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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“Passing thus with time away, The sweet gifts of youth decay ; Fleet their blooms, thus one by one, Till their very form is gone ; Memory left but to declare How beautiful and sweet they were! In the first blue noon of Spring, Who can think on withering?”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1824 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (25th December 1824) Faded Flowers
“I have a summer gift, A sunny gift for thee : See this white vase, where blooms A beautiful rose tree. And on its crimson leaves Your heart must moralize, For love a lesson takes Of every leaf that dies.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1825 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (14th May 1825) Song
“Where are the flowers, the beautiful flowers, That haunted your homes and your hearts in the spring ? Where is the sunshine of earlier hours ? Where is the music the birds used to bring ?”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1829 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (9th May 1829) Change
“Glorious and beautiful Were youth's feeling and youth's thought— Would that we did not annul All that in us then was wrought ! Would their influence could remain When the hope and dream depart ; Would we might through life retain Still some youth within the heart !”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1832 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (11th August 1832) Youth
“Why, the very element of poetry is faith—faith in the beautiful, the divine, and the true.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Youth suffers but for a season; the bowed but unbroken spirit resumes its elasticity; the future, unknown and beautiful, wins the present to itself, and the past waits for that dark and overwhelming influence which sooner or later will darken our whole horizon.”
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
“These are the gardens of the Desert, these The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful, For which the speech of England has no name— The Prairies.”
William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) first seen 1833 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Prairies, l. 1 (1833)
“Oh, sun! that o'er the western mountains now Goest down in glory! ever beautiful And blessed is thy radiance, whether thou Colourest the eastern heaven and night-mist cool, Till the bright day-star vanish, or on high Climbest and streamest thy white splendours from mid-sky.”
William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) first seen 1821 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Walk At Sunset, st. 2 (1821)
“Last Christmas I received a set of golf clubs that, my father likes to remind me, cost a goddamned fortune. He says that he would give his right arm for such a beautiful set of clubs.”
David Sedaris (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have an obligation to make things beautiful. Not to leave the world uglier than we found it, not to empty the oceans, not to leave our problems for the next generation. We have an obligation to clean up after ourselves, and not leave our children with a world we've shortsightedly messed up, shortchanged, and crippled.”
Neil Gaiman (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One does not live half a life in Asia without return. When it would be I did not know, nor even where it would be, or to what cause. In our changing world nothing changes more than geography. The friendly country of China, the home of my childhood and youth, is for the time being forbidden country. I refuse to call it enemy country. The people in my memory are too kind and the land too beautiful.”
Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Bridge for Passing (1962)
“Let me stop there, but my God, how beautiful Shakespeare is, who else is as mysterious as he is; his language and method are like a brush trembling with excitement and ecstasy. But one must learn to read, just as one must learn to see and learn to live.”
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) said by 1890 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His own image; no longer a dark, gray bird, ugly and disagreeable to look at, but a graceful and beautiful swan. To be born in a duck's nest, in a farmyard, is of no consequence to a bird, if it is hatched from a swan's egg.”
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) said by 1875 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Under each arm he carries an umbrella; one of them, with pictures on the inside, he spreads over the good children, and then they dream the most beautiful stories the whole night. But the other umbrella has no pictures, and this he holds over the naughty children so that they sleep heavily, and wake in the morning without having dreamed at all.”
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) said by 1875 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighbourhood, intruding into my relatively safe world, in which it was, for instance, possible to read stories in peace of mind, free from fear. But the world that contained even the imagination of Fáfnir was richer and more beautiful, at whatever cost of peril.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The death then of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world, and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover.”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we — Of many far wiser than we — And neither the angels in Heaven above Nor the demons down under the sea Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Took a stranger to teach me to look into justice's beautiful face, and to see an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
“Your mind is your temple, keep it beautiful and free. Don't let an egg get laid in it by something you can't see.”
“Behind every beautiful thing there's been some kind of pain”
“I have an important message to deliver to all the cute people all over the world. If you're out there and you're cute, maybe you're beautiful. I just want to tell you somethin' — there's more of us UGLY MOTHERFUCKERS than you are, hey-y, so watch out.”
Frank Zappa (1940–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do not complain and cry and pray, but open your eyes and see, for the light is all about you, and it is so wonderful, so beautiful, so far beyond anything of which men have ever dreamt, for which they have ever prayed, and it is for ever and for ever.”
Gautama Buddha (501–501 BC) said by 501 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by Charles Webster Leadbeater, in The Masters and the Path (1925) p. 229
“Strange as it may seem, there is nothing in which a young and beautiful female appears to more advantage than in the act of smoking. How captivating is a Peruvian lady, swinging in her gaily-woven hammock of grass, extended between two orange-trees, and inhaling the fragrance of a choice cigarro!”
Herman Melville (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Women always think that when they have my shoes, my dress, my hairdresser, my makeup, it will all work the same way. They do not conceive of the witchcraft that is needed. They do not know that I am not beautiful but that I only appear to be at certain moments.”
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) first seen 1932 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: June 1932 Henry and June
“It was beautiful and simple as all truly great swindles are.”
O. Henry (1862–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Under the summer roses When the flagrant crimson Lurks in the dusk Of the wild red leaves, Love, with little hands, Comes and touches you With a thousand memories, And asks you Beautiful, unanswerable questions.”
Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) first seen 1916 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Under the Harvest Moon" (1916)
“Kim Il-sung, one of the most prominent, bright and heroic socialist leaders of the present day, whose history is one of the most beautiful thing a revolutionary may have written in the service of the cause of socialism.”
Fidel Castro (1926–2016) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech (19 April 1966)
“I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking. It is all — the colleges I mean — like an opera.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) first seen 1888 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Katharine Tynan (25 August 1888)
“I heard the old, old men say, 'Everything alters, And one by one we drop away. They had hands like claws, and their knees Were twisted like the old thorn-trees By the waters. I heard the old, old men say, 'All that's beautiful drifts away Like the waters.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s certain there is no fine thing Since Adam’s fall but needs much labouring. There have been lovers who thought love should be So much compounded of high courtesy That they would sigh and quote with learned looks Precedents out of beautiful old books; Yet now it seems an idle trade enough.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I had a thought for no one's but your ears: That you were beautiful, and that I strove To love you in the old high way of love; That it had all seemed happy, and yet we'd grown As weary-hearted as that hollow moon.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Affirm the body, beautiful and whole, The earth-expression of immortal soul.Affirm the mind, the messenger of the hour, To speed between thee and the source of power.Affirm the spirit, the Eternal I — Of this great trinity no part deny.”
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every single thing in the world that was made by anyone started with an idea. So to catch one that is powerful enough to fall in love with, it is one of the most beautiful experiences. It's like being jolted with electricity and knowledge at the same time.”
David Lynch (1946–2025) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Chris Douridas (1997) quoted in David Lynch Interviews (2009) by Richard A. Barney
“There's this beautiful ocean of bliss and consciousness that is able to be reached by any human being by diving within, which is really peaceful and harmonious and can be enlivened by the group process. This group is a peace-creating group. It saturates the atmosphere. This is all about establishing peace. Right now, we gotta get peace back in the world. Peace is a real thing.”
David Lynch (1946–2025) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in David Lynch's $1B Peace Plan" in The New York Post (22 October 2003)
“One change of attitude would change everything. If everyone realized that it could be a beautiful world and said let's not do these things anymore — let's have fun.”
David Lynch (1946–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They're huge and abstract. And they're very beautiful.”
David Lynch (1946–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The future is more beautiful than all the pasts.”
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter (5 September 1919), in The Making of a Mind: Letters from a Soldier-Priest 1914–1919
“The most important thing I found out from [my father] is that if you asked any question and pursued it deeply enough, then at the end there was a glorious discovery of a general and beautiful kind.”
Richard Feynman (1918–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You see, you could never do a sketch like that these days. The audience is too uninformed. I blame the Americans. Nation of obese, violent, pig-ignorant, bible-thumping morons contaminating world culture. That’s why I spend most of my time here in France. … Beautiful, isn’t it? Just look at those olive trees. [Interviewer: This is Santa Barbara.]”
John Cleese (born 1939) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From PBS series Monty Python's Personal Best: John Cleese's Personal Best (2006), playing role of senile old man.
“Sex is like a beautiful meeting of genitalia. It's the dance of love between a penis and vagina.”
Snoop Dogg (born 1971) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with BASE Magazine (April 2005).
“Excellency, please sign. I hate to say it, but my job is not the easiest one. Prague, your capital–I should be terribly sorry if I were compelled to destroy this beautiful city. But I would have to do it, to make the English and French understand that my air force can do all it claims to do. Because they still don't want to believe this is so, and I should like an opportunity of giving them proof.”
Hermann Göring (1893–1946) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said by Goering to the President of Czechoslovakia Emile Hácha on March 15, 1939, when Hácha, tired and under heavy pressure from Hitler to sign a document effectively handing his country over to Germany, nonetheless tr…
“Understand this, I mean to arrive at the truth. The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seekers after it.”
Agatha Christie (1890–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here are my roses. Like ’em?” “They’re beautiful,” said Laura politely. “On the whole,” said Mr. Baldock, “I prefer them to human beings. They don’t last as long for one thing.”
Agatha Christie (1890–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ah, music! What a beautiful art! But what a wretched profession!”
Georges Bizet (1838–1875) first seen 1867 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Starement of 3 August 1867, as quoted in An Encyclopedia of Quotations about Music (1981) by Nat Shapiro, p. 115
“Human subtlety...will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) said by 1519 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you transmit the rays of the sun through a hole in the shape of a star you will see a beautiful effect of perspective in the spot where the sun's rays fall.”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) said by 1519 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Emotional landscapes They puzzle me The riddle gets solved and you push me up to This state of emergency How beautiful to be State of emergency Is where I want to be”
“But we believed if we kept on working, if we kept on marching, if we kept on voting, if we kept on believing, we would make America beautiful for everybody.”
Al Sharpton (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was all extremely symbolic; but then, if you choose to think so, nothing in this world is not symbolical. Profound and beautiful truth!”
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source