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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“Not from the whole wide world I chose thee— Sweetheart, light of the land and the sea! The wide, wide world could not inclose thee, For thou art the whole wide world to me.”
Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Which serves for cynosure To all that sail upon the sea obscure.”
Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas (1544–1590) said by 1590 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Du Bartas
“Why, I hold fate Clasped in my fist, and could command the course Of time's eternal motion, hadst thou been One thought more steady than an ebbing sea.”
John Ford (dramatist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh it is good to ride and run, To roam the reenwood wild and free; To hunt, to idle in the sun, To leap into the laughing sea”
Robert Service (1874–1958) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ServiceWise & OtherWise (1942)
“Cathedral cities, market towns, ports forgotten by the sea, spas long out of fashion, all these can decay beautifully, and often their charm increases as the life ebbs out of them. Industrial towns, like steam-engines, are only even tolerable if they are in working order and puffing away.”
J. B. Priestley (1894–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The ages roll Forward; and, forward with them, draw my soul Into Time’s infinite sea. And to be glad or sad I care no more: But to have done, and to have been, before I cease to do and be!”
Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton (1831–1891) first seen 1869 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Confession and Apology", All the Year Round, Vol. ii New Series (September 11, 1869), p. 349; The Wanderer, Book iv: Exile, "A Confession and Apology", in The Wanderer and Other Poems (London: Chapman & Hall, 1876), p…
“What of the souls already released from their bodies? We believe that they are overwhelmed in that vast sea of eternal light and of luminous eternity”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition And we'll all stay free. Praise the Lord and swing into position Can't afford to sit around a-wishin' Praise the Lord, we're all between perdition And the deep blue sea.”
Frank Loesser (1910–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The floorboards point in parallel lines to a vanishing point that does not concern us -- somewhere beyond the opera house, across the streets, across the houses of the suburbs, all the way to a hypothetical single dot... on the sea's horizon. Far from this sour drama.”
Peter Greenaway (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I laugh, for hope hath happy place with me; If my bark sinks, 'tis to another sea.”
William Ellery Channing (poet) first seen 1843 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Poet's Hope", Poems (1843) p. 100
“I walked beside the evening sea And dreamed a dream that could not be; The waves that plunged along the shore Said only: "Dreamer, dream no more!”
George William Curtis (1824–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It must be the old, darling, foolish Highlands in us, my dear, the old people and the old stupid stories they are telling us for generations round he fire, and it must be the hills about us, and the constant complaint of the sea.”
Neil Munro (Hugh Foulis) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I arrived at length at Cairo, mother of cities and seat of Pharaoh the tyrant, mistress of broad regions and fruitful lands, boundless in multitude of buildings, peerless in beauty and splendour, the meeting-place of comer and goer, the halting-place of feeble and mighty, whose throngs surge as the waves of the sea, and can scarce be contained in her for all her size and capacity.”
Ibn Battuta (1304–1368) said by 1368 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter I (tr. H. A. R. Gibb, 1929, p. 50)
“A grand old Neptune in the prow, Gray-hair'd, and white with touch of time, Yet strong as in his middle prime; A grizzled king, I see him now, With beard as blown by wind of seas, And wild and white as white sea-storm, Stand up, turn suddenly, look back Along the low boat's wrinkled track, Then fold his mantle round a form Broad-built as any Hercules, And so sit silently.”
Joaquin Miller (1837–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These be but men. We may forget The wild sea-king, the tawny brave, The frowning wold, the woody shore, The tall-built, sunburnt men of Mars. . .But what and who was she, the fair? The fairest face that ever yet Look'd in a wave as in a glass; That look'd as look the still, far stars, So woman-like, into the wave To contemplate their beauty there, Yet look as looking anywhere?”
Joaquin Miller (1837–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lo! all things moving must go by. The sea lies dead. Behold, this land Sits desolate in dust beside His snow-white, seamless shroud of sand; The very clouds have wept and died, And only God is in the sky.”
Joaquin Miller (1837–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rugged! Rugged as Parnassus! Rude, as all roads I have trod — Yet are steeps and stone-strown passes Smooth o'er head, and nearest God.Here black thunders of my canyon Shake its walls in Titan wars! Here white sea-born clouds companion With such peaks as know the stars!”
Joaquin Miller (1837–1913) said by 1913 at the latest 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
“History says don't hope On this side of the grave. But then, once in a lifetime The longed for tidal wave Of justice can rise up And hope and history rhyme. So hope for a great sea-change on the far side of revenge. Believe that a further shore is reachable from here. Believe in miracles and cures and healing wells.”
Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Doubletake", from The Cure at Troy (1990)
“This house has been far out at sea all night, The woods crashing through darkness, the booming hills, Winds stampeding the fields under the window Floundering black astride and blinding wet Till day rose; then under an orange sky The hills had new places, and wind wielded Blade-light, luminous black and emerald, Flexing like the lens of a mad eye.”
Ted Hughes (1930–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fourteen small broidered berries on the hern Of Circe's mantle, each of magic gold; Fourteen of lone Calypso's tears that rolled Into the sea, for pearls to come to them; Fourteen clear signs of omen in the gem With which Medea human fate foretold Fourteen small drops, which Fautus, growing old, Craved of the Fiend, to water Life's stem”
Eugene Lee-Hamilton (1845–1907) said by 1907 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I always had an interest in the story of everything. A little bit of an existential crisis always helps when you’re looking for a sea change. If I know anything, it’s that I never learned anything while I was talking.”
Robert Downey Jr. (born 1965) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Robert Downey Jr. on Being an Entrepreneur: 'I Never Learned Anything While I Was Talking'" (2 April 2021)
“My garden, by the sea”
Stefan Szczesny (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was as we were sailing out onto the wide chinchilla sea that I noticed how every chinchilla looked exactly like Marlboro, the chinchilla I had owned as a ten-year-old and which I had put inside a popcorn machine to see what would happen. Then the boat ran aground on the biggest chinchilla ever. (Chapter Two)”
Ben Croshaw (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I suddenly stopped and looked out at the sea and thought, my God, how beautiful this is … for 26 years I had never really looked at it before.”
A. J. Ayer (1910–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On his greater appreciation of the scenery of the world, after his near-death experience, as quoted in "Did atheist philosopher see God when he 'died'?" by William Cash, in National Post (3 March 2001).
“Go by reverently, and read with sober care How a great people, riding with defiant shouts The centaur of Revolution, Spurred and whipped to frenzy, Shook with terror, seeing the mist of the sea Over the precipice they were nearing, And fell from his back in precipitate awe To celebrate the Feast of the Supreme Being.”
Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Between the Charybdis of inaccuracy and the Scylla of abstruseness, the course is narrow and the sea is rough.”
Herbert Dingle (1890–1978) said by 1978 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sea that breakest for ever, that breakest and never art broken.”
William Watson (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To die for the racists is lighter than a feather, but to die for the people is heavier than any mountain and deeper than any sea.”
Huey P. Newton (1942–1989) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Die for the People (1972), paraphrasing Mao Zedong's "Serve the People
“With white tails smoking free, Long streaming manes, and arching necks, they show Their kinship to their sisters of the sea – And forward hurl their thunderbolts of snow. Still out of hardships bred, Spirits of power and beauty and delight Have ever on such frugal pastures fed And loved to course with tempests through the night.”
Roy Campbell (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Reason has moons, but moons not hers Lie mirror'd on her sea, Confounding her astronomers, But, O! delighting me.”
Ralph Hodgson (1871–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She couldn't see that, though, because the haze out at sea erased the ship long before it could beyond the horizon, drawing after it the other ships. Diane felt the thread of connection between her and Danny drawn out infinitely thin, until it broke with a hurt to her heart she'd known she'd have to feel, but worse than she thought it would be.”
John Crowley (1942–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nearer my Father's house, Where the many mansions be; Nearer the great white throne, Nearer the crystal sea;Nearer the bound of life, Where we lay our burdens down; Nearer leaving the cross, Nearer gaining the crown!”
Phoebe Cary (1824–1871) first seen 1868 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nearer Home", st. 2. Poems of Faith, Hope, and Love (1868) p. 49
“Sir, give me a single battalion of the Royal Carabineers and I will drive these upstarts into the sea.”
Pietro Badoglio (1871–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "The Civilizing Mission" - Page 232 - by A. J. Barker - 1968
“A baby was sleeping, Its mother was weeping, For her husband was far on the wild-raging sea.”
Samuel Lover (1797–1868) said by 1868 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Angel's Whisper, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“They say that man is mighty, He governs land and sea; He wields a mighty scepter O'er lesser powers than he; But a mighty power and stronger, Man from his throne hath hurled, For the hand that rocks the cradle Is the hand that rules the world.”
William Ross Wallace (1819–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What rules the World? (also known by The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Is The Hand That Rules The World) reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919).
“The gray silence, the gray waves, the gray wastes of the sea.”
William Sharp (writer) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Longing, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Distinct as the billows, yet one as the sea.”
James Montgomery (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: James Montgomery
“Bliss in possession will not last; Remembered joys are never past; At once the fountain, stream, and sea, They were, they are, they yet shall be.”
James Montgomery (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: James Montgomery
“The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.”
Kate Chopin (1850–1904) said by 1904 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I prefer Mexican to Mayan sculpture. Mexican stone sculptures have largeness of scale & a grim, sublime, austerity, a real stoniness. They were the true sculptors in sympathy with their material & their sculpture has some of the character of mountains, of boulders, rocks & sea worn pebbles.”
Henry Moore (1898–1986) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: in 'Unpublished notes', c. 1925-1926, HMF archive; as quoted in Henry Moore writings and Conversations, ed. Alan Wilkinson, University of California Press, California 2002, p. 97
“An ancient adage warns, "Never go to sea with two chronometers; take one or three.”
Fred Brooks (1931–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You never enjoy the world aright, till the Sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars: and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world.”
Thomas Traherne (1636–1674) said by 1674 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Come o'er the moonlit sea, The waves are brightly glowing.”
Charles Jefferys (1807–1865) said by 1865 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Moonlit Sea, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“The morn was fair, the skies were clear, No breath came o'er the sea.”
Charles Jefferys (1807–1865) said by 1865 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Rose of Allandale, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Thou in thy lake dost see Thyself: so she Beholds her image in her eyes Reflected. Thus did Venus rise From out the sea.”
James Matthews Legaré (1823–1859) first seen 1845 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To a Lily" (1845), stanza 3, in Orta-Undis and Other Poems (Boston: William D. Ticknor & Company, 1848), p. 10..
“Old England is our home, and Englishmen are we; Our tongue is known in every clime, our flag in every sea.”
Mary Howitt (1799–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Old England is our Home, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“The wild sea roars and lashes the granite cliffs below, And round the misty islets the loud strong tempests blow.”
Mary Howitt (1799–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Sea-Fowler, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“There are plenty of fish in the sea, if I run out of women.”
Joey Comeau (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the open sea, he said. Now shut up and eat your Junior Mints.”
Sarah Dessen (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source