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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“Oh, the twenties and the thirties were not otherwise designed Than other times when blind men into ditches led the blind, When the rich mouse ate the cheese and the poor mouse got the rind, And man, the self-destroyer, was not lucid in his mind.”
William Plomer (1903–1973) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Father and Son: 1939", line 73
“Maybe we have to contribute ideologies to achieve the perfect utopian government. Remember, government-sponsored health care was a communist idea. Should only the rich be allowed to live long? Does that say that because a person is poor, he is a lesser human being; and doesn't deserve to live as long, because he doesn't wear a tie to work?”
Timothy McVeigh (1968–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To one who asked what was the proper time for lunch, he said, "If a rich man, when you will; if a poor man, when you can.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Doom very evenly! Do not doom one doom to the rich; another to the poor! Nor doom one doom to your friend; another to your foe!”
Alfred the Great (849–899) said by 899 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thus Vice nurs'd Ingenuity, Which join'd with Time and Industry, Had carry'd Life's Conveniences, It's real Pleasures, Comforts, Ease, To such a Height, the very Poor Liv'd better than the Rich before.”
Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733) said by 1733 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The rights of the poor majority are pure air and pure water, and sufficient space to walk about in, when the rich minority are befouling the air with manufactories, poisoning the rivers, and as in the neighborhood of Foots Cray and St. Mary's, adding "field to field, till there be no place" left, and the villagers cannot step out of the dusty high-road without a trespass..”
Samuel Palmer (1805–1881) first seen 1879 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the Rev. J.P. Wright (1879), from The Life and letters of Samuel Palmer, Painter and Etcher (AH Palmer, London, 1892)
“Wars are generally a rich man's affair and a poor man's fight.”
Ilana Mercer first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sanctuary City Mayor Trashes An AMERICAN Hero, Robert E. Lee," The Abbeville Institute, May 25, 2017
“We must recognize today that it is normal for the wealthiest to be the greatest thieves. When a poor man steals it is merely a theft, a petty crime — it is solely about survival and necessity. The rich are the ones who steal from the treasury, customs duties, and who exploit the people.”
Thomas Sankara (1949–1987) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a speech given to the Organization of African Unity on 29 July 1987
“Only Jesus would be crazy enough to suggest that if you want to become the greatest, you should become the least. Only Jesus would declare God's blessing on the poor rather than on the rich and would insist that it's not enough to just love your friends. I just began to wonder if anybody still believed Jesus meant those things he said.”
Shane Claiborne (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The rich have grown richer, but their tax rate has declined. The poor have grown poorer, but their taxes have increased.”
Michael Parenti (1933–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But for most practical purposes Tarbean had two pieces: Waterside and Hillside. Waterside is where people are poor. That makes them beggars, thieves, and whores. Hillside is where people are rich. That makes them solicitors, politicians, and courtesans.”
Patrick Rothfuss (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Virtuous or vile, decent or indecent, rich or poor, receive and rest upon Christ nim. as He is so freely offered you; and then you may believe (not feel) that your sins are in the depths of the sea.”
William Paton Mackay (1839–1885) said by 1885 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Poor shepherdless sheep! it was His delight, as the Good Shepherd, to lead them to rich pastures; and as they sat and stood around Him, they forgot their bodily wants in the beauty and power of His words.”
John Cunningham Geikie (1824–1906) said by 1906 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Politicians that proclaim big words without meaning rule in democracy. At best they allow themselves to discover that it's better to be rich and healthy than sick and poor and that it is necessary to care for 'good of Poland" - clap clap, hurricane of clapping.”
Janusz Korwin-Mikke (born 1942) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: source: blog, 12 April 2009
“Keep a government poor and weak and it's your servant; when it is rich and powerful it becomes your master.”
H. Beam Piper (1904–1964) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Colonel Andrew Jackson Hickock in Lone Star Planet (1958)
“Many of the actions by which men have become rich are far more harmful to the community than the obscure crimes of poor men, yet they go unpunished because they do not interfere with the existing order.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The idea that the poor should have leisure has always been shocking to the rich.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only thing that can console one for being poor is extravagance. The only thing that can console one for being rich is economy.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Acquaintance, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich or famous”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The poor man's price of admittance to the favor of the rich is his self-respect.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mrs. Elvsted: You have some hidden motive in this, Hedda! Hedda: Yes, I have. I want for once in my life to have power to mold a human destiny. Mrs. Elvsted: Have you not the power? Hedda: I have not—and never had it. Mrs. Elvsted: Not your husband's? Hedda: Do you think it's worth the trouble? Oh, if only you could understand how poor I am. And fate has made you so rich!”
Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) said by 1906 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Death, the only immortal who treats us all alike, whose pity and whose peace and whose refuge are for all — the soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor, the loved and the unloved.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments; any enlargement of wishes is therefore equally destructive to happiness with the diminution of possession, and he that teaches another to long for what he never shall obtain is no less an enemy to his quiet than if he had robbed him of part of his patrimony.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1751 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 163 (8 October 1751)
“And, then, if only there were some truth in what the priests say, if only the poor of this world were rich in the next!" These words were greeted with a burst of laughter, and even the children shrugged their shoulders, for the hard wind blowing from the outer world had taken away all their belief. They harbored a secret fear of ghosts down in the mine, but scoffed at the empty heavens.”
Émile Zola (1840–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pt. 3, ch. 3 (tr. L. W. Tancock, 1954)
“This is the Night Mail crossing the Border, Bringing the cheque and the postal order,Letters for the rich, letters for the poor, The shop at the corner, the girl next door.Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb: The gradient's against her, but she’s on time.Past cotton-grass and moorland border, Shovelling white steam over her shoulder.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Night Mail (1936)
“What have they done to our poor people?... [the] pain for all of us, for our country so rich, so talented and so exhausted by incessant experiments... I think we have committed a crime against our people by making their standard of living so incomparably lower than that of the Americans.”
Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: After Yeltsin's 1989 visit to the United States of America. Quoted in Leon Aron: "Yeltsin, A Revolutionary Life" (St. Martin's Press, 2000)
“The demography of happiness, in this study the government found out that young people are happier than old people, and they found out that people that earn more are happier than people that earn less, and they found out that well people are happier than sick people... It took $249,000 to find out that it's better to be rich, young and healthy than old, poor and sick.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On US government spending. Interview on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on 01/03/1975 as shown on YouTube The Tonight Show video
“My great-grandfather left here in a time of stress, seeking to better himself and his family. From what I'm told, we were a poor family. But my ancestors took with them a treasure, an indomitable spirit that was cultivated in the rich soil of this county. And today I come back to you as a descendant of people who are buried here in paupers' graves.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to the citizens of Ballyporeen, Ireland (3 June 1984)
“To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required — not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.”
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“History will judge societies and governments — and their institutions — not by how big they are or how well they serve the rich and the powerful, but by how effectively they respond to the needs of the poor and the helpless.”
Cesar Chavez (1927–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Cesar Chavez : A Triumph of Spirit (1997) by Richard Griswold del Castillo and Richard A. Garcia, p. 116
“The poor man is ruined as soon as he begins to ape the rich.”
Publilius Syrus (101–101 BC) said by 101 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.”
Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) said by 1774 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Poor Nations are hungry, and rich Nations are proud, and Pride and Hunger will ever be at Variance.”
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) said by 1745 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If a governor comes out of his government rich, they say he has been a thief; and if he comes out poor, that he has been a noodle and a blockhead.”
Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) said by 1616 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The poetical character... is not itself — it has no self — it is every thing and nothing — It has no character — it enjoys light and shade; it lives in gusto, be it fair or foul, high or low, rich or poor, mean or elevated. — It has as much delight in conceiving an Iago as an Imogen. What shocks the virtuous philospher, delights the camelion poet.”
John Keats (1795–1821) first seen 1818 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Richard Woodhouse (27 October 1818)
“[On coming out on stage] My first joke at that gig was, 'If you're a stand-up, it's good to be a minority because then you've got something to rail against. If you're black, you can rail against white supremacists; if you're poor, you can rail against the rich. But if you're a white, male, middle-class stand-up, it's shit. So thank God I'm a transvestite.' It went down a storm.”
Eddie Izzard (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Give me, ye gods, the product of one field, That so I neither may be rich nor poor; And haying just enough, not covet more.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A youth would marry a maiden, For fair and fond was she; But she was rich, and he was poor, And so it might not be.”
John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887) said by 1887 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Too often the reformer has been one who caused the rich to band themselves against the poor.”
Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It has been said that America is a country for the poor, not for the rich. There would be more correctness in saying it is the country for both, where the latter have a relish for free government; but, proportionally, more for the former than for the latter.”
James Madison (1751–1836) said by 1836 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Abu Hurayra reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "The poor will enter the Garden [heaven] five hundred years before the rich.”
Muhammad (571–632) said by 632 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God only, who made us rich, can make us poor.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) said by 1861 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor. (23 February 1940)”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My visions of the future are always pretty much standard issue. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer... and there are flying cars.”
Joss Whedon (born 1964) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: TV Guide (27 December – 2 January 2004), and Foreword to Fray
“I stand ready to negotiate, but I want no part of laws: I acknowledge none; I protest against every order with which some authority may feel pleased on the basis of some alleged necessity to over-rule my free will. Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of government.”
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865) said by 1865 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "The Authority Principle" in No Gods, No Masters : An Anthology of Anarchism (1980) Daniel Guérin, as translated by Paul Sharkey (1998), p. 90
“The reason he liked attending rich patients rather than poor ones was the he could exercise his active imagination in prescribing for their ailments.”
Agatha Christie (1890–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What would become of the rich, if not for the poor? What would become of these idle, parasitic ladies, who squander more in a week than their victims earn in a year, if not for the eighty million wage-workers? Equality, who ever heard of such a thing?”
Emma Goldman (1869–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A free America, democratic in the sense that our forefathers intended it to be, means just this: individual freedom for all, rich or poor, or else this system of government we call 'democracy' is only an expedient to enslave man to the machine and make him like it.”
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Future of Architecture (1953), p. 174
“I do not for one minute believe that this election shows that London has been transformed overnight into a Conservative city but I do hope it does show that the Conservatives have changed into a party that can again be trusted after 30 years with the greatest, most cosmopolitan, multi-racial generous hearted city on earth in which there are huge and growing divisions between rich and poor.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source