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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“Art matters not merely because it is the most magnificent ornament and the most nearly unfailing occupation of our lives, but because it is life itself.”
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many a writer has spent his life putting his favorite words in all the places they belong; but how many, like [E.E.] Cummings, have spent their lives putting their favorite words in all the places they don’t belong, thus discovering many effects that no one had even realized were possible?”
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We know from many experiences that this is what the work of art does: its life — in which we have shared the alien existences both of this world and of that different world to which the work of art alone gives us access — unwillingly accuses our lives.”
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Profession of Poetry," Partisan Review (September/October 1950), p. 166
“When I speak of the erotic, then I speak of it as an assertion of the life force of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives.”
Audre Lorde (1934–1992) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much (1990) by Anne Wilson Schaef, entry for June 26: "Living Life Fully
“Art has to be a kind of confession. I don't mean a true confession in the sense of that dreary magazine. The effort it seems to me, is: if you can examine and face your life, you can discover the terms with which you are connected to other lives, and they can discover them, too — the terms with which they are connected to other people.”
James Baldwin (1924–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But youth’s fair form, though fallen, is ever fair, And beautiful in death the boy appears, The hero boy, that dies in blooming years: In man’s regret he lives, and woman’s tears; More sacred than in life, and lovelier far, For having perished in the front of war.”
Thomas Campbell (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But often, in the world’s most crowded streets, But often, in the din of strife, There rises an unspeakable desire After the knowledge of our buried life; A thirst to spend our fire and restless force In tracking out our true, original course; A longing to inquire Into the mystery of this heart which beats So wild, so deep in us, to know Whence our lives come and where they go.”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) first seen 1852 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Buried Life", st. 6 (1852)
“One must, I think, be struck more and more the longer one lives, to find how much in our present society a man's life of each day depends for its solidity and value upon whether he reads during that day, and far more still on what he reads during it.”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The constructive schizoid person stands against the spiritual emptiness of encroaching technology and does not let himself be emptied by it. He lives and works with the machine without becoming a machine. He finds it necessary to remain detached enough to get meaning from the experience, but in doing so, to protect his own inner life from impoverishment.”
Rollo May (1909–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wilhelm von Humboldt... stated that the structure of language expresses the inner life of its speakers: "Man lives with the world about him, principally, indeed exclusively, as language presents it.”
Peter Farb (1929–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A high proportion of the population enjoys many of the ‘luxuries’ which until recently were considered the prerogative of the rich; and the ordinary worker lives at what even two decades ago would have been considered in Britain a middle-class standard of life.”
Anthony Crosland (1918–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We're all a bit socially awkward in our band at the best of times, and while we're more comfortable with the fan thing now, it's still odd and slightly surreal. I have friends who are celebrities who're a lot more extrovert and social than me, and they can't lead a normal life because they're so recognisable. It's changed their lives a lot and they can't change it back.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Goodbye England's rose, May you ever grow in our hearts. You were the grace that placed itself Where lives were torn apart.You called out to our country, And you whispered to those in pain. Now you belong to Heaven, And the stars spell out your name.And it seems to me you lived your life Like a candle in the wind, Never fading with the sunset, When the rain set in.”
Elton John (born 1947) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Candle in the Wind 1997, written in tribute upon the death of Diana (1997)
“If happiness is liking the life one lives, I can say I have been happy, and still am.”
Arsène Wenger (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Why should you do a job anyway? What's the incentive?' 'The incentive is to fight anarchy. That's all Man lives for. Reclaiming life from its natural muddle. Making patterns.' 'Patterns for what?' 'For the sake of patterns. To create meaning. What else is there?' 'And what about the things that won't fit into your patterns?' 'Discard them.'”
Christopher Isherwood (1904–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Christian life meant a separation from the standards of that world: you couldn't be a Baal-worshipper, you couldn't sacrifice to idols, be a sodomite, practice infanticide, compatibly with the Christian allegiance. That is not to say that Christians were good; we humans are a bad lot and our lives as Christians even if not blackly and grossly wicked are usually very mediocre.”
G. E. M. Anscombe (1919–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As I get older, the tyranny that football exerts over my life, and therefore over the lives of the people around me, is less reasonable and less attractive.”
Nick Hornby (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now he lives in the islands, fishes the pilin's And drinks his green label each day, He's writing his memoirs and losing his hearing, But he don't care what most people say. Through eighty-six years of perpetual motion, If he likes you he'll smile then he'll say, Jimmy, some of it's magic, some of it's tragic, But I had a good life all the way.”
Jimmy Buffett (1946–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do not imagine that this problem is solely an Iraqi problem because the terrorist front represents a threat to all free countries and free people of the world... Thousands of lives were tragically lost on Sept. 11 when these impostors of Islam reared their ugly head. Thousands more continue to die in Iraq today at the hands of the same terrorists who show complete disregard for human life.”
Nouri al-Maliki (born 1950) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking before the U.S. Congress (26 July 2006).
“I grew up knowing I could have had a million different lives. It makes your life mysterious and your imagination go wild.”
KT Tunstall (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) said by 1616 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think some bacteria have better lives than that [Karls interpretation on the life of an innuit]”
Karl Pilkington (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To the degree that a man possesses a vivid ideal of the good life, submerges himself in the sea of human misery and endeavors to alleviate suffering, kindles imagination in hours of silence and by visions of beauty, and follows the noblest personality into the presence of a loving, suffering Father—to the extent that he lives meaningfully, he will be convinced of sin and cry aloud for deliverance.”
Kirby Page (1890–1957) first seen 1932 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Penitence and Social Progress" World Tomorrow 15 (May, 1932)
“These Lives are the maturest and strongest of Johnson's work. It ought be a comfort to men past middle life to find Johnson, like Dryden, wrote his best prose in his latest years.”
Walter Raleigh (professor) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Make no mistake; the people of Iran will not risk their lives for a candidate, but rather for the dream of human rights, freedom, democracy and ultimately a better life. Like all great enduring movements, this is about ideas, and for this reason the most profound slogan being chanted is: “We don’t want our votes back! We want our country back!”
Reza Pahlavi (born 1960) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Christoph Lehermayr, Der Sohn des Schahs spricht exklusiv mit NEWS.at: "Ich bin bereit, Konig zu werden", NEWS.at, September 15, 2009.
“Distant lands should draw you, people you don't know To read every book, know other's lives, you should be burning You shouldn't exchange for anything the pleasure of a glass of water No matter how much the joy, your life should be filled with yearning”
Ataol Behramoğlu (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All these people who say they are pro-life — at least we would see how many lives are being ended out there by abortions.”
Stacey Campfield (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where does a story truly start? In life, there are seldom clear-cut beginnings, those moments when we can, in looking back, say that everything started. Yet these are moments when fate intersects with our daily lives, setting in motion a sequence of events whose outcome we could never have foreseen”
Nicholas Sparks (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have never doubted for a single instant that the sacred cause to which my comrades and I have dedicated our entire lives would triumph in the end. But what we wanted for our country—its right to an honorable life, to perfect dignity, to independence with no restrictions—was never wanted by Belgian colonialism and its Western allies.”
Patrice Lumumba (1925–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Stuart A Reid in The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination (2023)
“(On H.P.B. (H.P. Blavatsky))And we, who lived around her, who in closest intimacy watched her day after day, we bear witness to the unselfish beauty of her life, the nobility of her character, and we lay at her feet our most reverent gratitude for knowledge gained, lives purified, strength developed.”
Annie Besant (1847–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our lives are so full of activity and "chatter" it’s difficult to find quiet time… Those are the moments that are the most creative for me. The location is less important than the choice to turn other things off. Because I find that the quietest times of my life speak the loudest.”
Regina E. Dugan (born 1963) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "The CNN 10 : Thinkers" (2013)
“If we could only just see our lives as links in the chain of life, and see as our first responsibility to get that next link in the chain safely to the future”
Ann Druyan (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I feel as if I've entered a new era of my life. What strange places our lives carry us to. What dark passages.”
Justin Cronin (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The mid-life crisis is when we think that work is what gives meaning to our lives.”
Gian Domenico Borasio (born 1962) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: It's not about dying", TEDxCHUV address (13 November 2014)
“Let us celebrate Bismarck's memory by making the great idea of his life, devotion to the Fatherland, the guiding star of our own lives. Each of us in the place where he can do his best work. Each of us is responsible for helping the country rise again to that greatness for which Bismarck, who also knew an Olmuetz, prepared the way.”
Gustav Stresemann (1878–1929) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech (1 April 1928), quoted in W. M. Knight-Patterson, Germany. From Defeat to Conquest 1913-1933 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1945), p. 417
“Those we most often exclude from the normal life of society, people with disabilities, have profound lessons to teach us. When we do include them, they add richly to our lives and add immensely to our world.”
Jean Vanier (1928–2019) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jean Vanier, Becoming Human, 2001
“One life is far too little for all the things I feel within myself, and I invent other lives within and outside myself for them. A whirling crowd of invented beings surrounds me and prevents me from seeing reality. Color bites at my heart.”
Marianne von Werefkin (1860–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In my own researches and findings I have always insisted on plastic and sculptural values, and also on what I call a poetic climate. The object, whether it is a book, a bottle, or a human body, once it is visualized and expressed by means of clay, stone, or wood, ceases to be a document and becomes an animated object in stone, wood, or bronze and lives its independent life..”
Ossip Zadkine (1888–1967) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: New York, early 1944; as cited in: Artists on Art – from the 14th – 20th centuries, ed. Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, p. 430
“Consider for example the past-life memories of people under hypnosis. Whether these are actual memories of previous lives or not has yet to be proved, but the fact remains, the human inconscious has a natural propensity for generating at least apparent memories of previous incarnations. In general, the orthodox psychiatric community ignores this fact. Why?”
Michael Talbot (1953–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To distort our faces with joy, or wail and weep with sorrow, or collapse in agony, or wallow in sentimentality – wasn’t an inviolable human trait but something we can lose simply by leading dull and dreary lives. ‘A rich emotional life,’ she’d written, ‘is a privilege reserved only for the daring few’.”
Ryu Murakami (1952–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Further, [President Clinton's] repeated lies to the American people in this matter compound the case against him as they demonstrate his failure to protect the institution of the presidency as the 'inspiring supreme symbol of all that is highest in our American ideals'. Leaders affect the lives of families far beyond their own 'private life.'”
Mike Pence (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[F]rom a purely scientific viewpoint, human life has... no meaning... the outcome of blind evolutionary processes... without goal or purpose. Our actions are not part of... divine cosmic plan, and if planet earth were to blow up... the universe would... keep going... business as usual. ...[H]uman subjectivity would not be missed. ...[M]eaning ...people ascribe to their lives is... delusion.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So at twenty-five you introduce yourself on a dating site as ‘a twenty-five-year-old heterosexual woman who lives in London and works in a fashion shop’. At thirty-five you say you are ‘a gender-non-specific person undergoing age-adjustment, whose neocortical activity takes place mainly in the NewCosmos virtual world, and whose life mission is to go where no fashion designer has gone before’.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Collaboration is important not just because it's a better way to learn. The spirit of collaboration is penetrating every institution and all of our lives. So learning to collaborate is part of equipping yourself for effectiveness, problem solving, innovation and life-long learning in an ever-changing networked economy.”
Don Tapscott (born 1947) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Don Tapscott, in: The spirit of collaboration is touching all of our lives, The Globe and Mail, 7 June 2013
“I drink out of desperation. Life is too dreary to endure. The misery, loneliness, crampedness — they're heartbreaking.[...] What feelings do you suppose a man has when he realizes that he will never know happiness or glory as long as he lives? Hard work. All that amounts to is food for the wild beasts of hunger.”
Osamu Dazai (1909–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The hobby is known as , the cultivation of birds, and it is widespread. From the owner to the breeder of exotic swans and s, millions of people enrich their own lives with bird life.”
Roger A. Caras (1928–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The duration of the life of men may be considerably increased. It would be true progress to go back to the simple dishes of our ancestors. … Progress would consist in simplifying many sides of the lives of civilised people.”
Élie Metchnikoff (1845–1916) first seen 1905 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Strength and Diet by Francis Albert Rollo Russell (London: Longmans, Green, & Co, 1905), p. 2.
“I was raised to be very independent. I was raised to believe I could do anything I wanted with my life. My father said I was lucky to be born a woman because "women can do anything they want" with their lives. Of course, I didn't realize until later that my father was giving me a slightly unrealistic view, but I think that [it] gave me a lot of confidence.”
Michelle Phillips (born 1944) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On her upbringing, The Arsenio Hall Show (1991)
“We have been telling [young people] for decades to demand what they are owed by society. We have been implying that the important meanings of their lives will be given to them because of such demands, when we should have been doing the opposite: letting them know that the meaning that sustains life in all its tragedy and disappointment is to be found in shouldering a noble burden.”
Jordan Peterson (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Animals that are killed for their flesh lead miserable lives. They are kept in disgusting conditions. The simplest little thing you can do not to hurt animals is just not eat them. I'm bringing my four children up vegetarian, and I know absolutely that I'm giving them the very best start in life.”
Sadie Frost (born 1965) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sadie Frost: Vegetarian Testimonial for PETA”, video ad for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (14 October 2011).