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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“Writing, madam, is a mechanic part of wit. A gentleman should never go beyond a song or a billet.”
George Etherege (1635–1691) said by 1691 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lord, kiss me once more, fill me with song Allah, kiss me once more that I may, that I may Wear my love like heaven Wear my love like Wear my love like heaven.”
“I cry all the time. In fact, I cried when we were at the Islington Academy. I got a bit teary-eyed at the crowd's reaction to our show. We were playing a song called On My Own and the response from the audience just got to me. Sometimes the love in the room is so overwhelming that I just cry. I'm not ashamed of that.”
Bert McCracken (born 1982) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: WENN staff (October 17, 2007) "McCracken: 'I Cry All the Time'", World Entertainment News Network.
“Our poet's singing lips are dumb: This his last gift, to us has brought The pain pressed vintage of his thought His life of song, his life of pain, And, being dead, he speaks again.”
Flora Thompson (1876–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From On Reading a Posthumous book Gillian Lindsay -Biography of Flora Thompson 1990
“It is human love, not that of a god, which is glorified in the Song, and that with a wealth of detail, which rules out an allegorical interpretation.”
Robert Gordis (1908–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You recall a girl that's been in nearly every song? This is what I heard of course the story could be wrong.She's the one — I've been told Now she's wearing a band of gold. Peggy Sue got married not long ago.”
Buddy Holly (1936–1959) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Peggy Sue Got Married (1959)
“I had that Paul McKenna come up to me once and he said, 'I love that song of yours about bicycles.' So I said to McKenna, 'And I loved the stunt you did in that glass box above the Thames.'”
KT Tunstall (born 1975) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: contactmusic.com quote (24 August 2007)
“I remember it so clearly — how people, seeing me, would break off in midword. Laughter died. Lovers' hands unclasped. Children ran to their mothers. I didn't even know their short-lived names. And that song about a little green leaf — no one ever finished it near me.”
Wisława Szymborska (1923–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We watched everything...A family favorite was Cry-Baby starring Johnny Depp. Whenever the John Waters film broke out in song, we would all scream and start singing, too.”
John Waters (born 1946) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ilhan Omar This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman (2020)
“The reason is: rats leave the sinking ship but we... we... didn't leave, so the ship didn't sink, and that's madness, Lear's song that's Touchstone's forest jest, that's swan of Avon logic.”
H.D. (1886–1961) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: May 1943.
“One seed becomes An everlasting song, a singing tree, Caroling softly souls of slavery, What they were, and what they are to me, Caroling softly souls of slavery.”
Jean Toomer (1894–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I should be glad of loneliness And hours that go on broken wings, A thirsty body, a tired heart And the unchanging ache of things, If I could make a single song As lovely and as full of light, As hushed and brief as a falling star On a winter night.”
Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At the Palace of Wisdom they don't send a boy to do a man's job, they send The Shaman; the Shaman of Sexy. (in reference to Shawn Michaels and his theme song referring to himself as a Sexy Boy)”
John Hennigan (born 1979) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ain't no words for the things I'm feeling ain't no tongue can tell no name for the song my soul's revealing and all is very well…”
Mike Scott (Scottish musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In law also the emphasis makes the song.”
Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bethlehem Steel Co. v. New York State Labor Relations Board 330 U.S. 767, 780 (1947).
“This next song is about... fish... just one singular fish... he was a lonely fish, but he died happy.”
Daniel Johns (born 1979) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 31st of August, 2007 at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, introducing "Tuna in the brine
“As the writer of the lyric of the song ‘God’s Country’, I am outraged by the suggestion that somehow I am connected with, believe in, or am sympathetic with Communist or totalitarian philosophy.”
Yip Harburg (1896–1981) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the House Un-American Activities Committee (1950), as quoted in "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", by Scott Jacobs, in The Week Behind (23 September 2009)
“Heart of my heart, we cannot die! Love triumphant in flower and tree, Every life that laughs at the sky Tells us nothing can cease to be: One, we are one with the song to-day, One with the clover that scents the world, One with the Unknown, far away, One with the stars, when earth grows old.”
Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He bowed his head. He stood so still, They bowed their heads as well. And softly from the organ-loft The song began to swell. Come up with blood-red streamers, The reeds began the strain. The vox humana pealed on high, The Spring is risen again!”
Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the garden of tabloid delight, there is always a clean towel and another song.”
Lewis H. Lapham (1935–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The past we’ve got we must forget. Future hasn’t happened yet. Carry this moment in a song. Insha Allah, it won’t be long.”
Dawud Wharnsby (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We all want a simple song. We all want to get along. We all want to just belong. We all want to know right from wrong. We all want to love and be loved strong.”
Dawud Wharnsby (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The song is about knowing the end result of every situation you're in, and being able to play it out in your mind and see it before it happens. It's about addiction, really, about knowing how it's all going to end up. In that sense, you're watching a movie of yourself all the time – and then you want out of that movie.”
Rufus Wainwright (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Somewhere we went wrong We were once so strong Our love is like a song You can't forget it at all.”
Demi Lovato (born 1992) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When they told me they were gonna call the record American Idiot, I was the one who was saying, 'Oh no, you can't.' I was the one who was worried about it. Because when you think about it, we know the song now, but then it was a really fucking bold thing to do.”
John Roecker (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...And it was about four or five hours later that Alice — Remember Alice? It's a song about Alice.”
Arlo Guthrie (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Roger: All right, cool. Thank you. Oh great, it ends on me saying I liked a Hillary Duff song. I was hoping for something else after that. Make something up, something… to be or not to be – anything.”
Roger Manganelli (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It seems to me I've heard that song before. It's from an old familiar score. I know it well, that melody.”
Sammy Cahn (1913–1993) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1942)
“True poetry was never speech, but always song.”
Herbert Read (1893–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the lifetime that has passed since Calvin Coolidge gave his speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors in which he famously proclaimed that “the chief business of the American people is business,” the dominion of the ants has grown enormously. Look about: The business of business is everywhere and inescapable; the song of the buyers and the sellers never stops.”
Mark Slouka (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let me photograph you in this light In case it is the last time that we might Be exactly like we were before we realised We were sad of getting old, it made us restless. It was just like a movie, It was just like a song.”
Adele (singer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Contrary to popular belief, the computer graphics revolution didn’t kill the musical,” the prof said. “The musical kicked off,” he paused to let the class titter, “in 1965.… “The musicals, with their contrived storylines, unrealistic song-and-dance sequences, and simplistic happy endings, no longer reflected the audience’s world.”
Connie Willis (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Step n' move your hips With a feelin' from side to side Sit yourself down in your car And take a ride.And while you're movin' Rock steady Rock steady baby. Let's call this song exactly what it is (What it is -what it is - what it is)”
Aretha Franklin (1942–2018) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rock Steady", from Young (1972)
“I maintain that the best song is the one that ends up on the album. So whether I’ve written it or I haven’t, I’m very comfortable with both.”
Kylie Minogue (born 1968) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview, Clashmusic.com Mon, 05/07/2010
“Sailing is not a romantic song”
Christopher Cross (born 1951) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Christopher Cross on http://www.faceculture.com/ (date of interview: 2008-09-26). Video link found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49o3HpGCfHg&feature=related (retrieved 2011-04-07)
“(during "Feel Good Hit of the Summer") They tried to put me in rehab too, but that shit didn't work. Nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol. Nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol. Nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol. (song pauses) I cannot be killed by anything.”
Josh Homme (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every man needs his Siren to check his courage and strength when he hears her song in his travels through the unknown.”
Dejan Stojanovic (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Jung believed there was a large pattern to life, that it wasn't just chaos. Our song Synchronicity II is about two parallel events that aren't connected logically or causally, but symbolically.”
Sting (musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To your utmost, listen to every beautiful song As though filling all the self with sound and melody One should plunge head-first into life As one dives from a cliff into the emerald sea”
Ataol Behramoğlu (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I must not think of thee; and, tired yet strong, I shun the thought that lurks in all delight— The thought of thee—and in the blind Heaven's height, And in the sweetest passage of a song.”
Alice Meynell (1847–1922) said by 1922 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The song caught my fancy. The concept is unusual. I have always taken risks and done different things in my career.”
Rozlyn Khan (born 1988) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People are open-minded now, all thanks to exposure on social media. When I took the song people expected it to have a lot of skin show, but it has a different concept. People have come to me and said, ‘Are you trying to change your image?’ People were surprised to see that I have screentime.”
Rozlyn Khan (born 1988) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think a lot of what influences a writer is what you hear in the street, the language you hear, the way people talk, the way, the rhythms, the song, the language of your childhood. (1980)”
Grace Paley (1922–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The little red lark, like a rosy spark Of song, to his sun-burst flies; But till you are risen, earth is a prison, Full of my captive sighs.”
Alfred Perceval Graves (1846–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I love that people never know what Nicki they are going to get on a particular song. I like bringing out a different side.”
Nicki Minaj (born 1982) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The song of the wind singer will set you free.”
William Nicholson (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tell me who's the queen standin' over by the record machine Lookin' like a model on the cover of the magazine She's too cute to be a minute over seventeen Mean while I was still thinkin'If it's a slow song we'll omit it If it's a rocker, that we'll get it And if it's good, she'll admit it C'mon Queenie, let's get with it”
Chuck Berry (1926–2017) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Little Queenie" (1959)
“The Seventh Men were completely without interest in the universal and the unseen. The beauty which they sought to create was ephemeral and very largely sensuous. And they were well content that it should be so. Personal immortality, said a dying sage, would be as tedious as an endless song.”
Olaf Stapledon (1886–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dear beautiful one, I praise the stars for the song's end. Farewell!”
Olaf Stapledon (1886–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Peace is not the silence of cemeteries, but the song of social justice.”
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas (born 1947) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rights expert urges the UN General Assembly to adopt a more decisive role in peace-making (For International Day of Peace, Saturday 21 September 2013) .