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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“This means that gravestones are fragile and granite is softer than wax. Absurd, absurd, absurd! From such absurdity I shall soon turn gray or change into another person. Why do you beckon me with your hand? For one moment of peace I would give the peace of the tomb.”
Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We can't do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves.”
“People say painting graffiti doesn't change anything, but the GLA committee found that 'house prices can drop by as much as 10% in badly affected areas' so it's worth bearing in mind if you want to get on the property ladder.”
“So often we need a whole lifetime in order to change our life, we think a great deal, weigh things up and vacillate, then we go back to the beginning, we think and think, we displace ourselves on the tracks of time with a circular movement, like those clouds of dust, dead leaves, debris, that have no strength for anything more, better by far that we should live in a land of hurricanes.”
José Saramago (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everything's different. You have to recognise the fact that I'm different. Time goes on, and you change. I'm coming into this as a different guy, that's probably the biggest thing.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We're all a bit socially awkward in our band at the best of times, and while we're more comfortable with the fan thing now, it's still odd and slightly surreal. I have friends who are celebrities who're a lot more extrovert and social than me, and they can't lead a normal life because they're so recognisable. It's changed their lives a lot and they can't change it back.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Individuals bearing witness do not change history; only movements that understand their social world can do that. Movements encourage solidarity; the moral individual is likely, all unwittingly, to do the opposite, for bearing witness is lonely: it breeds feelings of superiority and moralistic anger against those who are not doing the same.”
Ellen Willis (1941–2006) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Three Elegies for Susan Sontag", New Politics (Summer 2005), Vol. X, No. 3
“When we permit any object to transmit a small amount of data and to receive input from its neighborhood, we change an inert object into an animated node.”
Kevin Kelly (editor) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everyday we see evidence of biological growth in technological systems. This is one of the marks of the network economy: that biology has taken root in technology. And this is one of the reasons why networks change everything.”
Kevin Kelly (editor) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Because skill guilds constrain (and defend) an organisation, it is often far easier to start a new organisation than to change a successful old one.”
Kevin Kelly (editor) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The network economy has moved from change to flux.”
Kevin Kelly (editor) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our image has undergone change from David fighting Goliath to being Goliath.”
Yitzhak Shamir (1915–2012) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Daily Telegraph London, (25 January, 1989).
“We have the ability to change our own reality.”
John Frusciante (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Change is hard, I should know. I should know.”
Zooey Deschanel (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They said get back honky cat, Better get back to the woods. Well I quit those days and my redneck ways. And oh the change is gonna do me good.You better get back honky cat, Living in the city ain't where it's at. It's like trying to find gold in a silver mine. It's like trying to drink whiskey from a bottle of wine.”
Elton John (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Have mercy on the criminal Who is running from the law. Are you blind to the winds of change? Don't you hear him any more?”
Elton John (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't think traders can follow rules for very long unless they reflect their own trading style. Eventually, a breaking point is reached and the trader has to quit or change, or find a new set of rules he can follow. This seems to be part of the process of evolution and growth of a trader.”
Ed Seykota (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Old Joe remembers "a spraddle-legged hitter who looked good" whom Joe taught to change his tactics to pivot hitting. "He's the only fellow I ever tried to convert to the style who jumped onto the ideas in a minute. He was a young fellow named Babe Ruth who wanted to learn.”
Shoeless Joe Jackson (1887–1951) first seen 1932 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As paraphrased and quoted in "Joe Jackson Fondles Warclub, Wonders What Might Have Been," Boston Globe (May 5, 1932)
“I made up that story to change your mind. I could have been somebody else but now I'm me this time. "Intro (Day I Forgot Album)”
“And we both know. That people change. When truth’s not part of their lives. I’ve seen the love in their eyes. Don’t say goodbye. Goodbye. ~ "Murray”
“I would love to change your mind”
“Rainey, you've forgotten something. You've forgotten that I'm not a guy that takes any crap. Not from anybody. You've forgotten I've been in business because I stayed alive longer than some guys who didn't want me that way. You've forgotten that I've had some punks tougher than you'll ever be on the end of a gun and I pulled the trigger just to watch their expressions change.”
Mickey Spillane (1918–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Something begins, begins; Starlit and sunlit, something walks abroad In flesh and spirit and fire. Something is loosed to change the shaken world.”
Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are three things I can recommend to you: arranging to have a breathing room in your home, a room for meditation; practicing breathing, sitting, for a few minutes every morning at home with your children; and going out for a slow walking meditation with your children before going to sleep, just ten minutes is enough. These things are very important. They can change our civilization.”
Thích Nhất Hạnh (1926–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would like the public to have a crusade against crime and change their attitude from being forgiving of crime to being considerate to the victim. Society needs to condemn a little more and understand a little less.”
John Major (born 1943) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with The Mail on Sunday, quoted in Sheila Gunn and Richard Ford, 'Clarke to get tough with hard-core teenage crime', The Times (22 February 1993), p. 1
“The only thing that will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons is regime change in Tehran.”
John R. Bolton (born 1948) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Former US Ambassador to UN Skeptical over Latest Vote on Iran, Voice of America, November 1, 2009
“The purpose of democratic statecraft is, or should be, to find the means of ordered liberty in a world condemned to everlasting change.”
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (1917–2007) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Cycles of American History (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986) p. 422
“October passed, and there was no change inside the cubicle; except that the woman only became paler and more lifeless. Until finally the time came when she became transparent; she underwent that transformation, that transguration of countenance that sometimes comes to sufferers when the last of their strength ebbs away.”
Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those least responsible for climate change are worst affected by it.”
Vandana Shiva (born 1952) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis (2008)
“Khatami is a symptom and not the cause of change in Iran.”
Azar Nafisi (born 1948) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mutually Assured Misunderstanding" at PBS.org, Interviews for Frontline (April 23 and May 2, 2002)
“As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air — however slight — lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.”
William O. Douglas (1898–1980) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Young Lawyers Section of the Washington State Bar Association (10 September 1976), The Douglas Letters : Selections from the Private Papers of Justice William O. Douglas (1987), edited by Melvin I. Urofsky and…
“When you're dealing with someone who only has a pair of underpants on, if you take his underpants off, he has nothing left - he's naked. You're better off trying to find him a pair of trousers to complement him rather than change him.”
Arsène Wenger (born 1949) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Detailing his philosophy, (2007)
“In a knot of eight crossings, which is about the average-size knot, there are 256 different 'over-and-under' arrangements possible... Make only one change in this 'over and under' sequence and either an entirely different knot is made or no knot at all may result.”
Annie Proulx (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Time does not change us it just unfolds us”
Max Frisch (1911–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is precisely what the shaman does in order to bring about change and development: his nature is therapeutic.”
Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Donald Kuspit, The Cult of the Avant-garde Artist, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993, p. 95
“Humans are great lovers of consistency, and it annoys us that cats have different rules. Even if a cat is willing to give up her life for you, that does not mean that she is willing to change her mind at your request.”
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is rarely an exception: once a cat makes up her mind to do something, your pleadings matter not at all. A dog, in the same circumstances, no matter how urgently he needs to do something, will change his mind if you insist. He is made for compromise, for self-sacrifice, for thinking about how you feel. Not cats.”
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(On the 2006 US Midterm Elections) This week, in an ironic turn of events, Iraq brought regime change to the United States.”
Amy Poehler (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No matter how long you play rock and roll, songs might change just as long as the balls are there, the rock balls. And that's what's important to us”
Bon Scott (1946–1980) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Record Review, 1979.
“How do you change ancient prejudices in any society? You do it through repositioning caste at childhood. If young children are taught respect over a bedtime story or in class, that could help enormously”
Kancha Ilaiah (born 1952) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "One Man Takes Aim At Prejudice With Storybook" at The Washington Post (20 January 2008).
“Change the Beat”
MF Doom (1971–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We can change our future, but we cannot escape our destiny. That is why life is a journey, not a destination. All roads lead to Rome, but our actions and inaction determine the meaning of our life regardless of the outcome.”
Newton Lee first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: LinkedIn (January 1, 2021)
“Change was a constant in Walt Disney’s commitment to tell a story well, to bring it to an audience through the technology of the day, and to push that technology so that rather than controlling the story, it enhanced the story and gave it an opportunity to touch people, to speak to each of them individually, to make it believable.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Technological singularity is inevitable given the human nature to discover, create, and change the world that we live in.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Change is inevitable, and it is up to humankind to create a brave new world of utopia instead of dystopia, a heaven on earth instead of a living hell.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We cannot change the past even if we could go back in time. The fabric of space-time continuum may automatically correct anomalies caused by, say, a time traveler such that any ripple effects are short-lived.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Asians, in short, are determined to exclude Australia from their club for the same reason Europeans do Turkey: they are different from us. Prime Minister Keating liked to say that he was going to change Australia from "the odd man out to the odd man in" in Asia. That, however is an oxymoron: odd men don't get in.”
Samuel P. Huntington (1927–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We must not believe, certainly, that a change in woman’s economic condition alone is enough to transform her, though this factor has been and remains the basic factor in her evolution; but until it has brought about the moral, social, cultural, and other consequences that it promises and requires, the new woman cannot appear.”
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I cannot escape the objection that there is no state of mind, however simple, that does not change every moment.”
Henri Bergson (1859–1941) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Introduction to Metaphysics (1903), translated by T. E. Hulme. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1912, p. 44
“The most conservative man in the world is the British Trade Unionist when you want to change him.”
Ernest Bevin (1881–1951) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Trades Union Congress General Council (8 September 1927), quoted in Report of the Proceedings of the Trade Union Congress, 1927