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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“Take to the highway, won't you lend me your name? Your way and my way seem to be one and the same, child. Mamma don't understand it. She wants to know where I've been. I'd have to be some kind of natural born fool To want to pass that way again. But I could feel it On a country road.”
James Taylor (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You can play the game and you can act out the part. Though you know it wasn't written for you. But tell me, how can you stand there with your broken heart, Ashamed of playing the fool? One thing can lead to another; it doesn't take any sacrifice. Oh, father and mother,and sister and brother, If it feels nice, don't think twice.”
James Taylor (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time. Any fool can do it; There ain't nothing to it. Nobody knows how we got to The top of the hill. But since we're on our way down, We might as well enjoy the ride.”
James Taylor (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And love and, love I'll be a fool For you, I'm sure. You know I don't mind...”
Lionel Richie (born 1949) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Endless Love (1981).
“Don't suffer! O my body, O my vital, O my mind, O my heart, do not suffer. Do not cherish suffering. Don't act like a fool. Don't think that your suffering is going to accelerate your spiritual progress.”
Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The American public was lied to [about the Vietnam War] month by month by each of these five administrations [Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon]. It's a tribute to the American public that their leaders perceived that they had to be lied to. It's no tribute to us that it was so easy to fool the public.”
Daniel Ellsberg (1931–2023) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hearts and Minds (1974), a documentary of the Vietnam War [1:17:35 onward]
“Some fool has put the head of this nail on the wrong end." "You idiot, it's for the opposite wall!" To be sure, if the space of physical objects allowed motions of translation only, and not also rotations. That space has such geometry is a fantasy; experience shows otherwise. It is only experience that makes this complaint and the rejoinder a dialogue of madmen.”
Abraham Kaplan (1918–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Andrei Kovalenko runs over Patrick Roy, and Patrick slugs him! Watch him use his blocker here. Don’t fool with Patrick!”
Don Cherry (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The biggest fool in the world is he who merely does his work supremely well, without attending to appearance.”
Michael Korda (born 1933) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Quote Unquote (A Handbook of Quotations) (2005) by M. P. Singh, p. 141
“Let the world call me a fool, But if things are right with me and you, That's all that matters. And I'll do anything you asked me to.”
Waylon Jennings (1937–2002) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: You Asked Me To, from Honky Tonk Heroes, written with Billy Joe Shaver (1973).
“They couldn't include me in it because I was the President, and I can be elected as often as I want to be. I'm going to run again when I'm ninety. I've announced that a time or two, and you know, some damn fool looked the situation over and said, "When you're ninety, it's an off year," so I can't even run then. I didn't know I was going to stir up all that trouble . . .”
Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the 22nd Amendment limiting a president to two terms, in a lecture at Columbia University (April 28, 1959)
“I am firm, you are obstinate, he is a pig-headed fool.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Defining w:emotive conjugation on BBC radio program The Brains Trust (1948)
“Fool, nothing is impossible in Russia but reform.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He was free, free in every way, free to behave like a fool or a machine, free to accept, free to refuse, free to equivocate; to marry, to give up the game, to drag this death weight about with him for years to come. He could do what he liked, no one had the right to advise him, there would be for him no Good or Evil unless he thought them into being.”
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: L'âge de raison (The Age of Reason) (1945)
“Circus, n. A place where horses, ponies and elephants are permitted to see men, women and children acting the fool.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Vote, v. The instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When prosperous the fool trembles for the evil that is to come; in adversity the philosopher smiles for the good that he has had.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Magna Carta provided] "a system of checks and balances which would accord the monarchy its necessary strength, but would prevent its perversion by a tyrant or a fool.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fool has one great advantage over a man of sense — he is always satisfied with himself.”
Napoleon (1769–1821) said by 1821 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The salvation of the world depends on the men who will not take evil good-humouredly, and whose laughter destroys the fool instead of encouraging him.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every fool believes what his teachers tell him, and calls his credulity science or morality as confidently as his father called it divine revelation.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Chloroform has done a lot of mischief. It's enabled every fool to be a surgeon.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Silence is the virtue of a fool.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool. It seems as if heaven had sent its insane angels into our world as to an asylum. And here they will break out into their native music, and utter at intervals the words they have heard in heaven; then the mad fit returns, and they mope and wallow like dogs!”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was a time when a fool and his money were soon parted, but now it happens to everybody.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Stevenson Wit (1965) edited by Bill Adler
“Even a fool could see that one didn't need a war, nuclear or otherwise, to destroy oneself; the rising cost of weaponry could do that quite nicely.”
Stanisław Lem (1921–2006) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Peace on Earth (1987), tr. Elinor Ford (1994) from Pokój na Ziemi, Ch. 1
“Do they think that I am such a damned fool as to think myself fit for President of the United States? No, sir; I know what I am fit for. I can command a body of men in a rough way, but I am not fit to be President.”
Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) first seen 1821 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As told to H.M. Brackenridge, Jackson's secretary, in 1821; quoted by James Parton, The Life of Andrew Jackson (1860), vol. II, ch. XXVI (Houghton Mifflin and Co., 1888), page 354. Parton cites his source as H.M. Bracke…
“Before a man speaks it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks, it is seldom necessary to assume it.”
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Jury — A group of twelve men who, having lied to the judge about their hearing, health and business engagements, have failed to fool him.”
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man may be a fool and not know it — but not if he is married.”
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fly fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed in Instructions to Young Sportsmen (1824) by Colonel Peter Hawker
“I remember a passage in Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," which he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: "I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing."... There was another fine passage too which he struck out: "When I was a young man, being anxious to distinguish myself, I was perpetually starting new propositions. But I soon gave this over; for I found that generally what was new was false.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1779 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1779)
“The truth is I've never fooled anyone. I've let men sometimes fool themselves. Men sometimes didn't bother to find out who and what I was. Instead, they would invent a character for me. I wouldn't argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn't. When they found this out, they would blame me for disillusioning them — and fooling them.”
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: My Story (1974; co-written with Ben Hecht; 2007 edition), p. 133
“They hate you if you're clever, and they despise a fool.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A writer of great talent, to whom I complained of the little sympathy I have met with, made me this profound answer: "You have an immense fault which will close all doors against you: you cannot converse for two minutes with a fool without showing him that he is one.”
Émile Zola (1840–1902) first seen 1868 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Preface to the 2nd ed., 1868 (tr. E. A. Vizetelly, 1886)
“This great society is going to smash; They cannot fool us with how fast they go, How much they cost each other and the gods. A culture is no better than its woods.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those in power (even if it's only for a little while) known nothing about literature, all they care about is power. And I'll play the fool for my readers, if I feel like it, but never for the powerful.”
Roberto Bolaño (1953–2003) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Between Parentheses. Essays, Articles, and Speeches, 1998–2003. ed. Ignacio Echevarría, trans. Natasha Wimmer (New York: New Directions, 2011 [2004]). 358.
“Long ago, he had made that choice between work and life that can seldom be avoided at the highest levels of human endeavor ... Any fool could shuffle genes, and most did. But whether or not history gave him credit, few men could have achieved what he had done — and was about to do.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am certainly interested in a tribunal in which, for having used my reason, I was deemed little less than a heretic. Who knows but men will reduce me from the profession of a philosopher to that of historian of the Inquisition! But they behave to me in order that I may become the ignoramus and the fool of Italy...”
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) said by 1642 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“7) Any damn fool can predict the past.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ooh, yeah, you're amazing! We think you are really cool. We'd give you a part, my love, But you'd have to play the fool.”
“She wanted to test her husband. She knew exactly what to do: A pseudonym to fool him. She couldn't have made a worse move.”
“I want you as the dream, Not the reality. That clumsy good-bye kiss could fool me. But looking back over my shoulder at you happy without me.”
“No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, Deferential, glad to be of use, Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous — Almost, at times, the Fool.”
T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You that woo the Voices—tell them "Old Experience is a fool"; Teach your flattered kings that only those who can not read can rule.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nor is he the wisest man who never proved himself a fool.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everyone knows the glory of the twain Who gave America the aeroplane To ride the whirlwind and the hurricane. Some poor fool has been saying in his heart Glory is out of date in life and art. Our venture in revolution and outlawry Has justified itself in freedom's story Right down to now in glory upon glory.”
Robert Frost (1874–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pious Selinda goes to Pray’rs, If I but ask the Favour; And yet the tender Fool’s in Tears, When she believes I’ll leave her.Wou’d I were free from Restraint, Or else had Hopes to win her; Wou’d she cou’d make of me a Saint, Or I of her a Sinner.”
William Congreve (1670–1729) first seen 1704 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Song"; Poetical Miscellanies: The Fifth Part (1704), p. 362
“For, as blushing will sometimes make a whore pass for a virtuous woman, so modesty may make a fool seem a man of sense.”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) said by 1744 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source