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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“We're working to overcome the overly macho nature of the current online console game world, where a handful of the high testosterone crowd fight for supremacy, while the mass of casual game players stay away.”
Reggie Fils-Aimé (born 1961) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Source: E3 2005
“When was the last time you heard a Republican speak up for a fair shake for the working man or for justice and equality for all men? Those are the ideals we espoused when we were young. Have they changed from boons to evils as we grew old?”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar cane for miles, but you can still be working on a plantation.”
Billie Holiday (1915–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For 50 years they had had free trade in Great Britain and they had a greater mass of sordid, miserable destitution in this country than could be found in any other country on the face of the globe. If tariff reform would solve the question there would be no poverty in America, protection was never intended to benefit the working classes.”
Keir Hardie (1856–1915) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Walworth (7 March 1909), quoted in The Times (8 March 1909), p. 12
“Scientists are a friendly, atheistic, hard-working, beer-drinking lot whose minds are preoccupied with sex, chess and baseball when they are not preoccupied with science.”
Yann Martel (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There were many seas. The sea roared like a tiger. The sea whispered in your ear like a friend telling you secrets. The sea clinked like small change in a pocket. The sea thundered like avalanches. The sea hissed like sandpaper working on wood. The sea sounded like someone vomiting. The sea was dead silent.”
Yann Martel (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you don't know what a cat is, it's sort of like a stuffed animal... but with a working asshole. I'll admit that when I went to the pound, I was actually shopping for a never ending box of shit, um, and the cat just came with it.”
“Culture is all the things and ideas ever devised by humans working and living together.”
Peter Farb (1929–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But when you look at the rubbish who are getting these awards and the absolute non-service they have given to the nation other than financing or working for political parties, you say, "What company am I in?" At least if you go straight to the House of Lords you can wear fancy dress and have a giggle.”
Michael Winner (1935–2013) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On turning down an OBE for his work in campaigning for the National Police Memorial in The Sunday Times, as cited in "Winner shuns 'toilet-cleaner OBE'", BBC News (28 May 2006).
“I am a man of peace. I am longing and working and praying for peace, but I will not surrender the safety and security of the British constitution. You placed me in power eighteen months ago by the largest majority accorded to any party for many, many years. Have I done anything to forfeit that confidence? Cannot you trust me to ensure a square deal to secure even justice between man and man?”
Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech on BBC radio on the General Strike (8 May 1926), as quoted in Baldwin : A Biography by Keith Middlemas and John Barnes (1969), p. 415
“We desire to go on working to maintain world peace, and to strengthen the League of Nations, and I give you my word – and I think you can trust me by now – our defence programme will be no more than is sufficient to make our country safe and enable us to fulfil our obligations. That much we must have.”
Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) first seen 1902 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Film broadcast (31 October 1935), quoted in John Ramsden, A History of the Conservative Party: The Age of Balfour and Baldwin, 1902–1940 (1978), p. 345
“All my life, I've been a man of peace, working for peace, striving for peace, negotiating for peace. I've been a League of Nations man and a United Nations man and I'm still the same man with the same convictions, the same devotion to peace. I couldn't be other even if I wished. But I'm utterly convinced that the action we have taken is right.”
Anthony Eden (1897–1977) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: BBC television broadcast (3 November 1956), quoted in Keith Kyle, Suez (2011), p. 425
“My attitude would be the same as the attitude of the working class in Germany when the Nazis came to power. It does not mean that because at some stage you elect a government that you tolerate its existence. You oppose it...[I will oppose a second-term Thatcher government] as vigorously as I possibly can.”
Arthur Scargill (born 1938) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview (12 May 1983), quoted in Paul Routledge "Tories likened to Nazis", The Times (13 May 1983), p. 2
“The borrowing requirement was 'terrifying'. He just had to cut back public expenditure. The Social Contract wasn't working. Inflation was getting out of control.”
Denis Healey (1917–2015) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to Barbara Castle (9 April 1975), quoted in Barbara Castle, The Castle Diaries, 1974–76 (1980), p. 359
“No Government can produce an economic miracle. An economic miracle depends on people on the shop floor, in the board room, in the sales office, working a bit harder and more efficiently than they have worked in the past.”
Denis Healey (1917–2015) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On BBC Television (15 December 1976)
“You really don’t have a life when you’re working. I always think "oh, I’m gonna see everybody on my days off. I’m gonna read so many books and see so many films" and then three months go by...”
Rachel McAdams (born 1978) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rachel McAdams Interview – Married Life at Collider (6 March 2008)
“Damn you! I will not grant your cursed soul Vicarious tears or a single glance. And I swear to you by the garden of the angels, I swear by the miracle-working icon, And by the fire and smoke of our nights: I will never come back to you.”
Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When working on my choreography I am not always receptive to outside suggestions or opinions. I believe that if you have something in mind in the way of a creation, such as a new dance, a sequence, or an effect, you are certain to come up with inaccurate criticism and damaging results if you go around asking for opinions.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The anger management is not working.”
“Oddly enough, I was in Paris, the last show of a Soundgarden tour. I didn't know him that well, but I had friends who were trying to talk to him and it wasn't working out. I had this idea that when I got home, I'd try and sit down with him.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am working again on my painting 'Moscow' ['Moscow I' ('Москва I'), 1916]. It is slowly taking shape in my imagination. And what was in the realm of wishing is now assuming real forms. What I have been lacking with this idea was depth and richness of sound, very earnest, complex, and easy at the same time.”
Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) first seen 1916 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote in his letter to Gabriele Münter, September 4, 1916; as cited in Hans K. Rothel and Jean K. Benjamin, Kandinsky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Volume Two, 1916–1944; Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.…
“The Democratic power elite on some level feels delegitimized by its working-class, black and female constituencies. What it wants are the "legitimate" votes of suburban, white, middle-class, affluent males. Even liberal voters and organizations tend on some tacit level to accept the idea that they are not the "real" Americans the Democrats must pursue.”
Ellen Willis (1941–2006) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Democrats and Left Masochism", New Politics, Vol. 8, No. 3, issue #31 (Summer 2001)
“One can imagine the future shape of companies by stretching them until they are pure network. It will be hard at times to tell who is working for whom.”
Kevin Kelly (editor) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've started painting much more freely, and faster. I think it's working in the theatre that did it. You know what the Glyndebourne scene-painters said about my The Magic Flute? They said they had to wear sunglasses to paint it.”
David Hockney (1937–2026) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Portrait of the Artist as a Naughty Boy," interview with John Mortimer, In Character (1983) p. 97
“Sorry about the delay. We were having unholy connection problems of the damned. But things seem to be working fine now.”
Brian Clevinger (born 1978) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was definitely getting the hang of this skating thing. I'd started to copy a fancy cross-over turn from a German girl in front of me, and it was working pretty well. I was just about keeping up with her too, which was pleasing. She must have been about six.”
Hugh Laurie (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now the question is, "Who is going to use whom?" Even accepting the form of the question, the answer is the proletariat. If it wasn't so I wouldn't be here. I am working for Socialism and through Socialism.”
Salvador Allende (1908–1973) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Conversations With Allende (1970) by Regis Debray
“I try not to obsess about recording. I'm definitely the one who will leave all the mistakes-to have that balance between what's undone and done. I try to move on to the next thing. I have friends who have been working on the same song for five, six years. They just won't let the songs go.”
Beck (born 1970) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rolling Stone magazine, 1996
“The working classes, the ones they refer to in those political programmes as "the ordinary people”
Billy Connolly (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Today, I joined Dana Bash on CNN's State of the Union for an interview discussing how House Democrats are working to stop gun violence, fighting to enshrine Roe v. Wade into law and taking action on the baby formula shortage.”
Nancy Pelosi (born 1940) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaker Pelosi on CNN's State of the Union with Dana Bash (May 15, 2022 Youtube video)
“[On criticism of Catherine Emmerich, the 19th century Augustinian nun whose visions greatly influenced Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ] Why are they calling her a Nazi? ... Because modern secular Judaism wants to blame the Holocaust on the Catholic Church. And it's a lie. And it's revisionism. And they've been working on that one for a while.”
Mel Gibson (born 1956) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview in "The Jesus War" The New Yorker (September 7, 2003).
“What I'm continuing to do is cutting out the equation that wastes the most amount of time — and that is working within the system.”
Rod Coronado (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was the student at Stanford who remembered to notice the Mexican-American janitors and gardeners working on campus.”
Richard Rodriguez (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rodriguez:I get letters especially from older readers who are working class, and who know what that is like. That's why I take it that the energies of the book are mainly class and not ethnic.”
Richard Rodriguez (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am speaking of those years before the middle class took professional wrestling away from the working class and made of our morality play a mockery of ambition.”
Richard Rodriguez (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Capitalism is hard to reason with, but it vividly understands the fist of the working-class, and the Bolsheviks’ unforgettable honorary deed — no matter how the future may turn out, is that they for the first time in world history have shown the tormenters of humanity, an example of power that truly acts, not just talks.”
Ture Nerman (1886–1969) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Folkets Dagblad - Politiken (5 May 1919)
“Given the chance to let machines do the job, Google cofounder Larry Page estimated that nine out of 10 people “wouldn’t want to be doing what they’re doing today.” The remaining 10 % really love their jobs and make no distinction between working and playing.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Biologically inspired mechanisms will encourage deeper human-machine symbiosis as computers acquire more human intuitions in problem solving. Scientists and gamers will be working and playing side-by-side with intelligent machines as equals, not subordinates.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Panama:] [A] deadly spot the end of the world almost....There are 20,000 British coloured people working on the canal...; they are mostly from Jamaica & smell too revolting for words....the Panamanians are a very queer people, all dagoes of course, though very pompous and dirty. (31 March - 1 April 1920)”
Edward VIII (1894–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I once had on a Lance Armstrong bracelet and a "What Would Jesus Do?" bracelet, and I rubbed a blind kid's eyes and he could see. But he wasn't used to the light, it was bright, walked into traffic was killed instantly. Okay, those of you that are laughing, I'm going to call you half-full, because you're remembering the most important part of the joke...the bracelets are working!”
Daniel Tosh (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Regardless of what you want to say about KISS, musically or otherwise, there was no harder-working band than KISS. And there was no band more determined to put on a spectacular show and give people their money's worth than KISS. That was a great thing to see as an opening act. We were so impressionable, and we were so green...they were very good to us. Those guys liked to have a good time!”
“I don't see myself working in a Hollywood film.”
Preity Zinta (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...my favourite [co-actor] is always the recent one I'm working with. But I think one of my personal favourites is Shah Rukh, he's one of the best actors I've worked with.”
Preity Zinta (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lots of people are 68, working, and paying taxes, and I’d venture to say most of them are not Nazi enthusiasts, other than, it seems, you and Mel Gibson.”
John Oliver (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It hasn't had a chance to be in place long enough to offer a critique of how it's working.”
Michele Bachmann (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I took a trip to Florence and Rome in October and in the spring I will probably go to Florence to live as it is the city I like the most. I have been working and studying a lot and I now have very different goals than before..”
Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978) first seen 1908 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from De Chirico's letter to Mr. Fritz Gartz, 27 Dec. 1909; from LETTERS BY GIORGIO DE CHIRICO, GEMMA DE CHIRICO AND ALBERTO DE CHIRICO TO FRITZ GARTZ, MILAN-FLORENCE, 1908-1911, p. 560
“When I began to write in the 1970s there were three women I considered my elders: Katerina Mataira, Arapera Blank and Jacquie Sturm. They were like spinners working on a loom and their great triumph, together with that of Hone Tuwhare and Patricia Grace, was to begin spinning the tradition from which all contemporary Maori writers come.”
Witi Ihimaera (born 1944) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Spinner of Maori tradition" (11 Aug, 2002)
“Originally I was supposed to do Grand Prix, but I was under contract to 20th Century Fox at that time and Alex North was supposed to do Sand Pebbles, but he got sick, so Fox preempted me out of Grand Prix, and to my good fortune, I got to do Sand Pebbles. It was my first time working with Robert Wise and it was a great experience.”
Jerry Goldsmith (1929–2004) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: AOL Online Host (1995-07-11)
“If our animosities are born out of fear, then confident generosity is born out of hope. One of the central lessons I have learned after a half century of working in the developing world is that the replacement of fear by hope is probably the single most powerful trampoline of progress.”
Aga Khan IV (1936–2025) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address by His Highness the Aga Khan to the Tutzing Evangelical Academy Upon Receiving the "Tolerance" Award, Tutzing, Germany (20 May 2006)
“'Those who live by the sword shall perish by the sword' say the Scriptures, and it may well be that in the progress of events the working class of Ireland may be called upon to face the stern necessity of taking the sword (or rifle) against the capitalist class.”
James Connolly (1868–1916) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Worker, 30 January, 1915. Reprinted in P. Beresford Ellis (ed.), James Connolly - Selected Writings, p. 210.