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
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatinaNederlands
Beauty
LoveFriendshipHappinessHopeFearCourageDeathLifeTimeWarPeaceFreedomTruthWisdomKnowledgeScienceArtMusicNatureMoneyWorkPowerGodBeautyLaughterFamilySuccess and failureChangeDreamsBooks and reading
“Self-respect cannot be hunted. It cannot be purchased. It is never for sale. It cannot be fabricated out of public relations. It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places, when we suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it; knowing the beautiful, we have served it; knowing the truth, we have spoken it.”
Alfred Whitney Griswold (1906–1963) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (9 June 1957).
“Boats and ships are female because they are beautiful, lovable, expensive—and unpredictable.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A beautiful summer day in Iowa leaves no room for worry.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paris is a very graceful and beautiful city, almost too formal and sweet to the taste after the raw disorder of New York. Everything seems to have been planned with the purpose of forming a most harmonious whole, which certainly has been done.. .Every street here is alive with all sorts of conditions of people, priests, nuns, students, and always the little soldiers with wide red pants.”
Edward Hopper (1882–1967) first seen 1906 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote in Hopper's letter to his mother, Paris, October 30, 1906; as cited in Edward Hopper, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 13
“The killing of the horses [a bullfight in Madrid, he visited in June 1910] by the bull is very horrible, much more so as they have no chance to escape and are ridden up to the bull to be butchered.. ..the entry of the bull into the ring however is very beautiful; his surprise and the first charges he makes are very pretty.”
Edward Hopper (1882–1967) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Hopper's letter to his sister, June 9, 1910; as cited in Edward Hopper, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 23
“To me the most important thing is the sense of going on. You know how beautiful things are when you're traveling.”
Edward Hopper (1882–1967) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Edward Hopper in Saõ Paulo', as cited by William C. Seitz, Smithsonian Press, Washington D.C., 1967
“I begin to think, that a calm is not desirable in any situation in life. Every object is beautiful in motion; a ship under sail, trees gently agitated with the wind, and a fine woman dancing, are three instances in point. Man was made for action and for bustle too, I believe.”
Abigail Adams (1744–1818) first seen 1784 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to her sister, Mary Smith Cranch (1784)
“The Church's idea of the good and the beautiful excludes sexual aberration, apart from chastity, I suppose because it's the rarest”
Tom Stoppard (1937–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are more useful systems developed in languages deemed awful than in languages praised for being beautiful — many more.”
Bjarne Stroustrup (born 1950) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "The Problem with Programming (Interview with Bjarne Stroustrup)" by Jason Pontin, MIT Technology Review (28 November 2006)
“You’re up on your beautiful Appaloosa stallion. It’s a fine spring day. We’re riding through the woods. The bluebells are all out, and the sky is a clear blue." I had barely got to the end of the sentence when she closed her eyes and gently slipped away. She was unique, and the world is a better place for having known her. I love you, Linda.”
Paul McCartney (born 1942) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Last words to his wife, Linda, as recounted by McCartney in a statement released to the press three days after her death; as quoted in "Linda's Death 'Heartbreak' for McCartney" by Emma Ross, Tucson Citizen (April 21, 1…
“a little more conversation revealed that warty bliggens considers himself to be the center of the said universe the earth exists to grow toadstools for him to sit under the sun to give him light by day and the moon and wheeling constellations to make beautiful the night for the sake of warty bliggens”
Don Marquis (1878–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“how beautiful is the universe when something digestible meets with an eager digestion how sweet the embrace when atom rushes to the arms of waiting atom”
Don Marquis (1878–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's for you, not for me. You don't do anything for me. You do meditation, you do it for yourself. You get helped by that. There is no pay, nothing I am getting out of it. It's for you. If it's your privilege, if it's your convenience, you do it. It's for you, not for me. Go ahead, do meditation and you will see and you'll really, really observe how beautiful this Knowledge is.”
Prem Rawat (born 1957) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: San Francisco, California, July 1, 1972
“This life that has been given to us as a gift, as such a precious gift. To really try to understand it, really try to recognize it, is to me the greatest meditation. Through the media of this Knowledge we can tap into our inner sources that are so beautiful.”
Prem Rawat (born 1957) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Denver, Colorado, February 19, 1977
“We are all individuals. I can’t eat for you and you can’t eat for me. I can’t sleep for you and you can't sleep for me. We are absolutely all individuals. When our purpose is fulfilled, it feels beautiful. That is, to me, the feeling of fulfillment.”
Prem Rawat (born 1957) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Miami, Florida, April 5, 1979
“There is something so beautiful inside you that if you knew it, you would fall in love with it. It is irresistible. You can truly experience that.”
Prem Rawat (born 1957) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brisbane, Australia (March 17, 1982) as reported in Maharaj, Visions International (1998)
“What I can offer you is no different than a shovel. You’ve got the gold mine, and all I’m offering you is the shovel. What does a shovel do? It allows you to dig for the gold. It allows you an access. There are very particular techniques that I am talking about, and from there, you can have an experience is beautiful, an experience that is soothing. That’s all.”
Prem Rawat (born 1957) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Melbourne, Australia, March 26, 1985
“This peace is not the absence of anything. Real peace is the presence of something beautiful. Both peace and the thirst for it have been in the heart of every human being in every century and every civilization.”
Prem Rawat (born 1957) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to faculty, students and guests at Harvard University's Sanders Theater (August 2004)
“The really unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful green silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, or anger, or desire, or any redeeming emotion to excuse them but cold fear of some pretended future. But the crimes they hope to prevent in that future are imaginary. The ones they commit in the present—they are real.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No money, but she’s beautiful, and her blood lines are impeccable.” “Are you choosing a wife, or buying a horse?”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She made the best of herself through tidiness and health, not by the unearned gift that’s the blessing and curse of those born beautiful.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She strode like a grenadier, was strong and upright like an obelisk, had a beautiful face, a candid brow, pure eyes, and not a thought of her own in her head.”
Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) first seen 1902 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tales of Unrest. The Return (1902)
“Of course, fairies are all imported in North America. We have no native fairies. The Little People do not long survive importation — unless they go to California and grow large and beautiful, but haven't much flavour, like the fruit and the film stars.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Scottish Folklore and Opera (1992).
“Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world. Let freedom reign! The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement! God bless Africa!”
Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I must go to Nature disarmed of perspective and stretch myself like a large transparent canvas upon her in the hope that, my submission being perfect, the imprint of a beautiful and useful truth would be taken.”
John Updike (1932–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Charlie interrupts impatiently, "Pain is where it's at for punks. Mutilation, self-hatred, slam dancing. For these kids today, ugly is beautiful. That's their way of saying what a lousy world we're giving them. No more rain forests. Toxic waste. You know the drill.”
John Updike (1932–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The wisest among us is very lucky never to have met the woman, be she beautiful or ugly, intelligent or stupid, who could drive him crazy enough to be fit to be put into an asylum.”
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ceci n’est pas un conte [This Is No Tale] (1796),
“Melody and harmony are like lines and colors in pictures. A simple linear picture may be completely beautiful; the introduction of color may make it vague and insignificant. Yet color may, by combination with lines, create great pictures, so long as it does not smother and destroy their value.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How do you see this tree? Is it really green? Use green, then, the most beautiful green on your palette. And that shadow, rather blue? Don't be afraid to paint it as blue as possible.”
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) first seen 1888 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from a conversation in 1888, Pont-Aven, with Paul Sérusier as cited by w:Maurice Denis, inL'influence de Paul Gauguin, in Occident (October 1903) and published in Du symbolisme au classicisme. Théories (1912), ed.…
“O tender yearning, sweet hoping! The golden time of first love! The eye sees the open heaven, The heart is intoxicated with bliss; O that the beautiful time of young love Could remain green forever.”
Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) first seen 1799 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Song of the Bell (1799)
“O the idea was childish, but divinely beautiful.”
Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) said by 1805 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yea, is not even Apollo, with hair and harpstring of gold, A bitter God to follow, a beautiful God to behold?”
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ah beautiful passionate body That never has ached with a heart!”
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of the things of the mind does not make us soft. We regard wealth as something to be properly used, rather than as something to boast about. As for poverty, no one need be ashamed to admit it, the real shame is in not taking practical measures to escape from it.”
Pericles (494–429 BC) said by 429 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thinking it over, Sax said,”Do you ever worry that work on a realm so far beyond the reach of experiment will turn out to be a kind of house of cards—knocked over by some simple discrepancy in the math, or some later different theory that does the job better, or is more confirmable?” “No,” Bao said. “Something so beautiful as this has to be true.”
Kim Stanley Robinson (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Waves striking the sea cliffs bounced back outward, creating interference patterns with the incoming waves that could have come right out of a physics wave tank: so beautiful. And so strange, that the world should conform so well to mathematical formulation. The unreasonable effectiveness of math; it was at the heart of the great unexplainable.”
Kim Stanley Robinson (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She was beautiful, she was powerful; but she was no longer young. Event would soon be washing by her, the way they did everyone else; history was a wave that moved through time slightly faster than an individual life did, so that even when people had lived only to seventy or eighty, they had been behind the wave by the time they died; and how much more so now.”
Kim Stanley Robinson (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The beautiful Monique insists on joining their expedition and cannot be dissuaded; we think at first she has a nefarious motive, but no, she's probably taken a class in screenplay construction and knows that the film requires a sexy female lead. This could be the first case in cinematic history of a character voluntarily entering a movie because of the objective fact that she is required.”
Roger Ebert (1942–2013) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Review of Around the World in 80 Days (16 June 2004)
“The Beatles may be more popular than Jesus but heavy cats like Chairman Mao, Uncle Ho, and beautiful long-haired Che Guevara are more popular than The Beatles.”
Abbie Hoffman (1936–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...a great architect's creative power, his capacity to make something beautiful, lies in his capacity to observe correctly, and deeply. A painter's talent lies in his capacity to see – he sees more acutely, more precisely, what it is that really matters in a thing, and where its qualities come from.”
Christopher Alexander (1936–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A traffic jam when you're already late, A "No Smoking" sign on your cigarette break. It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife. It's meeting the man of my dreams And then meeting his beautiful wife.And isn't it ironic? Don't you think? A little too ironic, And yeah, I really do think.”
Alanis Morissette (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I remember vividly a day years ago, We were camping. You knew more than you thought you should know. You said I don't want ever to be brainwashed And you were mind-boggling, you were intense. You were uncomfortable in your own skin, You were thirsty. But mostly, you were beautiful.”
Alanis Morissette (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I can feel so unsexy for someone so beautiful, So unloved and for someone so fine. I can feel so boring for someone so interesting, So ignorant for someone of sound mind.”
Alanis Morissette (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All hell has broken loose. I admit our Russian is limited, but we can say hello, come in, you are beautiful, oh no you don't. … So in our pride we ordered for breakfast an omelet, toast and coffee and what has just arrived is a tomato salad with onions, a dish of pickles, a big slice of watermelon and two bottles of cream soda. Something has slipped badly.”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On difficulties while traveling in the USSR (20 August 1947), in Steinbeck: A Life in Letters (1976)
“It is a time of quiet joy, the sunny morning. When the glittery dew is on the mallow weeds, each leaf holds a jewel which is beautiful if not valuable. This is no time for hurry or for bustle. Thoughts are slow and deep and golden in the morning.”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A book is like a man — clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun.”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a letter to Pascal Covici (1952)
“On the shore lay Montezuma with his coca leaves and pearlsIn his halls he often wondered of the secrets of the worlds....The women all were beautiful, the men stood straight and strongThey offered life in sacrifice so that others could go on Hate was just a legend, war was never knownThe people worked together and they lifted many stones.”
Neil Young (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Eyes raised towards Heaven are always beautiful, whatever they be.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Stars more beautiful to the eyes than the telescope that robs them of their illusions.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All beautiful words are susceptible to more than one meaning (or signification).”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source