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 sometimes find that such heresies have been the foundation for bold and necessary change, but heresy is usually just crazy. Most daring new ideas are foolish or dangerous and appropriately rejected or ignored. So while it may be true that great geniuses are usually heretics, heretics are rarely great geniuses.”
James G. March (1928–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every interview with a public figure should include the question "What have you been wrong about, and how did that change your views?" The answer will tell us if the person is intellectually honest or a tale spinner with delusions of infallibility.”
Stewart Brand (born 1938) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Whole Earth Discipline (2009), page 230.
“I confess I have often fancied myself transformed into some other person, and have felt a certian pleasure in seeing myself in my new chracter. One of our first amusements as children (if we have any imagination at all) is to get out of our own characters, and to try the characters of other personages as a change—to be fairies, to be queens, to be anything, in short, but what we really are.”
Wilkie Collins (1824–1889) first seen 1875 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Law and the Lady [Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1875] ([https://books.google.com/books?id=qPmE-w86r0AC&pg=PA195 p. 195)
“Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity. For every false word or unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for lust or vanity, the price has to be paid at last.”
James Anthony Froude (1818–1894) said by 1894 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: pp. 25-26; Lord Acton quoted the first sentence of this statement in an address "The Study Of History" (11 June 1895), and it has often since been misattributed to him. The phrase has also sometimes been misquoted as: O…
“Whenever I came across something that influenced me, I wanted to be that. So it varied from an astronaut, airhostess, army girl, to truck driver. Once, I wanted to be a nun - my mother wanted me to change schools after that...”
Preity Zinta (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I want to bring a change and do something new and different in my profession, but in the beginning I'll have to toe line, I want to be known as a performer not a star.”
Preity Zinta (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Unless] we force the government and the handful of large companies that control this industry to change their priorities, we’re going to be stuck where we are, like a bunch of fifth graders in the world’s largest corn maze begging for our fucking lives.”
John Oliver (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If a totally new image is to come into being however, there must be sensitivity to internal messages, the image itself must be sensitive to change, must be unstable, and it must include a value image which places high value on trials, experiments, and the trying of new things.”
Kenneth Boulding (1910–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 94 as cited in: Richard Arena, Agnés Festrè, Nathalie Lazaric (2012) Handbook of Economics and Knowledge. p. 138
“All blokes get to that stage when they get bigger than their dad, like fourteen/fifteen, and he can't hit you no more. And he's, like, "Go to your room!" And you're, like, [high-pitched voice] "Nah! Fucking nah, Dad! [imitates smoking] Things are gonna change around 'ere." Now he didn't hit me, but it took a team of surgeons to remove that fag from my arse.”
Lee Evans (comedian) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unless during the first five years so great a degree of change has been accomplished as to deprive Capitalism of its power, it is unlikely that a Socialist Party will be able to maintain its position of control without adopting some exceptional means, such as the prolongation of the life of Parliament for a further term without an election.”
Stafford Cripps (1889–1952) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Can Socialism come by Constitutional Methods? (1933), p. 2, quoted in Hugh Dalton, The Fateful Years. Memoirs 1931-1945 (1957), p. 151
“This is an earthquake issue. This will change our state forever. Because the immediate consequence, if gay marriage goes through, is that K-12 little children will be forced to learn that homosexuality is normal, natural and perhaps they should try it.”
Michele Bachmann (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Spirit tells me - Fidel Castro will die - in the 90's. Oooh my! Some will try to kill him and they will not succeed. But there will come a change in his physical health, and he will not stay in power, and Cuba will be visited of God.”
Benny Hinn (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A time will come when under changed circumstances she will recover her beauty. I thought of it to-day and at once asked myself what would be our relations towards each other in the future, and whether it would make any change. I am certain it will not. I know already how it feels to live without her, and shall not do anything which might make her cast me off.”
Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The art of change-ringing is peculiar to the English, and, like most English peculiarities, unintelligible to the rest of the world.”
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art should be like a holiday: something to give a man the opportunity to see things differently and to change his point of view.”
Paul Klee (1879–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in the film Der Bauhaus, produced by TV-Rechte in Germany (1975)
“Feminist utopias were created out of a hunger for what we didn’t have, at a time when change felt not only possible but probable. Utopias came from the desire to imagine a better society when we dared to do so.”
Marge Piercy (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Utopia is born of the hunger for something better, but it relies on hope as the engine for imagining such a future. I wanted to take what I considered the most fruitful ideas of the various movements for social change and make them vivid and concrete – that was the real genesis of Woman on the Edge of Time.”
Marge Piercy (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Attention is love, what we must give children, mothers, fathers, pets, our friends, the news, the woes of others. What we want to change we curse and then pick up a tool. Bless whatever you can with eyes and hands and tongue. If you can't bless it, get ready to make it new.”
Marge Piercy (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those of your time who fought hard for change, often they had myths that a revolution was inevitable. But nothing is! All things interlock. We are only one possible future..." (p177)”
Marge Piercy (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science fiction, speculative fiction, whatever you want to call it, is one of the ways to explore social issues in fiction. You can explore what it's going to be like if current trends continue. You can change a variable and see what that does.”
Marge Piercy (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’ve always felt that in order to change things, you have to understand the forces and choices that created the PRESENT, therefore I write about times in the past that I find very relevant.”
Marge Piercy (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You need to understand that Islam is the problem. I am sick and tired of people here in the West asking me to soften my message. I am sick and tired of people asking me, "Are you trying to change 1.3 billion people?" Yes, I am trying!”
Wafa Sultan (born 1958) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Restoration Weekend, 2007
“Orpheus' mistake wasn't that he turned and looked back towards Eurydice and Hell, but that he ever thought he could escape. Same with Lot's wife. Averting our eyes does not change the fact that we are marked.”
Caitlín R. Kiernan (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've worked with a lot of living composers recently. It drives me nuts, though, that they like to change things at the last minute. For example, two years ago I played a piece that had been completed only the day before, in front of thousands of people in a huge stadium in Taejon, South Korea.”
Sarah Chang (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Earth has never been in better shape…I know — climate change and a polarised political thing — but there are no more world wars. I mean, imagine what London looked like 60 years ago. This is the best of times. Unemployment in the United States is the lowest it’s been in 50 years — 5-0…More people are working. More people are making more money. Unions are more powerful." (2019)”
Gene Simmons (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was born under a lucky star, and I have nothing whatsoever to regret. I wouldn’t change a thing about my life.”
Richard Branson (born 1950) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In his interview with Nina Myskow for Saga magazine, July 2007
“[on zapatistas] The goal has never been to defeat the state and claim sovereign authority but rather to change the world without taking power.”
Antonio Negri (1933–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don’t feel I have to look or act a certain way. But this might change, as I get older. I’m not worrying about it right now. I’m enjoying myself.”
Louisa Lytton (born 1989) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How long shall we blunder along without the aid of unpartisan and authoritative scientific assistance in the administration of justice, no one knows; but all fair persons not conventionalized by provincial legal habits of mind ought, I should think, unite to effect some change.”
Learned Hand (1872–1961) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Parke, Davis & Co. v. H. K. Mulford Co. (1911).
“..[to gather] under a new banner.. ..[that the poets of yesterday's Futurism ] change the means of battle with thought, content, and logic.. ..advance Alogism after Futurism.”
Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nov. 1915; as cited by Vasilii Rakitin, in The great Utopia - The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915-1932; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1992, p. 26
“As a man I ain’t never been much for sunny days. I’m as calm as a fruit stand in New York and maybe as strange. But when the color goes out of my eyes, it’s usually the change. But damn, Sam, I love a woman that rains.”
Ryan Adams (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Note to self: don't change for anyone”
Ryan Adams (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hope this place don't never change”
Ryan Adams (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We're trying to change the Kleenex mentality of technology - you buy a smartband or an Android Wear watch and next year you'll throw it away. This is a horrible world we're preparing for the next generation. We have to get away from that crazy approach, as we look at the resources left on this planet. We need to be able to create objects that are worth keeping and upgrading.”
Philippe Kahn (born 1952) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Wareable, April 7th, 2015.
“I am surprised at all the people in the high-tech industry focused on "making money"… If that's all they want to do, they should have a $100 printing press in their basements and they will truly "make money." Instead, if we focus all that energy on innovation, we'll change the world for the best.”
Philippe Kahn (born 1952) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Commencement speech for UCSC students 1996 | UCSC Press Release.
“I never had any qualm of conscience as to my motives and intentions before the war. I used to torture myself by questioning whether by more foresight or wisdom I could have prevented the war, but I have come to think that no human individual could have prevented it. Nothing could have prevented it except a change of the Prussian nature.”
Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon (1862–1933) first seen 1918 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Louise Creighton (April 1918), quoted in G. M. Trevelyan, Grey of Fallodon; Being the Life of Sir Edward Grey afterwards Viscount Grey of Fallodon (1937), p. 250
“Do things as soon as you can. If a decision needs to be made, make it. It gives you more time to change your mind.”
James D. Watson (1928–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religion asks questions about morals, whereas science just asks questions about the natural world. But when people try to use religion to address the natural world, science pushes back on it, and religion has to accommodate the results. Beliefs can be permanent, but beliefs can also be flexible. Personally, if I find out my belief is wrong, I change my mind. I think that's a good way to live.”
Lisa Randall (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We never expected anything, actually. I think we still don't expect anything. We were proud of the album when we finished it, so whatever success it has we are just like, 'Wow, cool.' It's not going to change the way we work or think. I'm as proud of this record now as I was when we finished it.”
John Dolmayan (born 1972) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Craine, Charlie Hip Online Article September 2001
“Lededje formed the uncomfortable impression that the other woman was trying hard to be reassuring. This had never proved to be a good sign in Lededje’s past and she seriously doubted the pattern was about to change now.”
Iain Banks (1954–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Promises take many shapes, and the more…momentous they are, the more they might look like threats. All great promises are threats, I suppose, to the way things have been until that point, to some aspect of our lives, and we all suddenly become conservative, even though we want and need what the promise holds, and look forward to the promised change at the same time.”
Iain Banks (1954–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is meant by "the representation of space"? What distinguishes one representation from another? Does this mean "how does one see that one thing is not another thing?" What constitutes a change of focus?.. .What about "another way of establishing (?) "thingness"? "Something" can be either one thing or another (without turning the rabbit on its side)..”
Jasper Johns (born 1930) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Book B (sketchbook), c 1967: as quoted in Jasper Johns, Writings, sketchbook Notes, Interviews, ed. Kirk Varnedoe, Moma New York, 1996, p. 62
“Object in/ and space – the first impulse may be to give the object – a position – to place the object. (The object had a position to begin with). Next – to change the position of the object. – Rauschenberg's early sculptures – A board with some rocks on it. The rocks can be anywhere on the board. - Cage's Japanese rock garden – The rocks can be anywhere (within the garden)..”
Jasper Johns (born 1930) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Book C (sketchbook), c. 1970; as quoted in Jasper Johns, Writings, sketchbook Notes, Interviews, ed. Kirk Varnedoe, Moma New York, 1996, p. 70
“All my work keeps going like a pendulum; it seems to swing back to something I was involved with earlier, or it moves between horizontality and verticality, circularity, or a composite of them. For me, I suppose that change is the only constant.”
Lee Krasner (1908–1984) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lee Krasner, Marcia Tucker, Whitney Museum of American Art (1973) Lee Krasner: large paintings. Nr. 33. p. 8.
“I will not change an error if it feels right, for the error is more human than perfection. I do not seek answers. I haven't named this work nor thought where it would go. I haven't thought what it is for, except that it is made to be seen. I've made it because it comes closer to saying who I am than any other method I can use. This work is my identity.”
David Smith (1906–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I know it's serious but the actual event doesn't change whether we look at it humorously or seriously.”
Russell Brand (born 1975) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Comments during a performance in Northampton (12 July 2008), as cited in "Russell Brand criticised for sex attack prank", The Times (16 July 2008).
“Laila: That could change”
Khaled Hosseini (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sgt Pepper made me more famous but it did not change me as an artist.”
Peter Blake (born 1932) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Colin Serjent, "Blake's 08, Nerve, Autumn 2006
“Should a person on returning from the city discover his house to be in flames, let him examine well the change which he has received from the chair-carrier before it is too late; for evil never travels alone.”
Ernest Bramah (1868–1942) said by 1942 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you hear of any incident about me - a fight, a change of clothes, a little extra gel in the hair, don't believe it till you talk to me.”
Leonardo DiCaprio (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source