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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“I can hear another drum beating for the dead that rise, whom Nature's beast fears as they come.”
“She said, "Welcome to the land of the living dead," but you could tell she was so brokenhearted — she said, "Even the swap meets around here are getting pretty corrupt.”
“There’s smoke on the water, it’s been there since June Tree trunks uprooted, 'neath the high crescent moon Feel the pulse and vibration and the rumbling force Somebody is out there beating on a dead horse”
“Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.”
Frank Zappa (1940–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The whole idea of what happens when you read a book, I find absolutely stunning. Here's some product of a tree, little black squiggles on it, you open it up, and inside your head is the voice of someone speaking, who may have been dead 3000 years, and there he is talking directly to you, what a magical thing that is.”
Carl Sagan (1934–1996) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Carl Sagan on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (full interview, May 20th, 1977)
“When there isn't enough food, the body has to make a decision on how to invest the limited foodstuff available to it. Survival comes first, growth comes second. And in this kind of nutritional triage, the body seems obliged to rank learning, last. It sort of it's better to be stupid and alive, than smart and dead.”
Carl Sagan (1934–1996) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Carl Sagan on Literacy & Nutrition - Cornell University - 1994
“Who waite for dead men shall goe long barefoote.”
John Heywood (1497–1580) said by 1580 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Geoffrey Chaucer
“I want you to know that for half a century, American Presidents have longed to make such decisions and say such words. But even in the midst of celebration, we must keep caution as a friend. For the world is still a dangerous place. Only the dead have seen the end of conflict. And though yesterday's challenges are behind us, tomorrow's are being born.”
George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every large corporation has its own telephone maze, its juicy numbers and dead ends, its nickel-plated bitch queens and sugary do-gooders.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Heavy metal, drugs and sexual passion had dissolved her brain to a certain point where she no longer distinguished between dead and living persons.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you show her too much favor she will be punished. If you touch her, we’re all dead,” Ty said. “Why?” Einstein asked. “Because this is one of those cultures that is psychotic about female reproductive organs.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Struck dead by an angel of God! Yet the angel must hang!”
Herman Melville (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mine enemy is growing old,— I have at last revenge. The palate of the hate departs; If any would avenge,—Let him be quick, the viand flits, It is a faded meat. Anger as soon as fed is dead; 'Tis starving makes it fat.”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our journey had advanced; Our feet were almost come To that odd fork in Being's road, Eternity by term.Our pace took sudden awe, Our feet reluctant led. Before were cities, but between, The forest of the dead.Retreat was out of hope,— Behind, a sealed route, Eternity's white flag before, And God at every gate.”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The distance that the dead have gone Does not at first appear; Their coming back seems possible For many an ardent year.And then, that we have followed them We more than half suspect, So intimate have we become With their dear retrospect.”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The woods of Arcady are dead, And over is their antique joy; Of old the world on dreaming fed; Grey Truth is now her painted toy; Yet still she turns her restless head.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Was it for this the wild geese spread The grey wing upon every tide; For this that all that blood was shed, For this Edward Fitzgerald died, And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone, All that delirium of the brave? Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone, It’s with O’Leary in the grave.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: September 1913, st. 3
“Speech after long silence; it is right, All other lovers being estranged or dead, Unfriendly lamplight hid under its shade, The curtains drawn upon unfriendly night, That we descant and yet again descant Upon the supreme theme of Art and Song: Bodily decrepitude is wisdom; young We loved each other and were ignorant.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My Soul. Such fullness in that quarter overflows And falls into the basin of the mind That man is stricken deaf and dumb and blind, For intellect no longer knows Is from the Ought, or knower from the Known — That is to say, ascends to Heaven; Only the dead can be forgiven; But when I think of that my tongue's a stone.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On April 12, 1945, Harry S. Truman received an urgent summons from the White House. When he arrived, Eleanor Roosevelt told him, “The President is dead.” Truman asked, “Is there anything I can do for you?” Mrs. Roosevelt responded, “Is there anything we can do for you? For you are the one in trouble now.”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How shall the dead arise, is no question of my faith; to believe only possibilities, is not faith, but mere philosophy.”
Thomas Browne (1605–1682) said by 1682 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Times before you, when even the living men were Antiquities; when the living might exceed the dead, and to depart this world, could not be properly said, to go unto the greater number.”
Thomas Browne (1605–1682) said by 1682 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Foreigners are sending messages to the planets. We are sending rice and cereals to our dead fore-father through the Brahmins. It is a wise deed?”
Periyar E. V. Ramasamy (1879–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't think about technique. The ideas dictate everything. You have to be true to that or you're dead.”
David Lynch (1946–2025) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Dark Lens on America" in The New York Times Magazine (14 January 1990)
“SENTINEL: Is dead Buffy actually a robot?”
Joss Whedon (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's like, you hungry, you reached your level. We asked ten years ago. We was asking with the Panthers. We was asking with them, the Civil Rights Movement. We was asking. Those people that asked are dead and in jail. So now what do you think we're gonna do? Ask?”
Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cris didn't play fair. He had watched half an hour — then come out and thrown once. One perfect toss, one dead ringer.”
Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I stood there for a long time before I took that first step back. Because she was dead, and I'd let her go. Because, now, she was immortal, and I'd helped her get that way. And because I knew she'd phone me, in the morning.”
William Gibson (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We think we write definitively of those parts of our nature that are dead and therefore beyond change, but that which writes is still changing — still in doubt. Even a monotonously undeviating path of self-examination does not necessarily lead to self-knowledge. I stumble towards my grave confused and hurt and hungry.”
Quentin Crisp (1908–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yes, that is the equality of man. Slaughter anybody who is better than you are, and then we shall be equal soon enough. All equally dead".”
T. H. White (1906–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The number of times I have been declared dead is statistically insignificant,although admittedly non-zero.”
James Nicoll (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The chief charges against her were (1) that she was dead, and therefore could not hold any property; (2) that she was a woman which amounts to much the same thing ...”
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Holy shadows of the dead, I'm not to blame for your cruel and bitter fate, but the accursed rivalry which brought sister nations and brother people, to fight one another. I do not feel happy for this victory of mine. On the contrary, I would be glad, brothers, if I had all of you standing here next to me, since we are united by the same language, the same blood and the same visions.”
Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I forgive...the many for the sake of the few, the living for the dead.”
Sulla (138–78 BC) said by 78 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have ceased to be a nation under law but instead a homeland where the withered Bill of Rights, like a dead trumpet vine, clings to our pseudo-Roman columns.”
Gore Vidal (1925–2012) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The State of the Union," The Nation (13 September 2004)
“Truths dead and forgotten long ago, conceptions of the world and its people, covered with mould, even during the times of our grandmothers, are being hammered into the heads of our young generation.”
Emma Goldman (1869–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The cock does not crow till it has thrice flapped its wings; the parrot in moving among boughs never puts its feet excepting where it has first put its beak. Vows are not made till Hope is dead.”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) said by 1519 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happy will they be who lend ear to the words of the Dead.”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) said by 1519 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The bones of the Dead will be seen to govern the fortunes of him who moves them.”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) said by 1519 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happy will be those who give ear to the words of the dead:—The reading of good works and the observing of their precepts.”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) said by 1519 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yoga powers. To make oneself invisible or small. To become gigantic and reach to the farthest things. To change the course of nature. To place oneself anywhere in space or time. To summon the dead. To exalt senses and perceive inaccessible images, of events on other worlds, in one's deepest inner mind, or in the minds of others.”
Jim Morrison (1943–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“J. B. S. Haldane counts fanaticism among the only four really important inventions made between 3000 B.C and 1400 A.D. It was a Judaic-Christian invention. And it is strange to think that in receiving this malady of the soul the world also received a miraculous instrument for raising societies and nations from the dead—an instrument of resurrection.”
Eric Hoffer (1902–1983) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Section 125, citing Haldane's The Inequality of Man (1938)
“Being cared for when one is dead is less satisfactory than being cared for when one is alive.”
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art, I suppose, is only for beginners, or else for those resolute dead-enders, who have made up their minds to be content with the ersatz of Suchness, with symbols rather than with what they signify, with the elegantly composed recipe in lieu of actual dinner.”
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Maybe I did it because kids need to know that sometimes dead is better.”
Stephen King (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is nine! Nine! This is nine! Nine! This is ten! Ten! We have killed your friends! Every friend is now dead! This is six! Six! ... Eighteen! This is now eighteen! Take cover when the siren sounds! This is four! Four! ... Five! This is five! Ignore the siren! Even if you leave this room, you can never leave this room! Eight! This is eight!”
Stephen King (born 1947) first seen 1408 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Disembodied voice of Room 1408, over the telephone
“The event that came to be known as The Pulse began at 3:03 p.m., eastern standard time, on the afternoon of October 1, 1999. The term was a misnomer, of course, but within ten hours of the event, most of the scientists capable of pointing this out were either dead or insane. The name hardly mattered, in any case. What mattered was the effect.”
Stephen King (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm just interested in finding out what the hell goes. I mean do you have to be a goddam bohemian type, or dead, for Chrissake, to be a real poet? What do you want — some bastard with wavy hair?”
J. D. Salinger (1919–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's a group of UK business people, wonderful guys who want to invest in , on the coast, near where Gaddafi was actually captured and executed as some of you may have seen. And they literally have a brilliant vision to turn Sirte, with the help of the municipality of Sirte, to turn it into the next . The only thing they've got to do is clear the dead bodies away and then they'll be there.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Theresa May faces calls to sack Boris Johnson over Libya comments, in the Guardian; published October 4, 2017
“[I would] rather be dead in a ditch [than ask the EU to delay Brexit beyond 31 October]”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: PM: I'd rather be dead in ditch than delay Brexit BBC News (5 September 2019)