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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Wisdom
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“It [angling] deserves commendations;… it is an art worthy the knowledge and practice of a wise man.”
Izaak Walton (1593–1683) said by 1683 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
“In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence.”
David Hume (1711–1776) said by 1776 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Better to hunt in fields, for health unbought, Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. The wise, for cure, on exercise depend; God never made his work for man to mend.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) first seen 1700 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epistle to John Driden of Chesterton (1700), ll. 92–95
“Leave to fathom such high points as these, Nor be ambitious, ere the time, to please; Unseasonably wise, till age and cares Have form’d thy soul to manage great affairs.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To be wise and eke to love, Is graunted scarce to God above.”
Edmund Spenser (1552–1599) said by 1599 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For deeds do die, however nobly done, And thoughts of men do as themselves decay; But wise words, taught in numbers for to run, Recorded by the Muses, live for aye; Nor may with storming showers be washed away; Nor bitter-breathing winds, with harmful blast, Nor age, nor envy, shall them ever waste.”
Edmund Spenser (1552–1599) said by 1599 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm growing fonder of my staff; I'm growing dimmer in the eyes; I'm growing fainter in my laugh; I'm growing deeper in my sighs; I'm growing careless of my dress; I'm growing frugal of my gold; I'm growing wise; I'm growing — yes, — I'm growing old!”
John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887) said by 1887 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'T is wise to learn; 't is God-like to create.”
John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887) said by 1887 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Send a wise man on an errand, and say nothing unto him.”
George Herbert (1593–1633) said by 1633 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The wise hand doth not all that the foolish mouth speakes.”
George Herbert (1593–1633) said by 1633 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A foole knowes more in his house then a wise man in another's.”
George Herbert (1593–1633) said by 1633 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nobody, however learned, however wise, can stand in the way of regress.”
Kingsley Amis (1922–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happy is he that grows wise by other men's harms.”
James Howell (1594–1666) said by 1666 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Chinese are wise in comprehending without many words what is inevitable and inescapable and therefore only to be borne.”
Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we study Japanese art, you see a man who is undoubtedly wise, philosophic and intelligent who spends his time how? In studying the distance between the earth and the moon? No. In studying the policy of Bismarck? No. He studies a single blade of grass..”
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) first seen 1888 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Theo, Sept. 1888; as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, edited by Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935, (letter 542), p. 39
“In cloud-ships the gods are wont to travel, and wise cotters have legends that keep them from certain high peaks at night when it is cloudy, for the gods are not lenient as of old.”
H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you still think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence. First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs.”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities to be impressed with it.”
James Madison (1751–1836) first seen 1825 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Rev. Frederick Beasley (20 November 1825)
“You can't be wise and in love at the same time.”
Bob Dylan (born 1941) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No Direction Home (2005)
“A wise man once said, "never discuss philosophy or politics in a disco environment.”
Frank Zappa (1940–1993) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Grace Slick on Rockplace (11 February 1984).
“Every new set of discoveries raises a host of questions which we were never before wise enough even to ask.”
Carl Sagan (1934–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The prediction I can make with the highest confidence is that the most amazing discoveries will be the ones we are not today wise enough to foresee.”
Carl Sagan (1934–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cited in Tim Flannery, Atmosphere of Hope. Solutions to the Climate Crisis, Penguin Books, 2015, pages 162 .
“The food of the wise, Mahāmati, is what is eaten by the Rishis; it does not consist of meat and blood.”
Gautama Buddha (501–501 BC) said by 501 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And ones their hastie heate a littell controlde, Than perceiue they well, hotte love soone colde. And whan hasty witlesse mirth is mated weele, Good to be mery and wise, they thinke and feele.”
John Heywood (1497–1580) said by 1580 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And once their hasty heat a little controlled, Than perceive they well, hot love soon cold. And when hasty witless mirth is mated well, Good to be merry and wise, they think and feel.”
John Heywood (1497–1580) said by 1580 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The wise man sayth, store is no sore.”
John Heywood (1497–1580) said by 1580 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Geoffrey Chaucer
“While I am not a believer in the orthodox sense, I commend religion, first, because every individual should have some ideal — religious, artistic, scientific, or humanitarian — to give significance to his life. Second, because all the great religions contain wise prescriptions relating to the conduct of life, which hold good now as they did when they were promulgated.”
Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not one man in five cycles, who is wise, will expect appreciative recognition from his fellows, or any one of them. Appreciation! Recognition! Is love appreciated? Why, ever since Adam, who has got to the meaning of this great allegory — the world? Then we pigmies must be content to have our paper allegories but ill comprehended.”
Herman Melville (1819–1891) first seen 1851 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 1851); in Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, Memories of Hawthorne (1897), p. 157
“It is — or seems to be — a wise sort of thing, to realise that all that happens to a man in this life is only by way of joke, especially his misfortunes, if he have them. And it is also worth bearing in mind, that the joke is passed round pretty liberally & impartially, so that not very many are entitled to fancy that they in particular are getting the worst of it.”
Herman Melville (1819–1891) first seen 1851 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Samuel Savage (24 August 1851); in Lynn Horth, ed., The Writings of Herman Melville: The Northwestern-Newberry Edition, vol. 14 (1993), p. 203
“Only rarely has the question been raised whether there was any justification for American victory in the Pacific war; and this issue, where faced at all, has been posed in the context of the cold war -- that is, was it wise to have removed a counterweight to growing Chinese power, soon to become "Communist" power?”
Noam Chomsky (born 1928) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They shut me up in Prose - As when a little Girl They put me in the Closet - Because they liked me "still" -Still! Could themself have peeped - And seen my Brain - go round - They might as wise have lodged a Bird For Treason - in the Pound -”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Land of Faery, Where nobody gets old and godly and grave, Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise, Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would mould a world of fire and dew With no one bitter, grave, or over wise, And nothing marred or old to do you wrong.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O love is the crooked thing, There is nobody wise enough To find out all that is in it, For he would be thinking of love Till the stars had run away And the shadows eaten the moon.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Minnaloushe creeps through the grass Alone, important and wise, And lifts to the changing moon His changing eyes.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Come let us mock at the wise; With all those calendars whereon They fixed old aching eyes, They never saw how seasons run, And now but gape at the sun.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mock mockers after that That would not lift a hand maybe To help good, wise or great To bar that foul storm out, for we Traffic in mockery.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Will people ever be wise enough to refuse to follow bad leaders or to take away the freedom of other people? (16 October 1939)”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I could be content that we might procreate like trees, without conjunction, or that there were any way to perpetuate the world without this trivial and vulgar act of coition; It is the foolishest act a wise man commits in all his life, nor is there anything that will more deject his cooled imagination, when he shall consider what an odd and unworthy piece of folly he hath committed.”
Thomas Browne (1605–1682) said by 1682 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am not indeed ignorant that certain over-wise people will call these legends "old wives' fables," and not worth listening to; but I think, for my part, that in such matters it is better to believe the testimony of nations than of those witty individuals, whose little soul is acute indeed, but has a clear insight into no one thing.”
Julian (emperor) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Foreigners are sending messages to the planets. We are sending rice and cereals to our dead fore-father through the Brahmins. It is a wise deed?”
Periyar E. V. Ramasamy (1879–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you are wise, Matson said to himself grimly, you never take one-way trips. Anywhere. Even to Boise, Idaho...even across the street. Be certain, when you start, that you can scramble back.”
Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We should stop going around babbling about how we're the greatest democracy on earth, when we're not even a democracy. We are a sort of militarised republic. The founding fathers hated two things, one was monarchy and the other was democracy, they gave us a constitution that saw to it we will have neither. I don't know how wise they were.”
Gore Vidal (1925–2012) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gore Vidal and the Mind of the Terrorist", interview by Ramona Koval, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio National (November 2001)
“O sleepers! what a thing is slumber! Sleep resembles death. Ah, why then dost thou not work in such wise as that after death thou mayst retain a resemblance to perfect life, when, during life, thou art in sleep so like to the hapless dead?”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) said by 1519 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where and when have riots and anarchy been provoked by wise measures? If the government had acted wisely, and if their measures had met the needs of the poor peasants, would there have been unrest among the peasant masses?”
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Report on Land (8 November 1917); Collected Works, Vol. 26.
“If the learned and worldly-wise men of this age were to allow mankind to inhale the fragrance of fellowship and love, every understanding heart would apprehend the meaning of true liberty, and discover the secret of undisturbed peace and absolute composure.”
Bahá'u'lláh (1817–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. The study of this Book is forbidden. It is wise to destroy this copy after the first reading. Whosoever disregards this does so at his own risk and peril. These are most dire.”
Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh dear Pan and all the other gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside. Let all my external possessions be in friendly harmony with what is within. May I consider the wise man rich. As for gold, let me have as much as a moderate man could bear and carry with him.”
Socrates (470–399 BC) said by 399 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Human history is not the product of the wise direction of human reason, but is shaped by the forces of emotion—our dreams, our pride, our greed, our fears, and our desire for revenge.”
Lin Yutang (1895–1976) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Confucius Saw Nancy and Essays about Nothing (1936), p. 95