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William Shakespeare310 quotes
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man. — William Shakespeare · 1616To be or not to be—that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep—
No more—and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep—
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. — William Shakespeare · 1616Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date. — William Shakespeare · 1609My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep. The more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite. — William Shakespeare · 1597Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never. — William Shakespeare · 1600What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable; in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals-And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? — William Shakespeare · 1616All 310 quotes →Apostle Paul61 quotes
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. — Apostle Paul · 56If God be for us, who can be against us? — Apostle Paul · 56But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. — Apostle Paul · 56Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. — Apostle Paul · 55But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. — Apostle Paul · 50Owe no man any thing, but to love one another. — Apostle Paul · 56All 61 quotes →Oscar Wilde61 quotes
To recognise that the soul of a man is unknowable, is the ultimate achievement of wisdom. The final mystery is oneself. When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star by star, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul? — Oscar Wilde · 1897The curves of your lips rewrite history. — Oscar Wilde · 1891Where there is sorrow there is holy ground. — Oscar Wilde · 1897We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. — Oscar Wilde · 1892Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed. — Oscar Wilde · 1890A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. — Oscar Wilde · 1891All 61 quotes →Samuel Johnson49 quotes
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. — Samuel Johnson · 1778The triumph of hope over experience. — Samuel Johnson · 1784Claret is the liquor for the boys; port, for men; but he who aspires to be a hero (smiling) must drink brandy. — Samuel Johnson · 1779No, Sir; to act from pure benevolence is not possible for finite beings. Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other motive. — Samuel Johnson · 1776Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all. — Samuel Johnson · 1763Such is the delight of mental superiority , that none on, whom nature or study have conferred it, would purchase the gifts of fortune by its loss. — Samuel Johnson · 1751All 49 quotes →George Orwell46 quotes
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. — George Orwell · 1949All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. — George Orwell · 1945History is written by the winners. — George Orwell · 1944WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH — George Orwell · 1949If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever. — George Orwell · 1949If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. — George Orwell · 1944All 46 quotes →John Milton46 quotes
Long is the way
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light. — John Milton · 1667O fairest of Creation, last and best
Of all God's works. — John Milton · 1667Her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate:
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat
Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe
That all was lost. — John Milton · 1667Of Man's First Disobedience, and the fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing, Heav'nly Muse. — John Milton · 1667What in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the height of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men. — John Milton · 1667Who overcomes
By force hath overcome but half his foe. — John Milton · 1667All 46 quotes →William Blake46 quotes
No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings. — William Blake · 1793The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. — William Blake · 1793Everything that lives,
Lives not alone, nor for itself. — William Blake · 1789Great things are done when men and mountains meet. — William Blake · 1807To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour — William Blake · 1803The cistern contains: the fountain overflows. — William Blake · 1794All 46 quotes →Edmund Burke44 quotes
A state without some means of change is without the means of its own conservation. — Edmund Burke · 1790Make the Revolution a parent of settlement, and not a nursery of future revolutions. — Edmund Burke · 1790The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. — Edmund Burke · 1784Parties must ever exist in a free country. — Edmund Burke · 1775Every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter. — Edmund Burke · 1775Old religious factions are volcanoes burnt out. — Edmund Burke · 1792All 44 quotes →Socrates44 quotes
Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder. — Socrates · 400 BCThe unexamined life is not worth living. — Socrates · 399 BCThe true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention. — Socrates · 375 BCDemocracy passes into despotism. — Socrates · 375 BCFor our discussion is about no ordinary matter, but on the right way to conduct our lives. — Socrates · 375 BCI know that I do not know. — Socrates · 399 BCAll 44 quotes →Homer43 quotes
All men have need of the Gods. — Homer · 700 BCZeus does not bring all men's plans to fulfillment. — Homer · 700 BCAmong all men on Earth, bards have a share of honor and reverence, because the Muse has taught them songs, and loves the race of bards. — Homer · 700 BCOf all the creatures that breathe and move across the earth, there is nothing feebler than man. — Homer · 700 BCI should rather labor as another's serf, in the home of a man without fortune, one whose livelihood was meager, than rule over all the departed dead. — Homer · 700 BCBad herdsmen ruin their flocks. — Homer · 700 BCAll 43 quotes →Aristotle42 quotes
All men by nature desire to know. — Aristotle · 322 BCMan is by nature a political animal. — Aristotle · 350 BCHope is a waking dream. — Aristotle · 240No tyrant need fear till men begin to feel confident in each other. — Aristotle · 350 BCOne soul dwelling in two bodies. — AristotleOne swallow does not make a spring. — Aristotle · 322 BCAll 42 quotes →Francis Bacon42 quotes
All rising to great place is by a winding stair. — Francis Bacon · 1625Chiefly, the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands. — Francis Bacon · 1625Ancient times were the youth of the world. — Francis Bacon · 1605For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes. — Francis Bacon · 1620The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears. — Francis Bacon · 1625Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other. — Francis Bacon · 1625All 42 quotes →Horace39 quotes
Seize the day, put no trust in the morrow! — Horace · 23 BCI have erected a monument more lasting than bronze. — Horace · 23 BCLovely and honorable it is to die for one's country. — Horace · 23 BCIt is the mountaintop that the lightning strikes. — Horace · 23 BCThe centuries roll back to the ancient age of gold. — Horace · 23 BCIt's insane to carry timber to the forest. — Horace · 34 BCAll 39 quotes →Charles Dickens38 quotes
Please, sir, I want some more. — Charles Dickens · 1837I wear the chain I forged in life. — Charles Dickens · 1843It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. — Charles Dickens · 1859No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for any one else. — Charles Dickens · 1865Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies. — Charles Dickens · 1860Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire, secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. — Charles Dickens · 1843All 38 quotes →Johann Wolfgang von Goethe36 quotes
One lives but once in this world. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · 1774Life teaches us to be less harsh with ourselves and with others. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · 1787Of all peoples the Greeks have dreamt the dream of life best. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · 1819The sum which two married people owe to one another defies calculation. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through all eternity. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · 1808Who strives always to the utmost,
For him there is salvation. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · 1808If you inquire what the people are like here, I must answer, "The same as everywhere!" — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · 1774All 36 quotes →John Stuart Mill34 quotes
He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. — John Stuart Mill · 1859A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for...is a miserable creature, who has no chance of being free. — John Stuart Mill · 1862Human existence is girt round with mystery: the narrow region of our experience is a small island in the midst of a boundless sea. — John Stuart Mill · 1873We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still. — John Stuart Mill · 1859The fatal tendency of mankind to leave off thinking about a thing when it is no longer doubtful, is the cause of half their errors. — John Stuart Mill · 1859An opinion that corn-dealers are starvers of the poor, or that private property is robbery, ought to be unmolested when simply circulated through the press, but may justly incur punishment when delivered orally to an excited mob assembled before the house of a corn-dealer. — John Stuart Mill · 1859All 34 quotes →Alexander Pope33 quotes
Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is, but always to be blessed. — Alexander Pope · 1733Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. — Alexander Pope · 1711To err is human, to forgive divine. — Alexander Pope · 1711Woman's at best a contradiction still. — Alexander Pope · 1735A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again. — Alexander Pope · 1711The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,
And wretches hang that jurymen may dine. — Alexander Pope · 1714All 33 quotes →Lord Byron33 quotes
How little do we know that which we are!
How less what we may be! — Lord Byron · 1824I am ashes where once I was fire. — Lord Byron · 1824You have deeply ventured;
But all must do so who would greatly win. — Lord Byron · 1821There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the Lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I Love not Man the Less, but Nature more. — Lord Byron · 1818Who would be free themselves must strike the blow? — Lord Byron · 1818When one subtracts from life infancy (which is vegetation),—sleep, eating, and swilling—buttoning and unbuttoning—how much remains of downright existence? The summer of a dormouse. — Lord Byron · 1813All 33 quotes →Michel de Montaigne32 quotes
I find that the best goodness I have has some tincture of vice. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580Truly man is a marvelously vain, diverse, and undulating object. It is hard to found any constant and uniform judgement on him. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580It happens as with the cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580For truth itself does not have the privilege to be employed at any time and in every way; its use, noble as it is, has its circumscriptions and limits. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580Let us give Nature a chance; she knows her business better than we do. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580The easy, gentle and sloping path…is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580All 32 quotes →Samuel Taylor Coleridge32 quotes
The guests are met, the feast is set:
May'st hear the merry din? — Samuel Taylor Coleridge · 1798In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge · 1834Oh sleep! It is a gentle thing,
Beloved from pole to pole! — Samuel Taylor Coleridge · 1798Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,
The glorious Sun uprist. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge · 1798Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea! — Samuel Taylor Coleridge · 1798In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge · 1816All 32 quotes →George Bernard Shaw31 quotes
You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?" — George Bernard Shaw · 1921Assassination is the extreme form of censorship. — George Bernard Shaw · 1909The fickleness of the women I love is only equalled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me. — George Bernard Shaw · 1898Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it. — George Bernard Shaw · 1893The man of business…goes on Sunday to the church with the regularity of the village blacksmith, there to renounce and abjure before his God the line of conduct which he intends to pursue with all his might during the following week. — George Bernard Shaw · 1889This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. — George Bernard Shaw · 1903All 31 quotes →Voltaire30 quotes
All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. — Voltaire · 1759If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others? — Voltaire · 1759If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. — Voltaire · 1768I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away? — Voltaire · 1759I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it. — Voltaire · 1767In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other. — Voltaire · 1764All 30 quotes →Friedrich Nietzsche29 quotes
God is dead: but as the human race is constituted, there will perhaps be caves for millenniums yet, in which people will show his shadow. — Friedrich Nietzsche · 1882What does not destroy me, makes me stronger. — Friedrich Nietzsche · 1889"Where is God gone?" he called out. "I mean to tell you! We have killed him,—you and I! We are all his murderers!" — Friedrich Nietzsche · 1882He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. — Friedrich Nietzsche · 1886Life always gets harder toward the summit-the cold increases, responsibility increases. — Friedrich Nietzsche · 1895This is hardest of all: to close the open hand out of love, and keep modest as a giver. — Friedrich Nietzsche · 1883All 29 quotes →Thomas Paine29 quotes
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good. — Thomas Paine · 1792But where says some is the king of America?...In America the law is king. — Thomas Paine · 1776If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace. — Thomas Paine · 1776These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial and article as Freedom should not be highly rated. — Thomas Paine · 1776The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. — Thomas Paine · 1776He who dares not offend cannot be honest. — Thomas Paine · 1776All 29 quotes →Marcus Aurelius28 quotes
Every instant of time is a pinprick of eternity. — Marcus Aurelius · 180Be like a headland of rock on which the waves break incessantly: but it stands fast and around it the seething of the waters sinks to rest. — Marcus Aurelius · 180Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one. — Marcus Aurelius · 180What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee. — Marcus Aurelius · 180Mankind have been created for the sake of one another. — Marcus Aurelius · 180Love the little trade which you have learned, and be content with it. — Marcus Aurelius · 180All 28 quotes →Albert Einstein27 quotes
Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. — Albert Einstein · 1901Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. — Albert Einstein · 1930The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. — Albert Einstein · 1930The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility. — Albert Einstein · 1936The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of every day thinking. — Albert Einstein · 1936I never think of the future—it comes soon enough. — Albert Einstein · 1930All 27 quotes →Jane Austen26 quotes
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. — Jane Austen · 1813You ought certainly to forgive them as a Christian, but never to admit them in your sight, or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing. — Jane Austen · 1813To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love. — Jane Austen · 1813I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine. — Jane Austen · 1813The sooner every party breaks up, the better. — Jane Austen · 1816One man’s ways may be as good as another’s, but we all like our own best. — Jane Austen · 1817All 26 quotes →Dante Alighieri24 quotes
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Consider your origin;
you were not born to live like brutes,
but to follow virtue and knowledge. — Dante Alighieri · 1321When I had journeyed half of our life's way,
I found myself within a shadowed forest,
for I had lost the path that does not stray. — Dante Alighieri · 1321In that part of the book of my memory, before which very little is written, there is a heading that reads "Here begins a new life". — Dante Alighieri · 1294Haste denies all acts their dignity. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Thence we came forth to see the stars again. — Dante Alighieri · 1321All 24 quotes →G.K. Chesterton24 quotes
Fallacies, which do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions. — G.K. Chesterton · 1930Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere. — G.K. Chesterton · 1928They say travel broadens the mind; but you must have the mind. — G.K. Chesterton · 1921Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. — G.K. Chesterton · 1908They died to save their country and they only saved the world. — G.K. Chesterton · 1922The rich are the scum of the earth in every country. — G.K. Chesterton · 1914All 24 quotes →Hermann Hesse24 quotes
Knowledge can be communicated but not wisdom. — Hermann Hesse · 1922I realize today that nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself. — Hermann Hesse · 1919One never reaches home... But wherever friendly paths intersect the whole world looks like home for a time. — Hermann Hesse · 1919Love isn't there to make us happy. I believe it exists to show us how much we can endure. — Hermann Hesse · 1904Solitude is independence. It had been my wish and with the years I had attained it. It was cold. Oh, cold enough! But it was also still, wonderfully still and vast like the cold stillness of space in which the stars revolve. — Hermann Hesse · 1927Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world's phenomena intersect, only once in this way and never again. — Hermann Hesse · 1919All 24 quotes →