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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“O tenderly the haughty day Fills his blue urn with fire; One morn is in the mighty heaven, And one in our desire.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The poor, short lone fact dies at birth. Memory catches it up into her heaven and bathes it in immortal waters.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The same law that shapes the earth-star shapes the snow-star. As surely as the petals of a flower are fixed, each of these countless snow-stars comes whirling to earth...these glorious spangles, the sweeping of heaven's floor.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1856 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: January 5, 1856
“Even today I am not ashamed to say that, overpowered by stormy enthusiasm, I fell down on my knees and thanked Heaven from an overflowing heart for granting me the good fortune of being permitted to live at this time.”
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Go — take the mother's soul, and learn three truths: Learn What dwells in man, What is not given to man, and What men live by. When thou hast learnt these things, thou shalt return to heaven.”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If in your soil it takes, to heaven A thousand thousand thanks be given; And say with France, it goodly goes, Where the Pantagruelion grows.”
François Rabelais (1494–1553) said by 1553 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fewer are the ways of helping people than of harming them; it is the nature of things, not a consequence of the statistical method. Our world does not stand halfway between heaven and hell; it seems much closer to hell.”
Stanisław Lem (1921–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sunday — A day given over by Americans to wishing that they themselves were dead and in Heaven, and that their neighbors were dead and in Hell.”
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Were the talents and virtues which heaven has bestowed on men given merely to make them more obedient drudges, to be sacrificed to the follies and ambition of a few? Or, were not the noble gifts so equally dispensed with a divine purpose and law, that they should as nearly as possible be equally exerted, and the blessings of Providence be equally enjoyed by all?”
Samuel Adams (1722–1803) said by 1803 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom alone all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and with a propitious eye beholds his subjects assuming that freedom of thought, and dignity of self-direction which He bestowed on them. From the rising to the setting sun, may His kingdom come.”
Samuel Adams (1722–1803) said by 1803 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have no other alternative than independence, or the most ignominious and galling servitude. The legions of our enemies thicken on our plains; desolation and death mark their bloody career; whilst the mangled corpses of our countrymen seem to cry out to us as a voice from Heaven.”
Samuel Adams (1722–1803) said by 1803 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am not yet so lost in lexicography, as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven. Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas: I wish, however, that the instrument might be less apt to decay, and that signs might be permanent, like the things which they denote.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I like it, murder, because this is courage. It is anti-bourgeois. Murder is closer to heaven, because after becoming 'remords de conscience', one prays, one opens the sky, and the angels say, 'Good morning'!”
Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Imagine there's no heaven, It's easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us only sky, Imagine all the people Living for today...”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He wept for truth which was dead, for Heaven which was void. Beyond the marble walls and gleaming jewelled altars, the huge plaster Christ had no longer a single drop of blood in its veins.”
Émile Zola (1840–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ch. 17 (tr. Brian Nelson, 1999)
“The fire from heaven had fallen on this Sodom in the bowels of the earth where long ago pit girls committed untold abominations, and it had fallen so swiftly that they had not had time to come up, so that to this very day they were still burning down in this hell.”
Émile Zola (1840–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pt. 5, ch. 1 (tr. L. W. Tancock, 1954)
“If we have not found heaven within, it is a certainty we will not find it without.”
Henry Miller (1891–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The prosperity, and social vitality and technological progress of a people are directly determined by the extent of their liberty. Freedom honors and unleashes human creativity — and creativity determines the strength and wealth of nations. Liberty is both the plan of Heaven for humanity, and the best hope for progress here on Earth.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From the day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even though you were once a goddess, Kalidasa's heaven was only an illusion.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Dantean conceptions of Inferno were childish and unworthy of the Divine imagination: fire and torture. Boredom is much more subtle. The inner torture of a mind unable to escape itself in any way, condemned to fester in its own exuding mental pus for all time, is much more fitting. Oh, yes, my friend, we have been judged, and condemned, too, and this is not Heaven, but hell.”
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How does it concern you people? It’s our problem. We’ll solve it. If not, it’s our own particular road to hell.” “Better your own road to hell than another’s road to heaven, eh?”
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I wonder where that bat is now? Maybe he's sitting in Bat Heaven somewhere, with his own bat roadies...”
Ozzy Osbourne (1948–2025) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jason Arnopp, Slipknot: Inside the Sickness, Behind the Masks (2001),
“Howling in the shadows, living in a lunar spell, he finds his heaven, spewing from the mouth of hell.”
Ozzy Osbourne (1948–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Alas! Your dear friend and servant Galileo has been for the last month hopelessly blind; so that this heaven, this earth, this universe, which I by my marvelous discoveries and clear demonstrations had enlarged a hundred thousand times beyond the belief of the wise men of bygone ages, henceforward for me is shrunk into such a small space as is filled by my own bodily sensations.”
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) first seen 1638 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Élie Diodati (2 January 1638), as translated in The Private Life of Galileo: Compiled primarily from his correspondence and that of his eldest daughter, Sister Maria Celeste (1870) by Mary Allan-Olney, p. 279
“Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb -- they're often students, for heaven's sake.”
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I must work on my mind. For now I realise: Everyone of us has a heaven inside.”
“Out in the garden There's half of a heaven, And we're only bluffing. We're not ones for busting through walls, But they've told us Unless we can prove That we're doing it, We can't have it all.”
“I don't know if I'm closer to Heaven but It looks like Hell down there. These streets have never been paved with gold.”
“We take all the telescopes And we turn them inside out And we point them away from the big sky. Put your eye right up to the glass. Here we'll find the constellation of the heart. Steer your life by these stars On the unconditional chance 'Tis here where Hell and Heaven dance. This is the constellation of the heart.”
“A mystic is a man who separates heaven and earth even if he enjoys them both.”
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: William Blake (1920)
“Heaven shall forgive you Bridge at dawn, The clothes you wear — or do not wear — And Ladies’ Leap-frog on the lawn And dyes and drugs, and petits verres.”
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From the blood of Medusa Pegasus sprang. His hoof of heaven Like melody rang.”
Eleanor Farjeon (1881–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So many minds did gird their orbs with beams, Tho' one did fling the fire; Heaven flow'd upon the soul in many dreams Of high desire.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From yon blue heaven above us bent, The grand old gardener and his wife Smile at the claims of long descent.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Alfred Tennyson
“Remember that sore saying spoken once By Him that was the Truth, 'How hard it is For the rich man to enter into heaven!' Let all rich men remember that hard word.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He comes with western winds, with evening's wandering airs, With that clear dusk of heaven that brings the thickest stars; Winds take a pensive tone and stars a tender fire And visions rise and change which kills me with desire.”
Emily Brontë (1818–1848) first seen 1841 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Prisoner, st. 10 (October 1841)
“A heaven so clear, an earth so calm, So sweet, so soft, so hushed an air; And, deepening still the dreamlike charm, Wild moor-sheep feeding everywhere.”
Emily Brontë (1818–1848) said by 1848 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree Toward heaven still. And there's a barrel that I didn't fill Beside it, and there may be two or three Apples I didn't pick upon some bough. But I am done with apple-picking now.”
Robert Frost (1874–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree, And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, But dipped its top and set me down again. That would be good both going and coming back. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.”
Robert Frost (1874–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why make so much of fragmentary blue In here and there a bird, or butterfly, Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye, When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue.”
Robert Frost (1874–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But yield who will to their separation, My object in living is to unite My avocation and my vocation As my two eyes make one in sight. Only where love and need are one, And the work is play for mortal stakes, Is the deed ever really done For heaven and the future´s sakes.”
Robert Frost (1874–1963) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Two Tramps in Mud Time", st. 9 (1936)
“On the day when the human conscience shall lose its bearings, on the day when success shall carry the day before that forum, all will be at an end. The last moral gleam will reascend to heaven. Darkness will be in the mind of man. You will have nothing to do but to devour one another, wild beasts that you are! Conclusion, Part First, III”
Victor Hugo (1802–1885) said by 1885 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade, Death came with friendly care; The opening bud to heaven conveyed, And bade it blossom there.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) first seen 1794 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epitaph on an Infant", l. 1 (1794)
“Forth from his dark and lonely hiding place (Portentous-sight!) the owlet Atheism, Sailing an obscene wings athwart the noon, Drops his blue-fringèd lids, and holds them close, And hooting at the glorious sun in Heaven, Cries out, "Where is it?”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) first seen 1798 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fears in Solitude", l. 81 (1798)
“And looking to the Heaven, that bends above you, How oft! I bless the Lot, that made me love you.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) first seen 1807 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Presence of Love" (1807), ll. 10–11
“Sweet the rose which lives in Heaven, Although on earth ’tis planted, Where its honours blow, While by earth’s slaves the leaves are riven Which die the while they glow.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) first seen 1810 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Untitled (1810); titled "Love's Rose" in W. M. Rossetti, Poetical Works of Shelley (1870), p. 525
“There grew pied wind-flowers and violets, Daisies, those pearl'd Arcturi of the earth, The constellated flower that never sets; Faint oxlips; tender bluebells at whose birth The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets Its mother's face with heaven-collected tears, When the low wind, its playmate's voice, it hears.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) first seen 1820 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Question (1820), st. 2
“Art thou pale for weariness Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth, Wandering companionless Among the stars that have a different birth, — And ever changing, like a joyless eye That finds no object worth its constancy?”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) said by 1822 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To the Moon" (published 1824)
“Heaven's ebon vault, Studded with stars unutterably bright, Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls, Seems like a canopy which love has spread To curtain her sleeping world.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) said by 1822 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source