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
Work
LoveFriendshipHappinessHopeFearCourageDeathLifeTimeWarPeaceFreedomTruthWisdomKnowledgeScienceArtMusicNatureMoneyWorkPowerGodBeautyLaughterFamilySuccess and failureChangeDreamsBooks and reading
“Being Henry Fonda's daughter got me started. But it didn't keep me working.”
Jane Fonda (born 1937) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jane Would Have Been a Star Even as a Smith. Associated Press/Daytona Beach Morning Journal, 30 June 1963
“The main difference between working in an NHS hospital in Britain and a prison is that prison is much safer.”
Anthony Daniels (psychiatrist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Aggressive Fancy working spells Upon a mind o’erwrought.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I repudiate these attacks on him...a German of the Germans...his honour so assailed. Who made this infamous attack upon our friend? Men who till now have been looked upon as Germans, but who henceforth are unworthy of that name. And these men come from the Reich's working classes, who owe so infinite a debt of gratitude to Krupp!”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) first seen 1587 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at the funeral of Friedrich Alfred Krupp (27 November 1902), quoted in William Manchester, The Arms of Krupp 1587-1968 (London: Michael Joseph, 1968), p. 275
“The hand of God is creating a new World & working miracles...We are becoming the U.S. of Europe under German leadership, a united European Continent, nobody ever hoped to see. The Jews [are] beeing thrust out of their nefarious positions in all countries, whom they have driven to hostility for centuries.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Margarethe Landgraffin von Hessen (3 November 1940), quoted in John C. G. Röhl, The Kaiser and his Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 212
“[When I wrote], I'd be expanding on an idea and then I'd go back and I'd review it. So a lot of it you can hear train wrecks as you're playing through the song -- I'm just working and trying stuff. Then I'd come back, as you say, and extract what appeared to be the shining bits, if you like, as opposed to the bits, and then I'd lace them together. That's how the sequence of the song would arrive.”
Jimmy Page (born 1944) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Rachel Daniel in The Art of Noise: Conversations with Great Songwriters. St. Martin's Griffin (published 7 October 2014). pp. 52.
“In their day, Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin represented the aspirations and demands of the exploited working masses, and the cause of socialism was inseparably linked with their names.”
Kim Jong-il (1941–2011) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Let us advance under the banner of Marxism-Leninism and the Juche Idea" (3 May 1983)
“Karl Marx made a great contribution to the liberation cause of mankind, and because of his immortal exploits his name is still enshrined in the hearts of the working class and peoples of all countries.”
Kim Jong-il (1941–2011) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rodong Sinmun (25 December 1995) "Respecting the forerunners of the revolution is a noble moral obligation of revolutionaries," also in Selected Works vol. 14
“The Police got great credit and praise in the papers for arresting the mother of 12 children one an infant on her breast and those two quiet hard working innocent men who would not know the difference a revolver and a saucepan handle and kept them six months awaiting trial and then convicted them on the evidence of the meanest article that ever the sun shone on it.”
Ned Kelly (1854–1880) said by 1880 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Reconciliation, Tolerance and Unit Bill is about unity. It is about forgiveness and working together. Above all, it is about the security of our future - different races, one nation. That is what the Bill is all about.”
Naiqama Lalabalavu (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Leaving the European Union] could hurt working people for years to come”
David Cameron (born 1966) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: EU referendum: Leaving EU a 'leap in the dark' says Cameron BBC News (22 February 2016).
“I invite her back to my apartment, or as I call it, the "Death Star." I'm still working on it, it's not completely operational.”
“The two-party system has given this country the war of Lyndon Johnson, the Watergate of Nixon, and the incompetence of Carter. Saying we should keep the two-party system simply because it is working is like saying the Titanic voyage was a success because a few people survived on life-rafts.”
Eugene McCarthy (1916–2005) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chicago Tribune (10 September 1978)
“Working together, we can put an end to this cycle that creates deep pain in the hearts of our mothers, our fathers, and our people, who have lost loved ones to this senseless violence.”
Stanley Williams (1953–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I spend eight to nine months working abroad and cram in a holiday when I have the odd week off. This year, three of those months were spent in America playing gigs with my band, so we got to visit all kinds of places from Arizona to New York. After a few weeks, I really began to miss family and friends not to mention baked beans!”
Katie Melua (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've never had paparazzi follow me and I rarely get recognised. I dress like a tramp when I'm not working. My hairdresser calls me the Romanian window cleaner. That's just the way I am.”
Katie Melua (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our magical tools and insights, our awareness of energies and allies on many planes, can deepen and inform our activism. And our activism can deepen our magic, by encouraging us to create ritual that speaks to the real challenges we face in the world, offers the healing and renewal we need to continue working, and a community that understands that spirit and action are one.”
“It should not be an act of social disobedience to light a cigarette... unless you're actually a doctor working at an incubator.”
Dylan Moran (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Has there ever been a musician of cultural significance who's been aware they're significant? Maybe it's a generation whose parents came from a working class environment and because they were rootless in a way, like me and him, they latched onto that as an identity. Maybe we romanticise what our parents wanted to escape from. We're, like, fantasising out a living.”
Pete Doherty (born 1979) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: NME (New Musical Express), 13 March 2004
“In waking, eating, working, dreaming, sleeping, Serving, meditating, chanting, divinely loving, My soul constantly hums, unheard by any: God, God, God!”
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“... style without substance is nothing, the substance in the story was the most important thing. Of course, there is a layer of style. If I were a director working in a different era, I would have had to be at MGM. I don't think I'd probably know how to make anything but enhanced reality, because that's what comes naturally to me.”
“The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives reports that there are 250,000,000 privately-owned guns of all kinds in America. The firearms industry says that there are three times that number — three quarters of a billion guns — 'of modern design in good working order'. Americans are better heeled than most foreign armies. And that's exactly the way it should be.”
L. Neil Smith (1946–2021) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tastes Like Chicken" 28 March 2010.
“I hate the whole übermensch, superman temptation that pervades science fiction. I believe no protagonist should be so competent, so awe-inspiring, that a committee of 20 really hard-working, intelligent people couldn't do the same thing.”
David Brin (born 1950) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview in Locus (March 1997)
“Many in MAGA-land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.”
Jimmy Kimmel (born 1967) first seen 2025 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 16 September 2025 reported 18 September 2025 in The Guardian here
“We are all afraid - for our confidence, for the future, for the world. That is the nature of the human imagination. Yet every man, every civilization, has gone forward because of its engagement with what it has set itself to do. The personal commitment of a man to his skill, the intellectual commitment and the emotional commitment working together as one, has made the Ascent of Man.”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sourced to the book, The Ascent of Man (1973), BBC Books: London, Chapter 13: The Long Childhood, p. 330.
“As I pushed through to the podium, I could hear people murmuring under their breath: "There he is... Goddam Biden.... Kill the sonofabitch." And these were my voters- working-class Democrats.”
“If we cannot make significant progress on racial equity, this country is doomed. It's doomed not just because of African Americans, but because by 2040, this country is going to be minority white European. You hear me? ... And you guys are going to have to starting [sic] working more with Hispanics.”
“I’ve been to every major fire but two this year, because FEMA is working again. We show up; we don’t wait. We don’t have to wonder.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks by President Biden on Supporting Farmers and American Families (May 11, 2022)
“And no longer is this a question of what will we do — what will the United States do for the Americas. The question is what we accomplish by working together as true partners with diverse capabilities but equal and mutual respect, recognizing both our individual sovereignty and our shared responsibilities.”
“It’s going to offer working families . . . rebates to buy new and efficient appliances, weatherize their homes, get tax credit for purchasing heat pumps and rooftop solar, electric stoves [including electric induction stoves], ovens, dryers. It gives consumers a tax credit to buy electric vehicles or fuel cell vehicles, new or used.”
“We're going to see more changes in the next 10 years than we've seen in the last 50 years. … The questions we must answer today are not about how much we trade, but about how we build resilience, lift up working people, reduce carbon emissions, and set up our economies to succeed over the long run. How to deliver growth from the bottom up and the middle out so no one gets left behind.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks at the APEC CEO Summit, San Francisco, California (16 November 2023)
“They don’t mean anything, you know. They hurt, but they’re only feelings. They don’t draw blood or make it difficult for you to breathe. They’re all in the mind. Life is about eating and drinking and sleeping and breathing and working, and not being more unhappy than you absolutely have to.”
“Look, miss,” he said, “if you think I'm getting any sort of thrill out of seeing two females in wetsuits and gasmasks chained to a railing, you’re working the wrong pitch. Try Amsterdam.”
“At home in the country I used to feel ashamed to meet the peasants when I was fishing or on a picnic party on a working day; here too I was ashamed at the sight of the footmen, the coachmen, and the workmen who met us. It always seemed to me they were looking at me and thinking: "Why are you doing nothing?”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) said by 1904 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let me say it again. I don't believe in black majority rule ever in Rhodesia—not in a thousand years. I repeat that I believe in blacks and whites working together. If one day it is white and the next day it is black, I believe we have failed and it will be a disaster for Rhodesia.”
Ian Smith (1919–2007) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nigel Rees, "Sayings of the Century", Unwin paperbacks, 1984, p. 247.
“The success of the middle class alliance depended on the acceptance by the working class element of middle class leadership and middle class ideas.”
Hugh Gaitskell (1906–1963) first seen 1929 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chartism: An Introductory Essay (1929), p. 85
“Men are now beginning their careers as directors by working on commercials — which, if one cares to speculate on it, may be almost a one-sentence résumé of the future of American motion pictures.”
Pauline Kael (1919–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Love is the active, working principle in all true faith. It is its very soul, without which it is dead. "Faith works by love.”
Jonathan Edwards (theologian) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't know if Native Son is a good book or a bad book. And I don't know if the book I'm working on now will be a good book or a bad book. And I really don't care. The mere writing of it will be more fun and a deeper satisfaction than any praise or blame from anybody. I feel that I'm lucky to be alive to write novels today, when the whole world is caught in the pangs of war and change.”
Richard Wright (1908–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To make myself visible as I am now, when I sense that the cadaver that I occupy is almost worn out or that the organs are no longer working very well, I breathe myself into a young body that has just died.”
Cyrano de Bergerac (1619–1655) said by 1655 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most of the time you don't even know they're there. Now, that's the scary thing. It's really strange and invading, but I'm still working it all out. I try to not let it bother me. And if I want to swim naked in my pool, I'm still going to do it. I certainly don't want to feel that I have to change everything in my life that I do to cater to them. I just won't let it happen.”
Heath Ledger (1979–2008) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking on his problems with the paparazzi, as quoted in the National Post (May 2001).
“I just like interesting people. When we worked together on Ned Kelly, Naomi and I definitely had a connection, but it probably happened off screen rather than on, because when you're working there's nothing sexy about 50 people standing around staring at you.”
Heath Ledger (1979–2008) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On working with Naomi Watts in Ned Kelly, as quoted in Daily Mail Weekend Magazine (UK), July 5, 2003.
“When I was a young lawyer, working women wore hats. It was the only way they would take you seriously.”
Bella Abzug (1920–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I want to bring Congress back to the people. If that proves to be impossible to do by working from within, then I'm prepared to go back outside again-to the streets-and do it from there.”
Bella Abzug (1920–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My memory...is of a department without direction, composed of a lot of busy people working hard and usefully but as a whole not functioning as a foreign office. It did not chart a course to be furthered by the success of our arms, or to aid or guide our arms. Rather it seems to have been adrift carried hither and yon by the currents of war or pushed about by collisions with more purposeful craft.”
Dean Acheson (1893–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Poets often have a conscious awareness that they are struggling with the daimonic, and that the issue is their working something through from the depths which push the self to a new plane.”
Rollo May (1909–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As one of the wealthy, with a large stake in the existing order of things, I naturally shared the apprehensions of my class. The particular grievance I had against the working classes at the time of which I write, on account of the effect of their strikes in postponing my wedded bliss, no doubt lent a special animosity to my feeling toward them.”
Edward Bellamy (1850–1898) said by 1898 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Since there is no such thing as complete knowledge of a subject, one is always working to improve one's reading, writing, etc., of a subject. As Thomas Henry Huxley said, "If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, is there anyone who knows so much as to be out of danger?"...The problems of learning to read or write are inexhaustible.”
Neil Postman (1931–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The singular mission of the working woman is to fuse her feminine calling with her vocational calling and, by means of that fusion, to give a feminine quality to her vocational calling.”
Edith Stein (1891–1942) said by 1942 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...were I in charge of either of the Big Two, my “solution” to the ills of the industry would be to “reset” all the books to where they were at some arbitrarily chosen point in time. Usually I say 1976, for many reasons good and bad. Mostly because that’s the last year when, while actually still working in the Biz, I really still felt like a fan. (2007)”
John Byrne (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source