Famous quotes
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“Oh, weary day that seemed so long! Oh, hours that dragged their weight along!”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wouldst thou know what life should be? Were it mine but to decree What its path should be for Thee ? Look upon those sister powers, Chained, but only chained with flowers, — That bright group of rose-winged Hours”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1823 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (3rd May 1823) Poetical Catalogue of Paintings - The Hours, by Howard.
“Where are the flowers, the beautiful flowers, That haunted your homes and your hearts in the spring ? Where is the sunshine of earlier hours ? Where is the music the birds used to bring ?”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1829 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (9th May 1829) Change
“The poets told thy birth Was welcomed upon earth By the sweet multitude of shining flowers, By bursting buds, green leaves, and sunny hours.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was hidden in a wild wood Of the larch and pine ; It had been unto his childhood Solitude and shrine, — There he dream'd the hours away.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1836 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1836-2) (Vol.47) Subjects for Pictures. III. Rienzi Showing Nina the Tomb of his Brother
“Grief hath stern and silent powers, And her house is proud ; Not to-day's cold guarded hours Is despair allow'd ; But, shut out with haughty fears, Pride with daylight disappears, From the lovely Zegri Ladye — The Ladye weeping there.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1838 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1838 2) (Vol 53) Subjects for Pictures - The Zegri Lady’s Vigil
“I know a lovely little flower, a flower for which I pine — I would go gather it, but bars my heavy hours confine; Oh, grief, when free, how easily that little flower was mine ! . . . Oh, were I sinking to the grave I often ask in vain, And welcome Death stood by to loose the wasted captive's chain — Ah, name me the Forget-me-not, I'd wake to life again!”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1835 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The London Literary Gazette (3rd January 1835) Versions from the German (First Series.) - 'The Lovely Little Flower' — Goethe.
“When I call myself a peasant painter, that is a real fact, and it will become more and more clear to you in the future, I feel at home there. By witnessing peasant life continually at all hours of the day I have become so absorbed in it that I hardly ever think of anything else.”
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) first seen 1885 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote in his letter to brother Theo from Nuenen, The Netherlands, Summer 1885; as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, edited by Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935, (letter 400) p. 21
“That story was the only thing I have ever done which cost me absolutely no pains at all. Usually I compose only with great difficulty and endless rewriting. I woke up one day (more than 2 years ago) with that odd thing virtually complete in my head. It took only a few hours to get down, and then copy out.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: About "Leaf by Niggle", in a letter to Stanley Unwin (18 March 1945)
“Every morning I wake up and think good, another 24 hours' pipe-smoking.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A rare interview with Tolkien (1966) — "Tolkien's shire" by John Ezard, The Guardian (28 December 1991)
“It was evident that he revived by fits and starts. He would suddenly come to himself from actual delirium for a few minutes; he would remember and talk with complete consciousness, chiefly in disconnected phrases which he had perhaps thought out and learnt by heart in the long weary hours of his illness, in his bed, in sleepless solitude.”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Part 2, Chapter 10 (tr. Constance Garnett, 1913)
“Just 2 hours ago, allied air forces began an attack on military targets in Iraq and Kuwait. These attacks continue as I speak. Ground forces are not engaged.”
George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How could such sweet and wholesome hours Be reckoned but with herbs and flowers!”
Andrew Marvell (1621–1678) said by 1678 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The face, which, duly as the sun, Rose up for me with life begun, To mark all bright hours of the day With hourly love, is dimmed away — And yet my days go on, go on.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) said by 1861 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life moves out of a red flare of dreams Into a common light of common hours, Until old age bring the red flare again.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A self-supporting and self-respecting democracy can plead no justification for the existence of child labor, no economic reason for chiseling workers' wages or stretching workers' hours.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Enlightened business is learning that competition ought not to cause bad social consequences which inevitably react upon the profits of business itself. All but the hopelessly reactionary will agree that to conserve our primary resources of man power, government must have some control over maximum hours, minimum wages, the evil of child labor and the exploitation of unorganized labor.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Give me two hours a day of activity, and I'll take the other twenty-two in dreams.”
Luis Buñuel (1900–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No. It was the last hours and he (Hitler) was under pressure. If I could have seen him personally it would have been different.”
Hermann Göring (1893–1946) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Leon Goldensohn, after being asked if he felt any resentment toward Hitler (15 March 1946)
“Aviators live by hours, not by days.”
T. H. White (1906–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At some point when I wasn't paying attention, comedic genocide just stopped working for me. This is a shame because so much fantasy and SF depends on genocide as positive plot element. This trifling oddity of taste must have robbed me of hours of morally equivocal entertainment.”
James Nicoll (born 1961) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Review of T. Kingfisher's Nine Goblins, 2013
“I need my sleep. I need about eight hours a day, and about ten at night.”
Bill Hicks (1961–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To be shaken out of the ruts of ordinary perception, to be shown for a few timeless hours the outer and inner world, not as they appear to an animal obsessed with survival or to a human being obsessed with words and notions, but as they are apprehended, directly and unconditionally, by Mind at Large — this is an experience of inestimable value to everyone and especially to the intellectual.”
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He told himself that everything was fine — he only had to look at the sleeping dog on the floor if he doubted — but in the middle of the night it was hard to be an optimist. When the dawn was still long hours away, bad thoughts took on flesh and began to walk. In the middle of the night thoughts became zombies.”
Stephen King (born 1947) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nyuck-Nyuck-Nyuck, 11, p. 286-287 (First Scribner hardcover edition November 2009)
“I was in the death struggle with self: God and Satan fought for my soul those three long hours. God conquered — now I have only one doubt left — which of the twain was God?”
Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Aceldama: A Place To Bury Strangers In (1898) Preface
“Perfect moments don't turn into half-hours.”
Elizabeth Bibesco (1897–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The dying does not amount to much," he [Zog the Sea Monster] said; "it is the thinking about it that hurts you mortals most. I've watched many a shipwreck at sea, and the people would howl and scream for hours before the ship broke up. Their terror was very enjoyable. But when the end came they all drowned as peacefully as if they were going to sleep, so it didn't amuse me at all.”
L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In order to save the world, Jesus Christ suffered for about thirty-six hours on the cross. I am willing to suffer an eternity in hell for the same cause.”
Chuck Palahniuk (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm sleeping like a baby, too. Every two hours, I wake up, screaming.”
Colin Powell (1937–2021) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Upon hearing that President Bush was "sleeping like a baby" on the eve of war with Iraq, as quoted in "The Tragedy of Colin Powell" (19 February 2004).
“He is no longer with me—by my orders—but then that is merel the carrying-out of an order, after all a kind of negative being-with-me, as he would say. As for any independent life which Bashan might lead without me during these hours—that is not to be thought of.”
Thomas Mann (1875–1955) first seen 1918 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Herr und Hund (A Man and his Dog) (1918)
“Back in my rummy days, I would tremble and shake for hours upon arising. It was the only exercise I got.”
W. C. Fields (1880–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have fought two wars to end war. In 1976, the nations of this world set aside the same amount of money for its starving children as the lavished on armaments every two hours. Can any right-minded man afford to be a pessimist? That was a luxury for easier days.”
Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Horus non numero nisi serenas—"I count only the hours that are serene"—is the motto of a sundial near Venice. There is a softness and a harmony in the words and in the thought unparalleled.”
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) first seen 1827 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On a Sun-Dial" (New Monthly Magazine, October 1827)
“Evidence of submission is displayed by the employee’s going through years depriving himself of his personal freedom for nine hours every day, his ritualistic and punctual arrival at an office, his denying himself his own schedule, and his not having beaten up anyone on the way back home after a bad day. He is an obedient, housebroken dog.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I had the courage to transform the eight-hours day into a law of the State. Do not despise this victory; do not undervalue it. I have approved all the social and pacifist Conventions of Washington... No exceptional laws were pasted, and the regulation of the Press is not an exceptional law.”
Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Election Reform Bill,” speech (16 July 1923) delivered at the Chamber of Deputies, p. 355
“They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done — I’ll have that done in 24 hours”
Donald Trump (born 1946) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: May 2023 at a CNN Town Hall, quoted in 2 July 2024 article by Edith M. Lederer for AP News
“Thieves and astrologers moved restlessly in their sleep, sensing that the hours of night and work were drawing near.”
Fritz Leiber (1910–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Failures are often the results of timidity and fears; disappointments are the results of bashfulness; hours of leisure pass away like summer-clouds, therefore, do not waste opportunity of doing good.”
Ali (599–661) said by 661 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Your hair may be brushed, but your mind's untidy, You've had about seven hours' sleep since Friday, No wonder you feel that lost sensation; You're sunk from a riot of relaxation.”
Ogden Nash (1902–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Margaret Thatcher: ...The first eleven and a half years have not been so bad – and with regard to a twilight, please remember that there are 24 hours in a day.”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: House of Commons statement on the CSCE Summit (21 November 1990)
“The best case scenario is a rapid attack by precision-guided weapons, striking Saddam's communications in the first hours and preventing his deranged orders from being obeyed. Then a massive landing will bring food, medicine and laptop computers to a surging crowd of thankful and relieved Iraqis and Kurds. This could, in theory, all happen.”
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What Happens Next to Iraq", Daily Mirror (2003-02-26): On the 2003 invasion of Iraq
“I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.”
Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The problem of the novel is to stay truthful. The short story, if you really are intense and you have an exciting idea, writes itself in a few hours.”
Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Astronomers have so far escaped the extreme specialization that has overtaken physicists. Telescopes are big, but they are not as complicated as accelerators. Observations with a big telescope can be carried out in hours rather than years.”
Freeman Dyson (1923–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tsk, tsk," I said, not moving at all. "Such a lot of guns around town and so few brains. You're the second guy I've met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.”
Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I wouldn't have said off-hand that I had a subconscious mind, but I suppose I must without knowing it, and no doubt it was there, sweating away diligently at the old stand, all the while the corporeal Wooster was getting his eight hours.”
P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She snorted with a sudden violence which twenty-four hours earlier would have unmanned me completely. Even in my present tolerably robust condition, it affected me like one of those gas explosions which slay six.”
P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The hours I spend with you I look upon as sort of a perfumed garden, a dim twilight, and a fountain singing to it... you and you alone make me feel that I am alive... Other men it is said have seen angels, but I have seen thee and thou art enough.”
George Moore (novelist) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Lady Emerald Cunard, quoted in The Everything Wedding Vows Book : Anything and Everything You Could Possibly Say at the Altar, and then Some. (2001) by Janet Anastasio and Michelle Bevilacqua, p. 97.
“What peaceful hours I once enjoyed! How sweet their memory still! But they have left an aching void The world can never fill.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys, Unfriendly to society's chief joys, Thy worst effect is banishing for hours The sex whose presence civilizes ours.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source