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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“Beware, Charlie, old men only lie in wait for people to ask them to talk. Then they rattle on like a rusty elevator wheezing up a shaft.”
Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Time Machine (1955)
“Why then you’re as mad as me. No, madder. For I distrust ’reality’ and its moron mother, the universe, while you fasten your innocence to fallible devices which pretend at happy endings. Lie down with machines, rise up castrato. Sweet Jesus, you’ll make the pope’s choir yet. Such innocent quakes my bones.”
Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To talk about the end of science is just as foolish as to talk about the end of religion. Science and religion are both still close to their beginnings, with no ends in sight. Science and religion are both destined to grow and change in the millennia that lie ahead of us, perhaps solving some old mysteries, certainly discovering new mysteries of which we yet have no inkling.”
Freeman Dyson (1923–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People often become scholars for the same reason they become soldiers: simply because they are unfit for any other station. Their right hand has to earn them a livelihood; one might say they lie down like bears in winter and seek sustenance from their paws.”
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.”
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do we write books so that they shall merely be read? Don't we also write them for employment in the household? For one that is read from start to finish, thousands are leafed through, other thousands lie motionless, others are jammed against mouseholes, thrown at rats, others are stood on, sat on, drummed on, have gingerbread baked on them or are used to light pipes.”
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is about him something that seems to soothe and hypnotize. To the best of my knowledge, he has never encountered a charging rhinoceros, but should this contingency occur, I have no doubt that the animal, meeting his eye, would check itself in mid-stride, roll over and lie purring with its legs in the air.”
P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Free trade is the serial killer of American manufacturing and the Trojan Horse of World Government. It is the primrose path to the loss of economic independence and national sovereignty. Free trade is a bright shining lie.”
Pat Buchanan (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These immense cities lie basking on the beaches of the continent like whales that have taken to the land again. What do these great, sleek, well-fed creatures live on so sumptuously?”
Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The oaks of ald now they lie in peat yet elms leap where askes lay. (4.14-15)”
James Joyce (1882–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No, life ends and no, there is nothing elsewhere, and no question now of ever finding again that white speck lost in whiteness, to see if they still lie still in the stress of that storm, or of a worse storm, or in the black dark for good, or the great whiteness unchanging, and if not what they are doing.”
Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The public weal requires that men should betray and lie and massacre.”
Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) said by 1592 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Michael De Montaigne
“The main importance of Francis Bacon’s influence does not lie in any peculiar theory of inductive reasoning which he happened to express, but in the revolt against second-hand information of which he was a leader.”
Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is the story-teller's task to elicit sympathy and a measure of understanding for those who lie outside the boundaries of State approval.”
Graham Greene (1904–1991) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech on receiving the Shakespeare Prize awarded by the University of Hamburg, Germany (1969)
“I cannot tell a lie, I did it with my little hatchet.”
Mason Weems (1759–1825) first seen 1800 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Portrayed as the words of the young George Washington, confessing to have damaged a cherry tree in Life of Washington (1800)
Also quoted by: George Washington (misattributed)
“Hitler: I'm not going to lie to you, it took a while. There were moments all along where I knew something was wrong. I remember one time... I think it was in Munich. We were having a rally. 100,000 people all chanting my name. The bonfires were going. The whole shebang. It should have been a crowning moment, but I clearly remember thinking, What am I doing here? I hate crowds.”
Jon Stewart (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Stamps God's own name upon a lie just made, To turn a penny in the way of trade.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Soros-Lewis mob despises Fox News because we have their number and report on them accurately. They use the MoveOn website to smear this network and others with whom they disagree. These people use propaganda techniques perfected by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of information. They lie, distort, defame all the time.”
Bill O'Reilly (commentator) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Each generation thinks it invented sex; each generation is totally mistaken. Anything along that line today was commonplace both in Pompeii and in Victorian England; the differences lie only in the degree of coverup — if any.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introduction to "Cliff and the Calories," in Expanded Universe, (1980), pg. 355
“If you lie to me, I’ll catch you…eventually. Lying to other people is your business, but I can tell you this: once a man gets a reputation as a liar, he might as well be struck dumb, for people do not listen to the wind.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life in a box is better than no life at all, I expect. You’d have a chance at least. You could lie there thinking—Well, at least I’m not dead!”
Tom Stoppard (1937–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whether you function as welders or inspectors, the laws of physics are implacable lie-detectors. You may fool men. You will never fool the metal. That’s all.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now there’s this about cynicism, Sergeant. It’s the universe’s most supine moral position. Real comfortable. If nothing can be done, then you’re not some kind of shit for not doing it, and you can lie there and stink to yourself in perfect peace.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not, you know, that you lie well, cousin. It’s merely that no one is foolhardy enough to call you on it. This may have given you an inflated idea of your skill at dissimulation.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So much of the uncanny—or the holy, for that matter—is inward experience. As such, testimony about it tends to be tainted. People lie. People delude themselves, or others. People are swayed or frightened or convinced they have seen things they have not. People are, frankly, sometimes simply mad.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Words won't break bones seemed like the lying-est lie Barr had ever been told, as a child. Bones knit eventually, he knew from close personal experience. The scars of slander, an insult not just delivered but believed, might never heal in a lifetime.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There stole into my mind Coleridge's poignant lines: Ah God! It is fell Christmas-tide So to the shops I hie; And my shopping-list, like the Albatross, About my neck doth lie. This was to be included in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" but was dropped to please Wordsworth, who secretly held shares in a large toy-shop and was afraid it might hurt business.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Indeed, the interests of the oppressors lie in 'changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them.'”
Paulo Freire (1921–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So for those of you who haven't read any of my five best-selling books: Liberals are driven by Satan and lie constantly.”
Ann Coulter (born 1961) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: That was no lady — That was my husband" (June 28, 2007).
“Only in the case of immigration is the public systematically lied to from every major news outlet. The media lie about everything, but immigration constitutes their finest hour of collective lying.”
Ann Coulter (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What's Rome to me, what business have I there? I who can neither lie, nor falsely swear? Nor praise my patron's undeserving rhymes, Nor yet comply with him, nor with his times?”
Juvenal (55–200) said by 200 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They all have excellent resumes... So what I’m trying to find out is how they will behave under pressure. Will they lie, or bluff, or panic, or wilt? Or will they continue to function with some modicum of competence and integrity?”
Hyman G. Rickover (1900–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Organisms [...] are directed and limited by their past. They must remain imperfect in their form and function, and to that extent unpredictable since they are not optimal machines. We cannot know their future with certainty, if only because a myriad of quirky functional shifts lie within the capacity of any feature, however well adapted to a present role.”
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science is a method for testing claims about the natural world, not an immutable compendium of absolute truths. The fundamentalists, by "knowing" the answers before they start, and then forcing nature into the straitjacket of their discredited preconceptions, lie outside the domain of science—or of any honest intellectual inquiry.”
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In a coign of the cliff between lowland and highland, At the sea-down's edge between windward and lee, Walled round with rocks as an inland island, The ghost of a garden fronts the sea. A girdle of brushwood and thorn encloses The steep square slope of the blossomless bed Where the weeds that grew green from the graves of its roses Now lie dead.”
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At first it was a lie, then a strong delusion, and at last downright madness.”
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) said by 1852 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Wellington's assessment of George IV's claims that he had been present at the Battle of Waterloo as later recalled by Earl Russell, quoted in Lady John Russell: A Memoir (1910), edited by Desmond McCarthy and Agatha Rus…
“He took a lie detector test. I had him take a polygraph, which he passed, which forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs (laughter).”
Hillary Clinton (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Corruption never has been compulsory; when the cities lie at the monster's feet there are left the mountains.”
Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Shine, Perishing Republic" (1939)
“The world's in a bad way, my man, And bound to be worse before it mends; Better lie up in the mountain here Four or five centuries, While the stars go over the lonely ocean...”
Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Stars Go Over The Lonely Ocean" (1940)
“Our prejudices — we all have them — are part of our personality structure. The problem is that our prejudices may lie lurking at the bottom of the subterranean mind where the slowly ooze up and color our thinking without our knowing it.”
Gerry Spence (1929–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When . . . some leisurely passer-by stopped . . . and spoke of cheating, that was in its way the stupidest lie ever invented by indifference and inborn malice, since it was not the hunger artist who was cheating, he was working honestly, but the world was cheating him of his reward.”
Franz Kafka (1883–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When we know those moments, when we smile, when we let go, when we are not on guard at all – these are the moments when our most important forces show themselves; whatever you are doing at such a moment, hold on to it, repeat it – for that certain smile is the best knowledge that we ever have of what our hidden forces are, and where they lie, and how they can be loosed.”
Christopher Alexander (1936–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No one knows how greatness comes to a man. It may lie in his blackness, sleeping, or it may lance into him like those driven fiery particles from outer space. These things, however, are known about greatness: need gives it life and puts it in action; it never comes without pain; it leaves a man changed, chastened, and exalted at the same time — he can never return to simplicity.”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was lying in a burned out basement With the full moon in my eyes. I was hoping for replacement When the sun burst through the sky. There was a band playing in my head And I felt like getting high. I was thinking about what a Friend had said I was hoping it was a lie.”
Neil Young (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A stupid lie is one that can never make itself believed.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In such times, if you want neither to lie nor to wound, you are reduced to being silent.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Underneath this stone doth lie As much beauty as could die; Which in life did harbor give To more virtue than doth live.”
Ben Jonson (1572–1637) said by 1637 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Soul of the age! The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage! My Shakespeare, rise; I will not lodge thee by Chaucer or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie A little further, to make thee a room; Thou art a monument, without a tomb, And art alive still, while thy book doth live, And we have wits to read, and praise to give.”
Ben Jonson (1572–1637) said by 1637 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where dost thou careless lie, Buried in ease and sloth? Knowledge that sleeps, doth die; And this security, It is the common moth, That eats on wits and arts, and oft destroys them both.”
Ben Jonson (1572–1637) said by 1637 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is an art to have so much judgment as to apparel a lie well, to give it a good dressing.”
Ben Jonson (1572–1637) said by 1637 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source