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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“If fools claim that they jumped over six mountains, agree to it. It is not worth fighting over.”
“While we spoke of many things Fools and kings This he said to me: "The greatest thing you'll ever learn Is just to love and be loved in return.”
Eden ahbez (1908–1995) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nature Boy" (1948)
“The future is too good to waste on lies. And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be American. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting.”
Bowe Bergdahl (born 1986) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The system is wrong. I am ashamed to be an American. And the title of 'U.S. soldier' is just the lie of fools.”
Bowe Bergdahl (born 1986) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The U.S. Army is the biggest joke the world has to laugh at. It is the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies. The few good sergeants are getting out as soon as they can, and they are telling us privates to do the same.”
Bowe Bergdahl (born 1986) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No one has the right to make a boy learn Latin, because learning is a matter for individual choice; but if in a Latin class, a boy fools all the time, the class should throw him out, because he interferes with the freedom of others.”
A. S. Neill (1883–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is wealth? A dream of fools.”
Abraham Cahan (1860–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It has been frequently said that fools make knaves; it is equally true, I believe, that credulity is the parent of falsehood.”
Joseph Ritson (1752–1803) said by 1803 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nothing multiplies the number of fools so much as the example of celebrities.”
Nicolás Gómez Dávila (1913–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whoever says that he "belongs to his time" is only saying that he agrees with the largest number of fools at that moment.”
Nicolás Gómez Dávila (1913–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The word "modern" no longer has an automatic prestige except among fools.”
Nicolás Gómez Dávila (1913–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They recite their sacred books, although the fact informs me that these are a fiction from first to last. O Reason, thou (alone) speakest the truth. Then perish the fools who forged the (religious) traditions or interpreted them!”
Al-Ma'arri (973–1057) said by 1057 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When will they fight?” I asked. “Tomorrow. Daybreak. It is man’s work.” I laughed. “I too have fought and killed, Kotta. It is the work of fools, not men.”
Tanith Lee (1947–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We simply must speak to each other honestly about all these hard truths. In the words of Dr. King, 'We must learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools'.”
James Comey (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I said that 90 per cent Indians are fools I spoke an unpleasant truth. The truth is that the minds of 90 per cent Indians are full of casteism, communalism, superstition.”
Markandey Katju (born 1946) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "The 90%", The Indian Express (9 April 2012)
“Suffer fools gladly; they may be right.”
Holbrook Jackson (1874–1948) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Platitudes in the Making (1911), p. 20
“We have magnificent brains—and use them to believe nonsense and behave as fools. . . . We are enslaved to delusions and too often the servants of subconscious biases. . . . Our great challenge is to use our brains to overcome our brains.”
Guy P. Harrison (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The bees are very attentive to the flowers until their honey is done, and then they fly over them. I don't know if the flowers feel grateful to the bees, they are great fools if they do.”
Olive Schreiner (1855–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once upon a time, the founder of Protestant Christianity, said that doctors were fools, for treating diseases, as if they came from material causes. Then, Louis Pasteur disproved that, and came up with something, gonna love this, he called it "Germ Theory." Germs are still a theory! Atomic Theory is still a theory. Theory of gravity has never been proved.”
“It must be borne in mind that everything the propagandist does or says is for effect—most commonly the effect on fools. The public wants not truth but a show?”
Everett Dean Martin (1880–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I do not feel brave. I am not the center of this symphony. No one even cares if I am here. Where is the immortal majesty the poets promised me? Where is the stern will my ancestors preached to their children? It was just an illusion conjured by fools who never left their libraries, or by agents of necessity. This is the Noble Lie.”
Pierce Brown (born 1988) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Kierkegaard is not regarded as a philosopher, nor are Feuerbach and his pupil Nietzsche, but they are extraordinarily instructive. All who construct an empty system with facts are fools. Such is Bostrom, who tries to subtilise conceptions, analyse ideas, and classify and arrange God, man, and human life under heads.”
August Strindberg (1849–1912) said by 1912 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yorkshire folk are not fools.”
Jo Cox (1974–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You must think us fools,” he said, leading me back into the gathering, “to waste ourselves in commemorating an era which never really existed.”
Lucius Shepard (1943–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Women have tongues of craft, and hearts of guile, They will, they will not, fools that on them trust, For in their speech is death, hell in their smile.”
Edward Fairfax (1580–1635) said by 1635 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How old am I? Old enough to know it’s impossible to change the thinking of fools, but young and foolish enough to keep on trying.”
Arthur Jones (inventor) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I pray that all polar opposites learn to Agape Love, live and work together as brothers and sisters — or perish as fools. While I voted for Mr. Trump, my confidence remains in God, for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Prayers for President-elect Trump, Congressman Lewis, and everyone including leaders.”
Alveda King (born 1951) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Alveda King, MLK’s niece: ‘I voted for Mr. Trump’ (January 16, 2017)
“Out of doors on a moonless night?” Mette sneered. “Only fools, footpads, and astrologers stray where there is no light.”
Michael Swanwick (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What does it mean when the wolf cries wolf? Most obviously, propagandists in Moscow and Kiev take us for fools—which by many indications is quite justified.”
Timothy D. Snyder (born 1969) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fascism, Russia, and Ukraine" in The New York Review of Books 20 March 2014
“In blaming others, fools their folly show, And most attempt to speak when least they know.”
John Hoole (1727–1803) said by 1803 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fools can make an omen of anything in retrospect.”
“Often all we need to be civil with one another is the presence of a referee we don’t want thinking us fools.”
“I am very sorry these Moros are such fools—but this Dajo will not mean the slaughter of women and children, nor hasty assaults against strong entrenchments. I shall lose as few men and kill as few Moros as possible.”
John J. Pershing (1860–1948) first seen 1860 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: My Life Before the World War, 1860--1917: A Memoir, p. 293
“Fools scorn me when I dwell in human form: my higher being they know not as Great Lord of beings.”
W. Douglas P. Hill (1884–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fools have a way of discovering...that the laws of time travel, like the laws of physics, have no pity and no remorse.”
Robert Asprin (1946–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Hindus worship only one God. At any religious function, the Hindus utter the dominion of one God and to Him they direct the offerings of every religious ritual or observance whatever be its form. It is only fools who call the Hindus as idolators on the ground that they offer their devotion through some image built of stone or wood.”
Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (1551–1602) said by 1602 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The dark and distant drummingThe pounding of the hoovesThe silence of everything that movesLate at night you'll see themdecked out in shiny jewelsthe coming of the caravan of fools”
John Prine (1946–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Until learning how to read I had lived in a whole underpopulated world of self-centered, drug-addicted fools, all of us living by our Rules of Privacy in some crazy dream of Self-Fulfillment.”
Walter Tevis (1928–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I amuse myself, not by making people believe what I wish, but by letting them believe what they wish. These fools of Parisians declare that I am five hundred, and I confirm them in the idea since it pleases them.”
Alessandro Cagliostro (1743–1795) said by 1795 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Over many years in paid public appearances and in books bearing his name... Trump rejected the idea of turning the other cheek, saying that those who do are "fools" and "idiots." This philosophy was ignored by the many pastors who endorsed Trump and accepted... that he is a Christian. ...[R]evenge is explicitly rejected by Jesus and runs counter to the whole theme of the New Testament.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mr. Backlash, Mr. Backlash/Just who do you think I am?/You raise my taxes, freeze my wages/And send my son to Vietnam/You give me second class houses/And second class schools/Do you think that all colored folks/Are just second class fools?”
Nina Simone (1933–2003) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nina Simone, Backlash Blues 1967
“Men are nothing. They are fools. The penis between their legs is all they are useful for. And even then, if not that women needed their seed for children, it would be better to sit on a finger of green plantain. Listen to my words. Only a foolish woman leans heavily on a man’s promises.”
Lola Shoneyin (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fools are always at the bottom of the food chain.”
Esther Friesner (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our youth are capable. Normally, when a person is discouraged from his tender age, they grow up thinking that they truly can’t. It’s the same technique the colonialisers used in Africa. They told us that we are fools, we can’t do anything and sadly we accepted it.”
Yolande Mukagasana (born 1954) first seen 2026 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Meet Mukagasana, an author inspired by her Genocide scars newtimes.co.rw (September 20, 2026)
“It's true I don't tolerate fools but then they don't tolerate me, so I am spiky. Maybe that's why I'm quite good at playing spiky elderly ladies.”
Maggie Smith (1934–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools”,”
Emily Mkamanga (1949–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life is just a plain bloody mess, that's all. And people are fools.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In fact, I was shit-scared that we were going to make fools of ourselves.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we do not help the whites, we shall be left by the roadside. And if we are such fools as to stand against the whites, they will grind us till we become less than impotent, less than grains of bad snuff tossing in a storm.”
Ayi Kwei Armah (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How are we fal’n, fal’n by mistaken rules, And Education’s more than Nature’s fools.”
Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1660–1720) first seen 1713 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Introduction" (1713)