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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“Silence will create respect and dignity; justice and fairplay will bring more friends; benevolence and charity will enhance prestige and position; courtesy will draw benevolence; service of mankind will secure leadership and good words will overcome powerful enemies.”
Ali (599–661) said by 661 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O all ye exorcizers come and exorcize now, and ye clergymen draw nigh and clerge, For I wish to be purged of an urge. It is an irksome urge, compounded of nettles and glue, And it is turning all my friends back into acquaintances, and all my acquaintances into people who look the other way when I heave into view.”
Ogden Nash (1902–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think that comparisons are truly odious, I do not approve of this constant proud or envious to-do; And furthermore, dear friends, I think that you and yours are delightful and I also think that me and mine are delightful too.”
Ogden Nash (1902–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was sick at heart. I could have resisted the opposition of opponents and potential rivals and even respected them for it; but what grieved me was the desertion of those I had always considered friends and allies and the weasel words whereby they had transmuted their betrayal into frank advice and concern for my fate.”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man without friends is a tree without leaves.”
Jack Vance (1916–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What good is notoriety if your friends are unable to profit from it?”
Jack Vance (1916–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I am at home, I never go near the synagogue unless, say, there is a bar or bat mitzvah involving the children of friends. But when I am traveling, in a country where Jewish life is scarce or endangered, I often make a visit to the shul.”
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My chief consolation in this year of living dyingly has been the presence of friends.”
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friends, we represent a minority, but Literature is on our side. With so many fine books to be read, so much to be studied and known, there is no need to bore ourselves with this rubbish.”
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Edmund Wilson: Literary Companion” (quoting Wilson) (2007)
“When you're weary Feeling small When tears are in your eyes I will dry them all I'm on your side When times get rough And friends just can't be found Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down.”
Paul Simon (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life! we've been long together, Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; 'Tis hard to part when friends are dear,;br>Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear; Then steal away, give little warning, Choose thine own time; Say not Good night, but in some brighter clime Bid me Good morning.”
Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743–1825) said by 1825 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”
Maya Angelou (1928–2014) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993) p. 12.
“We can come to look upon the deaths of our enemies with as much regret as we feel for those of our friends, namely, when we miss their existence as witnesses to our success.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) said by 1860 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our friends up north spend over five billion dollars on research and development and all they seem to do is copy Google and Apple.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Microsoft, at the Worldwide Developer's Conference (August 2006)
“If my life is of no value to my friends it is of none to myself.”
Joseph Smith Jr. (1805–1844) first seen 1844 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: History of the Church, 6:549 (22 June 1844)
“When sending his Short Treatise to his Amsterdam friends he begs of them to be sure that nothing but the good of their neighbours will ever induce them to communicate its doctrines to others.”
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) said by 1677 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A. Wolf, from the introduction to Spinoza's Short Treatise on God, Man, and His Well-Being (1910)
“I ought to love the Jews, as they seem to be my only friends intellectually, beginning with Edman—not to go back to Spinoza.”
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) said by 1677 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: George Santayana, in his letter to Mrs. Nancy Saunders Toy (who was the wife of Crawford Howell Toy), 12 August 1938
“Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.”
W. Clement Stone (1902–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in How to Be the Employee Your Company Can't Live Without : 18 Ways to Become Indispensable (2006) by Glenn Shepard
“What concerns me alone I only think, what concerns my friends I tell them, what can be of interest to only a limited public I write, and what the world ought to know is printed...”
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Where is your God?' That's what my friends ask me, And I say it's taken him so long 'Cause we've got so far to come.”
Stevie Wonder (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No more lying friends wanting tragic ends, Though they do pretend, They won't go when I go.”
Stevie Wonder (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was reminded as I was reviewing my life, that I have been in too many conflicts, too many wars, political battles, military battles, civil strifes in government. And always one lesson stands out and that is, those whom you fight most passionately often turn out to be your best friends.”
Ferdinand Marcos (1917–1989) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Extemporaneous speech at the Sixth Centennial Celebration of Islam in the Philippines (10 June 1980)
“In Aberdeen, I hated my best friends with a passion, because they were idiots.”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Daily Of The University Of Washington (1989-05-05).
“Load up on guns, bring your friends.”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm so happy 'Cause today I found my friends They're in my head. I'm so ugly, that's okay 'Cause so are you, Broke our mirrors.”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hate your enemies Save your friends Find your place Speak the truth.”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the first lessons life teaches us is that on these occasions of back-chat between the delicately-nurtured a man should retire into the offing, curl up in a ball, and imitate the prudent tactics of the opossum, which, when danger is in the air, pretends to be dead, frequently going to the length of hanging out crêpe and instructing its friends to stand round and say what a pity it all is.”
P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We do not tell old friends beneath our roof-tree that they are an offence to the eyesight.”
P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'I want to know what the devil you mean by keeping coming into my private apartment, taking up space which I require for other purposes and interrupting me when I am chatting with my personal friends. Really one gets about as much privacy in this house as a strip-tease dancer.'”
P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The reality is otherwise. [Vicente] Fox & friends are far closer than all but a few realize to making inevitable a North American Union where American sovereignty is dissipated and the republic is no more.”
Pat Buchanan (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Israeli and U.S. interests often run parallel, but they are not the same. Israel is concerned with a neighborhood. We are concerned with a world of 300 million Arabs and a billion Muslims. Our policies cannot be the same. If they are, we will end up with all of Israel’s enemies, who are legion, and only Israel’s friends, who are few.”
Pat Buchanan (born 1938) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Poodle Gets Kicked" column as reprinted on official website (March 15, 2010).
“Along with other industrial democracies who are our friends, we lead the way in technological innovation. Our combined economies are more than three times as productive as those Of the Soviet Union and all its allies. Our political institutions are based on human freedom. Our open system encourages individual initiative and creativity, and that in turn strengthens our entire society.”
Jimmy Carter (1924–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most Nobel Laureates have carried out our work in safety, but there are others who have acted with great personal courage. None has provided more vivid reminders of the dangers of peacemaking than two of my friends, Anwar Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin, who gave their lives for the cause of peace in the Middle East.”
Jimmy Carter (1924–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You find out who your real friends are when you're involved in a scandal.”
Elizabeth Taylor (1932–2011) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Elizabeth Taylor's 20 best quotes" in The Telegraph (23 March 2011)
“How many we know who have fled the sweetness of a tranquil life in their homes, among their friends, to seek the horror of uninhabitable deserts; who have flung themselves into humiliation, degradation, and the contempt of the world, and have enjoyed these and even sought them out.”
Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) said by 1592 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once my world was full of friends,”
Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people, who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate in their object-relations.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Anna Freud in the preface to the (1981) edition of Topsy: The Story of a Golden-Haired Chow by Princess Marie Bonaparte.
“When men's hearts are melted under the preaching of the word, or by sickness, or the loss of friends, believers should be very eager to stamp the truth upon the prepared mind. Such opportunities are to be seized with holy eagerness.”
Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Doubts about the fundamentals of the gospel exist in certain churches, I am told, to a large extent. My dear friends, where there is a warm-hearted church, you do not hear of them. I never saw a fly light on a red-hot plate.”
Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Flatterers look like friends, as wolves like dogs.”
George Chapman (1559–1634) said by 1634 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sorry, girl. But, you missed out. Well tough luck; that boy's mine now. We are more than just good friends; this is how the story ends. Too bad that you couldn't see; see the man that boy could be. There is more than meets the eye; I see the soul that is inside. He was a boy, she was girl. Can I make it any more obvious? We are in love, haven't you heard? How, we rock each other's world!”
Avril Lavigne (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My life [is] a series of Hollywood orgies and Kabbalah center brunches with the cast of Friends. At least that's what my handlers tell me. I’m actually too valuable to live my own life and spend most of my days in a vegetable crisper to remain fake news anchor fresh.”
Jon Stewart (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is a wonderful award, to see all my friends here and all the people I've worked with through the years, it reminds me of just how many people I carried.”
Jon Stewart (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Any organization calling itself “The Friends of This or That” always consisted of someone with an axe to grind, plus the usual assortment of prominent custard heads and professional stuffed shirts.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When you’re rich, you don’t have friends; you just have endless acquaintances.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We took the liberty to make some enquiries concerning the ground of their pretentions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation.”
John Adams (1735–1826) said by 1826 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Thomas Jefferson
“Deliver me from your cold phlegmatic preachers, politicians, friends, lovers and husbands.”
Abigail Adams (1744–1818) first seen 1776 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to John Adams (5 August 1776)
“It is a maxim of old that among themselves all things are common to friends.”
Terence (185–159 BC) said by 159 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These children need to feel the same things as other children. To play, to laugh and cry, to make friends, to enjoy the ordinary experiences of childhood. To feel loved and nurtured and included by the world they live in, without the stigma that AIDS continues to attract.”
Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–1997) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Princess of Wales during a speech about women and children with Aids (8 September 1993)
“Seems to me the only difference between your friends and your enemies is how long they stand around chatting before they shoot you.” “Yes,” Vorkosigan agreed, “I could take over the universe with this army if I could ever get all their weapons pointed in the same direction.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source