Famous quotes
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“How many lives we live in one, And how much less than one, in all.”
Alice Cary (1820–1871) said by 1871 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Life's Mysteries; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 442.
“The heart of God through his creation stirs, We thrill to feel it, trembling as the flowers That die to live again, — his messengers, To keep faith firm in these sad souls of ours.The waves of Time may devastate our lives, The frosts of age may check our failing breath, They shall not touch the spirit that survives Triumphant over doubt and pain and death.”
Celia Thaxter (1835–1894) first seen 1868 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rockweeds" in The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 21 (March 1868), p. 269
“Thou great Creator! Pardon us who reach For other heaven beyond this world of thine, This matchless world, where thy least touch doth teach Thy solemn lessons clearly, line on line. And help us to be grateful, we who live Such sordid, fretful lives of discontent, Nor see the sunshine nor the flower, nor strive To find the love thy bitter chastening meant.”
Celia Thaxter (1835–1894) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Before Sunrise", in Poems (1872)
“Those who can create wealth — and know that they can — are able to dictate their own terms. Wealth is a means to happiness, but it is not the main one. What most people want is control over their lives. They want the ability to choose how they live: what work they do, the way they interact with friends and colleagues, the quality of their personal relationships, the way they view themselves.”
Richard Koch (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would wish that people would accept people for who they are, not be judgemental, allow people to live their lives and enjoy themselves and that would be my wish for people.”
John Barrowman (born 1967) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Taste of My Life BBC2 (2008)
“The excellence of a thing is the end for which it was made; as of a star to give light, and of a plant to be fruitful. So the excellence of a Christian is to answer the end of his creation, which is to hallow God’s name, and live to that God by whom he lives.”
Thomas Watson (Puritan) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do not tell people how to live their lives. Just tell them stories. And they will figure out how those stories apply to them.”
Randy Pausch (1960–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How we live our everyday lives has to be the main concern of religion.”
Kodo Sawaki (1880–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Zen Teachings of Homeless Kodo (Somerville, MA: Wisdom, 2014), p. 64
“Redeemers always reach the world too late. God dies, we live; God lives, we die. Our fate.”
Peter Porter (poet) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Tale of Two Pieties", in The Chair of Babel (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992) p. 51.
“People are slaves to the world, and as long as they live favorable and comfortable lives, they are loyal to religious principles. However, at hard times, the times of trials, true religious people are scarce.”
Husayn ibn Ali (626–680) said by 680 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People who live in a calm retreat have a marvelous instinct for imagining storms and disasters in other people's lives, and they secretly rejoice at having avoided them themselves. It is a consolation that must be allowed these people, since pride, too, has its needs, and virtue alone cannot always compensate for long hours of boredom and solitude. (II)”
George Sand (1804–1876) said by 1876 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I see you for what you are, Lord of Death. And I fear you, as all men do. For all that, you are a weak and pitiful king. You can destroy, but never build. You are less than the humblest creature, the frailest blade of grass, for these live, and every moment of their lives is a triumph over you. Your kingdom is dust; only the silent ending of things, never the beginnings.”
Lloyd Alexander (1924–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It seemed to me at an early age that all human communication – whether it’s TV, movies, or books – begins with somebody wanting to tell a story. That need to tell, to plug into a universal socket, is probably one of our grandest desires. And the need to hear stories, to live lives other than our own for even the briefest moment, is the key to the magic that was born in our bones.”
Robert McCammon (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These are the ghosts I live with and I hate myself for all I became and did. I am not just sorry, I am haunted. I think of all the people I hurt, of all the moments I stole from your lives, and I know I deserve to die.”
Sean Sellers (1969–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We need to find the courage to say NO to the things and people that are not serving us if we want to rediscover ourselves and live our lives with authenticity.”
Barbara De Angelis (born 1951) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From Are You the One for Me? (1992)
“It has been said that to appreciate what virtue and morals mean, men must live virtuous and moral lives. It is equally true, that a knowledge of the objects of science is not to be attained by any scheme of definitions, however carefully contrived. He who would know what geometry is, must venture boldly into its depths and learn to think and feel as a geometer.”
James Joseph Sylvester (1814–1897) said by 1897 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: J. J. Sylvester. "A Probationary Lecture on Geometry", Collected Mathematical Papers, Vol. 2 (1908), p. 9
“What do we call a nation? – People who are of the same origin and who speak the same words and who live and make friends of each other, who have the same customs and songs and entertainment are what we call a nation, and the place where that people lives is called the people's country. Thus the Macedonians also are a nation and the place which is theirs is called Macedonia.”
Georgi Pulevski (1817–1895) first seen 1875 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rečnik od tri jezika: s. makedonski, arbanski i turski [Dictionary of Three languages: S. Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish], U držacnoj štampariji, 1875, p. 48f.
“The people of East Pakistan will owe it to the million who have died in the cyclone to make the supreme sacrifice of another million lives, if need be, so that we can live as a free people.”
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1920–1975) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Addressing a rally before the 1970 general elections in Pakistan.
“I confess that it isn't easy to enter on football with the name of someone who is already in football. I feel that with my own son. He already lives under the pressure of being a son of mine. For that I admire Rui Águas and Maldini, who managed to live with the weight of that pressure, and already did a lot.”
José Mourinho (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No religion is absolutely perfect. Yet not only do we fight for religion, but also are we often willing to sacrifice our lives for it. And what we hopelessly fail to do is to live it. A true religion is that which has no caste, no creed, no colour. It is but an all-uniting and all-pervading embrace.”
Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The dead can survive as part of the lives of those that still live.”
Kenzaburō Ōe (1935–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All but a small percentage of Americans live out of their lives without ever coming closer to murder than the daily tabloid can bring them, though magazine fiction and video confer spurious intimacy with the subject.”
James Blish (1921–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They've tried to grasp with too much social fact Too large a situation. You and I Would be afraid if we should comprehend And get outside of too much bad statistics, Our muscles never could again contract: We never could recover human shape, But must live lives out mentally agape Or die of philosophical distention. That's how we feel — and we're no special mystics.”
Robert Frost (1874–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For a city or a people to be truly free they must have the secure right, without economic, political or police pressure, to make their own choice and to live their own lives.”
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter of human rights — the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation — the right to breathe air as nature provided it — the right of future generations to a healthy existence?”
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The truth is that we live out our lives putting off all that can be put off; perhaps we all know deep down that we are immortal and that, sooner or later, all men will do and know all things.”
Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Funes the Memorious" ["Funes El Memorioso"] (1944); also published in Labyrinths (1964)
“It is as natural and as right for a young man to be imprudent and exaggerated, to live in swoops and circles, and beat about his cage like any other wild thing newly captured, as it is for old men to turn gray, or mothers to love their offspring, or heroes to die for something worthier than their lives.”
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) said by 1894 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We must live, you used to say, as if we were never going to die. — Didn't you know that's how everyone lives, including those obsessed with Death?”
Emil Cioran (1911–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The snail lives the way I like to live; he carries his own home with him.”
Julio Cortázar (1914–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For over 40 years, the United States led the West in the struggle against communism and the threat it posed to our most precious values. This struggle shaped the lives of all Americans. It forced all nations to live under the specter of nuclear destruction.”
George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O great creator of being grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives The moths & atheists are doubly divine & dying We live, we die and death not ends it”
Jim Morrison (1943–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“let people return to the use of knots and be satisfied with their food and pleased with their clothing and content with their homes and happy with their customs let there be another state so near people hear its dogs and chickens but live out their lives without making a visit”
Laozi (580–501 BC) said by 501 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those also who are remarkable for having led holy lives are released from this earthly prison, and go to their pure home which is above, and dwell in the purer earth; and those who have duly purified themselves with philosophy live henceforth altogether without the body, in mansions fairer far than these...”
Socrates (470–399 BC) said by 399 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think I prefer to be a Bear," said Big Bru. "I was born a Bear, and I know a Bear's ways. So I am satisfied to live as a Bear lives.”
L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Magic of Oz (1919), Ch. 8 : The Li-Mon-Eags Make Trouble
“The years seemed to stretch before her like the land: spring, summer, autumn, winter, spring; always the same patient fields, the patient little trees, the patient lives; always the same yearning; the same pulling at the chain — until the instinct to live had torn itself and bled and weakened for the last time, until the chain secured a dead woman, who might cautiously be released.”
Willa Cather (1873–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our one duty is to furnish it well.”
Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hillary Clinton I think is a terrific woman. I am biased because I have known her for years. I live in New York. She lives in New York. I really like her and her husband both a lot. I think she really works hard. And I think, again, she's given an agenda, it is not all of her, but I think she really works hard and I think she does a good job. I like her.”
Donald Trump (born 1946) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2007 CNN interview, reported in Zeke J. Miller, "When Donald Trump Praised Hillary Clinton", Time (July 17, 2015).
“I personally have always voted for the death penalty because I believe that people who go out prepared to take the lives of other people forfeit their own right to live. I believe that that death penalty should be used only very rarely, but I believe that no-one should go out certain that no matter how cruel, how vicious, how hideous their murder, they themselves will not suffer the death penalty.”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: TV Interview for Channel 4 A plus 4 (15 October 1984)
“No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever. So, whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.”
J. K. Rowling (born 1965) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 London Premiere (July 2011)
“None of the gender critical women I've talked to hates trans people; on the contrary. Many of them became interested in this issue in the first place out of concern for trans youth, and they're hugely sympathetic towards trans adults who simply want to live their lives, but who're facing a backlash for a brand of activism they don't endorse.”
J. K. Rowling (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.”
Jimmy Carter (1924–2024) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Addressing a Bible class in Plains, Georgia (March 1976), as quoted in Boston Sunday Herald Advertiser (11 April 1976)
“Men of unlimited means live lives of unbridled lust, and then, in their old age, they are helpless victims of their own impulses.”
Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Book of Life (1921)
“So our lives In acts exemplary, not only win Ourselves good names, but doth to others give Matter for virtuous deeds, by which we live.”
George Chapman (1559–1634) said by 1634 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For as the light Not only serves to show, but render us Mutually profitable; so our lives, In acts exemplary, not only win Ourselves good names, but do to others give Matter for virtuous deeds, by which we live.”
George Chapman (1559–1634) said by 1634 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here I am, a human being who came in this world just like anybody else did. A lot of things happen in our lives. Some traumatic experiences happen, some happy experiences happen. And we all live. We all survive. And there is the one thing that’s so simple and so profound within inside of us, which is completely uncontaminated by everything that happens, everything that occurs all around us”
Prem Rawat (born 1957) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Miami Beach, Florida, January 16, 1981
“I need not repeat, that the most savage of the savage tribes in the forest, live among each other in amity. Lions show no fierceness to the lion race. The boar does not brandish his deadly tooth against his brother boar. The lynx lives in peace with the lynx. The serpent shews no venom in his intercourse with his fellow serpent; and the loving kindness of wolf to wolf is proverbial.”
Erasmus (1466–1536) said by 1536 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most people live in a half-dream all their lives and call it reality.”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Appendix, letter to Elizabeth Otis (25 July 1959)
“The things we own, the places we live, the events of our lives: empty settings. How easy to chase after settings, and forget diamonds! The only thing that matters, at the end of a stay on earth, is how well did we love, what was the quality of our love?”
Richard Bach (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Women still live longer than men because their lives are easier.”
Rush Limbaugh (1951–2021) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: March 1, 2005, on The Rush Limbaugh Show (; ; )