Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,161,747 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Friendship
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“[Tolerance] is just a makeshift, suitable for an overcrowded and overheated planet. It carries on when love gives out, and love generally gives out as soon as we move away from our home and our friends.”
E. M. Forster (1879–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Masood, a young lady has fallen in love with me—at least so I judge from her letters. Awkward is it not—awkward and surprising. You would be flattered and twirl your moustache, but I am merely uncomfortable. I wish she would stop, as she is very nice, and I enjoyed being friends. What an ill constructed world this is! Love is always being given where it is not required.”
E. M. Forster (1879–1970) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter 137, to Syed Ross Masood, 5 December 1914
“Red Dog smiled. 'I would like you to meet my friends Mr Sitting Bull, Mr Poisoned Buffalo, and Chief Running Skunk-Backwards.' 'Sitting Bull's a name I know,' Yogi remarked, shaking hands. 'Oh, I'm not one of those Sitting Bulls,' Mr Sitting Bull said.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everybody is friends when things are bad enough.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls; For, thus friends absent speak.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1598 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Verse Letter to Sir Henry Wotton, written before April 1598, line 1
“Friends are ourselves.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1603 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Ben Johnson (6 Jan. 1603)
“As virtuous men pass mildly away, And whisper to their souls, to go, Whilst some of their sad friends do say, The breath goes now, and some say, no:So let us melt, and make no noise, No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move, ’Twere profanation of our joys To tell the laity our love.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Meditation 17. This was the source for the title of Hemingway's novel. Original text: "No man is an Iland intire of itselfe; every man is a peece of the continent, a part of the maine; if a clod bee washed away by the S…
“That devastating omniscience! That noxious, horn-spectacled refinement! And the money that such refinement means! For after all, what is there behind it, except money? Money for the right kind of education, money for influential friends, money for leisure and peace of mind, money for trips to Italy. Money writes books, money sells them. Give me not righteousness, O Lord, give me money, only money.”
George Orwell (1903–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trembling I sit day and night, my friends are astonish'd at me. Yet they forgive my wanderings, I rest not from my great task! To open the Eternal Worlds, to open the immortal Eyes Of Man inwards into the Worlds of Thought: into Eternity Ever expanding in the Bosom of God. the Human Imagination”
William Blake (1757–1827) said by 1827 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My friends!", cried the elephant. "Tell me! Do tell! Are you safe? Are you sound? Are you whole? Are you well?”
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the places I go there are things that I see That I never could spell if I stopped with the Z. I'm telling you this 'cause you're one of my friends. My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends!”
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So . . . Catch!" calls the Once-ler. He lets something fall. "It's a Truffula Seed. It's the last one of all! You're in charge of the last of the Truffula Seeds. And Truffula Trees are what everyone needs. Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care. Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air. Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack. Then the Lorax and all of his friends may come back.”
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This old fellow came up to me and asked, "Excuse me, are you Japanese?" No, I'm Korean. "Oh, really, that's very interesting, because I was looking at you and I knew you were not Filipino. I have many Filipino friends and you do not look like them because you're very HUSKY!!" Is that supposed to be some kind of a compliment? "Oh, no, it's not bad, you're very strong, very HUSKY!”
Margaret Cho (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I love my gay male friends, but when I was a little girl, I always used to wish that I would be constantly surrounded by gorgeous guys, and I am, and I should have been more specific.”
Margaret Cho (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of my friends has these ideas about how we should meet men. "What we should do on Friday night is we will fucking go get fucked up and fuck yeah! We will fucking get fucked up and then we will fucking get tickets to go see the Chippendale's Dancers, fuck yeah! We will fucking get tickets to see the Chippendale's Dancers." I can get gay guys to dance in my house for free.”
Margaret Cho (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In battle...enemies can't break your spirit, only friends can. (p273)”
Arundhati Roy (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In Kashmir the only thing to do with nightmares was to embrace them like old friends and manage them like old enemies. (p358)”
Arundhati Roy (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind, spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.”
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) said by 1894 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a strange charm in the thoughts of a good legacy, or the hopes of an estate, which wondrously alleviates the sorrow that men would otherwise feel for the death of friends.”
Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) said by 1616 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Reserve your abuse for your true friends.”
Larry Wall (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My chest of books divide amongst my friends.”
John Keats (1795–1821) first seen 1821 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Last will and testament (1821)
“If I should die," said I to myself, "I have left no immortal work behind me — nothing to make my friends proud of my memory — but I have loved the principle of beauty in all things, and if I had had time I would have made myself remembered.”
John Keats (1795–1821) first seen 1820 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Fanny Brawne (c. February 1820)
“I have been forced to conclude from this that we know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.”
W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With rue my heart is laden For golden friends I had, For many a rose-lipt maiden And many a lightfoot lad. By brooks too broad for leaping The lightfoot boys are laid; The rose-lipt girls are sleeping In fields where roses fade.”
A. E. Housman (1859–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now hollow fires burn out to black, And lights are guttering low: Square your shoulders, lift your pack, And leave your friends and go. Oh never fear, man, nought's to dread, Look not to left nor right: In all the endless road you tread There's nothing but the night.”
A. E. Housman (1859–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They went to sea in a sieve, they did; In a sieve they went to sea; In spite of all their friends could say.”
Edward Lear (1812–1888) first seen 1871 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Jumblies", st. 1, in Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets (1871).
“J.J. did not always flee from men, but he has always loved solitude. He enjoyed himself with the friends he velieved he had, but he enjoyed himself still more alone. He valued their society, but he sometimes needed to withdraw, and he would perhaps have preferred to live always alone than always with them.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) said by 1778 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't understand why we must do things in this world, why we must have friends and aspirations, hopes and dreams. Wouldn't it be better to retreat to a faraway corner of the world, where all its noise and complications would be heard no more? Then we could renounce culture and ambitions; we would lose everything and gain nothing; for what is there to be gained from this world?”
Emil Cioran (1911–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The deepest and most organic death is death in solitude, when even light becomes a principle of death. In such moments you will be severed from life, from love, smiles, friends and even from death. And you will ask yourself if there is anything besides the nothingness of the world and your own nothingness.”
Emil Cioran (1911–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When my young master's worship comes to town, From pedagogue and mother just fit free, The heir and hopes of a great famiiy; Who with strong beer and beef the country rules, And ever since the Conquest have been fools; And now, with careful prospect to maintain This character, lest crossing of the strain Should mend the booby breed, his friends provide A cousin of his own to be his bride.”
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647–1680) first seen 1680 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Artemisia in Town to Chloe in the Country (1680), p. 4
“I love such mirth as does not make friends ashamed to look upon one another next morning.”
Izaak Walton (1593–1683) said by 1683 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man's friendships are, like his will, invalidated by marriage—but they are also no less invalidated by the marriage of his friends.”
Samuel Butler (novelist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This avidity alone, of acquiring goods and possessions for ourselves and our nearest friends, is insatiable, perpetual, universal, and directly destructive of society.”
David Hume (1711–1776) said by 1776 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The wretched have no friends.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His friends beheld, and pity’d him in vain, For what advice can ease a lover’s pain? Absence, the best expedient they could find, Might save the fortune, if not cure the mind.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nor let false friends seduce thy mind to fame By arrogating Jonson’s hostile name; Let father Flecknoe fire thy mind with praise, And uncle Ogleby thy envy raise.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thus fights Ulysses, thus his fame extends; A formidable man, but to his friends.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For when do friends not delight in the sorrow of the prosperous?”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Take ye my solemn farewell ! O, my friends, Already night is darkening on my eyes ;— But is not Heaven most beautiful by night ? Thousands of stars shine in the kindling sky, Which is an azure desert during day. Thus do the gathering of eternal shades Reveal innumerable thoughts, half lost In the full daylight of prosperity.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Clara: Neighbours, dear friends, ye dream, ye dream : awake! Gaze not on me with sadly wondering eyes, I only bid you to your actual wish. My voice is but the voice of your own hearts.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1835 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The London Literary Gazette (7th March 1835)
“Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen.”
Samuel Paterson (1728–1802) first seen 1772 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joineriana: or The Book of Scraps (London: 1772), Vol. I, p. 40
“Like all of my friends, she's a lousy judge of character.”
David Sedaris (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friends always say, "How can you eat those? I read in the paper that they're made from hog's lips." "And...?" "And hearts and eyelids.”
David Sedaris (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Gambling to me is what a telephone pole might be to a groundhog. He sees that it's there but doesn't for the life of him understand why. Friends have tried to explain the appeal, but still I don't get it. Why take chances with money?”
David Sedaris (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thou through such a mist dost show us, That our best friends do not know us.”
Charles Lamb (1775–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Like summer friends, Flies of estate and sunneshine.”
George Herbert (1593–1633) said by 1633 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Terry Pratchett and I met in February 1985, in a Chinese restaurant. I was a young journalist. He was a former journalist and Electricity Board PR, and a writer who had just published his second Discworld novel. I was the first journalist who had ever interviewed him. I remember we made each other laugh a lot. We laughed at the same things. We became friends. It was easy.”
Neil Gaiman (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[On the Chinese] They are marvellous friends and frightful enemies.”
Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: TV interview, The Merv Griffin Show, RITY Archive (1966)
“Do you know what makes the prison disappear? Every deep, genuine affection. Being friends, being brothers, loving, that is what opens the prison, with supreme power, by some magic force. Without these one stays dead. But whenever affection is revived, there life revives.”
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) said by 1890 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source