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

Truth

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

“Originality is the essence of true scholarship. Creativity is the soul of the true scholar.”
Nnamdi Azikiwe (1904–1996) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: [On Nigerian Independence (1 October 1960), quoted in "Between then and now" at The Nation Online (10 March 2009)
“To recognize that some of the things our culture believes are not true imposes on us the duty of finding out which are true and which are not.”
Allan Bloom (1930–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Alison, I know this world is killing you. Oh, Alison, my aim is true. My aim is true.”
Elvis Costello (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There have been people — ever since I've had any kind of position in the world — who have accused me of being ruler of the world. I have to say that I think for the large part, I would have to decide to describe them as crack pots. It makes no sense whatsoever, and isn't true, and won't be true, and to raise it as a serious issue seems to me to be irresponsible.”
David Rockefeller (1915–2017) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In an interview with Benjamin Fulford (13 November 2007)
“The true knowledge or science which exists nowhere but in the mind itself, has no other entity at all besides intelligibility; and therefore whatsoever is clearly intelligible, is absolutely true.”
Ralph Cudworth (1617–1688) said by 1688 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is a new land - a land of pretension because it is new; because classes and systems have not had that time to grow here naturally. We have no aristocracy but of virtue and talent, which is the only true aristocracy, and is the old and true meaning of the term. (Hear, hear.)”
Thomas D'Arcy McGee (1825–1868) first seen 1865 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Legislative Assembly, February 9, 1865
“NOTHING IS TRUE. EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED. A decade on and the rest of the page remains blank for we still cannot find a single datum that remains true under all possible circumstances, nor evidence of the impossibility of anything under all possible circumstances. But by all means have a go....”
Peter J. Carroll (1953–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But it might not be true enough. It might be less than...well...sufficiently true in a particular instance.”
Murray Leinster (1896–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If it were not for the founder of the school, Charles S. Pierce, who has told us that he ‘learned philosophy out of Kant,’ one might be tempted to deny any philosophical pedigree to a doctrine that holds not that our expectations are fulfilled and our actions successful because our ideas are true, but rather that our ideas are true because our expectations are fulfilled and our actions successful.”
Max Horkheimer (1895–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Neither the good nor the true is self-realizing, so it is not generally a sufficient explanation of why people believe that X that X is true, or of why people do Y that Y is good.”
Raymond Geuss (born 1946) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Philosophy and Real Politics (2008).
“Nietzsche asks how it has come about that so prodigious a contradiction can exist as that between the lack of true culture and the self-satisfied belief in actually possessing the only true one and he finds the answer in the circumstance that a class of men has come to the front which no former century has known, and to which (in 1873) he gave the name of “Culture-Philistines.”
Georg Brandes (1842–1927) said by 1927 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From a spinner’s perspective, in India it was never easy for me to judge where to stand: how far forward, how far back, because on Indian wickets the ball does not carry as much as abroad. That is true of slip fielding in general. I wouldn’t say only for spinner – even for a fast bowler, that holds true.”
Rahul Dravid (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Work is not a constraint.Man's activity provides his true fulfilment. True fulfilment however,can only be achieved if one man is not another man's slave.”
Elfriede Jelinek (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What most people don’t realize is that something unprecedented has entered the world. Bang—science—and suddenly a proposition is true because it’s true, Julie, not because its adherents have the biggest churches or the grandest inquisitors or the most weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.”
James K. Morrow (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let the reconciliation of whatever is true in my views with whatever is true in other systems come about in the fulness of calm and careful inquiry.”
Robert Chambers (publisher, born 1802) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“While seeking his true relation to the infinite, Tolstoy was also seeking his true relation to mankind.”
Robert Hunter (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All stereotypes turn out to be true. This is a horrifying thing about life. All those things you fought against as a youth: you begin to realize they're stereotypes because they're true.”
David Cronenberg (born 1943) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted at "InFuze Magazine" (14 Dec 2011)
“After the new forms are introduced into the language, it is possible to formulate with their help internal questions and possible answers to them. A question of this kind may be either empirical or logical; accordingly a true answer is either factually true or analytic.”
Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“... spread on a plane the surface of a sphere in such a way that the positions of all places shall correspond on all sides with each other both in so far as true direction and distance are concerned and as concerns true longitudes and latitudes.”
Gerardus Mercator (1512–1594) first seen 1569 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Legend on 1569 map
“Anything found to be true of E. coli must also be true of elephants.”
Jacques Monod (1910–1976) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Monod adapted this aphorism from an expression of the same idea made in 1926 by the Dutch microbiologist Albert Kluyver: “From the elephant to butyric acid bacterium—it is all the same!
“It has generally been assumed that of two opposing systems of philosophy, e. g., realism and idealism, one only can be true and one must be false; and so philosophers have been hopelessly divided on the question, which is the true one.”
Morris Raphael Cohen (1880–1947) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 7, (1910), p. 407
“Love is a wonderful thing. It makes life worthwhile. I love being in love." "Spoken like a man with plenty of experience. But keep in mind that true love lasts forever." "Poets would say that true love always ends in tragedy.”
Nicholas Sparks (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The starting point for evolutionary psychology is the idea that human beings are animals, and that like all animals, we’re products of natural selection. This is true of our bodies, but it’s also true of our minds.”
Steve Stewart-Williams (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Kinchit nahin bhaybhit main, Kartavya path par jo bhi mile, Yeh bhi sahi woh bhi sahi English translation:I am not afraid of defeat and victory, whatever comes my way of duty, I will accept it, because this is true and that is true.”
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We only have a superficial knowledge about the true rural India -- the power structure, how to operate in tehsils, what are their true concerns, etc. But we think we can significantly change purchasing power and how we live. That's what motivates us”
Mukesh Ambani (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is true, Logotherapy, deals with the Logos; it deals with Meaning. Specifically I see Logotherapy in helping others to see meaning in life. But we cannot “give” meaning to the life of others. And if this is true of meaning per se, how much does it hold for Ultimate Meaning?”
Viktor Frankl (1905–1997) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning (1997)
“Religion must not be considered true because it is necessary, but necessary because it is true.”
Chinmayananda Saraswati (1916–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is true is alas not new, the new not true.”
Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hermann Ebbinghaus cited in: Sills (1968), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, p. 326
“If you are unhappy with anything — your mother, your father, your husband, your wife, your job, your boss, your car — whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you'll find that when you're free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.”
Tina Turner (1939–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is true, it is true that we were beaten, but in the end, by what? By money and certain ethnic votes, essentially.”
Jacques Parizeau (1930–2015) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1995 referendum concession speech.
“Any thought which is printed, either here or in the paper, without subsequent attack is generally believed to be true. This is not so much a logical condition as it is a fault of human nature. A longstanding or constant idea is often equated with a true one.”
George Alec Effinger (1947–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s perfect, isn’t it? It just goes to show that everything I’ve ever said about religion is true. The sky’s the limit when it comes to religious stupidity. Here we have a race of alien invaders, and the evangelical true believers are flocking here to get taken over.”
Rudy Rucker (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is true that many of the problems with which professional philosophers deal do require quite a high level of abstract thought. However, the same is true of almost any intellectual pursuit: philosophy is no different in this respect from physics, literary criticism, computer programming, geology, mathematics, or history.”
Nigel Warburton (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The unknown, our own true nature, has the capacity to wake itself up when you start to fall in love with letting go of all the mental structures you hold onto. Contemplate this: there is no such thing as a true belief.”
Adyashanti (born 1962) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Emptiness Dancing Emptiness Dancing (2006)
“True love is not all bliss. As my teacher said, true love is bittersweet, like dark chocolate. It almost hurts a little bit. Ultimately all emotions contain their opposite.”
Adyashanti (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think the only way you can successfully be a mum and an actress is by not carrying around the burden of the character. Between the time the director says "Action" and "Cut," it's all true for me. But when I stop saying the lines, it's not true anymore.”
Rachel Weisz (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is true of mice is just as true of people. Flies and people are just variations on a theme of how to build a body that was laid down in some worm-like creature in the Cambrian period. They still retain the same genes doing the same job. Of course, there are differences; if there are not, we would look like flies. But the differences are surprisingly subtle.”
Matt Ridley (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The natural philosopher Heraclitus said that man is naturally irrational. If this is true, as it is true, then everyone who enjoys futile glory should hide his face.”
Apollonius of Tyana (15–100) said by 100 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whatever is satisfactory in experience is true, and it is true because it is satisfactory.”
Michael Oakeshott (1901–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A foreign lady friend of mine once wrote and asked me whether it is true that we Chinese believe, like the Mohamedans, that a woman has no soul. I wrote back and told her that we Chinese do not hold that a woman has no soul, but that we hold that a woman,—a true Chinese woman has no self.”
Gu Hongming (1857–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he honour of a woman,— a true woman in China, is not only to love and be true to her husband, but to live absolutely, selflessly for him, In fact, this Religion of Selflessness is the religion of the woman, especially, the gentlewoman or lady in China, as the Religion of Loyalty which I have tried elsewhere to explain, is the religion of the man, — the gentleman in China.”
Gu Hongming (1857–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The whites have absolute control of the State government, and we intend at any and all hazards to retain it. The intelligent exercise of the right of suffrage ... is as yet beyond the capacity of the vast majority of colored men. We deny, without regard to color, that 'all men are created equal'; it is not true now, and was not true when Jefferson wrote it.”
Benjamin Tillman (1847–1918) said by 1918 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Pitchfork Ben Tillman, South Carolinian (1967), by Francis Butler Simkins. Louisiana State University Press. OCLC 1877696, p. 144.
“There are no true enemies, only potential allies- hearts and minds yet to be won, "peaceful people" being deprived of their natural right to fast food, wall-to-wall carpet and high definition pornography. There are no more statues of heroes because no true villains can be acknowledged.”
Jack Donovan (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The true Mathematical and Mechanical Form of all manner of Arches for building with the true butment necessary to each of them, a Problem which no Architectonick Writer hath ever yet attempted, much less perform'd. ...Ut pendet continaum flexile, sic stabit contiguum rigidum, which is the Linea Catenaria.”
Robert Hooke (1635–1703) first seen 1676 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cypher at the end of his A Description of Helioscopes, and Some Other Instruments (1676) p. 31, as quoted in "The Life of Dr. Robert Hooke," The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke, Richard Waller (1705) English translatio…
“A picture whether or not it is really true to fact must above all things appear true.”
Alfred Horsley Hinton (1863–1908) said by 1908 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think what I really learned in all of this, was to be true to myself, to be true to my inner voice. And I began to see, that we really do have the power, our own lives really do make a difference, just by being more conscious of the food that we eat. We can heal ourselves, we can heal the environment, we can heal this planet.”
John Robbins (author) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diet for a New America, 1991 documentary film (visible at Internet Archive)
“It’s what a man thinks is true which controls his actions, not what is really true.”
Michael Kurland (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many of the strongest proponents of climate change are now coming out and saying “it’s simply not true?” Citations please? Who were the “top” [ten?] proponents of anthropogenic climate change over the last decade or more? Has even one of them come out and said that it’s just not true? Because I gotta be honest here. (Someone has to be). I smell bullshit.”
Aron Ra (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is no hoax that mammalian embryos temporarily have pharyngeal pouches, which are morphologically indistinguishable from the gill slits in modern fish embryos, and that the divergence of development from there matches what is indicated in the fossil record. This is fact, not fraud. And none of these facts should be true unless evolution were true also.”
Aron Ra (born 1962) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 13th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism" YouTube (September 3, 2008)
“Indonesia accepted me as a true friend, so I will never forget that. Indonesia is a neighbour, we share the same roots and have a good friendship. It (Indonesia) was also a true friend at a time when I was cast out and sidelined.”
Anwar Ibrahim (born 1947) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Anwar Ibrahim (2023) cited in: "Can Anwar leverage on friendships to attract investments?" in Free Malaysia Today, 28 January 2023.