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Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,808 quotes Who coined it · How we decide

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• “You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving.”

  Anatole France (misattributed) first seen 1896 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Francis de Sales, quoted in Vie de saint François de Sales, évèque et prince de Genève by André Jean Marie Hamon (Librairie Victor Lecoffre, Paris, 1896), Vol. II, Book VII, Ch. V: Son amour pour Dieu

• “The pleasure of love is in loving. We are happier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire.”

  Francis, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) said by 1680 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source

• “though every friend be fled, Lo! Envy waits, that lover of the dead.”

  Thomas Tickell (1685–1740) said by 1740 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Ask me why this flower does show So yellow-green, and sickly too? Ask me why the stalk is weak And bending, yet it doth not break? I will answer: These discover What doubts and fears are in a lover.”

  Thomas Carew (1594–1640) said by 1640 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Still an angel appear to each lover beside, But still be a woman to you.”

  Thomas Parnell (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Also quoted by: Thomas Parnell

• “The beauty in her lover's eyes Was admiration of her own.”

  Coventry Patmore (1823–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Lord Byron, in response to Lady Mary Montague's line 'And we meet, with champagne and a chicken at last' (from "The Lover: A Ballad"), reported in Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: with Notices of his Life, ed. Thomas Moore (Paris: A. and W. Gaglinani, 1830), p. 391”

  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) said by 1762 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to Thy bosom fly, While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high. Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till the storm of life is past; Safe into the haven guide; O receive my soul at last.”

  Charles Wesley (1707–1788) said by 1788 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The Autumn seems to cry for thee, Best lover of the Autumn-days!”

  Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (1835–1905) said by 1905 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Cousin Helen's Visit (1935).

• “Lover, I don’t play to win but for the thrill until I’m spent. Paint the black hole blacker. Paint the black hole blacker”

  St. Vincent (musician) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Strangers" - Live @ Great American Music Hall (27 February 2009)

• “Obviously, I am the cook. The cook is the director. He arranges the menu, the seating order of the guests; he gives refuge to the lovers; he prepares the repast of the lover's body. The cook is a perfectionist and a rationalist, a portrait of myself.”

  Peter Greenaway (born 1942) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: In an interview in Die Zeit, 24 Nov 1989

• “No Albert -- it's not God -- it's Michael. My lover. You vowed you would kill him -- and you did. And you vowed you would eat him. Now eat him.”

  Peter Greenaway (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “This is the writing of Nagiko Kiyohara no Motosuke Sei Shonagon, and I know you to have blackmailed, violated and humiliated my father. I suspect you also of ruining my husband. You have now committed the greatest crime -- you have desecrated the body of my lover. You and I now know that you have lived long enough.”

  Peter Greenaway (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “A wail in the wind is all I hear; A voice of woe for a lover's loss.”

  William Ellery Channing (poet) first seen 1873 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Tears in Spring", Thoreau: The Poet-Naturalist (1873) p. 340

• “The lover in the husband may be lost.”

  George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton (1709–1773) first seen 1732 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Advice to a Lady. 1732", line 112, p. 61

  Also quoted by: Lord Lyttleton

• “[begin list of sophomoric puns] I bet he'd find a place up the chimney of any woman. He's certainly good at filling their stockings. Trouble is, he wouldn't be much good as a lover as he can only come once a year. [end list of sophomoric puns] (Why Chicks Dig Father Christmas)”

  Ben Croshaw (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “No lover in any language, and certainly no poet, has confessed to missing the mark more often than Dafydd ap Gwilym. Uncooperative husbands, quick-triggered alarms, crones and walls, strong locks, floods and fogs and bogs and dogs are for ever interposing themselves between him and golden-haired Morfudd, black-browed Dyddgu, or Gwen the infinitely fair. But a great trier, even in church.”

  Dafydd ap Gwilym (1320–1380) said by 1380 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Gwyn Jones, in The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English (Oxford: OUP, 1977) p. 289.

• “No dream his life was—but a fight! Could any Beatrice see A lover in that anchorite?”

  Thomas William Parsons (1819–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I’m a lover of what is, not because I’m a spiritual person, but because it hurts when I argue with reality.”

  Byron Katie (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Thy braes were bonnie, Yarrow stream, When first on them I met my lover; Thy braes how dreary, Yarrow stream, When now thy waves his body cover!”

  John Logan (minister) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Here. It will blind you with tears like a lover. It will make your reflection a wobbling photo of grief.”

  Carol Ann Duffy (born 1955) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Valentine, from Mean Time (1993).

• “To be a Latin Lover a man, above all, has to be a great fucker — he has to be infallible and I'm not that. I often foul it up.”

  Marcello Mastroianni (1924–1996) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: In 1977, to Dick Cavett while accompanied by Sophia Loren; quoted by French Film Stars Database, which sources it to his obituary in The Guardian

• “No martyr ever went the way of duty, and felt the shadow of death upon it. The shadow of death is darkest in the valley, which men walk in easily, and is never felt at all on a steep place, like Calvary. Truth is everlasting, and so is every lover of it; and so he feels himself almost always.”

  William Mountford (1816–1885) said by 1885 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I was a rebellious child, a rebellious lover, a rebellious couturière — a real devil.”

  Coco Chanel (1883–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in Paris, Paris : Journey Into the City of Light‎ (2005) by David Downie, p. 93

• “...whatever... you pretend... if any of you be a prayerless person, or a scoffer, or a lover of evil company (Proverbs 13:20), in a word, if you are not a holy, strict, and self-denying Christian, you cannot be saved." (Hebrews 12:14; Matthew 15:14).”

  Joseph Alleine (1634–1668) said by 1668 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The laughter came When the tears stopped falling. Now all I do is just call your name (When I say lover) You walked in and my heart discovered That my life would never be the same. Oh, you are my destiny. You are my one and only. You gave that joy to me When my whole life was lonely.”

  Lionel Richie (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Water has its moods, flowing or still; it can lure you like a lover, or look as bleak as a broken heart.”

  Patricia A. McKillip (1948–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The lover of education labors first of all to educate himself.”

  John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Well, I like people a lot. I could define myself as a pacific being, a lover of nature, music and people. The qualities that I admire the most in the human being is the capacity of getting along with its similars in holy peace.”

  José José (1948–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “When I was a boy I was always depressed and confused, now I think I'm not garbage. I don't try to prove to my parents that I am good at something anymore. But I am a failure with women. I can only be a one night lover.”

  Vincent Gallo (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The state of mind which enables a man to do work of this kind is akin to that of the religious worshiper or the lover; the daily effort comes from no deliberate intention or program, but straight from the heart.”

  Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Since he is unable to be the beloved, he will become the lover.”

  Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “My waking thoughts are all of thee. Your portrait and the remembrance of last night's delirium have robbed my senses of repose. Sweet and incomparable Josephine, what an extraordinary influence you have over my heart. Are you vexed? Do I see you sad? Are you ill at ease? My soul is broken with grief, and there is no rest for your lover.”

  Napoleon (1769–1821) first seen 1796 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Joséphine de Beauharnais (February 1796), as translated in Napoleon's Letters to Josephine 1796-1812 (1901) edited by Henry Foljambe Hall

• “A ruddy drop of manly blood The surging sea outweighs, The world uncertain comes and goes; The lover rooted stays.”

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind. Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky And the affrighted steed ran on alone, Do not weep. War is kind.”

  Stephen Crane (1871–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Underneath the abject willow, Lover, sulk no more; Act from thought should quickly follow: What is thinking for? Your unique and moping station Proves you cold; Stand up and fold Your map of desolation.”

  W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “5) If you've nothing to say, say it any way you like. Stylistic innovations, contorted story lines or none, exotic or genderless pronouns, internal inconsistencies, the recipe for preparing your lover as a cannibal banquet: feel free. If what you have to say is important and/or difficult to follow, use the simplest language possible. If the reader doesn't get it then, let it not be your fault.”

  Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “And on her lover's arm she leant, And round her waist she felt it fold, And far across the hills they went In that new world which is the old: Across the hills, and far away Beyond their utmost purple rim, And deep into the dying day The happy princess follow'd him.”

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover! And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced:”

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There is no penalty attached to a lover's oath.”

  Publilius Syrus (101–101 BC) said by 101 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son.”

  Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) said by 1794 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Dreams of the summer night! Tell her, her lover keeps Watch! while in slumbers light She sleeps.”

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) first seen 1843 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Spanish Student, Act I, sc. iii, serenade (1843).

• “His heart was one of those which most enamour us, Wax to receive, and marble to retain: He was a lover of the good old school, Who still become more constant as they cool.”

  Lord Byron (1788–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “True beauty dwells in deep retreats, Whose veil is unremoved Till heart with heart in concord beats, And the lover is beloved.”

  William Wordsworth (1770–1850) first seen 1824 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: To ____ . (Let other Bards of Angels sing), st. 3 (1824)

• “What fond and wayward thoughts will slide Into a lover's head! "O mercy!" to myself I cried, "If Lucy should be dead!”

  William Wordsworth (1770–1850) first seen 1798 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known, st. 7 (wr. 1798; pub. 1800)

• “But who, if he be called upon to face Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined Great issues, good or bad for human kind, Is happy as a Lover.”

  William Wordsworth (1770–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The only art her guilt to cover, To hide her shame from every eye, To give repentance to her lover, And wring his bosom——is to die.”

  Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) said by 1774 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Parodied by T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922): When lovely woman stoops to folly and Paces about her room again, alone, She smoothes her hair with automatic hand, And puts a record on the gramophone.

• “Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover, Fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I'm a lover of my own liberty, and so I would do nothing to restrict yours. I simply want to please my own conscience, which is God.”

  Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Young India (21 January 1927)

• “Matters of religion should never be matters of controversy. We neither argue with a lover about his taste, nor condemn him, if we are just, for knowing so human a passion.”

  George Santayana (1863–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

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