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
Fear
LoveFriendshipHappinessHopeFearCourageDeathLifeTimeWarPeaceFreedomTruthWisdomKnowledgeScienceArtMusicNatureMoneyWorkPowerGodBeautyLaughterFamilySuccess and failureChangeDreamsBooks and reading
“'T is just like a summer bird-cage in a garden,—the birds that are without despair to get in, and the birds that are within despair and are in a consumption for fear they shall never get out.”
John Webster (1578–1634) said by 1634 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Ben Jonson
“Still, you must know that the fear of death is irrational; death comes to everyone.”
Robert J. Sawyer (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The thirst for powerful sensations takes the upper hand both over fear and over compassion for the grief of others.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) first seen 1886 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Evil Night (1886)
“Tsars and slaves, the intelligent and the obtuse, publicans and pharisees all have an identical legal and moral right to honor the memory of the deceased as they see fit, without regard for anyone else’s opinion and without the fear of hindering one another.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) first seen 1888 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to K.S. Barantsevich (March 30, 1888)
“Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel; the wet eyes of the sentimentalist betray his aversion to experience, his fear of life, his arid heart; and it is always, therefore, the signal of secret and violent inhumanity, the mask of cruelty.”
James Baldwin (1924–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You see what power is — holding someone else's fear in your hand and showing it to them! Besides, maybe it is true. Maybe Peanut and Little Yu's mother are now big Communists, who knows?”
“Trench stinks of shallow buried dead Where Tom stands at the periscope, Tired out. After nine months he’s shed All fear, all faith, all hate, all hope.”
Robert Graves (1895–1985) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Through the Periscope" (1915) [first published in 1988]
“There’s a cool web of language winds us in, Retreat from too much joy or too much fear: We grow sea-green at last and coldly die In brininess and volubility.”
Robert Graves (1895–1985) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Cool Web," lines 9–12, from Poems 1914-1926 (1927)
“They multiplied into the Sirens' throng, Forewarned by fear of whom he stood bound fast Hand and foot helpless to the vessel's mast, Yet would not stop his ears: daring their song He groaned and sweated till that shore was past.”
Robert Graves (1895–1985) first seen 1930 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ulysses" from Poems 1930-1933 (1933)
“Fear in your heart cries to the loving-cup: Sorrow to sorrow as the sparks fly upward. The log groans and confesses There is one story and one story only.”
Robert Graves (1895–1985) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Juan at the Winter Solstice" from Poems 1938-1945 (1946)
“Love, Fear and Hate and Childish Toys Are here discreetly blent; Admire, you ladies, read, you boys, My Country Sentiment.”
Robert Graves (1895–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hate and Fear are not wanted here, Nor Toys nor Country Lovers, Everything they took from my new poem book But the flyleaf and the covers.”
Robert Graves (1895–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You talk no more of that gay nation now, Where men adore their wives, and woman's power Draws reverence from a polished people's softness, Their husbands' equals, and their lovers' queens; Free without scandal; wise without restraint; Their virtue due to nature, not to fear.”
Aaron Hill (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“First, then, a woman will or won’t, depend on ’t; If she will do ’t, she will; and there ’s an end on ’t. But if she won’t, since safe and sound your trust is, Fear is affront, and jealousy injustice.”
Aaron Hill (writer) first seen 1735 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epilogue (1735). Note: The following lines are copied from the pillar erected on the mount in the Dane John Field, Canterbury:
Also quoted by: Aaron Hill
“Desponding Fear, of feeble fancies full, Weak and unmanly, loosens every power.”
James Thomson (poet, born 1700) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All the graces of Christianity always go together. They so go together that where there is one, there are all, and where one is wanting, all are wanting. Where there is faith, there are love, and hope, and humility; and where there is love, there is also trust; and where there is a holy trust in God, there is love to God; and where there is a gracious hope, there also is a holy fear of God.”
Jonathan Edwards (theologian) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The human mind is never better disposed to gratitude and attachment than when softened by fear.”
Charles James Napier (1782–1853) said by 1853 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Later I came awake with a sudden start, remembering the fright and tension that had accompanied my foray into crime. Well, all that was gone now. I could start anew. I did not like to feel tension and fear. I wanted something else, to be human, to be caught up in something meaningful.”
Richard Wright (1908–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A nigga hit me with a can of beer, then he ran in fear, later they found him hanging from a chandelier”
Big L (1974–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fear of infinity is a form of myopia that destroys the possibility of seeing the actual infinite, even though it in its highest form has created and sustains us, and in its secondary transfinite forms occurs all around us and even inhabits our minds.”
Georg Cantor (1845–1918) said by 1918 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Infinity and the Mind (1995) by Rudy Rucker.
“Rugby is a game for men with no fear of brain injury.”
Linda Smith (1958–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I didn’t want to scare you. We don’t want to scare anyone.” “No? Well, sometimes it’s a good thing to scare people. Sometimes fear is all that will keep them from doing stupid things.”
Octavia Butler (1947–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A victim of God may, Through learning adaption, Become a partner of God, A victim of God may, Through forethought and planning, Become a shaper of God. Or a victim of God may, Through shortsightedness and fear, Remain God’s victim, God’s plaything, God’s prey.”
Octavia Butler (1947–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s better to teach people than to scare them, Lauren. If you scare them and nothing happens, they lose their fear, and you lose some of your authority with them.”
Octavia Butler (1947–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When anything is blocking my head or there's worry in my life, I just go sit on Mars or something and look back here at Earth. All you can see is this tiny speck. You don't see the fear. You don't see the pain. You don't see thought. It's just one solid speck. Then nothing really matters. It just doesn't.”
Heath Ledger (1979–2008) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in an interview in Vanity Fair (August 2000).
“The human soul has need of disciplined participation in a common task of public value, and it has need of personal initiative within this participation. The human soul has need of security and also of risk. The fear of violence or of hunger or of any other extreme evil is a sickness of the soul. The boredom produced by a complete absence of risk is also a sickness of the soul.”
Simone Weil (1909–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An original something, fair maid, you would win me To write — but how shall I begin? For I fear I have nothing original in me — Excepting Original Sin.”
Thomas Campbell (poet) first seen 1843 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To a Young Lady, Who Asked Me to Write Something Original for Her Album (1843)
“Thus, when the lamp that lighted The traveller at first goes out, He feels awhile benighted, And looks around in fear and doubt. But soon, the prospect clearing, By cloudless starlight on he treads, And thinks no lamp so cheering As that light which Heaven sheds.”
Thomas Moore (1779–1852) said by 1852 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Live in the present, remember the past, and fear not the future, for it doesn't exist and never shall. There is only now.”
Christopher Paolini (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Better to die than to live in fear.”
Christopher Paolini (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I will go upon the rock, boys, and look abroad for the savages," said Ishmael shortly after, advancing towards them with a mien which he intended should be conciliating, at the same time that it was authoritative. "If there is nothing to fear, we will go out on the plain; the day is too good to be lost in words, like women in the towns wrangling over their tea and sugared cakes.”
James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) first seen 1827 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Prairie (1827)
“In short, the magnifying influence of fear began to set at naught the calculations of reason, and to render those who should have remembered their manhood, the slaves of the basest passions.”
James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) said by 1851 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The delight and joy of curiosity and learning can temper our fear of doing something completely new.”
Jonathan Ive (born 1967) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (10 May 2021)
“Zeus, the father of the Olympic Gods, turned mid-day into night, hiding the light of the dazzling Sun; and sore fear came upon men.”
Archilochus (688–645 BC) said by 645 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fear needn’t be grounded in fact to cause problems.”
Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fear and superstition always follow the unseen, the unknown, the whispered of.”
Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I fear that, eventually, we are all going to become collateral damage in the war on drugs, or terrorism, or whatever war is in vogue at the moment.”
James C. Nelson (1944–2006) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Concurring opinion in Montana v. Pelvit (No. 03-572) (2005)
“This devilish Euro maniac is doing his best to keep the United Kingdom bound by the chains of EU bureaucracy and control. It is Tusk and his arrogant EU negotiators who have fanned the flames of fear in an attempt to try and overturn the result of the referendum.”
Sammy Wilson (born 1953) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Donald Tusk: Special place in hell for Brexiteers without a plan BBC News (6 February 2019)
“They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak; They are slaves who will not choose Hatred, scoffing, and abuse, Rather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think; They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I too have long'd for trenchant force, And will like a dividing spear; Have praised the keen, unscrupulous course Which knows no doubt, which feels no fear.”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) first seen 1852 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Farewell", st. 9 (1852)
“O born in days when wits were fresh and clear, And life ran gaily as the sparkling Thames; Before this strange disease of modern life, With its sick hurry, its divided aims, Its heads o’ertax’d, its palsied hearts, was rife — Fly hence, our contact fear!”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Watch thou and fear; to-morrow thou shalt die.”
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The drive to see what’s over the next hill is in part the fear that one may never know, that if one doesn’t go over the hill today, one may never get farther than the village graveyard.”
John Barnes (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Almost every culture in the Thousand Cultures had some wisdom literature, and much of it was the same between any two cultures. . . . Cultures tend to be alike in much of what they think are the basic virtues, but one of the ones they are most alike in, though it rarely appears in their book of wisdom, is: Distrust strangers, fear foreigners, dread novelty.”
John Barnes (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The majority falls prey to the delusion—popular in some circles—that ordinary people are too careless and stupid to own guns, and we would be far better off leaving all weapons in the hands of professionals on the government payroll. But the simple truth—born of experience—is that tyranny thrives best where government need not fear the wrath of an armed people.”
Alex Kozinski (born 1950) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kozinski, Alex. “An Individual’s Right to Bear Arms.” Capitalism Magazine 22 May 2003.
“speculation is carried on in safety, but, when it comes to action, fear causes failure.”
Thucydides (461–395 BC) said by 395 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That war is an evil is a proposition so familiar to every one that it would be tedious to develop it. No one is forced to engage in it by ignorance, or kept out of it by fear, if he fancies there is anything to be gained by it.”
Thucydides (461–395 BC) said by 395 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he Thracian people, like the bloodiest of the barbarians, being ever most murderous when it has nothing to fear.”
Thucydides (461–395 BC) said by 395 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How sweet to be an idiot At my back With no fear of attack As much retaliation as a toy.”
Neil Innes (1944–2019) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: How sweet to be an idiot (1973).
“I exhort all People, gentle and simple, men, women and children, to buy, to read, to extol, these labours of mine. Let them not fear to defend every article; for I will bear them harmless. I have arguments good store, and can easily confute, either logically, theologically, or metaphysically, all those who oppose me.”
John Arbuthnot (1667–1735) said by 1735 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted as one of the "Prelude of Mottoes" in Robert Southey's The Doctor, &c. (1835) vol. 3, p. ix