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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“The stars of heaven are free because In amplitude of liberty Their joy is to obey the laws.”
William Watson (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Far from mortal cares retreating, Sordid hopes and vain desires, Here, our willing footsteps meeting, Every heart to heaven aspires.”
Jane Taylor (1783–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hymn, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“'Twould ring the bells of Heaven The wildest peal for years, If Parson lost his senses And people came to theirs, And he and they together Knelt down with angry prayers For tamed and shabby tigers And dancing dogs and bears, And wretched, blind, pit ponies, And little hunted hares.”
Ralph Hodgson (1871–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Possibly there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your psychiatry, Mr. Garth.”
Garrett Fort (1900–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Follow the road behind the Emperor. We must build the world for Japan's sake, heaven ordered Japan to achieve this great mission.”
Kingoro Hashimoto (1890–1957) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "The China Monthly Review" - Page 47 - East Asia - 1917
“Jesus was way cool. He told people to eat his body and drink his blood. That's so cool. Jesus was so cool. But then some people got jealous of how cool he was, so they killed him. But then he rose from the dead! He rose from the dead, danced around, and went up to heaven. I mean, that's so cool. Jesus was way cool. No wonder there are so many Christians.”
John S. Hall (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge or wealth to few are given, But mark how just the ways of Heaven: True joy to all is free. Nor wealth nor knowledge grant the boon: 'Tis thine, O conscience, thine alone, It all belongs to thee.”
William Julius Mickle (1734–1788) first seen 1761 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Knowledge: an Ode (c. 1761)
“When nature's happiest touch could add no more, Heaven lent an angel's beauty to her face.”
William Julius Mickle (1734–1788) first seen 1770 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mary, Queen of Scots: an Elegy (1770)
“To appreciate heaven well 'Tis good for a man to have some fifteen minutes of hell.”
Will Carleton (1845–1912) first seen 1874 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gone with a Handsomer Man", in Farm Ballads (1874)
“To be resign'd when ills betide, Patient when favours are deni'd, And pleas'd with favours given,— Dear Chloe, this is wisdom's part; This is that incense of the heart Whose fragrance smells to heaven.”
Nathaniel Cotton (1705–1788) said by 1788 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Fireside, stanza 11, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "The incense of the heart may rise", Pierpont, Every Place a Temple, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1…
“I fill this cup to one made up Of loveliness alone, A woman, of her gentle sex The seeming paragon; To whom the better elements And kindly stars have given A form so fair, that, like the air, 'Tis less of earth than heaven.”
Edward Coote Pinkney (1802–1828) said by 1828 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Health, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“At the piping of all hands, When the judgment-signal's spread— When the islands and the lands And the seas give up their dead, And the South and North shall come; When the sinner is dismayed, And the just man is afraid, Then Heaven be thy aid, Poor Tom.”
John Gardiner Calkins Brainard (1795–1828) said by 1828 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lament for Long Tom, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Nor sink those stars in empty night: They hide themselves in heaven's own light.”
James Montgomery (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: James Montgomery
“While the passion of some is to shine, of some to govern, and of others to accumulate, let one great passion alone influence our breasts, the passion which reason ratifies, which conscience approves, which Heaven inspires, — that of being and doing good.”
Robert Hall (1764–1831) said by 1831 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Heaven is attracting to itself whatever is congenial to its nature, is enriching itself by the spoils of earth, and collecting within its capacious bosom whatever is pure, permanent, and divine.”
Robert Hall (1764–1831) said by 1831 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That which we look on with unselfish love And true humility is surely ours, Even as a lake looks at the stars above And makes within itself a heaven of stars.”
Mary Gardiner Brainard (1837–1905) said by 1905 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ownership, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Little deeds of kindness, Little words of love, Make our pleasant earth below Like the heaven above.”
Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney (1823–1908) first seen 1845 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Little Things" (1845) as quoted in Our Woman Workers: Biographical Sketches of Women Eminent in the Universalist Church for Literary, Philanthropic and Christian Work (1881) by E. R. Hanson. These were the final words o…
“Pity the sorrows of a poor old man, Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door, Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span; Oh give relief, and Heaven will bless your store.”
Thomas Moss (minister) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Beggar, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Also quoted by: Thomas Moss
“The 'American Dream' of the middle class has all but disappeared, substituted with people struggling just to buy next week's groceries. Heaven forbid the car breaks down!”
Timothy McVeigh (1968–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How marvellously lie our anxieties, in filmy layers, one over the other! Take away that which has lain on the upper surface for so long – the care of cares – the only one, as it seemed to you, between your soul and the radiance of Heaven – and straight you find a new stratum there.”
Sheridan Le Fanu (1814–1873) said by 1873 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By this you may see who are the rude and barbarous Indians: For verily there is no savage nation under the cope of Heaven, that is more absurdly barbarous than the Christian World. They that go naked and drink water and live upon roots are like Adam, or Angels in comparison of us.”
Thomas Traherne (1636–1674) said by 1674 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why should we faint and fear to live alone, Since all alone, so Heaven has willed, we die, Nor even the tenderest heart, and next our own, Knows half the reasons why we smile and sigh?”
John Keble (1792–1866) said by 1866 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most heaven-like spots I have ever visited, have been certain rooms in which Christ's disciples were awaiting the summons of death. So far from being a "house of mourning," I have often found such a house to be a vestibule of glory.”
Theodore L. Cuyler (1822–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Seek for a fresh invoice of grace. Unbelief can scoff or growl; faith is the nightingale that sings in the darkest hour. Faith can draw honey out of the rock and oil out of the flint. With Christ in possession and heaven in reversion, it marches to the time of the One-hundred-and-third Psalm over the roughest road, and against the most cutting blast.”
Theodore L. Cuyler (1822–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In heaven, knowledge shall be commensurate with the enlarged powers of the glorified soul.”
Theodore L. Cuyler (1822–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You will find that for a smoking flax there is no specific like heaven's oxygen; for a faint and flickering piety there is no cure comparable to the one without which all our own exertions are but an effort to light a lamp in a vacuum — the breath of the Holy Spirit.”
James Hamilton (1814–1871) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Indeed, I am a safeguard to the inhabitants of earth as the stars are safeguards to the inhabitants of heaven.”
Muhammad al-Mahdi (born 869) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Darkness will be preferred to light, and death will be thought more profitable than life; no one will raise his eyes to heaven.”
Apuleius (125–170) said by 170 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For as one star another far exceeds, So souls in heaven are placèd by their deeds.”
Robert Greene (dramatist) first seen 1591 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Maiden's Dream (1591); Dyce, p. 282
“On women Nature did bestow two eyes, Like heaven's bright lamps, in matchless beauty shining, Whose beams do soonest captivate the wise, And wary heads, made rare by art's refining”
Robert Greene (dramatist) first seen 1592 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Philomela (1592); Dyce, p. 315
“Ah, were she pitiful as she is fair, Or but as mild as she is seeming so, Then were my hopes greater than my despair, Then all the world were heaven, nothing woe.”
Robert Greene (dramatist) first seen 1694 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Song, "Fawnia", l. 1 (ed. 1694); Dyce, p. 294
“And in a sable mantle of disgrace Sat he that is y-clepèd heaven's bright eye.”
Robert Greene (dramatist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hey, you! Heaven! Off with your hat! I am coming! Not a sound. The universe sleeps, its huge paw curled upon a star-infested ear.”
Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893–1930) said by 1930 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is absolutely no point in being healed in our bodies, then dying in our sins and spending an eternity in hell. It would be better to die of cancer and go to heaven because of that cancer, than to live in perfect health and end up in hell.”
Ray Comfort (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven, Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven.”
William Jones (philologist) first seen 1835 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Lord Teignmouth, Life of Sir W. Jones (1835), vol. 2. Reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "Six hours in sleep, in law's grave study six, / Four spend in prayer, the rest on Nature fi…
“See mother earth her offspring's fate bemoan, And nations gaze at scenes before unknown! See the bright beams of heaven's revolving light Involved in sorrows and the veil of night! The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair,”
Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As when Eolus heaven's fair face deforms, Enwrapp'd in tempest and a night of storms; Astonish'd ocean feels the wild uproar, The refluent surges beat the sounding shore; Or thick as leaves in Autumn's golden reign,”
Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When Gallic powers Columbia's fury found; And so may you, whoever dares disgrace The land of freedom's heaven-defended race! Fix'd are the eyes of nations on the scales, For in their hopes Columbia's arm prevails.”
Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In sorrow there is no rhyme. Dream the kind of a life that you will find The kind of love that lasts forever. Dream the kind of a life that you will find The kind of love that lasts forever. In heaven there is no time.”
Becky Stark (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My work embodies little visions of the great intangible.. ..Some will say he’s gone mad – others will look and say he’s looked in at the lattices of Heaven and come back with the madness of splendor on him.”
Marsden Hartley (1877–1943) first seen 1908 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: letter to Seumus O'Sheel, October 10, 1908, Hartley Archive, Archives of American Art; as quoted in Marsden Hartley, by Gail R. Scott, Abbeville Publishers, Cross River Press, 1988, New York p. 25
“Hast thou left thy blue course in heaven, golden-haired son of the sky? The west has opened its gates; the bed of thy repose is there. The waves come to behold thy beauty. They lift their trembling heads. They see thee lovely in thy sleep; they shrink away with fear. Rest, in thy shadowy cave, O sun! let thy return be in joy.”
James Macpherson (1736–1796) said by 1796 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Man is the animal who weeps and laughs — and writes. If the first Prometheus brought fire from heaven in a fennel-stalk, the last will take it back — in a book.”
John Cowper Powys (1872–1963) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Pleasures of Literature (1938), p. 17
“People like us are unhappy in this world and in the next, I guess if we made it to heaven, we’d have to help make it thunder.”
Georg Büchner (1813–1837) said by 1837 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Faith refers to Christ. Holiness depends on faith. Heaven depends on holiness.”
Alexander Maclaren (1826–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dearest wife, let us go on and faint not; something of ours is in heaven besides the flesh of our exalted Saviour, and we go on after our own.”
Samuel Rutherford (1600–1661) said by 1661 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is certain that this is not only good which the Almighty has done, but that it is best; He hath reckoned all your steps to heaven.”
Samuel Rutherford (1600–1661) said by 1661 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rolfe's vice was spiritual more than it was carnal: it might be said that he was a pander and a swindler, because he cared for nothing but his faith. He would be a priest or nothing, so nothing it had to be…If he could not have Heaven, he would have Hell, and the last footprints seem to point unmistakably towards the Inferno.”
Frederick Rolfe (1860–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Graham Greene "Frederick Rolfe: Edwardian Inferno" (1934); cited from Collected Essays (New York: The Viking Press, 1969) p. 175
“As I came through the desert thus it was, As I came through the desert: All was black, In heaven no single star, on earth no track; A brooding hush without a stir or note; The air so thick it clotted in my throat.”
James Thomson (poet, born 1834) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He who tears down the cross, what is there left to lift him to heaven? The church claiming to be a Christian church is false to the title, if she make the cross of Christ of none effect.”
Herrick Johnson (1832–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh! help me, heaven," she prayed, "to be decorative and to do right!”
Ronald Firbank (1886–1926) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Flower Beneath the Foot (1923), cited from The Complete Ronald Firbank (London: Duckworth, 1961) p. 516.