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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“Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow.”
Maria Mitchell (attributed) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Book of Positive Quotations By John Cook, Leslie Ann Gibson (2nd ed. 2007), p. 283.
“Mozart was the Shakespeare of music; and as long as the immortal bard is read, Mozart will live in the admiration of mankind. He has reached the passions through the ear as Shakspeare did through the mind, and no works will live that do not touch the passions and the heart — they are the same in all ages, and will make Shakspeare and Mozart a poet and a composer "For all time".”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) said by 1791 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The New-York Mirror, 1830, quoted in The New York Mirror: A Weekly Gazette of Literature and the Fine Arts, volume 8, p. 347.
“Noel Gallagher: "I used to piss myself laughing out loud on a bus going into town to buy the NME when he was on the cover and there was an interview. Laugh out loud, fucking side-splitting. His lyrics are incredible. I've seen him live a few times. He's one of the best. I've seen him live recently, last year in Australia, and he's still one of the best.”
“Zendaya: "Thank you, Cher. Thank you for being an advocate, for being an ally, for painting the way for so many humans of all kinds to live in and speak their truth and to have the courage to be as daring and as open-hearted as you. Cher once said, 'You should never be inhibited by what people expect you to do.' And those are words I hope we can all learn to live by.”
“For we that live to please must please to live.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“It is better not to live at all than to live disgraced.”
Sophocles (496–406 BC) said by 406 BC at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Socrates said, "Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Thus we never live, but we hope to live; and always disposing ourselves to be happy, it is inevitable that we never become so.”
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) said by 1662 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“But I do think that women who spend all their lives on a diet probably have a miserable sex life: if your body is the enemy, how can you relax and take pleasure? Everything is about control, rather than relaxing, about holding everything in.”
Nigella Lawson (born 1960) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Shane Watson in "The big issue", The Times (2 December 2007)
“And yet she had never felt so bereft, as if her presence in other lives were entirely illusory, as if she herself were a kind of facsimile, pleasant but inauthentic. Before she got too old she must wrest some part of her life for herself, or she would fade, vanish, before anyone noticed her disappearance.”
Anita Brookner (1928–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Tis Sex that rules the lives Of clowns and kings; It gives us books and wives And other things—Ambition, love and strife And all the ills And ecstacies of life, And Freuds and Brills.”
Arthur Guiterman (1871–1943) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sex", sts. 5–6, in The Nation (May 4, 1921) p. 666
“...Generation after generation, this country has become more equal, more inclusive, more fair, more free. My life and so many of your lives are a testament of that truth. But that has only happened because folks like all of you left their comfort zones and made their voices heard.”
Michelle Obama (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think it’s the shock of every writer’s life when their first book is published. The shock of their lives. One has somehow to adjust from being anonymous, a figure in ambush, working from concealment, to being and working in full public view. It had an enormous effect on me. My impression was that I had suddenly walked into a wall of heavy hostile fire.”
Ted Hughes (1930–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I seem to have gathered a reputation for being a jerk in real life, because frankly fans make me uncomfortable. Complete strangers come up and talk to me like they've known me their whole lives, and for that reason I can seem a bit stand-offish... No, the whole "fan" thing confuses me.”
Ben Croshaw (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O, do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks! Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God.”
Phillips Brooks (1835–1893) first seen 1886 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Going up to Jerusalem", Twenty Sermons (1886), p. 330.
“Man is always inclined to regard the small circle in which he lives as the center of the world and to make his particular, private life the standard of the universe. But he must give up this vain pretense, this petty provincial way of thinking and judging.”
Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Humans kill one another – and in some cases themselves – for many reasons, but none is more human than the attempt to make sense of their lives. More than the loss of life, they fear loss of meaning.”
John Gray (philosopher) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man's life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self.”
B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man's life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self too.”
B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Suicide now takes “more lives than war, murder, and natural disasters combined, stealing more than 36 million years of healthy life” around the world.”
Warren Farrell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One cannot escape from the effects of one's past karma. But if a person lives a prayerful life, he gets off with only the prick of a thorn in the leg where he was to suffer from a deep cut.”
Sarada Devi (1853–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My forefathers were Brahmins. They spent their lives in search of God. I am spending my life in search of Man.”
Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My tribulations are so great, my life so disturbed by the plans daily invented to further the King's wicked intention, the surprises which the King gives me, with certain persons of his council, are so mortal, and my treatment is what God knows, that it is enough to shorten ten lives, much more mine.”
Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536) said by 1536 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joanna Denny (2006) Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen, Da Capo Press, , p. 175.
“blacks. As in any free market, the coloreds were the middle classes, as it were—those who would give their lives to maintain the status quo, a life they knew they could never improve but which had meaning only because there were those who suffered worse; that in fact, a larger population suffered worse.”
Chris Abani (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We can either passively continue on the road to utter domestication and destruction or turn in the direction of joyful upheaval, passionate and feral embrace of wildness and life that aims at dancing on the ruins of clocks, computers and that failure of imagination and will called work. Can we justify our lives by anything less than such a politics of rage and dreams?”
John Zerzan (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These new technologies are not yet inevitable. But if they blossom fully into being, freedom may irrevocably perish. This is a fight not only for the meaning of our individual lives, but for the meaning of our life together.”
Bill McKibben (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The joy, the tension, the exhilaration and the happiness those Sundays brought into our lives served as a cushion, I am sure, for the sterner life which was ahead for all of us.”
Learie Constantine (1901–1971) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Changing Face of Cricket (1969)
“Resignation,—not to a whirlwind of inexorable forces, not to a brutal fate or destiny, not to powers who cannot see or hear or feel, but to One Who lives forever, and Who loves us well, and Who has given us all that we have, ay, life itself, that we may at His bidding freely give it back to Him.”
Henry Liddon (1829–1890) first seen 1871 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sermon II: "Humility and Truth" (February 19, 1871), p. 29.
“I made a hurtful and thoughtless comment on Sunday when I said that "I wanted my life back." When I read that recently, I was appalled. I apologize, especially to the families of the 11 men who lost their lives in this tragic accident.”
Tony Hayward (born 1957) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: BP CEO Tony Hayward Issues an Apology for Remarks" on BP America Facebook page, as quoted in Gus Lubin, "BP CEO Tony Hayward Apologizes For His Idiotic Statement: 'I'd Like My Life Back'", Business Insider, 2 June 2010
“The truest worship is a life; All dreaming we resign; We lay our offerings at Thy feet, — Our lives, O God, are Thine!”
John Weiss (1818–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 118.
“I don't want my life to be defined by what is etched on a tombstone. I want it to be defined in what is etched in the lives and hearts of those I've touched.”
Steve Maraboli (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To the American people of 1789, their nation promised a new way of life: each individual a free man; each having the right to seek his own happiness; a republican form of government in which the people would be sovereign; and no arbitrary power over people's lives. Less than two hundred years later, almost every aspect of the dream has been lost.”
Charles A. Reich (1928–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Political ideals must be based upon ideals for the individual life. The aim of politics should be to make the lives of individuals as good as possible.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One is still what one is going to cease to be and already what one is going to become. One lives one's death, one dies one's life.”
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have a great aim before us; a mighty work of reform of ourselves and our lives, of our life in common, of our economy, of our culture. This work does not disturb the rest of the world. We have enough to do in our own house.”
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Gera (17 June 1934), quoted in The Times (26 September 1939), p. 9
“I [Boswell] was somewhat disappointed in finding that the edition of The English Poets, for which he was to write Prefaces and Lives, was not an undertaking directed by him: but that he was to furnish a Preface and Life to any poet the booksellers pleased. I asked him if he would do this to any dunce's works, if they should ask him. JOHNSON: "Yes, Sir, and say he was a dunce.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1777 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (14 September 1777) p. 341
“You, the sons of the pioneers, if you are true to your ancestry, must make your lives as worthy as they made theirs. They sought for true success, and therefore they did not seek ease. They knew that success comes only to those who lead the life of endeavor.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes or in their offices -- secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers. Moms and dads. Friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why, he wondered, did so many people spend their lives not trying to find answers to questions—not even thinking of questions to begin with? Was there anything more exciting in life than seeking answers?”
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am tired with my own life and the lives of those after me.”
T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Song for Simeon", from Collected Poems, 1909-1935 (1936)
“Alas! they had been friends in youth; But whispering tongues can poison truth; And constancy lives in realms above; And life is thorny; and youth is vain; And to be wroth with one we love Doth work like madness in the brain.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrasts between the two lives which it connects. It was the third of March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old.”
Helen Keller (1880–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have found that our great philosophers and our great men of action are optimists. So, too, our most potent men of letters have been optimists in their books and in their lives. No pessimist ever won an audience commensurately wide with his genius, and many optimistic writers have been read and admired out of all measure to their talents, simply because they wrote of the sunlit side of life.”
Helen Keller (1880–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sail forth into the sea of life, O gentle, loving, trusting wife, And safe from all adversity Upon the bosom of that sea Thy comings and thy goings be! For gentleness and love and trust Prevail o'er angry wave and gust; And in the wreck of noble lives Something immortal still survives.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whoever lives a noble life for Christ and God — he is one of God's workmen, working on that building of which God is the supreme Architect.”
Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887) said by 1887 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I do not regard Jainism or Buddhism as separate from Hinduism. Hinduism believes in the oneness not of merely all human life but in the oneness of all that lives.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahatma Gandhi. October 1927. The Collected Works, Volume 35, New Delhi, 1968, pp. 166-67. Quoted in Goel, S.R. History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (1996)
“The Paris slums are a gathering-place for eccentric people — people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent. Poverty frees them from normal standards of behaviour, just as money frees people from work. Some of the lodgers in our hotel lived lives that were curious beyond words.”
George Orwell (1903–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He who binds to himself a joy Does the wingèd life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity's sunrise.”
William Blake (1757–1827) said by 1827 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Aging people should know that their lives are not mounting and unfolding but that an inexorable inner process forces the contraction of life. For a young person it is almost a sin — and certainly a danger — to be too much occupied with himself; but for the aging person it is a duty and a necessity to give serious attention to himself.”
Carl Jung (1875–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What objection is there in reason to there being no other purpose in the sum of things save only to exist and happen as it does exist and happen? For him who places himself outside of himself, none; but for him who lives and suffers and desires within himself — for him it is a question of life or death.”
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source