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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“It is that the essence of the historical study is in the working out the continuity of the subject, while the essence of the legal study is in the reducing of it all to certain theoretic principles.”
William Stubbs (1825–1901) said by 1901 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are only two roads, victory for the working class, freedom, or victory for the fascists which means tyranny. Both combatants know what's in store for the loser. We are ready to end fascism once and for all, even in spite of the Republican government.”
Buenaventura Durruti (1896–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Working to spare animals the immense suffering they undergo does not diminish by one iota my determination to alleviate human misery. Needless suffering must be done away with wherever it is, in whatever form it takes. This is a war that has to be waged on all fronts, and it can be.”
Matthieu Ricard (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The American Beauty Rose can be produced in the splendor and fragrance which bring cheer to its beholder only by sacrificing the early buds which grow up around it. This is not an evil tendency in business. It is merely the working-out of a law of nature and a law of God.”
John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874–1960) first seen 1904 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the students of Brown University, quoted in Ida Tarbell (1904) The History of the Standard Oil Company
“Now the seats are all empty, Let the roadies take the stage. Pack it up and tear it down. They're the first to come and the last to leave, Working for that minimum wage. They'll set it up in another town.”
Jackson Browne (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is a challenge to the entire trade union movement in Ireland - a declaration of war on the wages and working conditions of all workers.”
Joe Higgins (born 1949) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the outsourcing of jobs by Irish Ferries in November 2005. Irish Independent
“Kabsal sighed. “Brightness Jasnah, I realize that you are not fond of me. But I am working very hard to be pleasant. Could you at least pretend to do likewise?”
Brandon Sanderson (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've had people working for me who are film-school graduates and honestly, if they had been clapper boys or tea boys they probably would have learned more.”
Jamie Uys (1921–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not the motive, properly speaking, that determines the working of the will; but it is the will that imparts strength to the motive. As Coleridge says: " It is the man that makes the motive, and not the motive the man.”
James McCosh (1811–1894) said by 1894 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I read the life of such a man as Paul, how I blush to think how sickly and dwarfed Christianity is at the present time, and how many hundreds there are who never think of working for the Son of God and honoring Christ.”
Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899) said by 1899 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The history of science should not be an instrument to defend any kind of social or philosophic theory; it should be used only for its own purpose, to illustrate impartially the working of reason against unreason, the gradual unfolding of truth, in all its forms, whether pleasant or unpleasant, useful or useless, welcome or unwelcome.”
George Sarton (1884–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The external universe behaves as a machine working automatically according to the laws and principles contained in its own mechanism, and... it does not exhibit a vestige of that arbitrary and purposeful variation that would imply a personality in control.”
Frederick Soddy (1877–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science has banished the conception of deity for ever from the working of the inanimate world, which behaves in all respects as, and therefore is a simple machine... The task of controlling it is man's, not God's.”
Frederick Soddy (1877–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[[w:Ancient history|[A]ncient]] creeds are working an infinitude of harm in the world, and nowhere more than to the cause of religion.”
Frederick Soddy (1877–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Working for government ought to be one of the most dangerous jobs ever. Occupational hazard might just get us a better class of parasite.”
Ilana Mercer first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: All the President's Women (Well, Almost),” WorldNetDaily.com, October 2, 2014.
“It would actually be quite surprisingly helpful for increasing the percentage of people who will participate meaningfully in saving the planet, if there were some reliably-working standard explanation for why physics and logic together have enough room to contain morality.”
Eliezer Yudkowsky (born 1979) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have seen the mystics play there Once or twice but I knew they had a reason Enchantment plays it's cards all right Hand in hand with the working of the seasons Legends can be now and forever Teaching us to love for goodness sake Legends can be now and forever Loved by the sun, loved by the sun”
Jon Anderson (born 1944) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lyrics of "Loved by the Sun", written for the "Unicorn Theme" by Tangerine Dream, on the soundtrack of the film Legend (1986).
“Working in the government nowadays, you can only get things done if you have the determination to go against the prevailing trend.”
Lung Ying-tai (born 1952) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lung Ying-tai (2014) cited in "The smiles and sighs of Taiwan's first culture minister" on Focus Taiwan, 6 December 2014
“So you can see here in this case of mine where God helped me out. I had been living for God and working in the church some time before I come to the army. So I am a witness to the fact that God did help me out of that hard battle; for the bushes were shot up all around me and I never got a scratch.”
Alvin York (1887–1964) first seen 1918 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Account of 8 October 1918
“I have had the rich satisfaction of knowing and working with many openly gay and lesbian Americans, and I have come to realize that "gay" is an artificial category when it comes to measuring a man or woman's on-the-job performance or commitment to shared goals. It says little about the person. Our differences and prejudices pale next to our historic challenge.”
Alan K. Simpson (1931–2025) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bigotry That Hurts Our Military" in The Washington Post (14 May 2007).
“If you ever saw a policeman with a club in his hand, I want to ask you, did you ever see that policeman club a millionaire? But it is "Get out of here, damn you, go on to jail, damn you," if it is a working man.”
Mother Jones (died 1930) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Princeton, WV. (15 August 1920)
“If they want to hang me, let them. And on the scaffold I would shout, 'Freedom for the working class!'”
Mother Jones (died 1930) said by 1930 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The worst crime against working people is a company which fails to operate at a profit.”
Samuel Gompers (1850–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Rothschild, Michael. Bionomics: Economy as Business Ecosystem. Washington, D.C.: BeardBooks, 1990, p. 115.
“Real understanding of a thing comes from taking it apart oneself, not reading about it in a book or hearing about it in a classroom. To this day I always insist on working out a problem from the beginning without reading up on it first, a habit that sometimes gets me into trouble but just as often helps me see things my predecessors have missed.”
Robert B. Laughlin (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'd love to visit space, to see how our beautiful planet looks from there. I think every man has such a dream, but you'd need years of hard working for that.”
Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (born 1979) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (2008)
“I can write about prayer, you can read about prayer...but sooner or later you have to fall to your knees and just plain pray. Then, and only then, will you begin to operate in the vein of God's miracle-working ways.”
Bill Hybels (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'll never stop working. I want to die in the saddle. A day is wasted for me if I haven't done something even mildly creative.”
Bob Monkhouse (1928–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A second arresting feature of Jesus' language was its invitational style. Instead of telling people what to do or what to believe, he invited them to see things differently, confident that if they did so their behaviour would change accordingly. This called for working with peoples' imaginations more than with their reason or their will.”
Huston Smith (1919–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I told my dad, who quizzed me about what kind of purse I might reasonably expect for this performance. I told him it was a benefit, all in a good cause, and that I wasn't the only one working for nothing. 'Nothing?' he replied. 'Anybody will employ you for nothing'.”
John Cooper Clarke (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Falcon was forever going wrong. Time and again Han and his rebel cohorts would have to bang on the dashboard with their fists to get some wayward system working. And this too helped give the ship a flawed, almost human quality. This is something I look for in all machines...”
Jeremy Clarkson (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My favourite painting is often the one or the collection that I am currently working on. This is probably due to the fact that I don’t yet know where it will take me.”
Joseph Pisani (born 1971) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "The Conceptual Artist" Inside Switzerland magazine Individuals (Summer 2006), p. 23
“Profits are what you make when not working.”
Michael Parenti (1933–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'As far as I know, pornography is the only working medicine against seasickness.'”
Piet de Jong (1915–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would rather have stayed in the theater and done comedy. Comedy in film (was) so narrow for women. I was much happier doing very black comedy onstage, and I could never find anything of that ilk on film. The closest to what I might have accomplished was `Working Girl.'”
Sigourney Weaver (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For me the most important thing has always been tennis, and that's what I want to get across the image I want to portray is a hard-working tennis player.”
Andy Murray (born 1987) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Though your experience may indicate that God has forgotten you or has left you alone, He is on your side. He is the God of grace, and He is actively working on your behalf.”
John Townsend (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would not feel a lot of trust or hope in God if He was simply in touch with me without any impetus, power, or force to accomplish things. You may not always know the end game, but He is working for you.”
John Townsend (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He has always been here, and He is here now. He loves you and is working actively for your good in His own way.”
John Townsend (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There may have been some time in the past when a group calling themselves astrologers could produce results. I don’t know, and the matter doesn’t interest me, for I live in the present. In our time the men working in the name of astrology are incapable of producing results, are conscious frauds.”
Vernor Vinge (1944–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm gonna tell you something right now, Indian people in the United States are the hardest working people I've ever seen, and that's coming from a Mexican, okay?”
Gabriel Iglesias (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe in a few things: God the devil and love. 'Cause I've looked up from the bottom And I've stared down from above.I have faith in a few things: Divinity and grace. But even when I'm on my knees I know the devil prays.And you're working your way From the ground on down.”
Ben Harper (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are working tirelessly to make sure our immigrant communities stay vibrant. They are the very fabric of our society, a staple of who we are as a city, as a state, as a nation." Immigration Forum in Queens (April 19th, 2017)”
Jose Peralta (1971–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The justification for naturalism is that it works: we have never understood anything about the universe by assuming the supernatural, while assuming naturalism as a working hypothesis has moved our understanding ever forward.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Is atheism irrational? A philosopher says “yes”" October 15, 2014
“If God is working I wish He’d say so Maybe He don’t live here anymore”
Jakob Dylan (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ricardo, writing fifty years later than Smith, showed a greater insight into the working of the economic system; Ricardo and Smith both did not lack subtlety despite their different views.”
Eric Roll, Baron Roll of Ipsden (1907–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In exploring the shared language and poetic sensibilities of all animals, I am working toward rediscovering the common ground that once existed when people lived in harmony with animals. The images depict a world that is without beginning or end, here or there, past or present. I hope that the overall effect is an experience of wonder and contemplation, serenity and hope.”
Gregory Colbert (born 1960) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nature's Living Masterpieces" in Camera Arts (July 2005)
“How lucky I was to have played for the Pittsburgh Steelers fans. A proud, hard-working people, who loves their football, and their players.”
Jack Lambert (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“See here, if a simple act of kindness or generosity, such as buying a loaf of bread for some poor working women, can mean that wholesale death and destruction will be avoided—why, a man would be a monster who had it in his power to alleviate all that suffering yet stood by and did nothing.”
Stephen R. Lawhead (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Being an MP is the sort of job all working-class parents want for their children — clean, indoors and no heavy lifting.”
Diane Abbott (born 1953) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Independent (18 January 1994).
“We're not Republican or Democrat. We won't fold into one party or the other. We're a tax-paying party that can make a difference and a party of normal people who want change. Bigger government and higher taxes is not working. Right now we're at a real crossroads to make change, and the bottom line is there's never been so much disdain for politicians.”
Scott Ashjian (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source