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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“You can't close your eyes to the lies perpetrated by dangerous fools / 'cos they're handing out rules”
“Look at me, see if I am poor, or my people either. The whites may get me at last, as you say, but I will have good times till then. You are fools to make yourselves slaves to a piece of fat bacon, some hard-tack, and a little sugar and coffee.”
Sitting Bull (1831–1890) first seen 1867 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Also told to Charles Larpenteur at Fort Union in 1867. Published in Utley, Robert M. The Lance and the Shield. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1993. p. 73.
“Thou hast confessions to listen, And bells to christen, And altars and dolls to dress; And fools to coax, And sinners to hoax, And beads and bones to bless; And great pardons to sell For those who pay well, And small ones for those who pay less.”
Robert Southey (1774–1843) said by 1843 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To turn away a guest is poorest poverty; To bear with fools is mightiest might.”
Thiruvalluvar wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The world is only as deep as we can see. This is why fools think themselves profound. This is why terror is the passion of revelation.”
R. Scott Bakker (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Give me two synonyms for ‘idiots,’” Clemens said, and then gave them himself: “‘Fools’ and ‘Republicans.’”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hardly anything is more pleasant than talking about why other people are a pack of damn fools.”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He never asked for Pound’s opinion. He didn’t seem to think the War Department had issued opinions to enlisted men. If he’d had a better notion of what he was doing himself, Pound wouldn’t have minded so much. But he never had been able to suffer fools gladly, and he never had been able to suffer in silence, either.”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Alike for those who for prepare, And those that after some stare, A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries "Fools! your Reward is neither Here nor There.”
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) said by 1131 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: XXIV (1859) · XXV (1889)
“The danger which threatens us comes from Labour... Those who think that the Conservative or Unionist Party, standing as such and disavowing its Liberal allies, could return with a working majority are living in a fools paradise and, if they persist, may easily involve themselves and the country in dangers the outcome of which it is hard to predict.”
Austen Chamberlain (1863–1937) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Parker Smith (11 October 1922), quoted in Maurice Cowling, The Impact of Labour, 1920-1924: The Beginnings of Modern British Politics (1971), p. 181
“1092. Children and Fools tell Truth.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“1599. Fortune favours Fools.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“2144. He that has no Fools, Knaves nor Beggars in his Family, was begot by a Flash of Lightning.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“3358. Many talk like Philosophers, and live like Fools.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I thought my friends were damn fools, because they didn't know any better way of conducting their lives. Still they conformed better than I to a code. I wanted to conform but I couldn't so I wrote my poetry.”
William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Annotations on John C. Thirlwell's copy of The Collected Earlier Poems (c. 1958)
“Because no battle is ever won. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools. Be different!”
Kim Peek (1951–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It never occurred to these knaves and fools that the Christian missionary whom they were aping and helping was viewed in the modern West as a maniac whom it was better to dump abroad with a bag of money.”
Sita Ram Goel (1921–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some places have already quit lotteries." Mrs. Adams said. "Nothing but trouble in that," Old Man Warner said stoutly. "Pack of young fools.”
Shirley Jackson (1916–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But did that mean that the urge to live was the result of some sort of illusion? Was the reality, in fact, that nothing mattered and people were fools to think that anything did? Were the choices either despair, the rejection of reason for some idiot faith, or a sort of defensive solipsism?”
Iain Banks (1954–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It has been said of compliments, that men are most flattered by having the merits attributed to them which they least possess; but as it is only by liars that such compliments can be proffered, so it is only with fools that they can find a favourable acceptation.”
Henry Taylor (1800–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fools talk of imitation and copying, all is imitation.”
Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) first seen 1773 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to John Henderson, 27th June 1773
“I never imagined that France could be represented by such doddering old fools, not excepting that little twit Thiers...”
Édouard Manet (1832–1883) first seen 1871 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from Manet's letter to Félix Bracquemond (18 March 1871); as cited in Manet by Himself (1995) by Julliet Wilson-Bareau
“No one knows what it feels like to be constantly insulted [by art-critics in Paris]. It sickens and destroys you.. .The fools! They've never stopped telling me I'm inconsistent [in his painting style]; they couldn't have said anything more flattering.”
Édouard Manet (1832–1883) said by 1883 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quote of Manet, recorded by his friend Antonin Proust in his last years, Manet by Himself, p. 304, as quoted in The private lives of the Impressionists, Sue Roe; Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 241
“The Party uses the lies up to the last moment as a cover-up. Thus it intimidates the political opponents and provides its Party comrades with sedatives. It is so unbelievably simple for the current gang to lie to this German people and to lead these fools around by the nose.”
Friedrich Kellner (1885–1970) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: March 26, 1945; p. 399.
“Unangenehme Seher werden meistens als Narren abgeschrieben [Visionaries of uncomfortable truths are mostly dismissed as fools]”
Erwin Chargaff (1905–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On Fox News, the Geraldo-thing is at Columbia University, interviewing students — fresh-faced, naïve fools, fetishizing “debate” with a beast who will celebrate their deaths, and use their idiocy to bring it about.”
Charles Foster Johnson (born 1953) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: September 23, 2007
“It's so easy to fall in love — it's so easy to fall in love. People tell me love is for fools, So here I go breaking all of the rules.”
Buddy Holly (1936–1959) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: It's So Easy, written by Buddy Holly and Norman Petty (1958)
“I'm working on the world, revised, improved edition, featuring fun for fools blues for brooders, combs for bald pates, tricks for old dogs.”
Wisława Szymborska (1923–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The appalling thing is the degree of charity women are capable of. You see it all the time … love lavished on absolute fools. Love's a charity ward, you know.”
Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview in The Observer, 1990
“Who am I to dream?, dreams are for fools, they let you down...”
James Morrison (singer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To church in the morning, and there saw a wedding in the church, which I have not seen many a day; and the young people so merry one with another, and strange to see what delight we married people have to see these poor fools decoyed into our condition, every man and woman gazing and smiling at them.”
Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) first seen 1665 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: December 25, 1665
“Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?”
Jesus (6 BC–33) said by 33 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Jesus (upon whom be peace!) saw the world revealed in the form of an ugly old hag. He asked her how many husbands she had possessed; she replied that they were countless. He asked whether they had died or been divorced; she said that she had slain them all. "I marvel," he said, "at the fools who see what you have done to others, and still desire you.”
Jesus (6 BC–33) said by 33 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Alchemy of Happiness [Kimiya-I-Sa'adat] by Imam Al Ghazali, page 46, Hazell, Watson and Viney LD,. London and Aylesbury (1910), Translated from Hindustani by Claud Field.
“Abraham Lincoln is my name And with my pen I wrote the same I wrote in both hast and speed and left it here for fools to read”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) first seen 1824 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Manuscript poem, as a teenager (ca. 1824–1826), in "Lincoln as Poet" at Library of Congress : Presidents as Poets, as published in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953) edited by Roy. P. Basler, Vol. 1
“Whatever Spiteful fools may Say — Each jealous, ranting yelper — No woman ever played the whore Unless She had a man to help her.”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) first seen 1837 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A stanza of Lincoln's "On Seduction" (1837-39) as conveyed by James H. Matheny (1865 or 1866)
“Negro equality! Fudge!! How long, in the government of a God, great enough to make and maintain this Universe, shall there continue to be knaves to vend, and fools to gulp, so low a piece of demagougeism as this?”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) first seen 1859 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fragments: Notes for Speeches, September 1859, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953) Vol. III; No transcripts or reports exist indicating that he ever actually used this expression in any of his speeches.
“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) said by 1616 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves: such a prohibition ought to fill them with disdain.”
Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715–1771) said by 1771 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most Canadians don't understand the House of Commons. They turn on their televisions, see us yelling at one another, and dismiss us as a bunch of fools.”
Jean Chrétien (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Foolish: It's all foolish. Life is a farce— a stupid, sickening farce played out by fools.”
David Gemmell (1948–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Love is for fools. It is a surging of blood in the loins ... there is no mystery, and no magic. Find someone else, my boy.'”
David Gemmell (1948–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But then history was made by fools.”
Edmund Cooper (1926–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whenever a man and a woman come to words or blows, fools are quick to attribute it to the differences between the sexes. The sexes differ much less than they wish to believe, and such differences as are real tend less to promote strife than to prevent it.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The true dawn of adulthood, of intellectual maturity, if you like, is the realization that adults are all fools.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Pirates of Florida and Other Impossibilities", speech at the Conference on the Fantastic (1991), as published in Castle of Days (1992)
“Tyrants would distribute largess, a bushel of wheat, a gallon of wine, and a sesterce: and then everybody would shamelessly cry, “Long live the King!” The fools did not realize that they were merely recovering a portion of their own property, and that their ruler could not have given them what they were receiving without having first taken it from them.”
Étienne de La Boétie (1530–1563) said by 1563 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Only gods-damned fools die for lines drawn on maps.”
Scott Lynch (born 1978) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I caint believe how foolish—!” “Yes. It was foolish,” said Tirhakah. “But freedom alone does not make men intelligent, nor do chains alone make them fools.”
Malcolm Azania (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A thousand fools believe a lie, and it’s good as truth.”
Joan Slonczewski (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mankind, from Adam, have been women's fools; Women, from Eve, have been the devil's tools: Heaven might have spar'd one torment when we fell; Not left us woman, or not threatened hell.”
George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne (1666–1735) said by 1735 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The confectionary was useful enough to make its destruction eminently foolish; and fools were numerous enough to make its destruction eminently popular. Thus reasoned the emperor.”
Alexander Bryan Johnson (1786–1867) said by 1867 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source