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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“Boredom lies only with the traveler's limited perception and his failure to explore deeply enough. After a while, I found my perception limited.”
William Least Heat-Moon (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I know love is eternal, so also are folly, lies and roses.”
Alice Borchardt (1939–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...[T]ry not to be too angry or disappointed with your fellow Americans. Most of them don't care about politics as much as the majority of my readers, and the education they have received about it from the government's public school system is nothing more than a septic tank full of warmed-over self-serving statist lies and leftist propaganda.”
L. Neil Smith (1946–2021) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Only Nixon," 9 November 2008.
“Accept that you're a pimple and try to keep a lively sense of humor about it. That way lies grace — and maybe even glory.”
Tom Robbins (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We know by a certain age the great palace lies of the culture — if you buy or do or achieve this or that, you will be happy and rich. Nope. Love and service make us rich.”
Anne Lamott (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No one grows up. That’s one of the sickest lies they ever tell you. People change. People compromise. People get stranded in situations they don’t want to be in… and they make the best of it. But don’t try to tell me it’s some kind of… glorious preordained ascent into emotional maturity. It’s not.”
“And she beckons to you with her fingers and lies She says: can't you slice the price of your paradise. ~ A Month of Sundays”
Steve Kilbey (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All legends must be based on lies, Gordon realized. We exaggerate, and even come to believe the tales, after a while.”
David Brin (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's no escaping it-the world is full of lies. It is safest always to accept what one hears as if it were utterly commonplace and devoid of interest.”
Yoshida Kenkō (1283–1350) said by 1350 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 73 (tr. Keene, 1967)
“(on Alex Jones) He is a terrible person who lies for a living.”
Stephen Colbert (born 1964) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Tonight Show," May 19, 2017.
“Perhaps the only misplaced curiosity is that which persists in trying to find out here, on this side of death, what lies beyond the grave.”
Colette (1873–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The force that makes the winter grow Its feathered hexagons of snow, and drives the bee to match at home Their calculated honeycomb, Is abacus and rose combined.An icy sweetness fills my mind, A sense that under thing and wing Lies, taut yet living, coiled, the spring.”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The strength of the imagination, its enriching power and excitement, lies in its interplay with reality—physical and emotional.”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The strength of women lies in recognizing differences between us as creative, and in standing to those distortions which we inherited without blame, but which are now ours to alter. The angers of women can transform difference through insight into power. For anger between peers births change, not destruction, and the discomfort and sense of loss it often causes is not fatal, but a sign of growth.”
Audre Lorde (1934–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[W]hen people talk about climate, I think jobs. Within our climate response lies an extraordinary engine of job creation and economic opportunity ready to be fired up.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 22 April 2021
“Between the town of Giles, to the north of the Tomkinson Range, and Forrest in the Nullarbor Plain, lies the Great Victorian Desert. It is hot, arid, desolate and merciless; and whatever the Creator had in mind when He made it that way, it most certainly wasn't human beings. It's a really awful place to be if you've got toothache.”
“Work is the order of the day, just as it was at one time, with our first starts and our best efforts. Do you remember? Therein lies its delight. It brings back the forgotten; one’s stores of energy, seemingly exhausted, come back to life.”
Boris Pasternak (1890–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The New York Times (1 January 1978)
“Death can only be profitable: there’s no need to eat, drink, pay taxes, offend people, and since a person lies in a grave for hundreds or thousands of years, if you count it up the profit turns out to be enormous.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) first seen 1894 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rothschild’s Fiddle (1894)
“Between "there is a God" and "there is no God" lies a whole vast tract, which the really wise man crosses with great effort. A Russian knows one or other of these two extremes, and the middle tract between them does not interest him; and therefore he usually knows nothing, or very little. (Diary, 1897)”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) said by 1904 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Love is a great thing. It is not by chance that in all times and practically among all cultured peoples love in the general sense and the love of a man for his wife are both called love. If love is often cruel or destructive, the reason lies not in love itself, but in the inequality between people.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) said by 1904 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Although you may tell lies, people will believe you, if only you speak with authority.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) said by 1904 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love, and the most absolute freedom imaginable, freedom from violence and lies, no matter what form the latter two take. Such is the program I would adhere to if I were a major artist.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) first seen 1888 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Alexei Pleshcheev (October 4, 1888)
“The greatest enemy that lies in our path in creating the kind of Britain we want to create is conservatism in all its forms. We cannot afford Tory conservatism, with its smug preoccupation, complacently looking on while the rest of the world passes us by.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Labour Party Conference in Brighton (4 October 1966), quoted in The Times (5 October 1966), p. 16
“You can't close your eyes to the lies perpetrated by dangerous fools / 'cos they're handing out rules”
“Nobles and heralds, by your leave, Here lies what once was Matthew Prior; The son of Adam and of Eve: Can Bourbon or Nassau claim higher?”
Matthew Prior (1664–1721) first seen 1721 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epitaph (1721).
“The bigger and more established an organisation becomes the more timid and conformist it seems to get, until it's almost indistinguishable from the interests it should be confronting. In this age of environmental crisis and collapse, of government lies and corporate power, we need our nature defenders to rise like lions after slumber. Instead, they queue at the abattoir gate like sedated lambs.”
George Monbiot (born 1963) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: How did wildlife groups start collaborating in the destruction of nature?", The Guardian (24 June 2020)
“Robin, and Red Riding Hood Take together to the wood, And Sir Galahad lies hid In a cave with Captain Kidd. None of all the magic hosts, None remain but a few ghosts Of timorous heart, to linger on Weeping for lost Babylon.”
Robert Graves (1895–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[As] the tide of white domination of the land mass of Asia and Africa recedes, there lies exposed to view a procession of shattered cultures, disintegrated societies, and a writhing sweep of more aggressive, irrational religion than the world has known for centuries.”
Richard Wright (1908–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The essence of mathematics lies entirely in its freedom.”
Georg Cantor (1845–1918) said by 1918 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You come here to tell us lies, but we don't want to hear them. If we told you more, you would have paid no attention. That is all I have to say.”
Sitting Bull (1831–1890) said by 1890 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As recorded by reporters covering a speech made by Sitting Bull to U.S. military officers at a conference between the military and the Sioux who had retreated to Canada. Published in Utley, Robert M. The Lance and the S…
“It is the aim of public life to arrange that all forms of power are entrusted, so far as possible, to men who effectively consent to be bound by the obligation towards all human beings which lies upon everyone, and who understand the obligation. Law is the quality of the permanent provisions for making this aim effective.”
Simone Weil (1909–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our eyes have seen the skies burning red, Angels singing, voices full of dread, We see the lies but never ask why? The seeds of sorrow the blood they cry.”
Jaclyn Victor (born 1978) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The light that lies In woman's eyes, Has been my heart's undoing.”
Thomas Moore (1779–1852) said by 1852 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Eternity has no gray hairs! The flowers fade, the heart withers, man grows old and dies, the world lies down in the sepulchre of ages, but time writes no wrinkles on the brow of Eternity.”
Reginald Heber (1783–1826) said by 1826 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 213
“Call for the grandest of all earthly spectacles, what is that? It is the sun going to his rest. Call for the grandest of all human sentiments, what is that? It is that man should forget his anger before he lies down to sleep.”
Thomas De Quincey (1785–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I conceive there lies a clear rule in Titus, that the elder women should instruct the younger and then I must have a time wherein I must do it.”
Anne Hutchinson (1591–1643) said by 1643 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Come to the sunset tree! The day is past and gone; The woodman’s axe lies free, And the reaper’s work is done.”
Felicia Hemans (1793–1835) said by 1835 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Felicia D. Hemans
“I am not the leader of Libya, I am the leader of the Revolution, the revolution is part of the past and took place in 1969, Consequently. There's no need to talk about one will replace me. I do not have any power to delegate to my successor. The power lies with the people.”
Muammar Gaddafi (1942–2011) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Talk to Al-Jazeera (September 2009) Al-Jazeera
“He lies like a hedgehog rolled up the wrong way, Tormenting himself with his prickles.”
Thomas Hood (1799–1845) first seen 1840 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Miss Kilmansegg and Her Precious Leg. Her Dream (Part the Third, 1840).
“Morgot and Myra would tell her there wasn’t any reason to make promises or seek changes because the Great Mother didn’t bargain. The deity didn’t change her mind for women’s convenience. Her way was immutable. As the temple servers said, “No sentimentality, no romance, no false hopes, no self-petting lies, merely that which is!” Which left very little room, Stavia thought, for womanly initiative.”
Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Regime says a lot of things, nine-tenths of it lies and the other tenth wishful thinking.”
Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would rather be the author of my story than have lies told about me.”
J. M. Coetzee (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our lies reveal as much about us as our truths.”
J. M. Coetzee (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To the zealot overcome by his piety and to the journeyman of ideas concerned only with his marketable mental skills, the beginning and end of ideas lies in their efficacy with respect to some goal external to intellectual processes.”
Richard Hofstadter (1916–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where lies the land to which the ship would go? Far, far ahead, is all her seamen know. And where the land she travels from? Away, Far, far behind, is all that they can say.”
Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) first seen 1852 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Where Lies the Land to Which the Ship Would Go?, st. 1 (1852)
“The life which passes mourns its wasted hour. And, ah, to think how thin the veil that lies Between the pain of hell and paradise!”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The child is not mine as the first was, I cannot sing it to rest, I cannot lift it up fatherly And bliss it upon my breast; Yet it lies in my little one's cradle And sits in my little one's chair, And the light of the heaven she's gone to Transfigures its golden hair.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1879 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Changeling, st. 7 (1879)
“Be noble! and the nobleness that lies In other men, sleeping but never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A beggar’s mistake harms no one but the beggar. A king’s mistake, however, harms everyone but the king. Too often, the measure of power lies not in the number who obey your will, but in the number who suffer your stupidity.”
R. Scott Bakker (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And he saw that Youth, Of age and looks to be his own dear son, Piteous and lovely, lying on the sand, Like some rich hyacinth, which by the scythe Of an unskillful gardener has been cut, Mowing the garden grass-plots near its bed, And lies, a fragrant tower of purple bloom, On the mown, dying grass; — so Sohrab lay, Lovely in death, upon the common sand. And Rustum gazed on him with grief.”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source