
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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“How can we measure the effects if we can't even count the dead to the nearest million?”
Brian Hayes (scientist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps indeed Jehovah is not dead, But mere retir’d, withdrawn or otherwise Contracted hath, as Zohar subtle saith, His Essence Infinite; and, Epicurean, waits The outcome vast with vast indifference.”
James Blish (1921–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sukie had always said that the Alice books were the Old and New Testaments for ghosts—which Pete had never understood; after all, Lewis Carroll hadn’t been dead yet when he’d written them.”
Tim Powers (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think we’re dead.” “Maybe.” Vickery shook his head. “Would that make a difference?”
Tim Powers (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman, Be he alive or be he dead I'll have his bones to grind my bread.”
Joseph Jacobs (1854–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To think with fear of the end of one's life is pretty general with human beings. It is one of the means nature uses to conserve the life of the species. Approached rationally that fear is the most unjustified of all fears, for there is no risk of any accidents to one who is dead or not yet born. In short, the fear is stupid but it cannot be helped.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Eileen Danniheisser (1953), quoted in Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel by Banesh Hoffman (1973), p. 261. The exact date, or the name of his correspondent, is not given in the snippet of the book available on…
“Now when I talk about love, I'm not talking about emotional bosh; I'm not talking about some weak, sentimental something; I'm talking about something strong and powerful. I'm talking about something that is active good will, not just a passive, dead something.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And in a real sense this afternoon, we can say that our feet are tired, but our souls are rested. They told us we wouldn't get here. And there were those who said that we would get here only over their dead bodies, (but all the world today knows that we are here and we are standing before the forces of power in the state of Alabama saying, "We ain't goin' let nobody turn us around.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that cripple the souls — the economic conditions that stagnate the soul and the city governments that may damn the soul — is a dry, dead, do-nothing religion in need of new blood.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm proud that I'm a politician. A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead 10 or 15 years.”
Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Impromptu remarks before the Reciprocity Club, Washington, D.C. (11 April 1958)
“Righteousness cannot be born until self-righteousness is dead.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) first seen 1916 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Justice in War-Time (1916), p. 192
“To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde, edited by Alvin Redman (1952)
“He is dead, and my hatred has died with him.”
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I do not give a damn about the dead. They died for the [Communist] Party and the Party can decide what it wants. I practice a live man's politics, for the living.”
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Peyton Fahrquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) first seen 1890 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", first published in the San Francisco Examiner (July 13, 1890)
“To men a man is but a mind. Who cares What face he carries or what form he wears? But woman's body is the woman. O, Stay thou, my sweetheart, and do never go, But heed the warning words the sage hath said: A woman absent is a woman dead.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ambition, n. An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while living and made ridiculous by friends when dead.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Non-combatant, n. A dead Quaker.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Saint, n. A dead sinner, revised and edited.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man is the sum of his ancestors; to reform him you must begin with a dead ape and work downward through a million graves. He is like the lower end of a suspended chain; you can sway him slightly to the right or the left, but remove your hand and he falls into line with the other links.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When we dead awaken. … We see that we have never lived.”
Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) said by 1906 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He that defers his charity 'till he is dead, is (if a man weighs it rightly) rather liberal of another man's, than of his own.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The American newspaper industry is in serious trouble. How serious? Consider: In 1971, when I was hired for my first newspaper job, there were 62 million newspaper subscribers in the United States; today, there are twelve, an estimated five of whom are dead and therefore unlikely to renew.”
Dave Barry (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Genius borrows nobly. When Shakespeare is charged with debts to his authors, Landor replies: "Yet he was more original than his originals. He breathed upon dead bodies and brought them into life.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“None but the dead have free speech.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Capital is dead labor, that vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.”
Karl Marx (1818–1883) said by 1883 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even Voltaire's father could not make a lawyer out of a genius. To be a good lawyer, one must have a mind and a disposition to venerate the past; a respect for precedents; a belief in the wisdom and the sanctity of the dead. Voltaire had genius, imagination, feeling, and poetry, and these gifts always have been, and always will be, incompatible with the practice of law.”
Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I certainly know that [A] comedian can only last till he either takes himself serious or his audience takes him serious and I don't want either of those to happen to me til I am dead (if then).”
Will Rogers (1879–1935) first seen 1538 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Daily Telegram #1538, The First Good News of the 1928 Campaign! Mr. Rogers Says He Will Not Run For Anything (28 June 1931)
“Accepting the absurdity of everything around us is one step, a necessary experience: it should not become a dead end. It arouses a revolt that can become fruitful.”
Albert Camus (1913–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Three Interviews" in Lyrical and Critical Essays (1970)
“There's nothing in the middle of the road but a yellow stripe and dead armadillos.”
Jim Hightower (born 1943) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos (1998)
“If you do not speak up when it matters, when would it matter that you speak? The opposite of courage is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.”
Jim Hightower (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.”
Jim Hightower (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Despite the fact that meat is made from dead animals, it shouldn't smell that way. Try this test for meat freshness: close your eyes and see if you can tell the pork chops from a gym locker.”
P. J. O'Rourke (1947–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked, and we who fail to prevent them must share the guilt for the dead.”
Omar Bradley (1893–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words (1992) by Peace Pilgrim, p. 113
“Johnson is dead. Let us go to the next best — there is nobody; no man can be said to put you in mind of Johnson.”
James Boswell (1740–1795) first seen 1784 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoting William Gerard Hamilton (1784)
“It's always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip's popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now "grieving" for "Calvin and Hobbes" would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them.”
Bill Watterson (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My supreme game is to imagine myself dead, devoured by worms. I close my eyes and, with incredible details of absolute, scatological precision, I see myself being slowly eaten and digested by an infernal swarm of large greenish maggots gorging themselves on my flesh.”
Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've always considered my work one piece and I consider that my work won't be finished until I am dead and buried and I hope that's a long, long time.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with RKO Radio on the day of his murder (8 December 1980)
“He wept for truth which was dead, for Heaven which was void. Beyond the marble walls and gleaming jewelled altars, the huge plaster Christ had no longer a single drop of blood in its veins.”
Émile Zola (1840–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ch. 17 (tr. Brian Nelson, 1999)
“I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indian is the dead Indian, but I believe nine out of every ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1886 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ibid, January 1886 https://www.history.com/news/teddy-roosevelt-race-imperialism-national-parks
“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) said by 1790 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Take a good look at me. Now tell me, do you think I'm the sort of fellow who gives a fuck what happens once he's dead?”
Henry Miller (1891–1980) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: New York: Grove Press (1961), p. 313
“The new always carries with it the sense of violation, of sacrilege. What is dead is sacred; what is new, that is, different, is evil, dangerous, or subversive.”
Henry Miller (1891–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Master of nuance and scruple, Pray for me and for all writers living or dead; Because there are many whose works Are in better taste than their lives, because there is no end To the vanity of our calling: make intercession For the treason of all clerks.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Harrow the house of the dead; look shining at New styles of architecture, a change of heart.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The stars are dead. The animals will not look. We are left alone with our day, and the time is short, and History to the defeated May say Alas but cannot help nor pardon.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O plunge your hands in water, Plunge them in up to the wrist; Stare, stare in the basin And wonder what you’ve missed.The glacier knocks in the cupboard, The desert sighs in the bed, And the crack in the tea cup opens A lane to the land of the dead.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That night when he went back to his hotel, he wept for his dead children and all the other castrated boys, for his own lost youth, for those who were young no longer and those who died young, for those who fought for Salvador Allende and those who were too scared to fight.”
Roberto Bolaño (1953–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We're going to get bin Laden. Dead or alive, it doesn't matter to me.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 12/14/2001 Bush's words elsewhere was that he is "determined" to capture Bin Laden dead or alive, and is confident about succeeding[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1711717.stm