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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“My Dearest Catherine, I miss you, my darling, as I always do, but today is especially hard because the ocean has been singing to me, and the song is that of our life together.”
Nicholas Sparks (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life, he realized, was much like a song. In the beginning there is mystery, in the end there is confirmation, but it's in the middle where all the emotion resides to make the whole thing worthwhile.”
Nicholas Sparks (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Alliteration the mind - Temple, life is a honeymoon vernal song on the humble bee's lips, Alcoholic realized in the mustard flower, as like friend .”
Ravindra Prabhat (born 1969) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Smriti Shesh (Poetry Collection), Kathyaroop Books, 2002.
“She slides in and you rode down Main Street, you turn right when that red light turns green. Sun sets now, you're half way to heaven. She picks a song, you turn it up to 11, you say "Do you wanna?" and she says "Hell yeah." So you hit the party, all your buddies are jealous. Someday, you'll be looking back on your life at the memories, this is gonna be one of those nights.”
Tim McGraw (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’ve protected it [the Nirvana catalogue] from everything from Kentucky Fried Chicken commercials to movies about board games. We’ve been offered $6 million for 18 seconds of one Nirvana song and I turned it down.”
Courtney Love (born 1964) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On managing the Nirvana catalogue, The Sydney Morning Herald (11 August 2014)
“Amidst the early morning dew Walking across the greenery And in the evening that is scary While taking a breath, Oh, flower, I listen to your song, Oh flower, I defeat your love.”
Kuvempu (1904–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Awake Hindus: Mother! The flowers of our worship have crowned thee! Parsees: Mother! The flame of our hope shall surround you Mussulmans: Mother! The sword of our love shall defend thee Christians: Mother! The song of thy faith shall attend thee All creeds: Shall not our dauntless devotion avail thee? Harken! O Queen O!goddess, we hail thee!”
Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949) first seen 1828 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Her poem in "The Golden Treasury of Indo-Anglian Poetry, 1828-1965", p=161
“Stand here with me with the stars and hills for witness and in their presence consecrate your life and your talent, your song and your speech, your thought and your dream to the Motherland. O Poet, see visions from the hill tops and spreads abroad the message of hope to the toilers in the valley.”
Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949) said by 1949 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How often do you come out of a film these days humming a song? Earlier I thought that my age had something to do with it. But then I spoke with some youngsters and they seemed to agree in retrospect.”
Waheeda Rehman (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fanatic secularism is as dangerous to the world as fanatic religion. Love is the heart of all religions; the theme of all classical works of art and literature; the song of all devotees. Scientists know only what love does, not what love is. Love is to human hearts what the sun is to flowers.”
Chinmayananda Saraswati (1916–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not only the qualitative world bursts forth in song, but so does the quantitative.”
Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've got my little black dress on And if I tell myself that nothing's wrong This doesn't have to be a sad song Not with my little black dress on.”
Sara Bareilles (born 1979) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm a feminist and the theme of her song is, 'When you're ready come and get it from me.' I'm sick of women being portrayed this way.”
Lorde (born 1996) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Blake, Emily (2013-11-07). "Selena Gomez Hits Back At Lorde: 'That's Not Feminism'". MTV News (accessed 6 July 2014)
“Oh, God, enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all living things, our brothers the animals to whom Thou gavest the earth in common with us. We remember with shame that in the past we have exercised the high dominion of man with ruthless cruelty so that the voice of the earth, which should have gone up to thee in song, has been a groan of travail.”
Basil of Caesarea (329–379) said by 379 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In circa A.D. 375. Included in A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church (NPNF), edited by P. Schaff and Henry Wace (Edinburg: T. Clark, 1897), 2nd Series, Vol. 8. Quoted in Matthew …
“From a distance there is harmony And it echoes through the land And it's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves It's the heart of every man (Every man). It's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves This is the song of every man.”
Julie Gold (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As every bird-watcher knows, the beauty of a bird’s song is inversely correlated with the colorfulness of its plumage.”
Matt Ridley (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You have now. Coming here, I sang a friend-gathering song. Valmiki, I've seen other skies than these, other worlds, and other friends. People are counting on you... and I can hear the chariot from Ayodhya approaching across Ganga.”
Valmiki (active around 201 BC) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Om is the mysterious cosmic energy that is the substratum of all the things and all the beings of the entire universe. It is an eternal song of the Divine. It is continuously resounding in silence on the background of everything that exists.”
“If you hear a song you like, start dancing. That's what I do, I'll just start dancing, and that's it. That's all there is to it.”
Krist Novoselic (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I continue to find appealing the sentiment of a left-wing song that I learned in my childhood, which begins as follows: "If we should consider each other, a neighbor, a friend, or a brother, it could be a wonderful, wonderful world, it could be a wonderful world.”
Gerald Cohen (1941–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I love Eddie Murphy so I wanted to do a song on the soundtrack.”
Aaliyah (1979–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Murray, Pauli (1987). Song In A Weary Throat: An American Pilgrimage, Harper & Row, New York City. .”
Pauli Murray (1910–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are so many lines of that song ( Blood on the Tracks , Bob Dylan ) where you think. That is a painting.”
Jack Vettriano (1951–2025) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interviewed by Sue Lawley on Desert Island Discs BBC Radio 4 (2 April 2004).
“A colossal orange moon rolls as an unbelievable ball against intense blue. The silhouettes of the houses flank this blue on both sides, forming a childishly rigid little frame. As if we witness the birth of the song of flowers which are subordinated to this blue and dominated by the orange moon. [she wrote in 1905]”
Marianne von Werefkin (1860–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: Lettres a un Inconnu, (Notebook III, p. 120) - Aux sources de l'expressionnisme. Presentation par Gabrielle Dufour-Kowalska. Klincksieck, 1999. p. 156
“Bliss within the burghs, when I burst forth with a cadenced song”
Cynewulf (900–900) said by 900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Riddle IX, 'Riddle, The Nightingale', quoted by F. S. Flint, Preface, 'Otherworld Cadences', Poetry Bookshop, London, 1920
“He likes having the ball, playing football, passes. It's like an orchestra. But it's a silent song. I like heavy metal.”
Jürgen Klopp (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is an extra loss for a Welsh poet writing in English, and that is, the longing for Welsh, the secret language.. of all the centuries of speech and song.”
Gillian Clarke (born 1937) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Modern Women Poets (2005)
“SMALL SONG The reeds give way to the wind and give the wind away”
A. R. Ammons (1926–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Except the Christ be born again tonight In dreams of all men, saints and sons of shame, The world will never see his kingdom bright. Stars of all hearts, lead onward thro' the night Past death-black deserts, doubts without a name, Past hills of pain and mountains of new sin To that far sky where mystic births begin, Where dreaming ears the angel-song shall win.”
Vachel Lindsay (1879–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[W]hat really changed a generally pro-socialist South Korean public in 1950 to a right-leaning one was a brief taste of North Korean rule. Kim Sŏng-ch’il, for example, writes in his diary of how the KPA occupation made him identify with the ROK for the first time.”
Brian Reynolds Myers (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I shall give you a song, and you fill melody in it.”
Suman Pokhrel (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Arms, and the man who first, by Fate's command, From Ilion flying, sought Italia's strand, And gain'd Lavinium, are my themes of song. Long toss'd by waves, on land he suffer'd long: From power supernal, such his doom of woe; Pursued by vengeful Juno as her foe.”
Charles Symmons (1749–1826) said by 1826 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Be the day short or be the day long, at last it weareth to evening song.”
Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874–1942) said by 1942 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It no longer matters what song he is singing, or who wrote the words — they are all his words, his sentiments, they are chapters from the lyrical novel of his life.”
Gay Talese (born 1932) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Florentine... Florentine Lacasse... half song, half squalor, half springtime, half misery,the young man murmured.”
Gabrielle Roy (1909–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Be not, O Greeks, so very hostilely disposed towards the Barbarians. To the Babylonians you owe astronomy; to the Persians, magic; to the Egyptians, geometry; to the Phoeicians, instruction by alphabetic writing. Cease, then, to miscall these imitations inventions of your own. Orpheus, again, taught you poetry and song; from him, too, you learned the mysteries.”
Tatian (120–173) said by 173 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a fragrance in the air, a certain passage of a song, an old photograph falling out from the pages of a book, the sound of somebody's voice in the hall that makes your heart leap and fills your eyes with tears. Who can say when or how it will be that something easters up out of the dimness to remind us of a time before we were born and after we will die?”
Frederick Buechner (1926–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was walking down by the river. I lay down under a tree. I was broke. I felt pretty low. Then I looked up at the sky—all blue except for one little, white, fleecy cloud. The words came to me for the song—quicker than it's taking me to tell it to you. I got up—and I had new hope. That was the turning point in my life.”
Johnnie Ray (1927–1990) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On writing "The Little White Cloud That Cried", The Chicago Tribune (16 March 1952)
“In most of my westerns, in fact most of the movies I did at Columbia, I was the meanie, the bitch. Like ‘Colorado Sundown’ (at Republic) with Rex Allen and even the musical, ‘Arkansas Swing’ with the Hoosier Hot Shots, a terrific quartet who were also in ‘Song of Idaho’.”
June Vincent (1920–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All men are born condemned, so the wise say. All suckle the breast of Death. All bow before that Shadow Monarch. That Lord in Shadow lifts a finger. A feather flutters to the earth. There is no reason in His song. The good go young. The wicked prosper. He is king of the Chaos Lands. His breath stills all souls.”
“Achilles—bring back the story, Goddess, of the formidable hero descended through Aeacus from thundering Jupiter, but denied His heaven, his deeds indeed famous through Homeric song, but with much more to celebrate.”
Stanley Lombardo (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The mountain moon shines on a cloudless sky. Deep in the night the wind rises among the pines. I wish to weave my thoughts into a song for my jade lute, But the pine wind never ceases blowing.”
Zhu Yizun (1629–1709) said by 1709 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Written at Mauve Garden: Pine Wind Terrace" (tr. Y. N. Chang and Lewis C. Walmsley), in Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry, eds. Wu-chi Liu and Irving Yucheng Lo (1975), p. 477; also in The Lumin…
“I pondered Buddha's teaching A full four and eighty years. The gates are all now locked about me. No one was ever here - Who then is he about to die, And why lament for nothing? Farewell! The night is clear, The moon shines calmly, The wind in the pines Is like a lyre's song. With no I and no other Who hears the sound?”
Zoso Royo (1194–1277) said by 1277 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of my first jobs at eighteen was singing with a group called The Flirts when one of their members was on a leave of absence. They had a hit with the song "Jukebox (Don't Put Another Dime)" and there was always a three-girl lineup, but it changed a bit. I filled in to record a couple of tracks with them.”
Erika Jayne (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(on "I Don't Get Down Like That" the Swedish group Play pop song) "There comes a day when you realise turning the page is the best feeling in the world, because you realise there is so much more to the book than the page you were stuck on.”
Zayn Malik (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(on "Someday My Prince Will Come" the Ashley Tisdale pop song) "Just because your prince hasn't come doesn't mean you're not a princess.”
Zayn Malik (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The idea of going to some flash studio where there's some stranger telling you how to arrange your song is pretty absurd to us.”
Kevin Parker (musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Led Zeppelin recorded the song Hats off to (Roy) Harper. (Led Zeppelin III, 1970)”
Roy Harper (singer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And you know what? I don't think this little song's gonna make the charts”
Roy Harper (singer) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hors d’œuvres" on Stormcock (1970)
“There's a track called 'Why' that I really like. It's in the rock style again and I'm very satisfied with the lyrics. I wrote it after looking at a painting which had lots of things going on at the same time. Another song I really like is called 'I Still Love', because it's a little bit harder than the other ones.”
Basshunter (born 1984) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: DigitalSpy interview with Alex Fletcher (7 September 2009)