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

English Italiano Polski עברית Français Português فارسی Español 中文 Русский Deutsch العربية हिन्दी 日本語 Ελληνικά Latina

Time

Love Friendship Happiness Hope Fear Courage Death Life Time War Peace Freedom Truth Wisdom Knowledge Science Art Music Nature Money Work Power God Beauty Laughter Family Success and failure Change Dreams Books and reading

“Willow: What did I have for breakfast this morning? Do you remember? Tara: Huh? Willow: I-I wanna say bagel, but I think that was yesterday. You had two eggs sunny side up. I remember because they were wiggling at me like little boobs. Tara: Sassy eggs.”
Amber Benson (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was an assassination attempt, wasn’t it?” “Who knows? Yesterday’s politics are not worth the paper wasted on its promises, its threats.”
Roger Zelazny (1937–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The born-yesterday French-besotted faddists, addicted sniffers of wet printer’s ink, think they’re starting on the ground floor; so they’re condemned to another hundred years of trial and error. The rest of us can safely ignore them.”
Camille Paglia (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So on he went, and on the way he thought Of all the glorious things of yesterday, Nought of the price whereat they must be bought, But ever to himself did softly say "No roaming now, my wars are passed away, No long dull days devoid of happiness, When such a love my yearning heart shall bless.”
William Morris (1834–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am overwhelmed by your letter yesterday, and I hope with all my heart and for you and for the patriotic work that we are pursuing that you do not persevere in your desire to leave the administration of the Congo. Please come and see me in Brussels on Saturday at a quarter past one.”
Leopold II of Belgium (1835–1909) first seen 1852 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), 9. Boycott! The story of Edmond Stanislas van Eetvelde (1852-1925) AKP. Archives re…
“I have told Mr Powell that I consider the speech he made in Birmingham yesterday to have been racialist in tone and liable to exacerbate racial tensions. This is unacceptable from one of the leaders of the Conservative Party”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement (21 April 1968), as cited in "Enoch Powell dismissed for 'racialist' speech", The Guardian (22 April 1968; April 2018 reprint)
“Yesterday you were an only child Now your ghosts have gone away. You can kill them in the classic style. Now you, "parlez vous francais" Don't look for answers You took your chances Don't ask my why.”
Billy Joel (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are so many things that we wish we had done yesterday, so few that we feel like doing today.”
Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What you were sure of yesterday, you know now to be false, but what you are sure of today is absolutely true.”
Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Character is what emerges from all the little things you were too busy to do yesterday, but did anyway.”
Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Well, I indicated yesterday that I think there were some -- a few staff-level meetings. But, no, I'm making sure that I have a thorough report back to you on that. And I'll get that to you, hopefully very soon.”
Scott McClellan (born 1968) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Source: Press briefing, January 5, 2006
“Great families of yesterday we show, And lords whose parents were the Lord knows who.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yesterday, with an inevitability born of the utterly false promise that the bloodbath in Iraq is yielding dividends, we were supposed to believe that the death of Zarqawi was a famous victory.”
Robert Fisk (1946–2020) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Zarqawi's end is not a famous victory, nor will it bring Iraq any nearer to peace, June 9, 2006
“Yesterday people were going past my window in t shirts and dresses. But that's the men at the BBC for you.”
Eddie Mair (born 1965) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: Headlines at bbc.co.uk, 22 September 2006.
“I’ve got demons in my past so I’ve got daughters on the way, If the prophecy is correct then the child should have to pay, For the sins of the father so I barter my tomorrows against my yesterday’s In hopes that she’ll be okay”
Jay-Z (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My sister Kwan believes she has yin eyes. She sees those who have died and now dwell in the World of Yin, ghosts who leave the mists just to visit her kitchen on Balboa Street in San Francisco. "Libby-ah," she'll say to me. "Guess who I see yesterday, you guess." And I don't have to guess that she's talking about someone dead.”
Amy Tan (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cured yesterday of my disease, I died last night of my physician.”
Matthew Prior (1664–1721) first seen 1714 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Remedy Worse than the Disease (1714).
“The holiest, cruellest pains I feel, Die stillborn, because old men squeal For something new: "Write something new: We've read this poem — that one too, And twelve more like 'em yesterday"?”
Robert Graves (1895–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One precedent creates another. They soon accumulate and constitute law. What yesterday was fact, today is doctrine.”
Junius (1800–1900) first seen 1772 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dedication to the English Nation (added the collection of letters published in 1772)
“Now I have been raped. It happened twice. Once on Monday, and again yesterday. It is my Christmas gift from Christian America.”
Octavia Butler (1947–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If ever there was a theme song for the business end of the industry, it's: "We can't do that; we didn't do that yesterday.”
Frank Miller (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Engvall: Yesterday, my son was out in the yard playing with his friend, and he hit his friend. I walked up to him, and I said, "Hey..." (pantomimes hitting his son) "We don't hit". He looked at me like, "Here's your sign, Dad".”
Bill Engvall (born 1957) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cheap Drunk: An Autobiography (2002)
“The blue dusk ran between the streets; my love was winged within my mind; It left to-day and yesterday and thrice a thousand years behind. To-day was past and dead for me for from to-day my feet had run Through thrice a thousand years to walk the ways of ancient Babylon.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where great whales come sailing by, Sail and sail, with unshut eye, Round the world for ever and aye. When did music come this way? Children dear, was it yesterday?”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Children dear, was it yesterday (Call yet once) that she went away?”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Children dear, was it yesterday? Children dear, were we long alone? "The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan; Long prayers," I said, "in the world they say.”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is the flag just as much of the man who was naturalized yesterday as of the man whose people have been here many generations.”
Henry Cabot Lodge (1850–1924) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address (1915).
“Each Morn a thousand Roses brings, you say; Yes, but where leaves the Rose of Yesterday?”
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) said by 1131 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: IX (1889)
Also quoted by: Edward FitzGerald (poet)
“Ah! my Belovéd, fill the Cup that clears To-day of past Regrets and future Fears — To-morrow?—Why, To-morrow I may be Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n Thousand Years.”
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) said by 1131 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: XX (1859) · XXI (1889)
“And if the Wine you drink, the Lip you press End in what All begins and ends in — Yes; Think then you are To-day what Yesterday You were — To-morrow You shall not be less.”
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) said by 1131 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: XLII (1889)
“Ah, but my Computations, People say, Reduced the Year to better reckoning? — Nay 'Twas only striking from the Calendar Unborn To-morrow, and dead Yesterday.”
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) said by 1131 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: LVII (1889)
“Yesterday This Day's Madness did prepare; To-morrow's Silence, Triumph, or Despair: Drink! for you know not whence you came, nor why: Drink! for you know not why you go, nor where.”
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) said by 1131 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: LXXIV (1889)
“I saw a busy potter by the way Kneading with might and main a lump of clay; And lo! the clay cried ‘Use me tenderly, I was a man myself but yesterday.’”
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) said by 1131 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today.”
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–2022) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 101 Best Ways to Get Ahead: Solid Gold Advice from 101 of the World's Most Successful People (2004) by Michael E. Angier and Sarah Pond, p. 30
“To history, until yesterday, Halifax was the arch-appeaser. This, it is now recognised, was a mistake. His rôle, however, was complicated. In these pages he is not the man who stopped the rot, but the embodiment of Conservative wisdom who decided that Hitler must be obstructed because Labour could not otherwise be resisted.”
Maurice Cowling (1926–2005) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Impact of Hitler. British Politics and British Policy, 1933–1940 (1975), p. 9
“I attended the Royal Opening of the Indian Conference yesterday...Our delegation is starting well, but Winston [Churchill] is in the depths of gloom. He wants the Conference to bust up quickly and the Tory Party to go back to pre-war and govern with a strong hand. He has become once more the subaltern of Hussars of '96.”
Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to J. C. C. Davidson (13 November 1930), quoted in Robert Rhodes James (ed.), Memoirs of a Conservative: J. C. C. Davidson's Memoirs and Papers, 1910-1937 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969), p. 355.
“Mr. Greenwood, when moving the Amendment yesterday, told us that the war would shake many strongly held views. I fear that this war will do very much more than that. The war will bring about changes which may be fundamental and revolutionary in the economic and social life of this country. On that we are all agreed.”
Anthony Eden (1897–1977) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the House of Commons (6 December 1939)
“I reserve the right to be smarter today than I was yesterday.”
Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Loggers' Handbook Vol. 36 (1976), p. 72; also in North Western Reporter, Second series (1992); similar remarks have been attributed to others, including more recent attributions to Adlai Stevenson and Abrah…
“What do I care about my nonsense from yesterday?”
Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Discussion : Mastering the Skills of Moderation (2009) by Horst Hanisch, p. 91
“Oh, who would have dared believe that half-crazed I, I, sick with grief for the buried past, I, smoldering on a slow fire, having lost everything and forgotten all, would be fated to commemorate a man so full of strength and will and bright inventions, who only yesterday it seems, chatted with me, hiding the tremor of his mortal pain.”
Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As you may have noticed, a hurricane didn't kill me yesterday. I will celebrate my continued life with some ice cream this afternoon.”
Brian Clevinger (born 1978) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience … that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance.”
William O. Douglas (1898–1980) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dissenting, Kingsley Books, Inc. v. Brown, 354 U.S. 436, 447 (1957).
“Morning newspapers are yesterday's news; social media news are the now moments.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Outside Adelaide, Australia:] [T]hey showed us some of the native aborigines at a wayside station in the great plain yesterday afternoon though they are the most revolting form of living creatures I've ever seen !! They are the lowest known form of human beings & are the nearest thing to monkeys I've ever seen. (11 July 1920)”
Edward VIII (1894–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yesterday was shaped by Kandinsky's move.. .This departure is what proves something for me.. .It is a friendship that overcomes a number of negative items, because the plus side stands firm and, in particular, because there is a link to my productive youth [in Munich].”
Paul Klee (1879–1940) first seen 1932 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote in a letter to his wife Lily Klee, 11 Dec. 1932; as quoted in 'Klee & Kandinsky', 2015 exhibition text, Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau Munich, 2015-2016
“Yesterday, a funny thing happened to me on my way to the Conclave.”
Pope John Paul I (1912–1978) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the crowd in St Peter's Square (27 August 1978), the day after his election, as quoted in In God's Name (1987) by David Yallop, p. 132
“Yesterday was an utter waste. An artist, of whatever stripe, has only so many days, to write or paint or dance or whatever, and each one wasted is that much that will never be accomplished.”
Caitlín R. Kiernan (born 1964) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (20 February 2005)
“..[to gather] under a new banner.. ..[that the poets of yesterday's Futurism ] change the means of battle with thought, content, and logic.. ..advance Alogism after Futurism.”
Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nov. 1915; as cited by Vasilii Rakitin, in The great Utopia - The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915-1932; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1992, p. 26
“Do diddle di do, Poor Jim Jay Got stuck fast In Yesterday.”
Walter de la Mare (1873–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I won't be here long, I am working as hard as I can, as I told you [in a letter] yesterday, I am very happy to be here Etretat, Normandy] and I hope to come up with something good, in any case I will bring lots of studies back with me so I can work on some big things at home.”
Claude Monet (1840–1926) first seen 1883 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote in Monet's letter from Etretat to his second [future] wife Alice Hoschedé, 1883; as cited in: K.E. Sullivan. Monet: Discovering Art, Brockhampton press, London (2004), p. 51