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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“Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.”
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many instructional arrangements seem "contrived", but there is nothing wrong with that. It is the teacher's function to contrive conditions under which students learn. Their relevance to a future usefulness need not be obvious. It is a difficult assignment. The conditions the teacher arranges must be powerful enough to compete with those under which the student tends to behave in distracting ways.”
B. F. Skinner (1904–1990) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Free and Happy Student" in The Phi Delta Kappan (September 1973); later published in Reflections on Behaviorism and Society (1978)
“If I were back in high school and someone asked about my plans, I'd say that my first priority was to learn what the options were. You [high school students] don't need to be in a rush to choose your life's work. What you need to do is discover what you like. You have to work on stuff you like if you want to be good at what you do.”
Paul Graham (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Watch, listen, and learn. You can't know it all yourself—anyone who thinks that they do is destined for mediocrity.”
Donald Trump (born 1946) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Trump: The Way to the Top: The Best Business Advice I Ever Received (2004), p. 20
“Frankly, I think that it’s good that people come from other countries and they learn our culture, and many of them want to stay here. I think it’s a good thing.”
Donald Trump (born 1946) first seen 2026 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: MAGA is Reeling as Trump Welcomes Chinese Students to the U.S." The News Republic / Yahoo News (May 15, 2026)
“All Nigerians must learn from Christ and be determined to imbibe the lesson of divine condescension.”
Peter Akinola (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The main objective is to learn to think crudely. Crude thinking is the great one's thinking.”
Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dreigroschenroman (1934), reprinted in Gesammelte Werke, vol. 13 (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1967), 916.
“A naturall foole that could never learn by heart the order of numerall words, as one, two, and three, may observe every stroak of the Clock, and nod to it, or say one, one, one; but can never know what houre it strikes.”
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) said by 1679 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Perfecting Ourselves : Coordinating Body, Mind, and Spirit (2002) by Aaron Hoopes, p. 64
“I don't feel special … I was just full of energy and loved to learn.”
Alicia Witt (born 1975) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On her extraordinarily high I.Q., as quoted in "Genius at Work" in People magazine, Vol. 43 No. 9 (6 March 1995)
“Abracadabra, thus we learn, The more you create, the less you earn. The less you earn, the more you're given, The less you lead, the more you're driven, The more destroyed, the more they feed, The more you pay, the more they need The more you earn, the less you keep, And now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul should take If the tax collector hasn't got it before I wake.”
Ogden Nash (1902–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We shall have to learn again to be one nation, or one day we shall be no nation.”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conservative Party television broadcast “Winter of Discontent” (17 January 1979)
“When will they [Labour] learn? You cannot build Jerusalem in Brussels.”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to Conservative Candidates Conference" (22 March 1992)
“Music is like a language: you cannot understand it unless you learn it, or more accurately, are born into it.”
Jack Vance (1916–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The idea has the virtue of simplicity,” said Nai the Hever gravely. “I confess that it had not occurred to me. I am always reluctant to pull on strings until I learn where they lead and to what they are attached.”
Jack Vance (1916–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You must save yourselves,” Rogol Domedonfors told them. “You have ignored the ancient wisdom, you have been too indolent to learn, you have sought easy complacence from religion, rather than facing manfully to the world.”
Jack Vance (1916–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The central problem, so it seemed, was to learn from whose eye he looked forth. Much, after all, would depend upon his viewpoint.”
Jack Vance (1916–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anacho, my friend,” said Reith, “you have a great deal to learn. The process will come as an appalling shock to you.”
Jack Vance (1916–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He said that humanity in the main was crass, stupid, boorish and vulgar, and that I could learn at least this much from you.”
Jack Vance (1916–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The realization that American power could and should be used for the defense of pluralism and as a punishment for fascism came to me in Sarajevo a year or two later... That was an early quarrel between me and many of my Nation colleagues, and it was also the first time I found myself in the same trench as people like Paul Wolfowitz and Jeane Kirkpatrick: a shock I had to learn to get over.”
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One test of un homme sérieux is that it is possible to learn from him even when one radically disagrees with him.”
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Edmund Wilson: Literary Companion” (2007)
“Thus we learn again that what people set down day to day is of greater value than what they try to synthesize retrospectively into a grand sweep or theory.”
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Arthur Schlesinger: The Courtier” (2007)
“The slow-rising central horror of "Watergate" is not that it might grind down to the reluctant impeachment of a vengeful thug of a president whose entire political career has been a monument to the same kind of cheap shots and treachery he finally got nailed for, but that we might somehow fail to learn something from it.”
Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rolling Stone (2 August 1973)
“Walk tall, kick ass, learn to speak Arabic, love music and never forget you come from a long line of truth seekers, lovers and warriors.”
Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A note to his grandson, Will (2005), reprinted in "Outlaw Journalist : The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson" (2008), by William McKeen
“When I started writing seriously, I made the major discovery of my life — that I am right and everybody else is wrong if they disagree with me. What a great thing to learn: Don't listen to anyone else, and always go your own way.”
Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You can’t learn to write in college. It’s a very bad place for writers because the teachers always think they know more than you do — and they don’t. They have prejudices.”
Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By teaching others you will learn yourself.”
G. I. Gurdjieff (1866–1949) said by 1949 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the best means for arousing the wish to work on yourself is to realize that you may die at any moment. But first you must learn how to keep it in mind.”
G. I. Gurdjieff (1866–1949) said by 1949 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We shall never learn to know ourselves except by endeavoring to know God; for, beholding His greatness we realize our own littleness; His purity shows us our foulness; and by meditating upon His humility we find how very far we are from being humble.”
Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) said by 1582 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: First Mansions, Ch. 2 : The Human Soul, as translated by the Benedictines of Stanbrook (1911), revised and edited by Fr. Benedict Zimmerman
“When you learn, teach, when you get, give.”
Maya Angelou (1928–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don’t really realize it until it’s already said. I just answer from my heart when somebody asks me a direct question. I love everybody. And, of course, Black lives matter. We all matter. We’re all God’s children. I hope people learn to love one another a little more than they do, and if I can be any help in that respect, then I hope to be.”
Dolly Parton (1946–2026) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dolly Parton on the Joys of Songwriting: ‘It’s What I Do and Who I Am’ Billboard ( December 3, 2020).
“You have to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one: from grace to grace FROM EXALTATION TO EXALTATION until you ATTAIN THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.”
Joseph Smith Jr. (1805–1844) first seen 1844 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: History of the Church, 6:306 (7 April 1844)
“He has discovered that his own brain is both a broadcasting, and a receiving station for the vibration of thought, and he is beginning now to learn how to make practical use of this discovery... p. 62”
Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Warm, eager, living life — to be rooted in life — to learn, to desire to know, to feel, to think, to act. That is what I want. And nothing less. That is what I must try for. … This all sounds very strenuous and serious. But now that I have wrestled with it, it’s no longer so. I feel happy — deep down. All is well.”
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Entry in her journal (10 October 1922) which she tore out to send to John Middleton Murry, before changing her mind. This later became the last published entry in The Journal of Katherine Mansfield (1927) edited by J. M…
“When we can begin to take our failures nonseriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.”
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Journal entry (October 1922), published in The Journal of Katherine Mansfield (1927)
“The world to me is a dream and the people in it are sleepers. I have known a few instances of intensity but that is all. I want to find a world in which these instances are united. Shall I succeed? I scarcely care. What is important is to try & learn to live, and in relation to everything – not isolated. This isolation is death to me.”
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) said by 1923 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to S. S. Koteliansky, as quoted in "Always my thoughts & feelings go back to New Zealand" by Vincent O'Sullivan, in NZ Listener Vol 214 No 3556, (July 5-11 2008)
“Cautiousness in judgment is nowadays to be recommended to each and every one: if we gained only one incontestable truth every ten years from each of our philosophical writers the harvest we reaped would be sufficient. … To grow wiser means to learn to know better and better the faults to which this instrument with which we feel and judge can be subject.”
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Astronomy is perhaps the science whose discoveries owe least to chance, in which human understanding appears in its whole magnitude, and through which man can best learn how small he is.”
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is certainly not a matter of indifference whether I learn something without effort or finally arrive at it myself through my system of thought. In the latter case everything has roots, in the former it is merely superficial.”
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He who knows himself properly can very soon learn to know all other men. It is all reflection.”
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One shouldn't learn more than what one absolutely needs against life.”
Karl Kraus (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'd like to live off the band, but if not, I'll just retire to Mexico or Yugoslavia with a few hundred dollars, grow potatoes, and learn the history of rock through back issues of Creem magazine.”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Daily Of The University Of Washington (1989-05-05).
“I remember when I was a kid at school having to learn a poem of sorts about a fellow named Pig-something — a sculptor he would have been, no doubt — who made a statue of a girl, and what should happen one morning but that the bally thing suddenly came to life. A pretty nasty shock for the chap, of course.”
P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many Abolitionists have yet to learn the ABC of woman's rights.”
Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) first seen 1860 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Journal (June 1860)
“When I was going blind, I didn't turn to God. It didn't seem to me then — and it doesn't seem to me now — that those items were His concern. Early on, I figured I better begin to learn how to count on myself, instead of counting on supernatural forces.”
Ray Charles (1930–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let us learn together and laugh together and work together and pray together, confident that in the end we will triumph together in the right.”
Jimmy Carter (1924–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ladies and gentlemen: War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.”
Jimmy Carter (1924–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[H]ere are three sentences for you to paste in your hat and learn by heart. First: Credit is the life blood of industry, and the control of credit is the control of all society. Second: The private control of credit is the modern form of slavery. And Third: The American banking system is the most perfect contrivance yet devised by the human brain for making the rich richer and the poor poorer.”
Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh God! I'm going to miss him. I can’t yet imagine life without him. But I guess with God’s help... I'll learn. I keep looking at the photo he gave me of himself, which says, 'To my true love Elizabeth, I love you forever.' And, I will love HIM forever.”
Elizabeth Taylor (1932–2011) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Michael Jackson: Elizabeth Taylor Honors her good friend" by Dave Karger, Entertainment Weekly (26 June 2009)
“One day I would be a better hand at the game. One day I would learn how to laugh. Pablo was waiting for me, and Mozart too.”
Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source