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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“Laila: Tell your secrets to the wind but don't blame it for telling the trees.”
Khaled Hosseini (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Man, air, trees, world are laid bare and are one!”
Max Pechstein (1881–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“, Worpswede, Worpswede! [small rural village in North-Germany were a colony of German artists was working then, including Paula] My sunken Bell mood! Birches, birches, pine trees and old willows. Beautiful brown moors – exquisite brown! The canals with their black reflections, black as asphalt..”
Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from her Journal, Worpswede 1897; as cited in Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 192
“He loops in crazy figures half the night Among the trees that face the corner light. But when he brushes up against a screen, We are afraid of what our eyes have seen: For something is amiss or out of place When mice with wings can wear a human face.”
Theodore Roethke (1908–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The motion of the stars over our heads is as much an illusion as that of the cows, trees and churches that flash past the windows of our train.”
James Jeans (1877–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In my childhood trees were green And there was plenty to be seen.”
Louis MacNeice (1907–1963) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Autobiography", l. 1 (September 1940)
“I grew up as a tomboy. I was always barefoot, running races with the guys on the block, climbing trees, and beating kids up.”
Edie Falco (born 1963) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Bruce Fretts, Entertainment Weekly (January 15, 1999), http://www.hwwilson.com/_home/bios/1999043105.htm
“To Santa Fe Do you need it? Can you feel it in the same old way? I can feel it from the mountain top Runnin' down to the foamy brine In a rest'rant 'cross a table top Looking into a glass of wine Whispering in the evening breeze Green leaves glist'ning eucalyptus trees Can you hear them? Or get near them?”
Van Morrison (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There had been rain but it had stopped, and the light from a luminously clouded sky was pewter-bright, and puddles on the road were shivering in the wind, and the rooks above the trees in St Anne's Park were being tossed about the air like scraps of charred paper.”
John Banville (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As a boy I was very solitary but blissfully happy. We lived on the edge of town in Wexford and I wandered the fields with my dog, declaiming Keats to the trees.”
John Banville (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He would not journey without a foot. He would not breed nuts without trees, Like seeking for ants in the heath. Like an instrument of foolish spoil, Like the retinue of an army without a head, Like feeding the unsheltered on lichen.”
Taliesin (518–599) said by 599 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pleasant, summer, and slow long day; Also pleasant to pass out of chastisement Pleasant, the blossoms on the tops of the pear-trees; Also pleasant, friendship with the Creator.”
Taliesin (518–599) said by 599 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was a calling on the Creator, Upon Christ for causes, Until when the Eternal Should deliver those whom he had made. The Lord answered them, Through language and elements: Take the forms of the principal trees, Arranging yourselves in battle array, And restraining the public.”
Taliesin (518–599) said by 599 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I so much like real things - the realities that come naturally from the depths of us like - what shall I say? - the way trees grow, from some inner essential principle of them, just expressing itself.”
Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Arthur Griggs (June 22, 1920).
“I look out the window sometimes to seek the color of the shadows and the different greens in the trees, but when I get ready to paint I just close my eyes and imagine a scene.”
Grandma Moses (1860–1961) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Time magazine, Vol. 52 (1948)
“Greenpeace protesters who lived on the trees right above the planned radar location (Google Maps) and who eat environmentally friendly roots, insect, excrements, and dirt.”
Luboš Motl (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above. Don't fence me in. Let me ride through the wide open country that I love Don't fence me in Let me be by myself in the evenin' breeze And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees Send me off forever but I ask you please Don't fence me in”
Cole Porter (1891–1964) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Don't Fence Me In" (1934) written for a never-released film Adios, Argentina, later used in the film Hollywood Canteen (1944).
“There is a Chinese Proverb, which says, if you plan for one year, plant rice. If you plan for ten years, plant trees. If you plan for 100 years, plant people.”
Francis Escudero (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mondrian began with his paintings of the seashore, with blue trees and the cathedral. These paintings were totally symbolist paintings.. .Until the very end Mondrian remains a Symbolist and an Expressionist.”
Anselm Kiefer (born 1945) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1986) n.p.
“I am too close for him to dream of me. I don't flutter over him, don't flee him beneath the roots of trees. I am too close. The caught fish doesn't sing with my voice. The ring doesn't roll from my finger. I am too close.”
Wisława Szymborska (1923–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Few of them made it to thirty. Old age was the privilege of rocks and trees. Childhood ended as fast as wolf cubs grow. One had to hurry, to get on with life before the sun went down, before the first snow.”
Wisława Szymborska (1923–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“White is the wold, and ghostly The dank and leafless trees; And 'M's and 'N's are mostly Pronounced like 'B's and 'D's: 'Neath bleak sheds, ice-encrusted, The sheep stands, mute and stolid: And ducks find out, disgusted, That all the ponds are solid.”
Charles Stuart Calverley (1831–1884) first seen 1862 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dirge, from Verses and Translations (1862).
“Now I am quietly waiting for the catastrophe of my personality to seem beautiful again, and interesting, and modern.The country is grey and brown and white in trees, snows and skies of laughter always diminishing, less funny not just darker, not just grey.It may be the coldest day of the year, what does he think of that? I mean, what do I? And if I do, perhaps I am myself again.”
Frank O'Hara (1926–1966) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mayakovsky, st. 4, from Meditations in an Emergency (1957).
“When I am dead and over me bright April Shakes out her rain-drenched hair, Tho' you should lean above me broken-hearted, I shall not care. I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peaceful When rain bends down the bough, And I shall be more silent and cold-hearted Than you are now.”
Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(Man on television) The investment firm of Smith Barney: they make money the old-fashioned way--they earn it. (Sylvia) Right. The rest of us pick it off trees in the backyard.”
Nicole Hollander (1939–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think God leaves me alone to let me find my own strength because no one else can give it to me. Sometimes it is very lonely. But I know the lonely times teach me the most. I must let go in order to let anything in. No one can love me, for me. Take a big walk protected in the trees. I miss the time before today.”
Sabrina Ward Harrison (born 1975) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Spilling Open: The Art of Becoming Yourself (2000)
“The wind was a torrent of darkness upon the gusty trees, The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, The road was a ribbon of moonlight looping the purple moor, And the highwayman came riding — Riding — riding — The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn door.”
Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Your God still walks in Eden, between the ancient trees, Where Youth and Love go wading through pools of primroses. And this is the sign we bring you, before the darkness fall, That Spring is risen, is risen again, That Life is risen, is risen again, That Love is risen, is risen again, and Love is Lord of all.”
Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yet true it is, as cow chews cud And trees at spring do yield forth bud, Except wind stands as never it stood, It is an ill wind turns none to good.”
Thomas Tusser (1524–1580) said by 1580 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Description of the Properties of Wind, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Sometimes, if you stand very still in the shadows of those places, you can hear songs on the wind, whispers in the trees. That is why I travel.”
Valya Dudycz Lupescu (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hope as rich and green as the trees of an oasis.”
Dawud Wharnsby (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“December, herald of destruction, takes you on a long stroll through the black torsos of trees and leaves scorched in autumn’s fire,as if to say: so much then for your secrets and your treasures, the fervent trill of small birds, the promises of summer months.”
Adam Zagajewski (1945–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When we're young, we notice things that are young, like ourselves. New grass on old graves. New leaves on old trees”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Volume 3: Caldé of the Long Sun (1994), Ch. 1
“If you fell the trees then you destroy human culture as well as the birds of paradise. People depend on the forest and the forest has always depended on us. We are as one.”
Benny Wenda (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Metaphysics — what metaphysics do those trees have?”
Patrick Swift (1927–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Portuguese Notes (Gandon Editions Biography 1993).
“I think that I probably have a real talent for painting trees if I developed it assiduously. I want to give them great density and depth pile heaps of detail into them and yet keep the sense of presence which is the whole point.”
Patrick Swift (1927–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At that second exhibition I had to peer into them and look through the grayed color and wonder what it would be like not gray and then wonder what the forms would be like not crabbed by the figures and trees.”
Donald Judd (1928–1994) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Donald Judd (1974), as quoted in: Joseph J. Rishel et al. (2009) Cézanne and beyond. p. 94: Talking about the work of Cezanne.
“I believe that the fight against substance addictions is very important and is a duty of the state and society, but this fight must be carried out in a deliberate way not to produce large amounts of splinters hurting a lot of people around while only chopping small trees.”
Jerzy Vetulani (1936–2017) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Vetulai, Jerzy (20 February 2009): Wódka groźniejsza niż egzotyczne ziółka. Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish).
“If trees cut stars and eyes to heaven I'll bend them back, I'll bend them again If my skin looks tired and old from living I'll turn right back and live it again”
Richard Ashcroft (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am an artist. Gardening is my graffiti. A graffiti artist beautifies walls; I beautify parkways and yards. I treat the garden as a piece of cloth and the plants and the trees are the embellishment of that cloth. You’d be surprised what soil can do if you let it be your canvas.”
Ron Finley wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Serialists fall into difficulties if they fail to distinguish the wood from the trees and consequently try to assimilate masses of sparsely related irrelevant information”
Gordon Pask (1928–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even as God is common to all, the sun shines upon all trees”
John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) said by 1381 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage (1916) by C. A. Wynschenk Dom, p. 6
“In shapeless clumps the ferns are brown and dead Among the fir-trees dusk is swiftly born: The maples will be desolate by morn The last word of the summer has been said”
Francis Joseph Sherman (1871–1926) said by 1926 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The pine trees whispering, the heron's cry, The plover's passing wing, his lullaby.”
Pauline Johnson (1861–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We walked along a street lined with gardens; on both sides were extensive fields planted with crops, prickly pears, henna trees, and a few date palms.”
Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And so, reaching futilely for answers, they blame the trees!”
Why the lucky stiff (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are still in the position of those who cut the forest and planted some seedlings, and now are surprised that there is no shade. Do I worry that there is no shade? I do. Am I working on making the trees grow? I am, but it cannot grow in one year.”
Zoran Đinđić (1952–2003) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Večernje novosti (30 December 2002).
“Men corner the market on what evolutionary biologists call mate-choice failure, with documented cases involving everything from lampposts to trees to vacuum cleaners. We all make mistakes, I guess – but men more often than women.”
Steve Stewart-Williams (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is enough? Are there enough trees here? As always, it seems that, the more I can distinguish my true needs from my wants, the more of a shock it is to realize how little is enough.”
Kathleen Norris (1880–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dreaming of Trees" anthologized in The Sweet Breathing of Plants: Women Writing on the Green World edited by Linda Hogan and Brenda Peterson (2001)
“I believe that we have all at some time eaten the fruit from trees that we did not plant. In the fullness of time, when it is our turn to give, it behooves us in turn to plant gardens that we may never eat the fruit of, which will largely benefit generations to come. I believe this is our sacred responsibility, one that I hope you will shoulder in time.”
N. R. Narayana Murthy (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source