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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“Dry your eyes and take your song out. It's a newborn afternoon. And if you can't recall the singer, You can still recall the tune.Dry your eyes and play it slowly, Like you're marching off to war. Sing it like you know he'd want it, Like we sang it once before.”
Neil Diamond (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And when I first saw you I first loved you With a song that I sang to the fire in your eyes But somebody told you that it wouldn't be easy And you carried that lie for the devil to sing Some sail rivers deep and muddy some sail rivers clear and cold But the river that I'm sailin' goes to sea And sometimes I do grow weary sometimes I feel old And sometimes I wonder if you think of me”
Hoyt Axton (1938–1999) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lion In The Winter" on Southbound (1975) · Performance with Linda Ronstadt
“You sing the song in your heart and the people it resonates with are going to dance to it.”
Steve Maraboli (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sing the song in your heart and don't ever let anyone shut you up!”
Steve Maraboli (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Precisely because we do not communicate by singing, a song can be out of place but not out of character; it is just as credible that a stupid person should sing beautifully as that a clever person should do so.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm never going to sing another song I don't believe in. I'm never going to make another picture I don't believe in.”
Elvis Presley (1935–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only real blind person at Christmas-time is he who has not Christmas in his heart. We sightless children had the best of eyes that day in our hearts and in our finger-tips. We were glad from the child's necessity of being happy. The blind who have outgrown the child's perpetual joy can be children again on Christmas Day and celebrate in the midst of them who pipe and dance and sing a new song!”
Helen Keller (1880–1968) first seen 1906 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Christmas in the Dark" in Ladies Home Journal (December 1906)
“Oh their Rafael of the dear Madonnas, Oh their Dante of the dread Inferno, Wrote one song—and in my brain I sing it; Drew one angel—borne, see, on my bosom!”
Robert Browning (1812–1889) said by 1889 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Flow gently, sweet Afton! amang thy green braes, Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise. My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream, Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.”
Robert Burns (1759–1796) first seen 1789 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sweet Afton, st. 1 (1789)
“Love is the axis and breath of my life. The art I produce is a byproduct, an excrescence of love, the song I sing, the joy which must explode, the overabundance — that is all!”
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Oct. 21, 1934
“Every day, I'm standing outside trying to sing my way in: We are hungry, please let us in. We are hungry, please let us in. After about a week that song is gonna change to: We hungry, we need some food. After two, three weeks, it's like: Give me the food Or I'm breaking down the door. After a year you're just like: I'm picking the lock. Coming through the door blasting.”
Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sing the rapturous love-song unto me! Burn to me perfumes! Wear to me jewels! Drink to me, for I love you! I love you!”
Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our purpose is to educate as well as to entertain. Painless preaching is as good a term as any for what we do. If you're going to come away from a party singing the lyrics of a song, it is better that you sing of self-pride like 'We're a Winner' instead of 'Do the Boo-ga-loo!'”
Curtis Mayfield (1942–1999) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Sociology of Rock (1978) by Simon Frith
“Life is a song - sing it.”
Sathya Sai Baba (1926–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I guess I was about ten years old, the first time that my uncle took me to sing in front of an audience. And it was when they kept clappin' and clappin' after I had finished my song, that I thought that, you know, I felt something. I was scared, I was nervous, I'm a country little kid. But when I got that applause and got that feeling, is when I thought this is what I think I'm gonna do.”
Dolly Parton (1946–2026) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dolly Parton: Making the most of everything CBS News (September 1, 2019).
“My Soul gave me good counsel, teaching me that the lamp which I carry does not belong to me, and the song that I sing was not generated from within me. Even if I walk with light, I am not the light; and if I am a taut-stringed lute, I am not the lute player.”
Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In India, the measure of a singer's freedom is in his own creative personality. He can sing the composer's song as his own, if he has the power creatively to assert himself in his interpretation of the general law of the melody which he is given to interpret.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ours, cause we don't give a darn. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do.”
Woody Guthrie (1912–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Message on mimeographed copies of lyrics distributed to fans in the 1930s, as quoted by Pete Seeger in an NPR interview "Pete Seeger remembers Woody" (1996)
“To exalt, enthrone, establish and defend, To welcome home mankind's mysterious friend Wine, true begetter of all arts that be; Wine, privilege of the completely free; Wine the recorder; wine the sagely strong; Wine, bright avenger of sly-dealing wrong, Awake, Ausonian Muse, and sing the vineyard song!”
Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I've got a talent, it's for picking the right song at the right time for the right audience. And I can always seem to get people to sing with me.”
Pete Seeger (1919–2014) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Minstrel with a Mission", Life magazine, 1964.
“I feel how inside of me word follows word and thought follows thought, growing to the last act of creation. Holy hour of bringing forth, you are pain and pleasure, and a longing for form, image and essence. I am only the instrument that God uses to sing his song. I am only the vessel that nature smilingly fills with new wine.”
Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Marcia: Hayley, I congratulate you from a singers point of view because that's a very hard song to sing. George are the bomb. You did a great job.”
Hayley Jensen (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am yours. If you feed me garbage, I will sing a song of garbage. This is a hymn.”
Margaret Atwood (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I try to write about small things. Paper, animals, a house…love is kind of big. I have written a love song, though. In this film, I sing it to a lamp.”
David Byrne (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Straight in the arms of the city goes Huck, Down the beckonin' streets of op-po-tunity, Whistling his favorite river-song... And a bad-blind nigger at the piano puts a sinister blooo lilt into that sing-a-long, Huck senses something's wrong!”
“O you recall the song ya used to sing-a-long, Shifting the river-trade on that ol' steamer, Life is but a dream!”
“Sing a song of love and truth We’ll soon remember if you do When all things were tall And our friends were small And the world was new”
Cat Stevens (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let us, using our double vision, travel two worlds in one and form a single double song that splashes out in ripples of thought and blood that eddy, wrinkle and wake through the double skies of our single universe, and break into rainbow vowels that sing soft lullabies, and fall as light in both our worlds.”
Jane Roberts (1929–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Then sing as Martin Luther sang, As Doctor Martin Luther sang: “Who loves not wine, woman and song, He is a fool his whole life long!”
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) said by 1863 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh, my, my. Oh, hell, yes. Honey, put on that party dress. Buy me a drink, sing me a song. Take me as I come 'cause I can't stay long.”
Tom Petty (1950–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've seen some cold nights and bloody days They grabbed me bullets spray, they used me wrong so I sing this song 'til this day.”
“I have a faculty of memorizing any song or poem as I hear it, many, especially the old Scotch and Irish ballads I heard my grandmother sing when I was but a child.”
Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a letter to Robert W. Gordon (February 15, 1926)
“If I turn into another, Dig me up from under what is covering the better part of me. Sing this song. Remind me that we'll always have each other When everything else is gone.”
Brandon Boyd (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nooooooah. No, that was a big joke in the family. When I was 16, 17, I started drifting away from everything else and picking up a guitar, and it was like, "What are you doing? You can't sing and you can't play a guitar", right up to the day we got signed by Rough Trade. And then it was like, "Go on play us a song", whereas before it was, "Shut up, fucking racket.”
Pete Doherty (born 1979) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Guardian, November 2005
“Sing a song of sixpence.”
John Fletcher (1579–1625) said by 1625 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Such a price The Gods exact for song; To become what we sing.”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sweet, can I sing you the song of your kisses? How soft is this one, how subtle this is, How fluttering swift as a bird's kiss that is, As a bird that taps at a leafy lattice; How this one clings and how that uncloses From bud to flower in the way of roses.”
Arthur Symons (1865–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some people spend their time just runnin' round in circles Always chasing some exotic bird I prefer to spend some time just listening for that special something That I've never ever heard I like a new song to sing, another show or somewhere entirely different to be But baby you make me feel so free.”
Van Morrison (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The thing that I love about acting is the fact that I can help people feel things, know themselves or feel less alone. It's my form of expression, in the same way that someone might paint a picture or sing a song in that you're hoping that it moves somebody outside of their own way of thinking.”
Naomi Watts (born 1968) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview at Dark Horizons (7 December 2005)
“If only all the contradictory voices shouting inside my head would calm down and sing a song in unison, whatever it was I wouldn't care so long as they sang without dissonance.”
Ralph Ellison (1914–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“…If you had a good song, and you were a producer or writer at Motown, you had access to all the artists. It didn’t matter who had the last hit record. If they liked you at all, you had the opportunity. I wanted to write something sweet for David Ruffin to sing, which became “My Girl.” And he sang the shit out of it, so it was contagious. I don’t regret that whatsoever.”
Smokey Robinson (born 1940) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On whether he ever regretted giving away a song his wrote in “Let Smokey Robinson Tell You About Changing Music The living legend on his life, legacy, and Motown” in New York Magazine (2020 Nov 19)
“Ah, Aphrodite, if I sing no more To thee, God's daughter, powerful as God, It is that thou hast made my life too sweet To hold the added sweetness of a song. There is a quiet at the heart of love, And I have pierced the pain and come to peace.”
Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On the day I was born, Said my father, said he I've an elegant legacy waiting for ye. Tis a rhyme for your lips And a song for your heart To sing it whenever the world falls apart. Look, look, look to the rainbow Follow it over the hill and stream Look, look, look to the rainbow Follow the fellow who follows a dream.”
Yip Harburg (1896–1981) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Look to the Rainbow", in Finian's Rainbow (1946) - Petula Clark version
“Sing your song. Dance your dance. Tell your tale.”
Frank McCourt (1930–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't sing a song without it meaning something to me, or adding my own interpretation to them.”
Jack Vidgen (born 1997) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jack Vidgen Inspire Interview, May 2012.
“A bird does not sing because he has an answer. He sings because he has a song.”
Joan Walsh Anglund (1926–2021) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Cup of Sun (1967)
“I've tried to make my writing itself therapeutic—that by your act of reading it your Life Energy may be enhanced. One of the ways I have sought to achieve this is to make it singable, as best I can do. Not singable like song lyrics, rather more chantable. Encouraging you to sing along, moving with its flow, its pulse, its pulsations.”
John Diamond (doctor) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But once upon a time, we could play shove ha'penny, and read a penny dreadful, and sing a song of sixpence, and take the King's shilling; and once upon a time even further in the past, five sparrows could be bought for two farthings, and yet not be forgotten. Somehow, the transaction would not have had the same effect if the sparrows had been sold for two pee.”
Bernard Levin (1928–2004) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: For Love or Money", The Times (27 November 1989).
“Poets shouldn't commit suicide. That would leave the world to those without imaginations or hearts. That would bequeath to the world a mangled syntax and no love of champagne. Poets must live in misery and ecstasy, to sing a song with the katydids. Poets should be ashamed to die before they kiss the sun.”
Nikki Giovanni (1943–2024) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On her poem “Poets” in “Poet Nikki Giovanni On The Darker Side Of Her Life” in NPR (2013 Oct 29)
“if it does not sing discard the ear for poetry is song if it does not delight discard the heart for poetry is joy if it does not inform then close off the brain for it is dead if it cannot heed the insistent message that life is preciouswhich is all we poets wrapped in our loneliness are trying to say”
Nikki Giovanni (1943–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source