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Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,159,190 quotes Who coined it · How we decide

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Music

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• “Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing Such notes as, warbled to the string, Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek.”

  John Milton (1608–1674) said by 1674 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source

• “Arms and the man I sing, who, forced by fate And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate.”

  John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source

• “Rise, honest muse! and sing The Man of Ross.”

  Alexander Pope (1688–1744) said by 1744 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source

• “Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring Of woes unnumber'd, heavenly goddess, sing!”

  Alexander Pope (1688–1744) said by 1744 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source

• “Place me on Sunium's marbled steep, Where nothing save the waves and I May hear our mutual murmurs sweep; There, swan-like, let me sing and die.”

  Lord Byron (1788–1824) said by 1824 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source

• “_Alone!_--that worn-out word, So idly spoken, and so coldly heard; Yet all that poets sing and grief hath known Of hopes laid waste, knells in that word ALONE!”

  Edward Bulwer Lytton (1805–1873) said by 1873 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source

• “This child is not mine as the first was; I cannot sing it to rest; I cannot lift it up fatherly, And bless it upon my breast. Yet it lies in my little one's cradle, And sits in my little one's chair, And the light of the heaven she 's gone to Transfigures its golden hair.”

  James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source

• “To sing the same tune, as the saying is, is in everything cloying and offensive; but men are generally pleased with variety.”

  Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source

• “I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.”

  The Bible (active around 812) bartlett, Public domain source

• “I want you to remember me, unite and organise. I want you to remember: if I can do it, you can do it, and together we can sing, Amandla!”

  Myrtle Witbooi first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Myrtle Witbooi, fighter for domestic worker rights. Daily Maverick, 20 January 2023.

• “You don’t have to sound depressed to sing about depression.”

  Busi Mhlongo first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: From depths of despair to top of the charts. Mail & Guardian, 19 February 1999.

• “The song that from the heart would spring Is dead for want of echoing.”

  Isaac Leib Peretz (1852–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “So when or you or I are made A fable, song, or fleeting shade, All love, all liking, all delight Lies drowned with us in endless night.”

  Robert Herrick (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “A song to the oak, the brave old oak, Who hath ruled in the greenwood long!”

  Henry Fothergill Chorley (1808–1872) first seen 1837 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The brave old Oak (lyrics, 1837).

  Also quoted by: H. F. Chorley

• “His goodness stands approved, Unchanged from day to day; I'll drop my burden at His feet, And bear a song away.”

  Philip Doddridge (1702–1751) said by 1751 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. 262.

• “Hark, the glad sound! The Savior comes, The Savior promised long; Let every heart exult with joy, And every voice be song!”

  Philip Doddridge (1702–1751) said by 1751 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Published 1755, Hymns, "Hark, the Glad Sound", Chambers Dictionary of Quotations, p. 278

• “Lo, the book I hold here, In the city cold here !I hold it with a gentle hand and love it as I may; Lo, the weary moments! Lo, the icy comments! And lo, false Fortune's knife of gold swift-lifted up to slay!Has the strife no ending? Has the song no meaning?Linger I, idle as of old, while men are reaping or gleaning?”

  Robert Williams Buchanan (1841–1901) said by 1901 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Never till this day Did life disturb the dense eternity Of joyless quiet; never skylark's song, Or storm-bird's prescient scream, or eaglet's cry, Made vital the gross fog. The very light Is but an alien that can find no welcome”

  Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “When squint-eyed Slander plies the unhallow'd tongue, From poison'd maw when Treason weaves his line, And Muse apostate (infamy to song!) Grovels, low muttering, at Sedition's shrine.”

  James Beattie (1735–1803) first seen 1765 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Judgment of Paris (1765), stanza 109.

• “At the close of the day when the hamlet is still, And mortals the sweets of forgetfulness prove, When naught but the torrent is heard on the hill, And naught but the nightingale’s song in the grove.”

  James Beattie (1735–1803) said by 1803 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Shall I be gone long? For ever and a day To whom there belong? Ask the stone to say Ask my song.”

  Cecil Day-Lewis (1904–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “For ’t is always fair weather When good fellows get together With a stein on the table and a good song ringing clear.”

  Richard Hovey (1864–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I was just reading some poetry, and it talked about how things start as one thing and change into another, and I just thought, what a great concept for a song.”

  Tommy Lee (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Since ever and ever the world began They danced like a ribbon of flame, They have sung their song through the centuries long, And yet it is never the same. And though you be foolish or though you be wise, With hair of silver or gold, You can never be as young as the fairies are, And never be as old.”

  Rose Fyleman (1877–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Who's ever heard of a singer criticized by his song?”

  Aaron Weiss wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I wrote a little song for you With a melody I'd borrowed put to words that didn't rhyme To repeat what you already knew; As the stones thrown at your window tapped in syncopation, You kept a distance out of fear you'd break, But what good's a single windchime, hanging quiet all alone?”

  Aaron Weiss wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “It's justice that He's bringing. It's hidden inside a song. No one's stuck in the middle... the battle is already won.”

  Ysabella Brave (born 1979) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Beautiful" (08 June 2009)

• “It's like forgetting the words to your favorite song You can't believe it; you were always singing along It was so easy and the words so sweet You can't remember; you try to move your feet.”

  Regina Spektor (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “In New York I heard A Piece of Ground, written by a white South African, Jeremy Taylor. I modified it a little and sang it myself. That song is very special to me because it deals with the land question in southern Africa. We were dispossessed of our land.”

  Miriam Makeba (1932–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “My lute, awake! perform the last Labour that thou and I shall waste, And end that I have now begun; For when this song is sung and past, My lute, be still, for I have done.”

  Thomas Wyatt (1503–1542) said by 1542 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “My soul is full of whispered song,— My blindness is my sight; The shadows that I feared so long Are full of life and light.”

  Alice Cary (1820–1871) first seen 1866 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Dying Hymn", in Ballads, Lyrics, and Hymns (1866) p. 326.

• “Low gurgling laughter, as sweet As the swallow's song i' the South, And a ripple of dimples that, dancing, meet By the curves of a perfect mouth”

  Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “When the warrior returns, from the battle afar, To the home and the country he nobly defended, O! warm be the welcome to gladden his ear, And loud be the joy that his perils are ended: In the full tide of song let his fame roll along, To the feast-flowing board let us gratefully throng, Where, mixed with the olive, the laurel shall wave, And form a bright wreath for the brows of the brave.”

  Francis Scott Key (1779–1843) first seen 1806 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Song" in The Port Folio Vol. 1, No. 1 (11 January 1806), p. 79; also in Poems of the Late Francis Scott Key, Esq. (1857), p. 34.

• “And see that girl, with pitcher on her head, And clean white apron on her gown of red,— Her even-song of love is but half-said:She waits the youngest mower. Now he goes; Her cheeks are redder than the wild blush-rose: They climb up where the deepest shadows close.”

  Edmund Gosse (1849–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Many a bard's untimely death Lends unto his verses breath; Here's a song was never sung: Growing old is dying young.”

  Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: To a Poet Who Died Young" in Second April‎ (1921), p. 52

• “Do you remember at the presidential convention where they nominated Bush? Did you know what song they played to bring Bush on stage? No. “The Best of Times” from La Cage aux Folles. I said some fag pulled a fast one on them!”

  Harvey Fierstein (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Knowledge alone is the being of Nature, Giving a soul to her manifold features, Lighting through paths of the primitive darkness, The footsteps of Truth and the vision of Song.”

  Bayard Taylor (1825–1878) first seen 1852 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Kilimandjaro (1852), Stanza 2; later published in The Poetical Works of Bayard Taylor (1907), p. 73.

• “O Poverty! thou source of human art, Thou great inspirer of the poet’s song!”

  Edward Moore (1712–1757) said by 1757 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: A Hymn to Poverty", St. 1 (Poetical Works of Edward Moore, Edinburgh: Apollo Press, 1781, p. 154)

• “What does he plant who plants a tree? He plants the friend of sun and sky; He plants the flag of breezes free; The shaft of beauty, towering high; He plants a home to heaven anigh For song and mother-croon of bird In hushed and happy twilight heard— The treble of heaven's harmony— These things he plants who plants a tree.”

  Henry Cuyler Bunner (1855–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Heart of the Tree. An Arbor-Day Song", stanza 1, in The Poems of H. C. Bunner, new edition (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1899), p. 249.

• “They earned a name that lives in song, Those woodsmen stout and plucky Whose hair and rifles both were long— The Hunters of Kentucky.”

  Arthur Guiterman (1871–1943) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Tall Men", in The Saturday Evening Post (May 24, 1924) pp. 7–8

• “My sword is Strength, my spear is Song; With these upon a stubborn field I challenge Falsehood, Fear and Wrong; But Laughter is my shield.”

  Arthur Guiterman (1871–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Re-wind when the crowd say Bo' Selecta ** song Artful Dodger Feat. Craig David - Re-Rewind”

  Craig David (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “But when you think: Tim McGraw, I hope you think my favorite song. The one we danced to all night long: The moon like a spotlight on the lake. When you think happiness, I hope you think: "That little black dress." Think of my head on your chest, An' my old faded blue jeans. When you think Tim McGraw, I hope you think of me.”

  Taylor Swift (born 1989) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “He's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar, The only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star. He's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do.”

  Taylor Swift (born 1989) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The first thing I did when I picked up any instrument, when I was five years old, was write a song. It's kind of funny; I thought about it, statements that it's a "solo effort" — it's kind of like, "Oh, well I've been doing this since I was five." I was kind of doing this before I did anything else.”

  St. Vincent (musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “You can hear one note of a Kate Bush song, or one note of her voice even, and know immediately what it is. And that is the biggest feat of any artist, especially when you consider, you know, all the roads that she's gone down.”

  St. Vincent (musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “It was not my intention to make such a production of the emptiness between us, playing tuba on the tombstone of a soprano to try to keep some dead singer's perspective alive. It's just that I could have swore you had sung me a love song back there; and that you meant it.”

  Buddy Wakefield (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “O, the sea of lights for streaming When the thousand flags are furled— When the gleaming bay lies dreaming As it duplicates the world!You will come my dearest, truest! Come my sovereign queen often; My blue skies will then be bluest; My white rose be whitest then:Then the song! Ah, then the sabre Flashing up the walls of night! Hate of wrong and love of neighbor Rhymes of battle for the Right!”

  Joaquin Miller (1837–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Human beings suffer, they torture one another, they get hurt and get hard. No poem or play or song can fully right a wrong inflicted or endured.”

  Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Doubletake" from The Cure at Troy (1990) - The Cure at Troy excerpts

• “Empires dissolve and peoples disappear, Song passes not away.”

  William Watson (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

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