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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“My favourite musician happens to be the same as Shakespeare's: John Dowland. His songs are sorrowful but heal the soul by their sweetness and courage.”
John Dowland (1563–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Robert Graves, letter to Idries Shah, September 6, 1968; published in Between Moon and Moon: Selected Letters of Robert Graves 1946-1972, (1984), p. 272.
“Mortality", in Songs of Israel (1824). Abraham Lincoln was fond of repeating these lines.”
William Knox (1789–1825) said by 1825 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I should've been a cowboy. I should've learned to rope and ride. Wearing my six-shooter, riding my pony on a cattle drive Stealing the young girls' hearts Just like Gene and Roy Singing those campfire songs. I should've been a cowboy.”
Toby Keith (1961–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I know all the songs that the cowboys know 'bout the big corral where the doggies go, 'Cause I learned them all on the radio. Yippie yi yo kayah”
Johnny Mercer (1909–1976) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Song "I'm an old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)" (1936)
“He'll never fall in love He swears, as he runs his fingers through his hair. I'm laughing 'cause I hope he's wrong. And I don't think it ever crossed his mind. He tells a joke, I fake a smile That I know all his favorite songs.”
Taylor Swift (born 1989) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: I'd Lie (2007).
“A lot of the songs have a duality about them; one part is totally sincere, and there's another part that is kind of smirking and making light of it all. Or there's a very dark streak about it.”
St. Vincent (musician) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On her album Marry Me, as quoted in "The PopWatch Interview: St. Vincent's Annie Clark" in PopWatch (11 July 2007)
“On the beryl-rimmed rebecs of Ruby Brought fresh from the hyaline streams, She played on the banks of the Yuba Such songs as she heard in her dreams.”
Thomas Holley Chivers (1809–1858) said by 1858 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From a magician's midnight sleeve the radio-singers distribute all their love-songs over the dew-wet lawns.”
Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Late Air". First published in Partisan Review, vol. 5, no. 3 (Aug.–Sep. 1938), p. 64
“Ah, those were the days. David Bowie, Status Quo, The Beatles ... no end of artists I could say I enjoyed in order to sound clever and pretentious. (The Dark Side of Beatles Songs)”
Ben Croshaw (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Imagine, if you will, the dispiriting experience of listening to an awful cover of one of your favorite songs. That's how I felt sitting through Die Another Day, the 20th official outing for [James Bond]. This is a train wreck of an action film … What's missing from this movie? Any real sense that we're watching 007 rather than a generic spy in a tuxedo.”
James Berardinelli (born 1967) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Review of Die Another Day (2002).
“Why are there so many songs about rainbows And what's on the other side? Rainbows are visions, but only illusions, And rainbows have nothing to hide. So we've been told and some choose to believe it I know they're wrong, wait and see. Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection, The lovers, the dreamers and me.”
Paul Williams (songwriter) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rainbow Connection" (1979) (co-written with Kenneth Ascher) - The Muppet Movie opening - The Muppet Show performance by Debbie Harry & Kermit the Frog - Video performance by Willie Nelson.
“Never again I would know her slow kisses which are hardly felt. Never again the ringing mourning bells, songs of the dead that we loved.”
Albert Cohen (1895–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friends I have had both old and young, And ale we drank and songs we sung: Enough you know when this is said, That, one and all, they died in bed. In bed they died and I’ll not go Where all my friends have perished so.”
Charles Henry Webb (1834–1905) said by 1905 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dum vivimus vigilamus, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“I don’t spend my time perusing message boards to find out what people think about me or if people think my songs are good or if people love that lyric or this or that. I just want to be happy with it myself — and if other people like it, that’s great.”
Ben Gibbard (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What should be most significant to us are not physical artifacts, but the meaning they embody. ...whenever we create paintings, songs, poems, books, computer programs—or ideas in the minds of children—we do something of this sort.”
Frank Wilczek (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The sea was so open, so welcoming. Pay her a little respect, and she would carry you anywhere you wished to go. She’d even feed you along the way and lull you to sleep with her songs at night.”
Brandon Sanderson (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Innocence is more false a god than the ones in our songs,” Venli said, sitting beside her sister. “People who chase it will find themselves enslaved.”
Brandon Sanderson (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But that’s part of a lot of people’s stories, whether they are famous or not. There is sacrifice. You know, heavy is the head that wears the crown. I put that in one of my songs—‘Heavy is the head that wears the crown, don’t let the greatness get you down.’ Sometimes, it can be an extreme pressure, but really, it’s an opportunity. I try and have a positive outlook.”
Katy Perry (born 1984) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Katy Perry for Part of Me 3D Movie Orange Magazine (August 30, 2012).
“Sweet songs of youth, the wise, the meeting of all wisdom To believe in the good in man.”
Jon Anderson (born 1944) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lyrics of "Loved by the Sun", on the soundtrack of the film Legend (1986).
“And if I die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take but please don't cry, just know that I have made these songs for you, and if I die before I wake I pray the lord my soul to take cause I'm ready for a funeral”
“A lot of times I wonder what Adam would have written songs about. -Appalachian Melody.”
Mark Heard (1951–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.
“(Spoken) He came out, kinda like tonight, like I am, with just a guitar, and sang some songs. I thought, shit, I could do that.”
Todd Snider (1966–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Heaven above is softer blue Earth around is sweeter green; Something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen Birds with gladder songs o'erflow Flowers with deeper beauties shine. Since I know, as now I know, I am His, and He is mine.”
George Wade Robinson (1838–1877) said by 1877 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Loved with Everlasting Love," Baptist Hymn Book (Pasalms and & Hymns Trust, London, 1962)
“A lot of [my] songs have various strange oddities in them - usually this is the result of late-night dementia.”
Andrew Sega (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unfortunately Sting's jazz work isn't nearly as inventive as his rock songs.”
Andrew Sega (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All true development tends ever to God. Its objective aim is the restoration by the second Adam of the Divine image forfeited by the first; and, incidentally, it transmutes grief into gladness and sighs into songs. But it is always a development in Christ, since it is only " in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God " that any of our race can come "unto a perfect man.”
John McClellan Holmes (1834–1911) said by 1911 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I see myself as a traditionalist … I like traditional things. I like things of substance and value that have been proven. Conceptually, as the songs started to come together, I followed that lead, which is the language I work in.”
Jakob Dylan (born 1969) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview for Columbia Records (2010)
“Rock over London. Rock on Chicago." - Repeated at the end of most songs”
Wesley Willis (1963–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of course, Willis is above criticism -- it's hard to criticize something that is essentially variations on one simple theme, let alone a batch of songs written by a schizophrenic -- but that still doesn't make listening to any of his records any easier.”
Wesley Willis (1963–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“David in his psalms, Solomon in his songs and proverbs, the Prophets in the sublime outpourings of their awful inspiration, and Christ in his parables, those most beautiful and perfect of all allegories, luxuriate in signs and similes drawn from the fair trees of the East.”
William Howitt (1792–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm a perfectionist. I like to get it right. I like to get it good. And you know, writing songs is not -- it's not the kind of thing that you can count on every day. You never know what's going to come or if it's going to come. So you -- you know, it's an uncertain kind of a thing.”
Neil Diamond (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yesterday's songs Don't stay around long, Not much anymore. Yesterday's words Don't make themselves heard Like they did before.”
Neil Diamond (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Because his living presence became such an uncommonly global one, that ministry [Jackson’s individual spiritual concerns] reflected universal ecumenical principles dressed up in ultra-modern dance grooves, love songs to nature, lyrical eulogies in the form of musical elegies, and sermons sung with passionate intensity and suffering eloquence.”
“Too many songs have been written about love already, you know? Subject's covered.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview on Tomorrow with Tom Snyder (5 June 1981).
“They oughtta give me the Wurlitzer Prize For all the silver I let slide down the slot. Playin' those songs sung blue That help me remember you. I don't wanna get over you.”
Waylon Jennings (1937–2002) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Wurlitzer Prize (I Don't Want to Get Over You) (1977).
“In Rome much pamphleteering took the form of verses and songs, circulated orally, or of libelli , defamatory placards or broadsheets (whence our word "libel").”
Moses I. Finley (1912–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To drift with every passion till my soul Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play, Is it for this that I have given away Mine ancient wisdom, and austere control? Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll Scrawled over on some boyish holiday With idle songs for pipe and virelay, Which do but mar the secret of the whole.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Freddie Aguilar, who's billed as "the Bob Dylan of the Philippines." This is unfair, since he's good-looking, plays the guitar well, can carry a tune, and writes songs that make sense.”
P. J. O'Rourke (1947–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm not claiming divinity. I've never claimed purity of soul. I've never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can … But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Out of my own great woe I make my little songs.”
Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) said by 1856 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My songs, they say, are poisoned. How else, love, could it be? Thou hast, with deadly magic, Poured poison into me.”
Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) said by 1856 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lyrical Intermezzo, 57; in Poems of Heinrich Heine: Three Hundred and Twenty-five Poems (1917) Selected and translated by Louis Untermeyer, p. 73
“We look before and after, And pine for what is not: Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught; Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) said by 1822 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts. It rests in the message of hope in songs of a man so many young Americans admire -- New Jersey's own, Bruce Springsteen.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Hammonton, N.J. (19 September 1984)
“Read from some humbler poet, Whose songs gushed from his heart, As showers from the clouds of summer, Or tears from the eyelids start.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God sent his Singers upon earth With songs of sadness and of mirth, That they might touch the hearts of men, And bring them back to heaven again.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We shall march prospering,—not thro' his presence; Songs may inspirit us,—not from his lyre; Deeds will be done,—while he boasts his quiescence, Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire.”
Robert Browning (1812–1889) said by 1889 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Men, I say, never did believe idle songs, never risked their soul's life on allegories: men in all times, especially in early earnest times, have had an instinct for detecting quacks, for detesting quacks.”
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.”
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1712 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 477 (6 September 1712)
“And I made a rural pen, And I stained the water clear, And I wrote my happy songs Every child may joy to hear.”
William Blake (1757–1827) said by 1827 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source