frooti favourite quotes | Quotes of famous people

Euripidés (-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright

Sophocles in Oedipus Rex
Variant in Herodotus 1.32: Count no man happy until he is dead.
Misattributed

“Democracy is a state in which the sovereign people, guided by laws which are its own work, does for itself all that it can do properly, and through delegates all that it cannot do for itself.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

"On the Principles of Political Morality that Should Guide the National Convention in the Domestic Administration of the Republic" (5 February 1784/18 Ploviôse Year 2)

“The reason why China suffers bitterly from endless wars is because of the existence of feudal lords and kings. A reliance on ancestral temples initially brought stability, but the revival of states results in the spread of soldiers. Doing so will never bring about stability!”

Qin Shi Huang (-258–-210 BC) founding emperor of the Qin Dynasty

Records of the Grand Historian, by Sima Qian

“No spring, nor summer beauty hath such grace,
As I have seen in one autumnal face.”

John Donne (1572–1631) English poet

No. 9, The Autumnal, line 1
Elegies
Source: The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose

“No man is worth your tears, but once you find one that is, he won't make you cry.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

“I looked and looked but I didn't see God.”

Yuri Gagarin (1934–1968) Soviet pilot and cosmonaut, the first human in space

As quoted in To Rise from Earth (1996) by Wayne Lee; some websites quote him as saying "I looked and looked and looked but I didn't see God." on 14 April 1961, a couple days after his historic flight, but the authenticity of such statements have been disputed; Colonel Valentin Petrov stated in 2006 http://www.interfax-religion.ru/orthodoxy/?act=interview&div=73&domain=1 that the cosmonaut never said such words, and that the quote originated from Nikita Khrushchev's speech at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU about the state's anti-religion campaign, saying "Gagarin flew into space, but didn't see any god there." Gagarin himself was a member of the Russian Orthodox Church.
As quoted in What's Missing Inside You? (2006) by Paul Schlieker, p. 17
Disputed
Variant: No I didn't see God. I looked and looked but I didn't see God.

“A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake.”

G. I. Gurdjieff (1866–1949) influential spiritual teacher, Armenian philosopher, composer and writer

In Search of the Miraculous (1949)

“A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him.”

Ezra Pound (1885–1972) American Imagist poet and critic

“Christ was born a man for me,
for me he died -
Unless I become God
through Him,
His birth is mocked
His death denied”

Angelus Silesius (1624–1677) German writer

The Cherubinic Wanderer

“Time is the wisest counselor of all.”

Pericles (-494–-429 BC) Greek statesman, orator, and general of Athens

As quoted in Until Tomorrow Comes (1979) by Orville E. Kelly, p. 160

“Wherever your heart is, that is where you'll find your treasure.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Compare to the Bible, Luke 12:34 (For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.)(NIV translation).
Variant: Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.
Source: The Alchemist (1988), p. 128

“You know the difference between a tornado and divorce in the South? Nothing! Somebody's losing a trailer.”

Robin Williams (1951–2014) American actor and stand-up comedian

Weapons of Self Destruction (2010)

“If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.”

Montesquieu (1689–1755) French social commentator and political thinker

As quoted in A Dictionary of Thoughts : Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors, Both Ancient and Modern (1891) edited by Tryon Edwards.

“Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.”

Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) German philosopher

“There is no Heaven, no Swarga, no Hell, no rebirth, no reincarnation and no immortality. The only thing that is true is that a man is born, he lives and he dies. Therefore, he should live his life properly.”

C. V. Raman (1888–1970) Indian physicist

In a public lecture at Bangalore in 1934, from [Singh, R, 2010, Letters to the Editor: Indian scientists vs. science and religion, http://www.scienceandculture-isna.org/july-aug10/Letter%20to%20editors.pdf, Science and Culture, 76, 7-8, 206]

“I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I wanted to do.”

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986) American artist

“The education of a man is never completed until he dies.”

Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) Confederate general in the Civil War

As quoted in Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1977) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 175

“In my Ministry, you don't need to know me. You only need to know how. Knowing me will not give you an advantage in any project. Make sure you know how.”

Yeo Bee Yin (1983) Malaysian Politician

Yeo Bee Yin (2018) cited in " Yeo: You don't need to know me, you need to know how https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/07/12/yeo-you-dont-need-to-know-me-you-need-to-know-how/" on The Star Online, 12 July 2018

“I was as hollow and empty as the spaces between stars.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye

“Maybe all the people who say ghosts don't exist are just afraid to admit that they do.”

Michael Ende book The Neverending Story

Source: The Neverending Story