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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“A believer’s theology is being shaped by the worship songs they’re singing in church or listening to through the week, as much as the sermons they’re hearing on Sundays. And what we believe about God completely dictates the way we see Him, ourselves, others, and indeed our very lives.”
Brooke Fraser (born 1983) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 21 Questions with Brooke Ligertwood K-Love (October 18, 2022).
“The reason I am a communist is because I believe in a total revolution which is going to overthrow the capitalist control of the economy, which will seize the wealth from all of the giant corporations that exploit and control the lives of all working people.”
Angela Davis (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Know, dear little one! our Father Will no gentle deed disdain: Love on the cold earth beginning Lives divine in Heaven again, While the angel hearts that beat there Still all tender thoughts retain.”
Adelaide Anne Procter (1825–1864) said by 1864 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A little longer, and thy Heart, Belovèd, Shall beat for ever with a Love divine; And joy so pure, so mighty, so eternal, No creature knows and lives, will then be thine.A little longer yet — and angel voices Shall ring in heavenly chant upon thine ear; Angels and Saints await thee, and God needs thee: Beloved, can we bid thee linger here!”
Adelaide Anne Procter (1825–1864) said by 1864 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no pattern to who lives and who dies in war . . . In war, people die because they do. - Dr Ahmet Talzani”
Scott Anderson (novelist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hark, below, the many-voiced earth, The chanting of the old religious trees, Rustle of far-off waters, woven sounds Of small and multitudinous lives awake, Peopling the grasses and the pools with joy, Uttering their meaning to the mystic night!”
William Vaughn Moody (1869–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Jew always lives from the blood of other peoples, he needs such murders and such sacrifices. The victory will be only entirely and finally achieved when the whole world is free of Jews.”
Julius Streicher (1885–1946) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1937 speech, quoted in "The Trial of the Germans" - Page 57 - by Eugene Davidson - History - 1997
“I think that I have now said enough about the war, which is past now for over twenty-five years. I bow in reverence before the memory of the men who lost their lives in this war on both sides, and I think that we all hope that we never shall have such a war again.”
Karl Dönitz (1891–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fair weather weddings make fair weather lives.”
Richard Hovey (1864–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let's look at ten small places in our lives where we are trying to do the impossible and where, as a result of our misunderstanding, we are still sowing and reaping the harvest of frustration and headache:”
Guy Finley (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Adolf Hitler, you are our great Führer. Thy name makes the enemy tremble. Thy Third Reich comes, thy will alone is law upon the earth. Let us hear daily thy voice and order us by thy leadership, for we will obey to the end and even with our lives. We praise thee! Heil Hitler!”
Baldur von Schirach (1907–1974) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A pledge written by Schirach about Hitler. Quoted in "Hitler Youth: The Hitlerjugend in Peace and War, 1933-1945" by Brenda Ralph Lewis - History - 2000 - Page 57
“My sister lives in New York and she was struck by how class-ridden the reviews were. Everyone had to mention that I'm posh. British people are obsessed by that. I said to John, 'I'm not posh.' Is my voice posh?”
Nigella Lawson (born 1960) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Alex Bilmes in "Say What You Like About Nigella Lawson", Q Magazine (January 2001)
“The possession of arms is the distinction of a freeman from a slave. He who has nothing, and belongs to another, must be defended by him, and needs no arms: but he who thinks he is his own master, and has any thing he may call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself and what he possesses, or else he lives precariously and at discretion. p. 307”
Andrew Fletcher (1655–1716) said by 1716 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not against a body of uninterpreted data, radically thinned descriptions, that we must measure the cogency of our explications, but against the power of the scientific imagination to bring us into touch with the lives of strangers.”
Clifford Geertz (1926–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anyone who tries to improve the lives of animals invariably comes in for criticism from those who believe such efforts are misplaced in a world of suffering humanity.”
Jane Goodall (1934–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So this is my effort to bring back the hope that we must have if we are to change direction. . . . I think to be fully human, we need to have meaning in our lives, and that's what I am trying to help these young people to find.”
Jane Goodall (1934–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would never have surrendered, because of my pledge as a German officer. But when Hitler died, that pledge ended. By killing himself, Hitler saved thousands of lives. They relieved us of our oaths as soldiers.”
Otto Skorzeny (1908–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Jack Bell of the Chicago Daily News, as quoted in Scoop : An Historical Adventure (2006) by James H. Walters, p. 34.
“This is our kind of politics-to involve the people in staging protest marches, but not in matters that concern their very lives.”
Jakaya Kikwete (born 1950) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the opposition Civic United Front's demonstrations, 2008-04-15
“If men only felt about death as they do about sleep, all terrors would cease...Men sleep contentedly, assured that they will wake the following morning. They should feel the same about the end of their lives.”
Richard Matheson (1926–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We lived in places that we never knew. We could not name the birds perched on our sill, Or see the trees we cut down for our view. What we possessed we always chose to kill."We claimed the earth but did not hear her claim, And when we died, they laid us on her breast, But she refuses us — until we earn Forgiveness from the lives we dispossessed.”
Dana Gioia (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As long as poets belonged to a broader class of artists and intellectuals, they centered their lives in urban bohemias, where they maintained a distrustful independence from institutions. Once poets began moving into universities, they abandoned the working-class heterogeneity of Greenwich Village and North Beach for the professional homogeneity of academia.”
Dana Gioia (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The purpose of arts education is not to produce more artists, though that is a byproduct. The real purpose of arts education is to create complete human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives in a free society.”
Dana Gioia (born 1950) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Commencement speech, Stanford University (2007-06-17)
“Friendship lives on its income, love devours its capital.”
Arsène Houssaye (1814–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: James O'Donnell Bennett (1908) When Good Fellows Get Together, p. 147
“I think, ofttimes, that lives of men may be Likened to wandering winds that come and go, Not knowing whence they rise, whither they blow O’er the vast globe, voiceful of grief or glee.”
Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most people's lives are run by desire and fear. Desire is the need to add something to yourself in order to be yourself more fully. All fear is the fear of losing something, and thereby become diminished and be less. These two movements obscure the fact that being cannot be given or taken away. Being in its fullness is already within you, now. (Ch 5)”
Eckhart Tolle (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Five or six hundred [aristocratic] heads lopped off would have assured you repose and happiness; a false humanity has restrained your arm and suspended your blows; it will cost the lives of millions of your brothers.”
Jean-Paul Marat (1743–1793) first seen 1121 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: L'Ami du peuple, vol. 2, p. 1121
“These [traits] are first: love, love for his people, love for the working masses...Second, honesty...Third, courage...Fourth, comradely solidarity...Fifth, love for labor. Not only love but an honest attitude to labor, firmly bearing in mind that if a man lives, eats and does not work, this means that he eats someone else's labor.”
Mikhail Kalinin (1875–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we can't bring ourselves to say what's in our hearts when it truly matters, then we've already given up our freedom and with it the freedom of future generations, which is something that we've got no right to do. We didn't earn this freedom; it was handed to us on a plate by people who did earn it with their lives. We don't own it; we're custodians of it: it's not ours to give away.”
Pat Condell (born 1949) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Appeasing Islam" (8 March 2008)
“But has man's political skill marched hand-in-hand with his technical and scientific skill? Man can chain lightning to his command-can be control the society in which be lives? The answer is No! The political skill of man has been far outstripped by technical skill, and what lie has made he cannot be sure of controlling.”
Sukarno (1901–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My fathering had always taken the form of a friendly cloud that floated across the lives of the children, and paused occasionally to cast a shadow. That they would turn out to have their own weather, and that I would profit by the climate, was an immense satisfaction.”
John Leonard (critic) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Fathering Instinct", Ms. magazine (May 1974)
“Prayer become manifest in action, and action has to be backed up by prayer. Only then can we elicit a response from the Buddhist deities and all Buddhism. Those who pray and take action for kosen-rufu are the Buddha's emissaries. They cannot fail to realize lives in which all desires are fulfilled.”
Daisaku Ikeda (1928–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They earned a name that lives in song, Those woodsmen stout and plucky Whose hair and rifles both were long— The Hunters of Kentucky.”
Arthur Guiterman (1871–1943) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Tall Men", in The Saturday Evening Post (May 24, 1924) pp. 7–8
“Beauty is as tangible as blood, in a way. It is a separate, distinct force that inhabits the bodies of men and women. You must have noticed the vacuity that accompanies perfect beauty in so many women...the force so strong that it drives out all other forces and lives vampirishly at the expense of intelligence and goodness and conscience and all else.”
C. L. Moore (1911–1987) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Black Thirst (1934); p. 64
“Harding was elected because he promised normalcy. After war, men were tired. They wanted to crawl back into a 1912 womb. They didn’t want experiments that might upset their lives further.”
Henry Kuttner (1915–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My position and the state will never allow me to become a dictator, but an authoritarian style of rule is characteristic of me, and I have always admitted it. You need to control the country, and the main thing is not to ruin people's lives.”
Alexander Lukashenko (born 1954) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement (August 2003), as quoted in BBC - Profile: Alexander Lukashenko (9 January 2007).
“Troops without ammunition or food. Effective command no longer possible. 18,000 wounded without any supplies or dressings or drugs. Further defence senseless. Collapse inevitable. Army requests immediate permission to surrender in order to save lives of remaining troops.”
Friedrich Paulus (1890–1957) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Radio message to Adolf Hitler, January 24, 1943. Quoted in "The World Changers" - Page 171 - by Bruce Bliven - 1965
“In the lives of most women and men There's a moment when all would go smooth and even, If only the dead could find out when To come back and be forgiven.”
Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton (1831–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fearless people, Careless needle. Harsh words spoken, And lives are broken.”
Seal (musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.”
Michelle Obama (born 1964) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Campaign rally at UCLA, quoted in "It’s All About Him" by William Kristol in The New York Times (25 February 2008)
“And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”
Michelle Obama (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every day, you have the power to choose our better history — by opening your hearts and minds, by speaking up for what you know is right, by sharing the lessons of Brown versus Board of Education, the lessons you learned right here in Topeka, wherever you go for the rest of your lives.”
Michelle Obama (born 1964) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted on Yahoo News!, "First lady tells Kansas students to fight bias" (16 May 2014)
“And if so many brave men and women could sacrifice their lives for our most fundamental rights, then surely we can do our parts as citizens of this great democracy to exercise those rights. Surely we can get to the polls on an election day and make our voices heard.”
Michelle Obama (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hillary (Clinton) has spent decades doing the relentless work to actually make a difference in their lives. Advocating for kids with disabilities as a young lawyer, fighting for children's health care as first lady, and for quality child care in the senate.”
Michelle Obama (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fact that people don't see me going out on a date with my husband sparks rumors of the end of our marriage. It's like, "OK, so we don't Instagram every minute of our lives. We are 60. We're 60, y'all. You just are not gonna know what we're doing every minute of the day.”
Michelle Obama (born 1964) first seen 2025 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Michelle Obama shares 4 words her mom said at the end of her life that stuck with her WFSU (June 26, 2025)
“I feel like a spinning top or a Dreidel The spinning don't stop when you leave the cradle You just slow down Round and around this world you go Spinning through the lives of the people you know We all slow down.”
Don McLean (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On the other hand, I view the whole matter from a cosmic perspective. I don't take a position. I believe that there are no more positions to take, no certainties, no facts. Many people find this confusing about my films; they say I am hiding out behind irony. But from a cosmic viewpoint, it is eternally unimportant whether one lives or not.”
Peter Greenaway (born 1942) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In an interview in Die Zeit, 24 Nov 1989
“Jean Renoir once suggested that most true creators have only one idea and spend their lives reworking it, but then very rapidly he added that most people don't have any ideas at all, so one idea is pretty amazing.”
Peter Greenaway (born 1942) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In an interview in the Washington DC City Paper, 6 Apr 1990
“Although all human beings experience desires, all are not controlled by them. Those who are not controlled by desire maintain balance in their lives and can thereby attain higher levels of understanding.”
Scott Shaw (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I became ANC president in 2007, we needed to deal with the immediate challenge of HIV/Aids decimating our people. Today, millions of lives have been saved and transformed and we no longer see and read about “Aids babies” who die before their fifth birthday. South Africa today has the biggest treatment programme in the world with more than 3.9 million people on treatment by August 2017.”
Jacob Zuma (born 1942) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In defence of his term in office, on twitter, as quoted by Quinton Mtyala in Zuma hits back over Ramaphosa's 'nine lost years' comments, IOL News (29 January 2019)
“It is written that ‘All Jews are responsible for one another,’ and a Jew who lives in Siberia or in Kamchatka is just as good as a Jew who had the good fortune to be born in Jerusalem.”
Lev Leviev (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source