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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“In a dream I saw Jesus and My God Pan sitting together in the heart of the forest. They laughed at each other's speech, with the brook that ran near them, and the laughter of Jesus was the merrier. And they conversed long.”
Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But Master, Sky-heart, Knight of our fairer dream, You do still tread this day; Nor bows nor spears shall stay your steps. You walk through all our arrows.”
Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We're gambling on our vision, and we would rather do that than make "me too" products. Let some other companies do that. For us, it's always the next dream.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview about the release of the Macintosh (24 January 1984) - (online video)
“We used to dream about this stuff. Now we get to build it. It's pretty great.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Keynote address at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (June 2004)
“The world to me is a dream and the people in it are sleepers. I have known a few instances of intensity but that is all. I want to find a world in which these instances are united. Shall I succeed? I scarcely care. What is important is to try & learn to live, and in relation to everything – not isolated. This isolation is death to me.”
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) said by 1923 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to S. S. Koteliansky, as quoted in "Always my thoughts & feelings go back to New Zealand" by Vincent O'Sullivan, in NZ Listener Vol 214 No 3556, (July 5-11 2008)
“Many women would like to dream with men without sleeping with them. Someone should point out to them that this is utterly impossible.”
Karl Kraus (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science fiction: The body's dream of becoming a machine. Robotics: The moral degradation of the machine. Typewriter: It types us, encoding its own linear bias across the free space of the imagination.”
J. G. Ballard (1930–2009) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Project for a Glossary of the Twentieth Century", reprinted in Selected Nonfiction, 1962-2007 (The MIT Press, 2023).
“He wondered if she would dream about a man who never left her, about some unemployed agoraphobic Indian warrior who liked to wash dishes.”
Sherman Alexie (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The temptation is to think that Vicente Fox, who heads a country 46% of whose people would like to live in the United States, is but another failed Third World visionary prattling on for the benefit of globalists who have been beavering away on their impossible dream for generations...”
Pat Buchanan (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is difficult to set forth any of the greater ideas, except by the use of examples; for it would seem that each of us knows everything that he knows as if in a dream and then again, when he is as it were awake, knows nothing of it all.”
Plato (429–349 BC) said by 349 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Love — but not marriage. Marriage means a four-post bed and papa and mamma between eleven and twelve. Love is aspiration: transparencies, colour, light, a sense of the unreal. But a wife — you know all about her — who her father was, who her mother was, what she thinks of you and her opinion of the neighbours over the way. Where, then, is the dream?”
George Moore (novelist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Man is a torch borne in the wind; a dream But of a shadow, summ'd with all his substance.”
George Chapman (1559–1634) said by 1634 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To dream of taking the sword in the breast, the bullet in the brain [...] and wake up to find the world goes wretchedly on and you will die of age and not of pain.”
Tom Stoppard (1937–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why shouldn’t a madman dream of being sane?”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps life is just that... a dream and a fear.”
Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The peak of my school experience of Shakespeare came in my senior matriculation year; the set play was "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and it was taught by a solemn donkey who understood nothing but the political organization of fairyland. I well remember him dictating a long note which began, "The fairies live in fairyland full stop. They have a king comma and a queen.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not possible to remake this country, to democratize it, humanize it, make it serious, as long as we have teenagers killing people for play and offending life, destroying the dream, and making love unviable. If education alone cannot transform society, without it society cannot change either.”
Paulo Freire (1921–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't think it's going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.”
Ann Coulter (born 1961) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: interview with New York Observer (October 2, 2007), quoted in {{citation
“The smile that flickers on baby's lips when he sleeps — does anybody know where it was born? Yes, there is a rumor that a young pale beam of a crescent moon touched the edge of a vanishing autumn cloud, and there the smile was first born in the dream of a dew-washed morning.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O Woman, you are not merely the handiwork of God, but also of men; these are ever endowing you with beauty from their own hearts … You are one-half woman and one-half dream.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don't copy nature too closely. Art is an abstraction; as you dream amide nature, extrapolate art from it and concentrate on what you will create as a result.”
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) first seen 1885 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: pp. 5 & 22: Gauguin is advising a fellow painter, 1885
“A great sentiment can be rendered immediately. Dream on it and look for the simplest form in which you can express it.”
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) first seen 1885 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 5: Letter to Emile Schuffenecker, (Copenhagen, 14 January 1885)
“My eyes close and uncomprehendingly see the dream in the infinite space that stretches away, elusive, before me.”
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) first seen 1899 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: pp. 184-185: Letter to André Fontainas, March 1899
“I could have given him false consolation then, I suppose. I could have lied, and said that what he had seen was a fever dream, a fantasy, that Athilan would endure forever and a day. But I’m not much good at lying. And I knew that he wasn’t looking for lies from me, or consolations, or anything else that might make him feel good for a moment at the expense of the truth.”
Robert Silverberg (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Forget that I remember And dream that I forget.”
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe that in America, if you can dream it, you should be able to build it.”
Hillary Clinton (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is again made clean.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1956
“Blue Moon, You saw me standing alone, Without a dream in my heart, Without a love of my own.”
Lorenz Hart (1895–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Blue Moon, Now I'm no longer alone, Without a dream in my heart, Without a love of my own.”
Lorenz Hart (1895–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“… this dream that men shall cease to waste strength in competition and shall come to pool their powers of production is coming to pass all over the earth.”
Jane Addams (1860–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I dream of a time when the people will retake their airways and use them to achieve a voice to rediscover democracy, and to see the divine potential of man.”
Gerry Spence (1929–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“America needs to be a place where all of us can feel a part of the American dream. But it will not happen by dividing us into racial groups. It will not happen by trying to turn the poor against the rich. It will not happen by asking Americans to accept what is immoral and wrong in the name of tolerance.”
J. C. Watts (born 1957) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Delivering the Republican Party response to President Bill Clinton's "State of the Union" Address (1997-02-04)
“I dream of a grave, deep and narrow, where we could clasp each other in our arms as with clamps, and I would hide my face in you and you would hide your face in me, and nobody would ever see us any more”
Franz Kafka (1883–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If sleep is the apogee of physical relaxation, boredom is the apogee of mental relaxation. Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience.”
Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My tendency to want to do away feels natural and My urgency to dream of softer places feels understandable, But I knowThe only way out is through, The faster we're in, the better. The only way out is through ultimately.”
Alanis Morissette (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Because we all share this small planet earth, we have to learn to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature. That is not just a dream, but a necessity. We are dependent on each other in so many ways, that we can no longer live in isolated communities and ignore what is happening outside those communities, and we must share the good fortune that we enjoy.”
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I visited Costa Rica earlier this year, I saw how a country can develop successfully without an army, to become a stable democracy committed to peace and the protection of the natural environment. This confirmed my belief that my vision of Tibet in the future is a realistic plan, not merely a dream.”
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For two years I have lived outside the world: in a dream world. One by one, I let each strand tying me to the world and to my fellow men be cut. I live entirely for the mind, for the heart not at all …. I turned myself into a bear, inside and outside … other people did not exist for me. For perhaps two years, I didn’t laugh once and I didn’t cry … but I never hurt anyone but myself.”
Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gramsci cited in Davidson, 1977, p. 70.
“No little appetite or pain, no carelessness or meanness in him escaped her; no thought or dream or longing in him ever reached her. And yet several times in her life she had seen the stars.”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Moon Is Down (1942), p. 7
“Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most people live in a half-dream all their lives and call it reality.”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Appendix, letter to Elizabeth Otis (25 July 1959)
“There is a town in north Ontario, With dream comfort memory to spare, And in my mind I still need a place to go, All my changes were there.”
Neil Young (born 1945) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Helpless, from Déjà Vu (1970)
“If I was a junkman selling you cars, Washing your windows and shining your stars, Thinking your mind was my own in a dream What would you wonder and how would it seem? Living in castles a bit at a time The King started laughing and talking in rhyme. Singing words, words between the lines of age. Words, words between the lines of age.”
Neil Young (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is all our Life, then, but a dream Seen faintly in the golden gleam Athwart Time's dark resistless stream?Bowed to the earth with bitter woe Or laughing at some raree-show We flutter idly to and fro.Man's little Day in haste we spend, And, from its merry noontide, send No glance to meet the silent end.”
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) said by 1898 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ye golden hours of Life's young spring, Of innocence, of love and truth! Bright, beyond all imagining, Thou fairy-dream of youth!I'd give all wealth that years have piled, The slow result of Life's decay, To be once more a little child For one bright summer-day.”
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) first seen 1853 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Solitude (1853), conclusion
“Dream. Lost memory.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is better to be concerned with being than with nothingness. Dream therefore of what you still have rather than what you have lost.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If a baby really has no awareness of himself and is totally thing-directed and at the same time all his states of mind are projected onto things, our second paradox makes sense: on the one hand, thought in babies can be viewed as pure accommodation or exploratory movements, but on the other this very same thought is only one, long, completely autistic waking dream.”
Jean Piaget (1896–1980) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The First Year of Life of the Child (1927), "The Egocentrism of the Child and the Solipsism of the Baby", as translated by Howard E. Gruber and J. Jacques Vonèche
“So if I could employ A little magic that will finally destroy This dream that pains me and enchains me But I can't because I'm mad... I'm mad about the boy”
Noël Coward (1899–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I sat day after day in my little room, waiting for inspiration to visit me, trying to invent a pseudonym that would express, in a combination of noble and striking sounds, our dream of artistic achievement, a pen name grand enough to compensate for my own feeling of insecurity and helplessness at the idea of everything my mother expected from me.”
Romain Gary (1914–1980) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Promise at Dawn (1960) as quoted in "Great Pretenders" by Emma Garman in Tablet (31 October 2007)