiny.”
Ramakrishna (1836–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If some great Power would agree to make me always think what is true and do what is right, on condition of being turned into a sort of clock and wound up every morning before I got out of bed, I should instantly close with the offer. The only freedom I care about is the freedom to do right; the freedom to do wrong I am ready to part with on the cheapest terms to any one who will take it of me.”
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) first seen 1870 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Descartes' Discourse touching the method of using one's reason rightly and of seeking scientific truth" (1870)
“Oh, friends, content you! this is much indeed, And we are paid, thus garnering for our need Your blessings only, bringing in their train God's blessings as the south wind brings the rain. And for the rest, no little thing shall be (Since ye through all yet keep your memory) The gentle music of the bygone years, Long past to us with all their hopes and fears.”
William Morris (1834–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hast thou a charm to stay the morning-star In his steep course? So long he seems to pause On thy bald awful head, О sovran Blanc!”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you very much at your own reckoning.”
Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life has a value only when it has something valuable as its object.”
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) said by 1831 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If his inmost heart could have been laid open, there would have been discovered that dream of undying fame, which, dream as it is, is more powerful than a thousand realities.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) first seen 1828 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fanshawe" (1828)