Famous quotes

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 Mother of Good Counsel, lend Intelligence to me! Encompass me with wisdom, Thou Tower of Ivory! "This is the Man of Lies," she says, "Disguised with fearful art: He has the wounded hands and feet, But not the wounded heart.”
Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918) said by 1918 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This Europe, which in its ruinous blindness is forever on the point of cutting its own throat, lies today in a great pincers, squeezed between Russia on one side and America on the other. From a metaphysical point of view, Russia and America are the same: the same dreary technological frenzy, the same unrestricted organization of the average man...”
Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Within your magic web of hair, lies furled The fire and splendour of the ancient world; The dire gold of the comet's wind-blown hair; The songs that turned to gold the evening air When all the stars of heaven sang for joy.”
Edith Sitwell (1887–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The black fist is a meaningless symbol. When you open it, you have nothing but fingers — weak, empty fingers. The only time the black fist has significance is when there's money inside. There's where the power lies.”
Jesse Owens (1913–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From out the throng and stress of lies, From out the painful noise of sighs, One voice of comfort seems to rise: "It is the meaner part that dies.”
William Morris (1834–1896) first seen 1874 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Comfort", st. 4, in Songs of Two Worlds, 2nd. ser. (1874)
“Eve shall kiss night, And the leaves stir like rain As the wind stealeth light O'er the grass of the plain. Unseen are thine eyes Mid the dreamy night's sleeping, And on my mouth there lies The dear rain of thy weeping.”
William Morris (1834–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor. I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm. Gonna be a twister to blow everything down That ain't got the faith to stand its ground. Blow away the dreams that tear you apart, Blow away the dreams that break your heart. Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted.”
Bruce Springsteen (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You get to meet all sorts in this line of work Treachery and treason, there's always an excuse for it And when I find the reason, I still can't get used to it And what have you got at the end of the day? What have you got to take away? A bottle of whisky and a new set of lies”
Mark Knopfler (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Earth all one tomb lies round me, Domed with an iron sky: And God Himself in His power, God cannot save me! I cry.”
Francis Turner Palgrave (1824–1897) said by 1897 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.”
Rod Serling (1924–1975) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: First introduction to The Twilight Zone television series; first episode (2 October 1959).
“Warriors of the light are not perfect. Their beauty lies in accepting this fact and still desiring to grow and to learn.”
Paulo Coelho (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I forgive the betrayals and the lies,”
Paulo Coelho (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have one underlying principle in mind: the principle of Muslim democracy. It is my belief that our salvation lies in following the golden rules of conduct set for us by our great lawgiver, the Prophet of Islam.”
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to Darbar in Sibi, Balochistan (14 February 1948), as quoted in South Asia Screening the life of Jinnah" in BBC News (13 September 1998)
“What lies beyond man's word is eloquent of God. That is the joyously defeated recognition expressed in the poems of St. John of the Cross and of the mystic tradition.”
George Steiner (1929–2020) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Silence and the Poet" (1966).
“Words that are saturated with lies or atrocity do not easily resume life.”
George Steiner (1929–2020) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: K" (1963), introduction to The Trial by Franz Kafka
“She can kill with a smile She can wound with her eyes She can ruin your faith with her casual lies And she only reveals what she wants you to see She hides like a child But she's always a woman to me.”
Billy Joel (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I can always find someone To say they sympathize If I wear my heart out on my sleeve. But I don't want some pretty face To tell me pretty lies. All I want is someone to believe.”
Billy Joel (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was talkin' with a friend of mine, Said a woman done hurt his pride. Told him that she loved him so, then Turned around and let him go. Then he said "you'd better watch your step" Or you're gonna get hurt yourself. Someone's gonna tell you lies Cut you down to size...”
Tom Petty (1950–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's time to move on, time to get going What lies ahead I have no way of knowing. But under my feet, baby, grass is growing. It's time to move on, it' s time to get going.”
Tom Petty (1950–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Woman's great strength lies in being late or absent. Presence immediately reveals the weak points of our beloved; when she is absent she become one of the sylph-like figures of our adolescence whom we endowed with perfection.”
André Maurois (1885–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At the foundation of our civil liberty lies the principle which denies to government officials an exceptional position before the law and which subjects them to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen.”
Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dissent, Burdeau v. McDowell, 256 U.S. 465, 477 (1921).
“Within that awful volume lies The mystery of mysteries!”
Walter Scott (1771–1832) said by 1832 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Sir Walter Scott
“(...) When we are absorbed in other things, in the not-self, we forget the self. There is nothing unnatural about it. But, why forget the self through excess of attachment? Wisdom lies in never forgetting the self as the ever-present source of both the experiencer and his experience.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you look into living process closely, you will find cruelty everywhere, for life feeds on life. This is a fact, but it does not make you feel guilty of being alive. (…) From the animal point of view, being killed is not the worst form of dying; surely preferable to sickness and senile decay. The cruelty lies in the motive, not in the fact. Killing hurts the killer, not the killed.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With a tongue like a razor he will kiss the mother, the child, and we three will color the stars black in memory of his mother who kept him chained to the food tree or turned him on and off like a water faucet and made women through all these hazy years the enemy with a heart of lies.”
Anne Sexton (1928–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The neurotic lies awake at night, composing letters to those he hates. He seldom thinks of dropping a line to those he loves.”
Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We're strange allies, With warring hearts. What wild-eyed beast you be? The Space Between The wicked lies we tell And hope to keep us safe from the pain.”
Dave Matthews (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ephemeral work made outside, for and about a day, lies at the core of my art and its making must be kept private.”
Andy Goldsworthy (born 1956) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Residency on Earth" in Art in America (April, 1995)
“don't spread the discontent don't spread the lies don't make the same mistakes with your own life”
Natalie Merchant (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For incensed love breathes quick and dies, When famished love a-lingering lies.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science is feasible when the variables are few and can be enumerated; when their combinations are distinct and clear. We are tending toward the condition of science and aspiring to do it. The artist works out his own formulas; the interest of science lies in the art of making science.”
Paul Valéry (1871–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) said by 1873 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Hebrew race are my most inveterate enemies at home and abroad; they remain what they are and always were: the forgers of lies and the masterminds governing unrest, revolution, upheaval by spreading infamy with the help of their poisoned, caustic, satyrical spirit. If the world once wakes up it should mete out to them the punishment in store for them, which they deserve.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Poultney Bigelow (14 April 1927), quoted in John C. G. Röhl, The Kaiser and his Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 210
“Our future lies upon the water. To the sea our thoughts are turned—the sea, which is the symbol of eternity. Seas do not separate; they unite.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My House has always cared for the working classes. The welfare of the working men lies near to my heart. Every subject who prefers a wish or petition has, as a matter of course, the ear of his Emperor.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Underground: this time, as at other times, he's aware of how unsuitably abstract a term that is. To hide away, you have to be out in the open of life; too soon and easily run to ground, holed up somewhere. Best safety lies in crowds. ("Safe Houses")”
Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I suggest that US foreign policy can still be defined as "kiss my ass or I'll kick your head in." But of course it doesn't put it like that. It talks of "low intensity conflict..." What all this adds up to is a disease at the very centre of language, so that language becomes a permanent masquerade, a tapestry of lies.”
Harold Pinter (1930–2008) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Oh, Superman", Opinion (Channel 4, 31 May 1990), reprinted in Various Voices: Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948-2005, rev. ed. (1998; London: Faber and Faber, 2005), p. 198-99.
“So often, below the word spoken, is the thing known and unspoken. My characters tell me so much and no more, with reference to their experience, their aspirations, their motives, their history. Between my lack of biographical data about them and the ambiguity of what they say lies a territory which is not only worthy of exploration but which it is compulsory to explore. (p. 13)”
Harold Pinter (1930–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Until this day the history of restoration has been the course of being beaten and recovering. Thus, history has been made by those who were beaten and persecuted. Go where people hate to be, and where people cry sorrowfully from the depths of their hearts. There lies the bone marrow of history.”
Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Way of God's Will Chapter 1-2. The Heart of Restoration Translated 1980.
“My countrymen, the surpassing war of all times has involved us, and found us utterly unprepared in either a mental or military sense. The Republic must awaken. The people must understand. Our safety lies in full realization the fate of the nation and the safety of the world will be decided on the western battlefront of Europe.”
Warren G. Harding (1865–1923) said by 1923 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Devil himself, which is the author of confusion and lies.”
Robert Burton (1577–1640) said by 1640 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[N]o such individual would find the Golden Rule surprising in any way because at its base lies the foundation of most human interactions and exchanges and it can be found in countless texts throughout recorded history and from around the world--a testimony to its universality.”
Michael Shermer (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Behind man lies the abyss, nothingness; the Outsider knows this; it is his business to sink claws of iron into life to grasp it tighter than the indifferent bourgeois, to build, to Will, in spite of the abyss.”
Colin Wilson (1931–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.”
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Brussels is a gay little city that lies as bright within its girdle of woodland as any butterfly that rests upon moss.”
Ouida (1839–1908) said by 1908 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I really know nothing more criminal, more mean, and more ridiculous than lying. It is the production either of malice, cowardice, or vanity; and generally misses of its aim in every one of these views; for lies are always detected, sooner or later.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) first seen 1747 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 21 September 1747
“Winter lies before me now you're so far away. In the darkness of my dreaming the light of you will stay”
Enya (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It would be incredibly naive to suppose that Leninism was the product of a single man. The disease lies much deeper, not only in the limitations of Marxian theory but in the limitations of the social era that produced Marxism.”
Murray Bookchin (1921–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers, The mountains and the endless plain — All, all the stretch of these great green states — And make America again!”
Langston Hughes (1901–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is it in man that for a long while lies unknown and unseen only one day to emerge and push him into a new land of the eye, a new region of the mind, a place he has never dreamed of? Maybe it's like the force in spores lying quietly under asphalt until the day they push a soft, bulbous mushroom head right through the pavement. There's nothing you can do to stop it.”
William Least Heat-Moon (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source