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
Life
LoveFriendshipHappinessHopeFearCourageDeathLifeTimeWarPeaceFreedomTruthWisdomKnowledgeScienceArtMusicNatureMoneyWorkPowerGodBeautyLaughterFamilySuccess and failureChangeDreamsBooks and reading
“A person in a rented apartment must be able to lean out of his window and scrape off the masonry within arm's reach. And he must be allowed to take a long brush and paint everything outside within arm's reach. So that it will be visible from afar to everyone in the street that someone lives there who is different from the imprisoned, enslaved, standardised man who lives next door.”
Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928–2000) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Window Dictatorship and Window Rights (1990)
“Lives matter in the sense that they assume physical form within the sphere of appearance; lives matter because they are to be valued equally.”
Judith Butler (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the modern world we have invented ways of speeding up invention, and people's lives change so fast that a person is born into one kind of world, grows up in another, and by the time his children are growing up, lives in still a different world.”
Margaret Mead (1901–1978) said by 1978 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them. We need to be taught these skills; we need guides to show us how. If we don't, our lives get made up for us by other people.”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Operating Instructions in The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination (2004)
“I’ve heard it said that the happiest times in our lives is the period when pop songs really mean something to us, really get to us. It may be true. Or maybe not. Pop songs may, after all, be nothing but pop songs. And perhaps our lives are merely decorative, expendable items, a burst of fleeting color and nothing more.”
Haruki Murakami (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is a ping-pong game with American lives. These young men and women that we put in Anbar province, in Iraq, in Baghdad, are not beans. They're real lives. And we better be damn sure we know what we're doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder.”
Chuck Hagel (born 1946) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Iraq troop surge of 2007, {{cite news
“Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.”
Anthony Robbins (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No nation would refuse to fight an invading army because some expert argued it would be cheaper to invest in defenses against future invasions. It is not a matter of prioritising lives now over lives tomorrow.”
Epeli Ganilau (1951–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lives loss through an ‘act of God’ are regretted, perhaps deeply regretted, but they do not arouse our wildest passions. It is otherwise with lives that are forfeited through deliberate human agency. The word ‘deliberate’ is important here. One deliberate murder can produce a sharper reaction than ten thousand deaths on the roads.”
Fred Hoyle (1915–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You don't have to own squirrels and starlings to get enjoyment from them … One day, we would like an end to pet shops and the breeding of animals. [Dogs] would pursue their natural lives in the wild … they would have full lives, not wasting at home for someone to come home in the evening and pet them and then sit there and watch TV.”
Ingrid Newkirk (born 1949) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Chicago Daily Herald, 1990 March 1.
“At the earlier briefing, Ari, you said that the President deplored the taking of innocent lives. Does that apply to all innocent lives in the world? And I have a follow-up... My follow-up is, why does he want to drop bombs on innocent Iraqis? …”
Helen Thomas (1920–2013) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: White House briefing (January 6, 2003)
“Standing at the edge of our city, a man could feel that we had made this place of streets and dwellings in the stillness of the desert, and that we had done a brave thing... Or a man could feel that we had made this city in the desert and that it was a fake thing and that our lives were empty lives, and that we were the contemporaries of the jack rabbits.”
William Saroyan (1908–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Saroyan's Literary Quarantine" by Peter H. King, in The Los Angeles Times (26 March 1997).
“We are very much a band and we always have been, and we are more than ever. In our personal lives and our professional lives, there’s this thing that links us where we would do anything for the others and its a very powerful feeling, to go have gone through everything we’ve been through with the same group of people. We knew each other when we had nothing. source”
Chris Martin (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie.”
Paulo Coelho (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny.”
Paulo Coelho (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is because the spirit knows deep down that all lives intersect. That death doesn't just take someone, it misses someone else. And in that small distance, lives are changed.”
Mitch Albom (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“the real influence of politics on my writing is the influence of politics on people. Their lives, and I believe their very personalities, are changed by the extreme political circumstances one lives under in South Africa. I am dealing with people; here are people who are shaped and changed by politics. In that way my material is profoundly influenced by politics.”
Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To gaze with looks of wonderment, And to serve all that lives, still or moving. This is to know what love is. He knows who lives it.”
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of all the institutions in their lives, only the Catholic Church has seemed aware of the fact that my mother and father are thinkers—persons aware of the experience of their lives. Other institutions—the nation’s political parties, the industries of mass entertainment and communications, the companies that employed them—have all treated my parents with condescension.”
Richard Rodriguez (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh but why couldn't Pfizer agree to our terms, some say. Well, we needed Pfizer's vaccine more than they needed us. We could have saved lives if we kept our ego down and said 'how can we make it work Pfizer' rather than 'why can't you listen to us.' Lives could have been saved.”
Chetan Bhagat (born 1974) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: — Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) 2021 at Twitter
“The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world. https://www.facebook.com/partnersinhealth/photos/%E2%80%9Cthe-idea-that-some-lives/10151726145651986/”
Paul Farmer (1959–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Does it really work for us to go through our lives as though there were no realizations beyond the grasp of our system-of-concepts, the awareness of which would transform the quality of our lives?”
Werner Erhard (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You and I possess within ourselves, at every moment of our lives and under all circumstances, the power to transform the quality of our lives.”
Werner Erhard (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Man lives in a paradoxical world where his human development is hamstrung by the fact that the only kind of free scientific inquiry he does not allow himself is the pursuit of human truth, and the only kind of audacity in engineering enterprise which is alien to his nature is the undertaking of moral intervention in the lives of others.”
Paul Rosenfels (1909–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What I know is that I can trust his eyes because what lives in them, lives in me.”
James Frey (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Remove the word black and say 'lives matter'... Stop sending mothers back home empty. You can never replace a mother's child. If we want black lives matter, let's make it matter to us. That's the new call.”
Ray Lewis (American football) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Former NFL Player Ray Lewis: 'Let's Make Lives Matter'" (2015), by Khorri Atkinson, NBC News.
“The average African-American family in this country making $100,000, which is, you know, decent money, actually lives in the same kind of neighborhood that the average white family making $35,000 a year lives in. That is totally tied to the legacy of enslavement and Jim Crow and the input and the idea in the mind that white people and black people are somehow deserving of different things.”
Ta-Nehisi Coates (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most wars are fought for greed, but we are luckier here—we fight for our lives and the lives of the people we love.”
David Gemmell (1948–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You are one of those obsessed demoniacal creatures who ought to be avoided at all costs; they bring misfortune into the lives of others; they ruin the lives of others. The real good people are humble and silent (like your Kitty is). But beware, God sees all vanity and pride and you cannot fool him.”
Svetlana Alliluyeva (1926–2011) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said to Malcolm Muggeridge, as quoted in Richard Ingrams (1996), Muggeridge: The Biography, p. 233
“One who doesn’t know law thinks one lives in a jungle. One who knows law knows one lives in a jungle.”
Tarık Günersel (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The lives of most men and women are blighted by problems they cannot solve. Many events in our lives are the result of things beyond our control. While it is comforting to think, “I’m in charge,” in truth most changes effected by individuals are very limited in scope.”
Jacque Fresco (1916–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fact that people are so willing to disclose (deeply personal issues in their lives) shows you how much we avoid talking about these very serious issues in our everyday lives,”
Brandon Stanton (born 1984) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: CBS News, 2014
“Machines, no matter how sophisticated, can only follow programs. If we sleepwalk through our lives, then we’re no better than machines. Only humans are capable of a job done well -- which means thinking about the consequences of our actions. A job done well pays the bills, but it also improves the lives of everyone around us.”
John Twelve Hawks (born 2000) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And we think that this ultimate blessedness differs only in degree from the happy and joyful experiences of our lives. Whereas the truth is that it differs in kind. The joys, not only of the earth, but of any conceivable heaven - which we can conceive only as some happy and fortunate prolongation of our lives in time - are not of the same order as that ultimate blessedness.”
Walter Terence Stace (1886–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We historians are, in a way, fighting for our lives. Certainly, we are fighting for the lives of innocent young people beset by devilish tempters who claim to offer higher forms of thought and deeper truths and insights – the intellectual equivalent of crack, in fact. Any acceptance of these theories – even the most gentle or modest bow in their direction – can prove fatal.”
Geoffrey Elton (1921–1994) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On postmodernism; Return to Essentials (1991)
“[T]eachers have to be involved in the community and connected with parents and others who shape the lives of young people. They have to be involved with a whole range of people. They have to bring people together. They have to make sure that students in some way find that the work that they’re doing has something to do with their lives and matters.”
Henry Giroux (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This approach costs lives, and has cost lives in Britain because it inundates analysts with too much data. It is 99% useless. Who wants to know everyone who has ever [been] at Google or the BBC? We have known for decades that that swamps analysts,”
William Binney (born 1943) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Snooper's charter' will cost British lives, MPs are warned ', published by The Guardian on 6th January 2016.
“If Kim Jong Un is Chosun, as the slogan goes, then his decline in popularity must be the state’s too? But it doesn’t work that way. We all need to give our lives a sense of significance, of a meaning that lives on after our deaths. The North Koreans get that from their nationalism, which is one with their patriotism. If they lose that, what do they have?”
Brian Reynolds Myers (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Deep down, if we really accept that their lives - African lives - are equal to ours, we would all be doing more to put the fire out. It's an uncomfortable truth.”
Jeffrey Sachs (born 1954) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The End of Poverty, 2005
“Nothing seems to have changed from those days, when Christian lives were more precious than the lives of the “infidels.”
Bruce Fein (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Work is a defining, all-consuming part of our lives. Now, more than ever, the speed at which the nature of work is changing is having an extraordinary impact on working lives everywhere.”
Lynda Gratton (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Higher intake of meat in general—whether red meat, white meat, processed, or unprocessed—is also associated with an increased risk of death from all causes put together. If the whole world cut out meat, we'd save an estimated seven million lives a year. If humanity cut out all animal-sourced foods, we might save eight million lives annually.”
Michael Greger (born 1972) first seen 2025 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Michael Greger, How Not to Die (2025 Edition). Part 1, Chapter 10 (How Not to Die from Kidney Disease), at p.201.
“Everybody take a deep breath. Not only do we got this, we already own this. Okay: He's President of the United States; He won a resounding victory on votes that matter. Right? You have Black Lives Matter, you have All Lives Matter — we have Votes That Matter. Votes that matter are: certifiable, verifiable, legal votes that were voted on the third of November, the year of our Lord 2020.”
Steve Bannon (born 1953) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: War Room Pandemic Ep. 476, Nov. 5 2020, at 2min 30sec
“Black lives are considered to be substantially cheaper than white lives in this country.”
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As we chant “Black Lives Matter”, let's include the lives of people of color dying from US sanctions in Venezuela, being blown up by US bombs in Yemen and Afghanistan, and being tear-gassed, beaten and shot in Palestine with US weapons.”
Medea Benjamin (born 1952) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Twitter (9 June 2020)
“We got to make sure we are involved and realize that now is the moment and we have agency, what we do is going to impact all of our lives in our children's lives.”
Severn Cullis-Suzuki (born 1979) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the long run men inevitably become the victims of their wealth. They adapt their lives and habits to their money, not their money to their lives. It pre-occupies their thoughts, creates artificial needs, and draws a curtain between them and the world.”
Herbert Croly (1869–1930) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Promise of American Life (1909), p. 470
“when we think about Mexican people, when we think about Latin American people. We don’t imagine them having full and interesting lives in the same way that we imagine white people having full and interesting lives. But they did...there’s all these nuances that get lost sometimes when you read these stories about us. And in every story that I write, I want to bring a little bit of that.”
Silvia Moreno-Garcia (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You (medical staffs who attend to COVID-19 patients treatment) are trying every means to save lives. When you are putting your efforts to save lives, you have to protect yourselves too.”
Li Keqiang (1955–2023) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Li Keqiang (2020) cited in "China coronavirus: Premier Li Keqiang arrives in Wuhan to lead fight against deadly outbreak" on South China Morning Post, 27 January 2020.
“Nigeria's unity is one for which enough blood has been spilled and many hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost. Many have paid for the unity of this country with their lives, and it will be wrong of us, as men and women of goodwill in this generation, to toy with those sacrifices that have been made.”
Yemi Osinbajo (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source