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
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“I am sorry that my convictions do not allow me to repeat my friend's offer, said one of the others. But I have had to abandon the humanitarian and egalitarian fancies. His name was Mr. Neo-Classical.”
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My dear Wormwood, I note what you say about guiding your patient's reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not being a trifle naive? It sounds as if you suppose that argument was the way to keep him out of the enemy's clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier.”
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I remember summing up what I took to be our destiny, in conversation with my best friend at Chartres, by the formula, "Term, holidays, term, holidays, till we leave school, and then work, work, work till we die.”
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why is it that one can't borrow from a rich friend and can from a half-starved relative?”
George Orwell (1903–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow.”
William Blake (1757–1827) said by 1827 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am not a God afar off, I am a brother and friend; Within your bosoms I reside, and you reside in me: Lo! we are One; forgiving all Evil; Not seeking recompense!”
William Blake (1757–1827) said by 1827 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is easier to forgive an Enemy than to forgive a Friend.”
William Blake (1757–1827) said by 1827 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The vision of Christ that thou dost see Is my vision's greatest enemy. Thine has a great hook nose like thine; Mine has a snub nose like to mine. Thine is the Friend of all Mankind; Mine speaks in parables to the blind. Thine loves the same world that mine hates; Thy heaven doors are my hell gates.”
William Blake (1757–1827) said by 1827 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the work of Ts'ui Pên, all possible outcomes occur; each one is the point of departure for other forkings. Sometimes, the paths of this labyrinth converge: for example, you arrive at this house, but in one of the possible pasts you are my enemy, in another, my friend.”
Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend.”
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) said by 1894 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lay Morals" Ch. 4, in Lay Morals and Other Essays (1911).
“Wealth I ask not, hope nor love, Nor a friend to know me; All I ask, the heaven above And the road below me.”
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) said by 1894 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is a true saying that a man must eat a peck of salt with his friend before he knows him.”
Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) said by 1616 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I write to thee on this subject, [friend], because I am angry at a book which I have just left, which is so large, that it seems to contain universal science, but it hath almost split my head, without teaching me anything.”
Montesquieu (1689–1755) said by 1755 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But strength alone though of the Muses born Is like a fallen angel: trees uptorn, Darkness, and worms, and shrouds, and sepulchres Delight it; for it feeds upon the burrs, And thorns of life; forgetting the great end Of poesy, that it should be a friend To sooth the cares, and lift the thoughts of man.”
John Keats (1795–1821) said by 1821 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral! When old age shall this generation waste, Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," — that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
John Keats (1795–1821) said by 1821 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The friendships which last are those wherein each friend respects the other's dignity to the point of not really wanting anything from him.”
Cyril Connolly (1903–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I married my best friend. I was still in awe after more than four years of being around her at how smart and strong and loving and caring she was. And I really hoped that her choosing me and rejecting my advice to pursue her own career was a decision she would never regret.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If death is as horrible as is claimed, how is it that after the passage of a certain period of time we consider happy any being, friend or enemy, who has ceased to live?”
Emil Cioran (1911–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My friend, the pleasures to which we are not accustomed oppress us more than the griefs with which we are familiar.”
Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) said by 1870 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Farewell, woman! I intend Henceforth every night to sit With my lewd, well-natured friend, Drinking to engender wit.”
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647–1680) said by 1680 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I remember that a wise friend of mine did usually say, "That which is everybody's business is nobody's business.”
Izaak Walton (1593–1683) said by 1683 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Courage, mon ami, le diable est mort! / Take courage, my friend, the devil is dead!”
Charles Reade (1814–1884) said by 1884 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Be kind to my remains; and oh defend, Against your judgment, your departed friend!”
John Dryden (1631–1700) first seen 1693 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epistle to Congreve (1693), l. 72
“Words, once my stock, are wanting to commend So great a poet and so good a friend.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) first seen 1698 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epistle to Peter Antony Motteux (1698), ll. 54–55
“Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen, Fallen from his high estate, And welt'ring in his blood; Deserted, at his utmost need, By those his former bounty fed, On the bare earth exposed he lies, With not a friend to close his eyes.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Horace, with sly insinuating grace, Laugh’d at his friend, and look’d him in the face; Would raise a blush where secret vice he found, And tickle while he gently probed the wound; With seeming innocence the crowd beguiled, But made the desperate passes when he smiled.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ahmed comes back a conqueror, but what hath he found? The cry of the orphan is loud on his ear, And his eye hath beheld the young bride's bitter tear, And the friend of his youth is left dead on the plain, And the flower of his nobles return not again. There are crowds that are filling the air with his name; Do ye marvel the monarch is loathing his fame?”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dark night, Oh terrible is thy shadow on the battle ! Blows dealt alike on friend and foe, the dead , And dying trampled on— oh, day alone Should look upon the soldier's deeds !”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1823 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1st February 1823) The Cadets. An Indian Sketch
“There is a well of melancholy poetry in every human bosom. We have all mourned over the destroyed illusion and the betrayed hope. We have quarrelled in some embittered moment with an early friend, and when too late lamented the estrangement.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“INGLORIOUS friend! most confident I am Thy life is one of very little ease; Albeit men mock thee with their similes And prate of being "happy as a clam!”
John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887) said by 1887 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A good-natured woman...which is as much as you can expect from a friend's wife, whom you got acquainted with a bachelor.”
Charles Lamb (1775–1834) first seen 1805 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to William Hazlitt (10 November 1805)
“I conceive disgust at those impertinent and misbecoming familiarities, inscribed upon your ordinary tombstones. Every dead man must take upon himself to be lecturing me with his odious truism, that "such as he now is, I must shortly be." Not so shortly, friend, perhaps, as thou imaginest. In the meantime I am alive. I move about. I am worth twenty of thee. Know thy betters!”
Charles Lamb (1775–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wit's an unruly engine, wildly striking Sometimes a friend, sometimes the engineer.”
George Herbert (1593–1633) said by 1633 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Old wine and an old friend are good provisions.”
George Herbert (1593–1633) said by 1633 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The best mirrour is an old friend.”
George Herbert (1593–1633) said by 1633 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“620. Before you make a friend eate a bushell of salt with him.”
George Herbert (1593–1633) said by 1633 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some had rather lose their friend then their jest.”
George Herbert (1593–1633) said by 1633 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a sort of an unwritten code in Washington, among the underworld and the hustlers and these other guys that I am their friend.”
Marion Barry (1936–2014) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Explaining why he was upset at being robbed at gunpoint, as quoted in the Washington Express (4 January 2006), p. 11
“The little folk dare anything", said his friend. "And they talk a lot of nonsense. But they talks an awful lot of sense, as well. You listen to 'em at your peril, and you ignore 'em at your peril, too.”
Neil Gaiman (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It can’t make things any worse.” “If there’s one thing that a study of history has taught us, it is that things can always get worse,” said my friend.”
Neil Gaiman (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.”
Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Attributed to a friend's Buddhist teacher] Be yourself–but be all of you.”
Oprah Winfrey (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Before battle was joined they say that someone from Trachis warned him how many Persians there were by saying that when they fired their bows, they hid the sun with the mass of arrows. Dianeces, so the story goes, was so dismissive of the Persian numbers that he calmly replied, "All to the good, my friend from Trachis. If the Persians hide the sun, the battle will be in shade rather than sunlight.”
Herodotus (484–425 BC) said by 425 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I found myself projected against an obstacle which I could not penetrate. It was like the others, yet incalculably denser; a sticky clammy mass, if such terms can be applied to analogous qualities in a non-material sphere. I had, I felt, been halted by a barrier which my friend and leader had successfully passed. Struggling anew, I came to the end of the drug-dream...”
H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That was the end of our voluntary searchings in the caverns of dream. Awed, shaken, and portentous, my friend who had been beyond the barrier warned me that we must never venture within those realms again.”
H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Chaos is a friend of mine.”
Bob Dylan (born 1941) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Newsweek (9 December 1985)
“The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.”
“You got a lotta nerve to say you are my friend. When I was down, you just stood there grinning.”
“Take care of all your memories. said my friend Mick, For you cannot relive them.”
“Oh God, highest friend in heaven!”
Muhammad (571–632) said by 632 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reşit Haylamaz (2013). The Luminous Life of Our Prophet. Tughra Books. p. 355. Archived from the original on 22 January 2018.
Also quoted by: Ibn Kathir