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

English Italiano Polski עברית Français Português فارسی Español 中文 Русский Deutsch العربية हिन्दी 日本語 Ελληνικά Latina

Life

Love Friendship Happiness Hope Fear Courage Death Life Time War Peace Freedom Truth Wisdom Knowledge Science Art Music Nature Money Work Power God Beauty Laughter Family Success and failure Change Dreams Books and reading

“The physical life of an individual person is limited, but the life of the masses united as an independent social-political organism is immortal.… Only when an individual becomes a member of this community can he acquire the immortal social-political life.”
Kim Jong-il (1941–2011) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Theory of the Immortal Social-Political Body" (1986)
“I think perhaps love thrives on unlikely circumstance and chance : life thrives on these principles, and is life not love? And love not life?”
Brandon Boyd (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our principle is that we should regulate our present life just as if the future life did not exist, that it is never justifiable to refer to what is beyond in extenuation of any social condition or action. To appeal incessantly to the future life is to deaden the spirit of reform, to relax the zeal for the rational organization of humanity.”
Ernest Renan (1823–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope.”
Rick Warren (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The smile of God is the goal of your life. Since pleasing God is the first purpose of your life, your most important task is to discover how to do that. The Bible says, "Figure out what will please Christ, then do it." Fortunately, the Bible gives us a clear example of a life that gives pleasure to God. The man's name was Noah.”
Rick Warren (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'd say exercising self-control is very important for a dissolute life. You don't need to control your drug intake to lead a free life. Whether you take no drugs at all or everything you can get your hands on, a free life is separated from that.”
Pete Doherty (born 1979) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: NME (New Musical Express), 15 December 2006
“..I thought the secret of life was obvious: be here now, love as if your whole life depended on it, find your life's work, and try to get hold of a giant panda.”
Anne Lamott (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself?”
Milan Kundera (1929–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A bystander...remarked, '...One day of life is weightier than ten thousand pieces of gold...It is not because they do not fear death, but because they forget the nearness of death that men do not rejoice in life. One may say that he has grasped the true principle who is unconcerned with the manifestation of life or death.' When he said this people scoffed at him more than ever.”
Yoshida Kenkō (1283–1350) said by 1350 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“After us they’ll fly in hot air balloons, coat styles will change, perhaps they’ll discover a sixth sense and cultivate it, but life will remain the same, a hard life full of secrets, but happy. And a thousand years from now man will still be sighing, “Oh! Life is so hard!” and will still, like now, be afraid of death and not want to die.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) said by 1904 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is art really? The outcome of dissatisfaction with life, the point of impact for the creative force, the continual movement of life.. ..in my art I attempt to explain life and its meaning to myself.”
Edvard Munch (1863–1944) said by 1944 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: N 45, as quoted in Edvard Much – behind the scream, Sue Prideaux; Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007, p. 35
“The motive, principle, and end of the religious life is to make an absolute gift of self to God in a self-forgetting love, to end one's own life in order to make room for God's life.”
Edith Stein (1891–1942) said by 1942 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity — it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud.”
Yann Martel (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She called today, Pretending not to care at all, For days and weeks, Now he’s hanging from the ceiling, What a life, Oh what a life, Was it a life? ~ "Sense”
Pete Yorn (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is, I think, a spontaneous resurgence of thinking that centers on protection of life, celebrating life, enjoying life as both our highest duty and our most powerful form of resistance against a violent and brutal system that globalizes not just trade, but fascism, and denies civil liberties and freedoms.”
Vandana Shiva (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life is a waste of time. Time is a waste of life. Get wasted all the time and you'll have the time of your life.”
Billy Connolly (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We want to find [life]. Absolutely. And even now it's really disappointing when you think that, if there is extraterrestrial life, it’s probably bacteria and microbial life. Because you want Star Wars. I want to meet Spock. I think that, as intellectual beings, we fantasize about meeting other intellects similar to our own. It's just a basic human desire.”
Claudia Alexander (1959–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I go out of public life with one feeling, with one conviction, it is this : a deep regret for many bitter words I have used in my life, deep sincere repentance for my violence of language. But I hope they will be forgiven me by God and man, because not once in all my life have I attacked anybody unjustly from my point of view, and without believing it was my duty to do so.”
Henri Bourassa (1868–1952) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Henri Bourassa, Fiery Politician, Dies, The Globe and Mail, September 1, 1952, page A1.
“From flying robot insects to running robot dog to humanoids such as the world’s first robot citizen Sophia, artificial life forms are populating the planet Earth; and some people are bound to find artificial life forms more attractive than natural life forms.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is old age, rather than death, that is to be contrasted with life. Old age is life's parody, whereas death transforms life into a destiny: in a way it preserves it by giving it the absolute dimension. Death does away with time.”
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He was, first and last, the born fighter, to whom the consciousness of being matched against a great adversary suffices, and who can dispense with success. Life for him was an adventure, perilous indeed, but men are not made for safe havens. The fullness of life is in the hazards of life. And, at the worst, there is that in us which can turn defeat into victory.”
Edith Hamilton (1867–1963) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Referring to Aeschylus in The Great Age of Greek Literature (1942)
“for liberals, black people are to be “included” and “integrated” into “our” society and culture, while for conservatives they are to be “well behaved” and “worthy of acceptance” by “our” way of life. Both fail to see that the presence and predicaments of black people are neither additions to nor defections from American life, but rather constitutive elements of that life. (p3)”
Cornel West (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But I'd felt as if I'd pissed my life away in the same way that you can piss money away. I'd had a life, full of kids and wives and jobs and all the usual stuff, and I'd somehow managed to mislay it. No, you see, that's not right. I knew where my life was, just as you know where the money goes when you piss it away. I hadn't mislaid it at all. I'd spent it.”
Nick Hornby (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we wish to influence our own life in a particular direction, which is constantly threatened by the danger of the emergence of alien life-forms, and protect it from deterioration, then we must either allow Nature to rule or, if we wish to intervene, we must first acquaint ourselves with the simplest principles of life.”
Viktor Schauberger (1885–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Material production - the production, for example, or cars, televisions, clothing, and food - creates the means of social life. … Immaterial production, by contrast, including the production of ideas, knowledges, communication, cooperation, and affective relations, tends to create not the means of social life but social life itself.”
Antonio Negri (1933–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[I]n our civilized society I must lead the life of a savage. I must free myself even from governments. My sympathies lies with the people; I must go to them directly. I must draw my wisdom from them, and they must give me life. For that reason I have just embarked on the grand, independent and vagabond life of the bohemian.”
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) first seen 1850 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter, (1850) to his friend Francis Wey; as quoted in Georges Riat Gustave Courbet', Parkstone International (2015).
“Thus life by life and love by love We passed through the cycles strange, And breath by breath and death by death We followed the chain of change. Till there came a time in the law of life When o’er the nursing sod, The shadows broke and soul awoke In a strange, dim dream of God.”
Langdon Smith (1858–1908) said by 1908 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a city myth that country life was isolated and lonely; the truth is that farmers and their families then had a richer social life than they have now. They enjoyed a society organic, satisfying and whole, not mixed and thinned with the life of town, city and nation as it now is.”
Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art and work and art and life are very connected and my whole life has been absurd. There isn't a thing in my life that has happened that hasn't been extreme - personal health, family, economic situations...absurdity is the key word...”
Eva Hesse (1936–1970) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Art since 1940, strategies of being, Jonathan Fineberg, copyright Prentice Hall, Inc. 1995.
“The frontier of the higher life is everywhere contiguous to the common life, and we can cross the border at any moment. The higher life is as real as the grosser things in which we put our trust. But our eyes must be anointed so that we may see it. The office of the religious teacher is to be a seer, and to make others see, and thus to win them into the upward way.”
Felix Adler (1851–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life — life — let there be life! Better a thousand times the roaring hours When wave and wind, Like the Arch-Murderer in flight From the Avenger at his heel, Storm through the desolate fastnesses And wild waste places of the world!”
William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life — life — life! 'Tis the sole great thing This side of death, Heart on heart in the wonder of Spring!”
William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was sure that Lys was dead. I wanted myself to die, and yet I clung to life—useless and hopeless and harrowing a thing as it had become. I clung to life because some ancient, reptilian forbear had clung to life and transmitted to me through the ages the most powerful motive that guided his minute brain—the motive of self-preservation.”
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are not talking about a new cognition in relation to Abstract art, rather a new area of cognition.. .This is where abstract art steps in, in a stronger sense of life, a stronger contact with the growing life, a feeling of the pulsation of life and growth in oneself, an activation of deep-seated powers a staple vitality far deeper than our cognition, not instead of science but inspired by it.”
Asger Jorn (1914–1973) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote by Jorn, after Egill Jacobson's exhibition in Kunstforeningen (1945)
“Life is security and daring,/ Life is protection and risk,/ Life is openness and closure,/ It is safety and adventure.”
Kuruvilla Pandikattu (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our culture is very interested in life after death, but the w:New Testament is much more interested in ...life after life after death...”
N.T. Wright (born 1948) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: as interviewed by David Van Biema, "Christians Wrong About Heaven, Says Bishop," Time Magazine, Feb. 07, 2008
“Woman, in short, has an unconscious life, man a conscious life, and the genius the most conscious life.”
Otto Weininger (1880–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is not life, but in a sense something contrary to life, since life is transient and changing, while art is permanent.”
Daniel Bell (1919–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A writer creates life; a poet creates magic from life; a philosopher tries to understand life.”
Siddharth Katragadda (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life’s meaning doesn’t come from God! Life’s meaning comes from life!”
James K. Morrow (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the mysterious way in which life is given to us in evolution on this planet, it pushes in the direction of its own expansion. We don’t understand it simply because we don’t know the purpose of creation; we only feel life straining in ourselves and see it thrashing others about as they devour each other. Life seeks to expand in an unknown direction for unknown reasons.”
Ernest Becker (1924–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Physical life is thrust upon us, we have no choice in the matter. Not so with the spiritual life. The possession of spiritual life involves a conscious choice on our part; we may or may not possess it, depending upon the choice we make.”
Kirby Page (1890–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Life space was defined as] the totality of facts which determine the behavior (B) of an individual (or group/organization) at a certain moment. The life space (L) represents the totality of possible events. The life space includes the person (P) and the environment (E). B = f(L) = f(P.E)”
Kurt Lewin (1890–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 216 as cited in: David Boje, Bernard Burnes, John Hassard (2012) The Routledge Companion to Organizational Change. p. 34.
“By prayer I mean not merely prayer from the mouth, but of the mind and heart, of all the powers of the soul and senses of the body. This is the prayer prayed by the soul who wills and desires to find this divine light, studying, meditating and reading without cease in the Book and the more-than-a-book of Life. This Book of Life is the entire life of Christ while he lived as a mortal on earth.”
Angela of Foligno (1248–1309) said by 1309 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the…varṇāśrama polity of ancient India, the State did not occupy so prominent a place in the non-kshatriya man’s life as it does now. Family was the hub of the universe…Family life was for every man. State life or civic duty was only for the kshatriya ordinarily. It was Greece that first developed the notion of the State as a moral annexe to…the family.”
D. V. Gundappa (1887–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(…) when a man is fearless, no man can stand against him in battle – either a battle in material life or in spiritual life. He is victorious in all battles of life.”
Haidakhan Babaji (2000–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life at any time can become difficult: life at any time can become easy. It all depends upon how one adjusts oneself to life.”
Morarji Desai (1896–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Change your Body - Is your Body Acidic or Alkaline? (2014) by Monica Wright, and Matt Thom, p. 44
“From the paramecium to the human race, all life forms are meticulously organized, sophisticated aggregates of evolving microbial life. Far from leaving microorganisms behind on an evolutionary "ladder," we are both surrounded by them and composed of them. Having survived in an unbroken line from the beginnings of life, all organisms today are equally evolved.”
Lynn Margulis (1938–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yoga transformed my life from a parasitic one to a life of purpose. Later yoga inspired me to partake in the joy and nobility of life, which I carried to many thousands of people without consideration of religion, caste, gender, or nationality.”
B. K. S. Iyengar (1918–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Three revolutions mark the history of life on earth. The first was the origin of life itself... The second... was the origin of multicellular organisms... The origin of human consciousness... was the third... Life became aware of itself, and began to transform the world of nature to its own ends.”
Richard Leakey (1944–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source