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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“Dialectical materialism works like cocaine, let's say. If you sniff it once or twice, it may not change your life. If you use it day after day, though, it will make you into an addict, a different man.”
Nicolae Ceaușescu (1918–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Senate is extremely slow: They have enormous difficulty passing the bills that even get through the House. That's the reality that I've recognized in my two years: that it takes time to change the world.”
Kirsten Gillibrand (born 1966) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: InsideOut Hudson Valley, January/February 2009
“A big advantage of the serial-number approach to identity is that things stay the same even as they change.”
Brian Hayes (scientist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yes, I am a Free Lover. I have an inalienable, constitutional and natural right to love whom I may, to love as long or as short a period as I can; to change that love every day if I please, and with that right neither you nor any law you can frame have any right to interfere.”
Victoria Woodhull (1838–1927) first seen 1871 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Steinway Hall (November 20, 1871), New York City, New York.
“It's the same old tune, fiddle and guitar. Where do we take it from here? Rhinestone suits and new shiny cars; We've been the same way for years. We need to change.”
Waylon Jennings (1937–2002) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way, from Dreaming My Dreams (1975).
“I remember that they had this wonderful effect for my demise [on 2020: Texas Gladiators], with my skull being cracked open by an axe. They had photos of this stunning effect made, but then decided to change it because they thought it was just too much.”
Donald O'Brien (actor) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That man is a creature who needs order yet yearns for change is the creative contradiction at the heart of the laws which structure his conformity and define his deviancy.”
Freda Adler (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He fought to think rationally. Guilt, he reminded himself, is an electro-chemical event in the physical brain. It’s one of the useless side-effects of consciousness, which is itself irrelevant. The ideal is the lines in Tennyson’s “Locksley Hall:” “Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change.” The important thing was that all of it moved in determinate grooves.”
Tim Powers (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am a big believer of what Darwin discovered in the Galapagos, proving that the species most responsive to change will survive over apparently stronger or more intelligent competitors.”
John Elkann (born 1976) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to shareholders", Exor, April 2011
“I don't care for the applause one gets by saying what others are thinking; I want actually to change people's thoughts. Power over people's minds is the main personal desire of my life; and this sort of power is not acquired by saying popular things.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) first seen 1916 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Lucy Martin Donnelly, February 10, 1916
“Without effort and change, human life cannot remain good. It is not a finished Utopia that we ought to desire, but a world where imagination and hope are alive and active.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is said (I do not know with what truth) that a certain Hindu thinker believed the earth to rest upon an elephant. When asked what the elephant rested upon, he replied that it rested upon a tortoise. When asked what the tortoise rested upon, he said, "I am tired of this. Suppose we change the subject." This illustrates the unsatisfactory character of the First-Cause argument.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Is There a God?" (1952)
“Change is one thing, progress is another.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The politician may change sides so frequently as to find himself always in the majority, but most politicians have a preference for one party to the other, and subordinate their love of power to this preference.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you want to deserve Hell, you need only stay in bed. The world is iniquity; if you accept it, you are an accomplice, if you change it you are an executioner.”
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...in order to change poverty into wealth, one must start by displaying it.”
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For those who want 'to change life", 'to reinvent love,' God is nothing but a hindrance.”
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: During a debate with Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden (June 23, 1925); Complete Speeches, 1897–1963, edited by Robert Rhodes James, Chelsea House ed., vol. 4 (1922–1928), p. 3706
“Money doesn't change men. It merely unmasks them. If a man is naturally selfish, or arrogant, or greedy, the money brings it out; that's all.”
Henry Ford (1863–1947) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Bruce Barton, "It Would Be Fun To Start Over Again," The American Magazine (April 1921)
“Change is death.”
Woody Allen (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't believe in an afterlife, although I am bringing a change of underwear.”
Woody Allen (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[A]ll things as subsist from nature appear to contain in themselves a principle of motion and permanency; some according to place, others according to increase and diminuation; and others according to change in quality.”
Aristotle (384–322 BC) said by 322 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The superior man governs men, according to their nature, with what is proper to them, and as soon as they change what is wrong, he stops.”
Confucius (551–479 BC) said by 479 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Had it not been for you, I should have remained what I was when we first met, a prejudiced, narrow-minded being, with contracted sympathies and false knowledge, wasting my life on obsolete trifles, and utterly insensible to the privilege of living in this wondrous age of change and progress.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whatever the will of God is, then the will of God will be there. Nothing is going to change the Will of God, the believers still believe that what God decides is acceptable.”
Saddam Hussein (1937–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One thing we have got to change in our strategy - allowing Office documents to be rendered very well by other people's browsers is one of the most destructive things we could do to the company. We have to stop putting any effort into this and make sure that Office documents very well depends [sic] on PROPRIETARY IE capabilities.”
Bill Gates (born 1955) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1998 a memo to the Office product group
“The only way you can get to the very positive scenario [in the fight against climate change] is by great innovation. Innovation really does bend the curve.”
Bill Gates (born 1955) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From "Gates to double investment in renewable energy projects: Microsoft co-founder takes interest in new areas of research like in solar, high wind and new nuclear." Financial Times. Article by Christopher Adams and Jo…
“When it comes to climate change, I know innovation isn’t the only thing we need. But we cannot keep the earth livable without it. Techno-fixes are not sufficient, but they are necessary.”
Bill Gates (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I used to worship the mighty genius of Michael Angelo — that man who was great in poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture — great in every thing he undertook. But I do not want Michael Angelo for breakfast — for luncheon — for dinner — for tea — for supper — for between meals. I like a change, occasionally.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are those who imagine that the unlucky accidents of life—life's "experiences"—are in some way useful to us. I wish I could find out how. I never know one of them to happen twice. They always change off and swap around and catch you on your inexperienced side.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Titles of property, for instance railway shares, may change hands every day, and their owner may make a profit by their sale even in foreign countries, so that titles to property are exportable, although the railway itself is not.”
Karl Marx (1818–1883) said by 1883 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If one day China should change her colour and turn into a superpower, if she too should play the tyrant in the world, and everywhere subject others to her bullying, aggression and exploitation, the people of the world should identify her as social-imperialism, expose it, oppose it and work together with the Chinese people to overthrow it.”
Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe we are on an irreversible trend towards more freedom and democracy, but that could change.”
Dan Quayle (born 1947) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: cited to the Wall Street Journal (May 26, 1989)
“There are two organizations pushing for change in November — al Qaeda and the Democratic party. And they both have the same message: 'We're going to fix you, America.' On the whole, the terrorists have a more straightforward plan for fixing things. They're going to blow themselves up. Although, come to think of it, Howard Dean did that.”
P. J. O'Rourke (1947–2022) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Putting Words in the President's Mouth" (12 October 2004)
“If Christ came back tomorrow, He'd have to change planes in Frankfurt. Modern air travel means less time spent in transit. That time is now spent in transit lounges.”
P. J. O'Rourke (1947–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most extraordinary change in Moscow was Arbat Street, the USSR's first pedestrian mall. Of course, there's something a little sad about a pedestrian mall in a nation where few people own cars— the whole damn country's a pedestrian mall.”
P. J. O'Rourke (1947–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Christians are supposed not merely to endure change, nor even to profit by it, but to cause it.”
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in He Came from Galilee (1974) by Parker B. Brown
“The fact that astronomies change while the stars abide is a true analogy of every realm of human life and thought, religion not least of all. No existent theology can be a final formulation of spiritual truth.”
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He who must be what he is, may curse his fate, but cannot change it; on the other hand, he who can transform himself has no one in the world but himself to blame for his failings, no one but himself to hold responsible for his dissatisfaction.”
Stanisław Lem (1921–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I put a dollar in a change machine. Nothing changed.”
George Carlin (1937–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Off goes the head of the king, and tyranny gives way to freedom. The change seems abysmal. Then, bit by bit, the face of freedom hardens, and by and by it is the old face of tyranny. Then another cycle, and another. But under the play of all these opposites there is something fundamental and permanent — the basic delusion that men may be governed and yet be free.”
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Preface to the first edition of The American Credo : A Contribution Toward the Interpretation of the National Mind (1920)
“It is moral by his code to get into office by false pretences. It is moral to change convictions overnight. Anything is moral that furthers the main concern of his soul, which is to keep a place at the public trough.”
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you want to make a point or do you want to make a change? do you want to get something off your chest, or do you want to get something done?”
Richard Nixon (1913–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is an international disease which feeds on the notion that if you have a cause to defend, you can use any means to further your cause, since the end justifies the means. As an international community, we must oppose this notion, whether it be in Canada, in the United States, or anywhere else. No cause justifies violence as long as the system provides for change by peaceful means.”
Richard Nixon (1913–1994) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech on the October Crisis (October 1970), quoted in Louis, Fournier, F.L.Q: The Anatomy of an Underground movement (Toronto: NC Press Limited, 1984), p. 256
“When learning's triumph o'er her barb'rous foes First reared the stage, immortal Shakespeare rose; Each change of many-colored life he drew, Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new: Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign, And panting Time toiled after him in vain.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs: Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do.”
Donald Knuth (born 1938) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Literate Programming", The Computer Journal 27 (1984), p. 97. (Reprinted in Literate Programming, 1992, p. 99.)
“You say you want a revolution, Well, you know, we all want to change the world... But when you talk about destruction, Don't you know that you can count me out... But if you want money for people with minds that hate... All I can tell is brother you have to wait”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At present, we're putting on paper a lot of stuff that never needed to be on paper. We do need to keep the records. But there isn't any reason for printing them. The next generation growing up with the computers will change that.”
Grace Hopper (1906–1992) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in the U.S. Navy's Chips Ahoy magazine (July 1986)
“Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, "We've always done it this way." I try to fight that. That's why I have a clock on my wall that runs counter-clockwise.”
Grace Hopper (1906–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source