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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“Your map of Africa is really quite nice. But my map of Africa lies in Europe. Here is Russia, and here... is France, and we're in the middle — that's my map of Africa.”
Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) first seen 1888 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Discussing the with Eugen Wolf on 5 December 1888
“So when or you or I are made A fable, song, or fleeting shade, All love, all liking, all delight Lies drowned with us in endless night.”
Robert Herrick (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here she lies, a pretty bud, Lately made of flesh and blood: Who as soon fell fast asleep As her little eyes did peep. Give her strewings, but not stir The earth that lightly covers her.”
Robert Herrick (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here a solemn fast we keep, While all beauty lies asleep Hush'd be all things—no noise here— But the toning of a tear: Or a sigh of such as bring Cowslips for her covering.”
Robert Herrick (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here a pretty baby lies Sung asleep with lullabies; Pray be silent, and not stir Th' easy earth that covers her.”
Robert Herrick (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here she lies, in bed of spice, Fair as Eve in Paradise: For her beauty it was such Poets could not praise too much. Virgins, come, and in a ring Her supremest requiem sing; Then depart, but see ye tread Lightly, lightly, o'er the dead.”
Robert Herrick (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The utopias of a better world and a more just society have to do with words, with the generation of dreams, with imagination, with a very important identity that overcomes languages and is the identity of the human condition, to be able to recognize our own image in every fellow man, in a different age. I believe that the key to our time lies in this respect for diversity.”
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not in rewards, but in the strength to strive, The blessing lies.”
John Townsend Trowbridge (1827–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here lies James Quinn. Deign, reader, to be taught, Whate’er thy strength of body, force of thought, In Nature’s happiest mould however cast, To this complexion thou must come at last.”
David Garrick (1717–1779) said by 1779 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll, Who wrote like an angel, and talk’d like poor Poll.”
David Garrick (1717–1779) said by 1779 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here lies a king, that ruled as he thought fit The universal monarchy of wit.”
Thomas Carew (1594–1640) said by 1640 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With dreamful eyes My spirit lies Under the walls of Paradise.”
Thomas Buchanan Read (1822–1872) said by 1872 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Again let us dream where the land lies sunny, And live, like the bees, on our hearts' old honey, Away from the world that slaves for money— Come, journey the way with me.”
Madison Cawein (1865–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]here is literally no bastion of knowledge, not even in the exact sciences, that ideology, with its powers of distortion, cannot breach and into which lies useful to the cause cannot be implanted.”
Mario Vargas Llosa (1936–2025) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jean-François Revel (1924–2006)", p. 266
“If you hand a man a lemon and tell him that its sourness lies outside the lemon, he will think you are joking. Yet, with a perfectly straight face, that same man will tell you that his sour life is caused by external events. When will man learn that he is the cause of his own feelings for either happiness or anxiety?”
Vernon Howard (1918–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Real compassion lies within our ability to remember that an angry, vengeful or hateful person is usually just someone who can no longer bear the weary weight of his or her own carefully concealed despair.”
Guy Finley (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Underneath this sable hearse Lies the subject of all verse, Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother; Death! ere thou hast slain another, Fair and learn'd, and good as she, Time shall throw a dart at thee.”
William Browne (1590–1645) said by 1645 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke", first published with the poems of the countess's son William and Sir Benjamin Rudyerd (1660)
“The modest front of this small floor, Believe me, reader, can say more Than many a braver marble can,— “Here lies a truly honest man!”
Richard Crashaw (1612–1649) said by 1649 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epitaph upon Mr. Ashton, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Also quoted by: Sir John Denham
“You put your bombers in, you put your conscience out, You take the human being and you twist it all about So scrub my skin with women Chain my tongue with whisky Stuff my nose with garlic Coat my eyes with butter Fill my ears with silver Stick my legs in plaster Tell me lies about Vietnam.”
Adrian Mitchell (1932–2008) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Whom It May Concern", from Adrian Mitchell's Greatest Hits (1991).
“I genuinely feel that the survival of this country lies in democracy and democracy alone.”
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (1924–1988) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Mohammad Zia ul-Haq : Unbending Commander for Era of Atom and Islam", The New York Times (18 August 1988).
“In yonder Grave a Druid lies Where slowly winds the Stealing Wave! The Year's best Sweets shall duteous rise To deck its Poet's sylvan Grave!”
William Collins (1721–1759) said by 1759 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Keep up appearances; there lies the test. The world will give thee credit for the rest.”
Charles Churchill (satirist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thy danger chiefly lies in acting well; No crime's so great as daring to excel.”
Charles Churchill (satirist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cradle the weight of your life You can survive what lies before you.”
“Freedom lies beneath reality.”
“The man forget not, though in rags he lies, And know the mortal through a crown's disguise.”
Mark Akenside (1721–1770) said by 1770 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some books are drenchèd sands On which a great soul’s wealth lies all in heaps, Like a wrecked argosy.”
Alexander Smith (1829–1867) said by 1867 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are also many instances where people hostile to the Soviet state are attempting by means of deceit and provocation to poison the minds of our citizens and compel them to believe in monstrous lies.”
Filipp Golikov (1900–1980) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "Behind the Iron Curtain" - by George Moorad - Soviet Union - 1946
“The root cause of terrorism lies not in grievances but in a disposition toward unbridled violence. This can be traced to a world view which asserts that certain ideological and religious goals justify, indeed demand, the shedding of all moral inhibitions.”
Benjamin Netanyahu (born 1949) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Terrorism: How the West Can Win" (1987), Awakeǃ, 1/8.
“So my great love for thee lies tranquil, deep, Forever; though above it passions fierce, Ambition, hatred, jealousy; like waves That seem from earth’s core to the sky to leap, But ocean’s depths can never really pierce; Hide its great calm, while all the surface raves.”
Francis William Bourdillon (1852–1921) first seen 1874 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sonnet II" in Scribner's Monthly Vol. IX (November 1874 - April 1875), p. 359.
“Frank Harris has no feelings. It is the secret of his success. Just as the fact that he thinks other people have none either is the secret of the failure that lies in wait for him somewhere on the way of Life.”
Frank Harris (1856–1931) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Oscar Wilde, letter to More Adey, May 12, 1897, quoted in Hugh Kingsmill Frank Harris (1932) p. 102.
“Here is one of the best bits of advice every given about the fine art of human relationships. "If there is any one secret of success," says Henry Ford, "it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.”
Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 42 (in 2016 edition)
“No matter what is willed by consciousness, that which belongs to the depths can only be restored in the depths: the numinous lies outside the power of collectives, cannot be subject to state decree, created by a resolution at an international conference, offered to all shareholders and employees by the board of Standard Oil or General Motors.”
J. B. Priestley (1894–1984) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Literature and Western Man (Harper, 1960).
“You should never fall in love with your own press clippings, because it is very much the nature of the beast that the same journalists who build you up between Monday and Friday tear you down for weekend fun...My family's habit of living in the past seems to me pathological, even dangerous. If all greatness lies in the past, what is the point of the future?”
Stephen L. Carter (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The un-Germanness in and about us...lies primarily in a lack of racial sense ... in international, pacifistic and defeatistic thinking and, finally, in the considerable advancement of the Jewish people within our boundaries.”
Erich Ludendorff (1865–1937) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kriegsführung und Politik (Berlin, 1922), pp. 337-338, quoted in W. W. Coole (ed.), Thus Spake Germany (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1941), p. 147
“We should … stop the political indoctrination of our children and begin proudly teaching them the real history of the West instead of multiculturalist lies designed to instill shame in our own heritage. We must also prepare the coming generation for the difficult times ahead.”
Geert Wilders (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Memory is like a dog that lies down where it pleases. (Page 1)”
Cees Nooteboom (1933–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Faith is a vice pretending to be a virtue, its lies and errors and frothy nonsense deluding us and distracting us from action. There's no salvation in wishful thinking, only inertia. Faith is the enemy of reason. The one thing every single one of us here must be united in despising is faith. It's the barren refuge of the vacuous, the fearful, the frauds, and the obstacles to accomplishment.”
“We all live to a formula. Maybe the secret lies in keeping that formula secret.”
Peter Greenaway (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why illustrate a great piece of writing whose very advocacy and evocation and efficacy lies within its very existence as writing?”
Peter Greenaway (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the biggest lies in capitalism is that companies like competition. They don't. Nobody likes competition.”
Eliot Spitzer (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A waste is a nine-year-old boy playing catch with the roof of his garage who already understands that his existence makes for the perfect insult- gay. "You're so gay" a.k.a. stupid a.k.a. dumb a.k.a. wrong. Do you have any idea how gross it feels to hide inside the pile of lies it takes to make you, Sweet Angel, comfortable?”
Buddy Wakefield (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It has thine own dear playful look— Thy smile! thy sun-bright hair! Thy brow—so like a holy book With sweet thoughts written there! The full, soft lids, half-raised above Those blue and dreamy eyes, Within whose gaze of trusting love No fear—no falsehood lies! Like lonely lakes of Heaven's pure rain Reflecting only Heaven again.”
Helen Blackwood, Baroness Dufferin and Claneboye (1807–1867) said by 1867 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When men think every thing to be their Faith and their Religion, commonly they are so busy in trifles and such impertinencies in which the scene of their mistake lies, that they neglect the greater things of the Law, charity, and compliances, and the gentleness of Christian Communion; for this is the great principle of mischief, and yet is not more pernicious then unreasonable.”
Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667) first seen 1647 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Θεολογία Εκλεκτική: Of the Liberty of Prophesying (1647), section 2
“The sunlight of a sunlit land, A land of fruit, of flowers, and A land of love and calm delight; A land where night is not like night, And noon is but a name for rest, And love for love is reckoned best. Where conversations of the eyes Are all enough; where beauty thrills The heart like hues of harvest-home; Where rage lies down, where passion dies, Where peace hath her abiding place. . . .”
Joaquin Miller (1837–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lo! all things moving must go by. The sea lies dead. Behold, this land Sits desolate in dust beside His snow-white, seamless shroud of sand; The very clouds have wept and died, And only God is in the sky.”
Joaquin Miller (1837–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O, the sea of lights for streaming When the thousand flags are furled— When the gleaming bay lies dreaming As it duplicates the world!You will come my dearest, truest! Come my sovereign queen often; My blue skies will then be bluest; My white rose be whitest then:Then the song! Ah, then the sabre Flashing up the walls of night! Hate of wrong and love of neighbor Rhymes of battle for the Right!”
Joaquin Miller (1837–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The game today is entirely different to when I played. But I still think it's pretty smart. Maybe the biggest change lies in the simple fact that if you're a bit slow today, mentally or physically, you're not going to survive.”
Jack Gibson (1929–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The staring sailor that shakes his watch that tells the time of the poet, the man that lies in the house of Bedlam.”
Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) said by 1979 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is usual for a woman, even though she may ardently desire to give herself to a man, to feign reluctance, to simulate alarm or indignation. She must be brought to consent by urgent pleading, by lies, adjurations, and promises. I know that only professional prostitutes are accustomed to answer such an invitation with a perfectly frank assent — prostitutes, or simple-minded, immature girls.”
Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) said by 1942 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source