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. 1,158,808 quotes Who coined it · How we decide

English Italiano Polski עברית Français Português فارسی Español 中文 Русский Deutsch العربية हिन्दी 日本語 Ελληνικά Latina

Life

Love Friendship Happiness Hope Fear Courage Death Life Time War Peace Freedom Truth Wisdom Knowledge Science Art Music Nature Money Work Power God Beauty Laughter Family Success and failure Change Dreams Books and reading

“I was born in 1953, a child of the Cold War era, raised amid the constant fear of a conflict with the potential to destroy humanity. Whatever other dangers may exist, no such fear exists today. Mine is the first generation able to contemplate the possibility that we may live our entire lives without going to war or sending our children to war. That is a prize beyond value.”
Tony Blair (born 1953) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Martin Bentham, "You're the boss, Tony", The Sun (28 May 1997), p. 2.
“There appear to be no integrating forces, no unified meaning, no true inner understanding of phenomena in our experience of the world. Experts can explain anything in the objective world to us, yet we understand our own lives less and less. In short, we live in the postmodern world, where everything is possible and almost nothing is certain.”
Václav Havel (1936–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our religions provide critical guidance for the way we live our lives, and for the way in which we treat each other.”
Elizabeth II (1926–2022) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: During a speech at Lambeth Palace (15 February 2012). Quoted on royal website
“I am convinced that our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons. Our common prosperity will be advanced by allowing all humanity - men and women - to reach their full potential. I do not believe that women must make the same choices as men in order to be equal, and I respect those women who choose to live their lives in traditional roles. But it should be their choice.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Above all, when your voices are heard in government, it's far more likely that your basic needs will be met. And that’s why reform must reach the daily lives of those who are hungry and those who are ill, and those who live without electricity or water.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have to do our best to uphold in our own lives the values that they were prepared to die for. We have to honor those who carry forward that legacy, recognizing that people cannot live in freedom unless free people are prepared to die for it.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks by President Obama at the 70th Anniversary of D-Day at Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, Omaha Beach, Normandy, France at June 6, 2014
“He doesn't know birds live In another time than man. He doesn't know a tree lives In another time than birds And will grow slowly Upward in a gray column Thinking with its roots Of the silver of underworld kingdoms.”
Czesław Miłosz (1911–2004) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Birth" (1947), trans. Peter Dale Scott
“We're not outside the world, yoz. You know? We are the world. We're its language. So we live and it lives. You see?”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In railway halls, on pavements near the traffic, They beg, their eyes made big by empty staring And only measuring Time, like the blank clock. No, I shall weave no tracery of pen-ornament To make them birds upon my singing tree: Time merely drives these lives which do not live As tides push rotten stuff along the shore.”
Stephen Spender (1909–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A playwright lives in an occupied country… And if you can't live that way you don't stay.”
Arthur Miller (1915–2005) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The New York Times (February 9, 1986)
“You have at hand many examples of good character from whom you will have learned the lessons by which you can live your own lives. You are blessed. Make the most of it.”
John McCain (1936–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We're animals. We're born like every other mammal and we live our whole lives around disguised animal thoughts.”
Barbara Kingsolver (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No amount of legislation can guarantee lasting peace and stability if the people it is supposed to serve are not spiritually and emotionally prepared to live by them (moral values) and where necessary defend them with their lives when it is breached. (18 May 2000)”
Taito Waradi wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.”
William Styron (1925–2006) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview in Writers at Work, First Series (1958), edited by George Plimpton
“His function is to make his imagination theirs and that he fulfils himself only as he sees his imagination become the light in the minds of others. His role, in short, is to help people to live their lives.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The world doesn't live off jam and fancy perfumes - it lives off bread and meat and potatoes. Nothing changes. All the big fancy stuff is sloppy stuff that crashes. I don't need dancing baloney - I need stuff that works. That's not as pretty, and just as hard.”
Theo de Raadt (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Generalities would have been soon forgotten. But the story that had its roots in everyday human existence and need, lives and will live forever. It condensed the philosophy of Christianity into half a dozen unforgettable paragraphs. The parable of the Good Samaritan is the greatest advertisement of all times.”
Bruce Fairchild Barton (1886–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think that the idea of straight edge, the song that I wrote, and the way people have related it it, there's some people who have abused it, they've allowed their fundamentalism to interfere with the real message, which in my mind, was that people should be allowed to live their lives the way they want to.”
Ian MacKaye (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A brush with death always helps us to live our lives better.”
Paulo Coelho (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“ועל זה נאמר והחזקת בו גר ותושב וחי עמך כלומר החזק בו עד שלא :יפול ויצטרך (translation & needed); source citation also needed And about dying it is said, And you shall hold on to him, and he shall dwell and live with you spiritually. That is, hold on to him until he longer lives.”
Maimonides (1135–1204) said by 1204 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If all are born and live for the express purpose of learning to know God, and if the knowledge of God, in so far as it fails to produce this effect, is fleeting and vain, it is clear that all those who do not direct the whole thoughts and actions of their lives to this end fail to fulfil the law of their being.”
John Calvin (1509–1564) said by 1564 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All who strive to live for something beyond mere selfish aims find their capacities for doing good very inadequate to their aspirations. They do so much less than they want to do, and so much less than they, at the outset, expected to do, that their lives, viewed retrospectively, inevitably look like failure.”
Lydia Maria Child (1802–1880) first seen 1868 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to John Fraser (1868)
“Although we tend to think about saints as holy and pious, and picture them with halos above their heads and ecstatic gazes, true saints are much more accessible. They are men and women like us, who live ordinary lives and struggle with ordinary problems. What makes them saints is their clear and unwavering focus on God and God’s people.”
Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bread For the Journey (1996)
“Sure, call me any ugly name you choose — The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, We must take back our land again, America!”
Langston Hughes (1901–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My mission is clear: to ensure that Singapore thrives and grows after Mr. Lee Kuan Yew; to find a new group of men and women to help me carry on where he and his colleagues left off; and to build a nation of character and grace where people can live lives of dignity and fulfillment, and care for one another.”
Goh Chok Tong (born 1941) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Inaugural address, November 2004. — "PM Goh's address to the nation," Straits Times, 29 November 1990.
“Moses is the keystone to every man's ethical code. He was the first man of record in history to conceive of the law as separate from the will of a ruler, to choose whether a man should live by grace of law, or law by grace of man. In a literal sense Moses lives at every council table today.”
Charlton Heston (1923–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I sometimes think a mighty lover Takes every burning kiss we give: His lights are those which round us hover: For him alone our lives we live.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The value of dreams, like … divinations, is not that they give a specific answer, but that they open up new areas of psychic reality, shake us out of our customary ruts, and throw light on a new segment of our lives. Thus the sayings of the shrine, like dreams, were not to be received passively; the recipients had to "live" themselves into the message.”
Rollo May (1909–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[The NHS is] a great national blessing enabling people to live longer and happier lives.”
Keith Joseph (1918–1994) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool (7 October 1958), quoted in Andrew Denham and Mark Garnett, Keith Joseph (2001; 2002), p. 84
“If people knew the story of their lives how many would then elect to live them?”
Cormac McCarthy (1933–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am convinced: people with pure hearts live better lives! Actually, one of the things I look for in a staff member is innocence. I love it when a person is not full of malice or unforgiveness or is not wrestling with secret sin. You can just tell by their countenance-they are wonderful people to be around.”
Ted Haggard (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Who will get rationed? Well, the very old and the very young, obviously, the most helpless and vulnerable among us. But it will also be those who don't live politically correct lives — those who have too many cigarettes or cocktails or cans of soda. "Death by Chocolate" won't just be a cute name on the dessert menu.”
Mike Huckabee (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The bombs held in current nuclear arsenals are seventy times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. If we don’t begin opposing the drift towards more and more of them, we will live in the shadow of the mushroom cloud for the rest of our lives — and millions may die there.”
Johann Hari (born 1979) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: And the solution to the Iran crisis is...a return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty", JohannHari.com (The Independent, 22 January 2006)
“The Eskimos live among ice all their lives but have no single word for ice.”
Ashley Montagu (1905–1999) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Man: His first Million Years, (1957); this quote begins the penultimate chapter of Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan
“Our love is old, our lives are old, And death shall come amain; Should it come today, what man may say We shall not live again?”
Langdon Smith (1858–1908) said by 1908 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The science of human nature belongs to people who are not afraid to live independent lives. They alone have the flexible access to experience which can bring human wisdom and strength into being, and once these assets exist, they will send forth their influence with an authority that cannot be resisted, unmindful of artificial man made boundaries, reaching anywhere in the world.”
Paul Rosenfels (1909–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When we live our lives every day, we're met by opportunities, and most of us don't even recognize them.”
Scarlett Johansson (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe that words can help us move or keep us paralyzed, and that our choices of language and verbal tone have something - a great deal - to do with how we live our lives and whom we end up speaking with and hearing... ("Toward a More Feminist Criticism")”
Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By the mercy of the Lord, you have been given a guru, so your selflessness is simply a matter of serving your guru with more love and care. Give up all of your individualized desires and live for his pleasure, as he lived and lives for you.”
Bhakti Tirtha Swami (1950–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Time is both a mystery and a miracle. A marvel and magic! We live in time and time lives in us.”
Kuruvilla Pandikattu (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We prepare all our lives to live, and in doing so, forget to.”
Kuruvilla Pandikattu (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You kol-isha think you know everything. You think the world was created for your pleasure, but you do not understand the land.You sit there and you breathe and you feel the cold earth beneath you,and you notice nothing. And why? Because you live your lives in cities of stone, building walls to keep at bay the spirit of the land. You see nothing. You hear nothing. You feel nothing.”
David Gemmell (1948–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man makes mistakes, but he lives by them. Foolish it may be on occasion. But in the main it is the only way to live. We are what we say only so long as our words are iron.”
David Gemmell (1948–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We're not close. We're different people, we have different lives, we have entirely different pleasures, we live in different continents. If we weren't brothers we wouldn't know each other.”
Peter Hitchens (born 1951) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview by Hannah Pool, "Question Time", The Guardian (14 May 2009), about his brother Christopher Hitchens
“The people in Israel are preoccupied, seeing how in other countries people live normal and peaceful lives. This reinforces the desire to end the conflict.”
Jonathan Kis-Lev (born 1985) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Teichert, Corina. From Attempts to Crossing Borders (Vom Versuch, Grenzen zu überschreiten), Jüdische Zeitung, 2008-07-28
“And though they may both have felt that something had died between them, something they may not even have been aware or until it was gone and disappeared from their lives forever, they must've felt - both of them - that there was something of themselves, something important, that could not live at all in any other way but by their being together, much as they had been before.”
Richard Ford (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religion's just what we thought before we understood what mental illness was. "A bush talked to me!" "Brilliant, what did it say? What did the bush say? Let's live our lives by what the bush said!" You stupid fucking cunts.”
Frankie Boyle (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That word identity has been hard for many women who live secular lives and maybe harder for religious women and also feminists. But the women's movement has made a big difference. I don't know who it hasn't helped in this world. It's given a lot of Jewish women courage to stay Jewish and fight.”
Grace Paley (1922–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Geometry is grasping space. And since it is about the education of children, it is grasping that space in which the child lives, breathes and moves. The space that the child must learn to know, explore, conquer, in order to live, breathe and move better in it.”
Hans Freudenthal (1905–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God Vishnu has complete power over souls and matter and that Vishnu saves souls entirely by his grace which is granted to those who live pure and moral lives. Evil souls are predestined to eternal damnation and should of mediocre quality will transmigrate eternally.”
Madhvacharya (1238–1317) said by 1317 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source