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. 1,159,190 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“On a long, lonesome highway east of Omaha You can listen to the engine moanin' out its one-note song. You can think about the woman or the girl you knew the night before. But your thoughts will soon be wandering the way they always do, When you're ridin' sixteen hours and there's nothin' much to do. And you don't feel much like ridin', you just wish the trip was through.”
“I woke last night to the sound of thunder, "How far off," I sat and wondered. Started hummin' a song from 1962. Ain't it funny how the night moves, When you just don't seem to have as much to lose. Strange how the night moves, with autumn closin' in.”
“The leader of the band is tired And his eyes are growing old But his blood runs through my instrument And his song is in my soul -- My life has been a poor attempt To imitate the man. I'm just a living legacy To the leader of the band.”
Dan Fogelberg (1951–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If it was a horrible thing I was known for, like some horrible pop song, it would annoy me, but it doesn't. I'm proud of it.”
Mike Oldfield (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Desiree, Oh, Desiree. There I was found By the sweet passion sound Of your loving song. Time was right, the night was long.Remember Desiree, Oh, Desiree. And though somehow I knew I could only have you 'til the morning light, The night was long, the time was right.”
Neil Diamond (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's the same old song, You've gotta be somewhere at sometime, And they never let you fly. It's like broken glass, You get cut before you see it, So open up your eyes.”
Ronnie James Dio (1942–2010) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Stand Up and Shout" on Holy Diver (1983)
“There's perfect harmony In the rising and the falling of the sea. And as we sail along, I never fail to be astounded by The things we'll do for promises And a song.”
Ronnie James Dio (1942–2010) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: All the Fools Sailed Away" on Dream Evil (1987)
“Lack of harmony comes when I feel that I know how to do something better than you. Lack of harmony is the song and dance of superiority. Because everybody feels superior, disharmony at every moment is entering into our lives.”
Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And I don't give a damn about a greenback dollar Spend it fast as I can for a wailin' song and a good guitar The only things that I understand, oh yeah.”
Hoyt Axton (1938–1999) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Greenback Dollar (1963)
“When forever becomes a place...when forever ceases to be just a word… when it ceases to be a just a measurement of time…but instead becomes a place where soul mates can dance to the song in their hearts, that is a reflection of true love.”
Steve Maraboli (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“United States! the ages plead, — Present and Past in under-song, — Go put your creed into your deed, Nor speak with double tongue.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From another side: is Achilles possible with powder and lead? Or the Iliad with the printing press, not to mention the printing machine? Do not the song and saga of the muse necessarily come to an end with the printer's bar, hence do not the necessary conditions of epic poetry vanish?”
Karl Marx (1818–1883) said by 1883 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's hard to come back from the Balkans and not sound like a Pete Seeger song.”
P. J. O'Rourke (1947–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Satirists, be careful. In the 1931 film by René Clair Vive la Liberte a song says, "Work is freedom." In 1940 the sign on the gates to Auschwitz said: "Arbeit macht frei.”
Stanisław Jerzy Lec (1909–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I go to restaurants and the groups always play "Yesterday." I even signed a guy's violin in Spain after he played us "Yesterday." He couldn't understand that I didn't write the song. But I guess he couldn't have gone from table to table playing "I Am The Walrus.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Teutons have been singing the swan song ever since they entered the ranks of history. They have always confounded truth with death.”
Henry Miller (1891–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.The stars are not wanted now; put out every one, Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun, Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; For nothing now can ever come to any good.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If anyone doubts this, let them look to Afghanistan, where the Islamic 'street' greeted the fall of tyranny with song and celebration. Let the skeptics look to Islam's own rich history, with its centuries of learning, and tolerance and progress. America will lead by defending liberty and justice because they are right and true and unchanging for all people everywhere.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When we did that album (Vol. 4) it was like one big Roman orgy-we'd be in the Jacuzzi all day doing coke, and every now and then we'd get up to do a song.”
Ozzy Osbourne (1948–2025) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Guitar World Issue 37, 2000.
“I never did this black-magic stuff. The reason I did “Mr.Crowley” on my first solo album Blizzard of Ozz, 1980 was that everybody was talking about Aleister Crowley. Jimmy Page bought his house, and one of my roadies worked with one of his roadies. I thought, “Mr. Crowley, who are you? Where are you from?” But people would hear the song and go, “He’s definitely into witchcraft.”
Ozzy Osbourne (1948–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I thought that was going to be a good song, too, and then they went and rhymed “time” and “Rhine,” and spoiled everything. p. 24”
Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ooh, he's a moody old man. Song of Summer in his hand. Ooh, he's a moody old man. ...in...in...in his hand. ...in his hand.”
“With no words, with no song You can dance the dream with your body on And this curve, is your smile And this cross, is your heart And this line, is your path Oh it's gonna be the way you always thought it would be But it's gonna be no illusion Oh it's gonna be the way you always dreamt about it But it's gonna be really happening to ya...”
“Feel your hair come tumbling down Feel your feet start kissing the ground Feel your arms are opening out And see your eyes are lifted to God With no words, with no song I'm gonna dance the dream And make the dream come true...”
“Oh will you come with us To find the song of the oil and the brush?”
“Somewhere in between The waxing and the waning wave Somewhere in between What the song and the silence says Somewhere in between The ticking and the tocking clock Somewhere in a dream between Sleep and waking up Somewhere in between Breathing out and breathing in Like twilight is neither night nor morning”
“Oh the dawn has come And the song must be sung And the flowers are melting. What kind of language is this?”
“I am ice and dust. I am sky. I can see horses wading through snowdrifts. My broken hearts, my fabulous dances. My fleeting song, fleeting. The world is so loud. Keep falling. I'll find you.”
“I'll never love any but you," the morning song of the lark; "I'll never love any but you," the nightingale's hymn in the dark.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The First Quarrel, stanza VI., lines 3-4; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“The song that nerves a nation's heart Is in itself a deed.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epilogue to The Charge of the Heavy Brigade, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“I stopped my song and almost heart, For any eye is an evil eye That looks in onto a mood apart.”
Robert Frost (1874–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unless I'm wrong I but obey The urge of a song: I'm—bound—away! And I may return If dissatisfied With what I learn From having died.”
Robert Frost (1874–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Awake, my soul! not only passive praise Thou owest! not alone these swelling tears, Mute thanks and secret ecstasy. Awake, Voice of sweet song! awake, my heart, awake! Green vales and icy cliffs, all join my hymn.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rough wind, the moanest loud Grief too sad for song; Wild wind, when sullen cloud Knells all the night long; Sad storm, whose tears are vain, Bare woods, whose branches strain, Deep caves and dreary main, — Wail, for the world's wrong!”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) first seen 1821 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Dirge (1821)
“Most wretched men Are cradled into poetry by wrong; They learn in suffering what they teach in song.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) said by 1822 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My Song, I fear that thou wilt find but few Who fitly shalt conceive thy reasoning, Of such hard matter dost thou entertain; Whence, if by misadventure, chance should bring Thee to base company (as chance may do), Quite unaware of what thou dost contain, I prithee, comfort thy sweet self again, My last delight! tell them that they are dull, And bid them own that thou art beautiful.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) said by 1822 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Pilgrim of Eternity, whose fame Over his living head like Heaven is bent, An early but enduring monument, Came, veiling all the lightnings of his song In sorrow.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) said by 1822 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The whole truth... sings only —and all lovers are the song”
E. E. Cummings (1894–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“all which isn't singing is mere talking ... and all talking's to oneself alone but the very song of(as mountains feel and lovers)singing is silence”
E. E. Cummings (1894–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And the song, from beginning to end, I found again in the heart of a friend.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the valley of the Pegnitz, where, across broad meadow-lands, Rise the blue Franconian mountains, Nuremburg, the ancient, stands.Quaint old town of toil and traffic, quaint old town of art and song, Memories haunt thy pointed gables, like the rooks that round them throng.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) first seen 1846 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nuremburg (1846).
“A light broke in upon my brain, — It was the carol of a bird; It ceased, and then it came again, The sweetest song ear ever heard.”
Lord Byron (1788–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'll publish right or wrong: Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.”
Lord Byron (1788–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Have they fancies — slow, perchance, Not at their beck, which indistinctly glance Until by song each floating part be linked To each, and all grow palpable, distinct? He pondered this.”
Robert Browning (1812–1889) said by 1889 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over, Lest you should think he never could recapture The first fine careless rapture!”
Robert Browning (1812–1889) said by 1889 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And sings a solitary song That whistles in the wind.”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) first seen 1799 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lucy Gray, or Solitude, st. 16 (wr. 1799; pub. 1800)
“Yet was Rob Roy as wise as brave; Forgive me if the phrase be strong;— A Poet worthy of Rob Roy Must scorn a timid song.”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do noble things, not dream them, all day long: And so make life, death, and that vast for-ever One grand, sweet song.”
Charles Kingsley (1819–1875) first seen 1856 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Farewell" (1856), st. 2, p. 64.
“When, O crowned Jesus; when, O loving Saviour; when, O patient and just Judge — when wilt Thou come forth from Thy hiding, and change tears to smiles, and groans to joys? When shall that choral song burst forth, sweeping through the air, and circling about Thy throne, which shall proclaim the redemption of the world to the Lord God?”
Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887) said by 1887 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How many, once lauded in song, are given over to the forgotten; and how many who sung their praises are clean gone long ago!”
Marcus Aurelius (121–180) said by 180 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus