English quotes
English quotes with translation | page 16

Explore well-known and useful English quotes, phrases and sayings. Quotes in English with translations.

Warren Buffett photo

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

Context: It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.

Emile Zola photo
Peter F. Drucker photo

“There is nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all.”

Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant

Variant: There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.

Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“Is man merely a mistake of God's? Or God merely a mistake of man?”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Oscar Wilde photo
Tamora Pierce photo
Eckhart Tolle photo

“Anything that you resent and strongly react to in another is also in you.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

Emile Zola photo

“Inability, human incapacity, is the only boundary to an art.”

Emile Zola (1840–1902) French writer (1840-1902)

Source: Le Naturalisme Au Theatre

Anaïs Nin photo

“Life shrinks or expands according to one's courage.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

As quoted in French Writers of the Past (2000) by Carol A. Dingle, p. 126
Variant: Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.

Albert Einstein photo

“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Attributed to Einstein by his colleague Léopold Infeld in his book Quest: An Autobiography (1949), p. 291 http://books.google.com/books?id=fsvXYpOSowkC&q=%22garbage+man%22#v=snippet&q=%22garbage%20man%22&f=false
Attributed in posthumous publications

Blaise Pascal photo

“Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much”

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher

Variant: Kind words don't cost much. Yet they accomplish much.

Michael Jordan photo

“To learn to succeed, you must first learn to fail.”

Michael Jordan (1963) American retired professional basketball player and businessman
Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Charles Bukowski photo

“My ambition is handicapped by my laziness.”

Source: Factotum (1975), Ch. 45, Manny

Albert Einstein photo

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Zig Ziglar photo

“Pain was good. If I hurt, it meant I wasn't dead.”

Source: Hunted

Alfred Adler photo

“It is always easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.”

Alfred Adler (1870–1937) Medical Doctor, Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist, Personality Theorist

Quoted in: Phyllis Bottome, Alfred Adler: Apostle of Freedom (1939), ch. 5
Problems of Neurosis: A Book of Case Histories (1929)

Franz Kafka photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Oscar Wilde photo

“A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Source: The Critic as Artist (1891), Part II

Napoleon Hill photo

“Our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Variant: The only limitation is that which one sets up in one's own mind.
Source: Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller - Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

Charles Bukowski photo

“I stopped looking for a Dream Girl, I just wanted one that wasn't a nightmare.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship

Winston S. Churchill photo

“The price of greatness is responsibility.”

In the House of Commons, February 28, 1906 speech South African native races http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1906/feb/28/south-african-native-races#S4V0152P0_19060228_HOC_307
The Second World War (1939–1945)
Variant: Where there is great power there is great responsibility
Context: I submit respectfully to the House as a general principle that our responsibility in this matter is directly proportionate to our power. Where there is great power there is great responsibility, where there is less power there is less responsibility, and where there is no power there can, I think, be no responsibility.

Robert Walser photo

“Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied.”

Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer
Eckhart Tolle photo
Osamu Dazai photo
Oscar Wilde photo

“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”

Lord Goring, Act III
Source: An Ideal Husband (1895)

Arthur Conan Doyle photo
William Shakespeare photo

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

Cassius, Act I, scene ii.
Variant: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Source: Julius Caesar

George Orwell photo
Pablo Picasso quote: “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”
Pablo Picasso photo

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
Winston S. Churchill photo

“Don't interrupt me while I'm interrupting.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Abraham Lincoln photo
Franz Kafka photo
Paul McCartney photo

“Sadness isn't sadness. It's happiness in a black jacket. Tears are not tears. They're balls of laughter dipped in salt. Death is not death. It's life that's jumped off a tall cliff.”

Paul McCartney (1942) English singer-songwriter and composer

Source: Blackbird Singing: Poems and Lyrics, 1965-1999

Gabriel García Márquez photo

“The only thing worse than bad health is a bad name.”

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

Rabindranath Tagore photo

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service is joy.”

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath

Quoted often without citation http://www.tagorefoundationinternational.com http://rupkatha.com/V2/n4/11Tagorephilosohy.pdf
Compare this verse verse written by Ellen Sturgis Hooper:
::"I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty."
Disputed

Stephen King photo

“We lie best when we lie to ourselves.”

Source: It (1986)

Jean Anouilh photo
Ludwig Van Beethoven photo

“Do not merely practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; it deserves that, for only art and science can exalt man to divinity.”

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Romantic composer

Fahre fort, übe nicht allein die Kunst, sondern dringe auch in ihr Inneres; sie verdient es, denn nur die Kunst und die Wissenschaft erhöhen den Menschen bis zur Gottheit.
Letter to Emilie, July 17, 1812.
Quoted in Musical news, Vol. 3 (1892), p. 627

James Baldwin photo

“The place in which I'll fit will not exist until I make it.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States
Albert Schweitzer photo

“Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.”

Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher

Variant: Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.

Jane Austen photo
Malcolm X photo

“We want freedom by any means necessary. We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

Speech at Founding Rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (28 June 1964) http://www.blackpast.org/?q=1964-malcolm-x-s-speech-founding-rally-organization-afro-american-unity
Variant: We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.
As quoted in By Any Means Necessary (1970)
By any means necessary: speeches, interviews, and a letter (1970)
Context: We have formed an organization known as the Organization of Afro-American Unity which has the same aim and objective to fight whoever gets in our way, to bring about the complete independence of people of African descent here in the Western Hemisphere, and first here in the United States, and bring about the freedom of these people by any means necessary.
That's our motto. We want freedom by any means necessary. We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary.

Dolly Parton photo
George Orwell photo

“Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

Review of A Coat of Many Colours: Occasional Essays by Herbert Read, Poetry Quarterly (Winter 1945)
Context: Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it. This is an illusion, and one should recognise it as such, but one ought also to stick to one's own world-view, even at the price of seeming old-fashioned: for that world-view springs out of experiences that the younger generation has not had, and to abandon it is to kill one's intellectual roots.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh photo

“I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable.”

Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1929-1932 (1973), p. 3
Source: Gift from the Sea
Context: I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable. All these and other factors combined, if the circumstances are right, can teach and can lead to rebirth.

Pablo Picasso photo

“There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence transform a yellow spot into a sun.”

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer

1950s
Source: Sergei Eisenstein (1957), Film form [and]: The film sense, p. 127.

Bruce Lee photo

“Be happy, but never satisfied.”

Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker
Aristotle photo

“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
Ernest Hemingway photo

“Write hard and clear about what hurts.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist
Jodi Picoult photo
Oscar Wilde photo
Ayn Rand photo
Louisa May Alcott photo

“Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.”

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist

As quoted in Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book (1923) by Elbert Hubbard, p. 62

Joseph Campbell photo
Arthur Conan Doyle photo
John Wooden photo

“Success is peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction and knowing you’ve made the effort, do the best of what you’re capable.”

John Wooden (1910–2010) American basketball coach

Interview on Charlie Rose https://archive.org/details/WHUT_20100614_130000_Charlie_Rose (2000)

Robert T. Kiyosaki photo
Joseph Addison photo

“Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body.”

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright

No. 147.
The Tatler (1711–1714)
Variant: A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body
Context: Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated: by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished, and confirmed.

Mark Twain photo

“The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

This appears on the opening placard of the film The Equalizer, attributing it to Twain, but there is no evidence that Twain wrote it. A precursor is found in Taylor Hartman's self-help book The Character Code (first published 1991), where it is not attributed to Twain: "The three most significant days in your life are: 1. The day you were born. 2. The day you find out why you were born. 3. The day you discover how to contribute the gift you were born to give" ( Google Books link https://books.google.com/books?id=gIKCxWxNmeMC&pg=PA147&dq=%22day+you+find+out+why%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijrJzc84vLAhUJzGMKHajvADEQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepage&q=%22day%20you%20find%20out%20why%22&f=false)
Disputed

Arthur Conan Doyle photo
Oscar Wilde photo

“I can resist everything except temptation.”

Lord Darlington, Act I
Variant: I can resist everything except temptation
Source: Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)

William Shakespeare photo
Robert Frost photo

“We love the things we love for what they are.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

"Hyla Brook" (1920)
1920s

Richard Bach photo

“Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
Variant: if you argue for your limitations they are yours
Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

Pablo Picasso photo

“Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.”

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
Desmond Tutu photo

“We learn from history that we don't learn from history!”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner

Often attributed to Desmond Tutu, actual source is G. W. F Hegel: What experience and history teach is this — that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it. Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1832)
Misattributed

Madonna photo

“I stand for freedom of expression, doing what you believe in, and going after your dreams.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

http://www.studyworld.com/newsite/Quotes/QuoteByTopic.asp?i=Dream

Bob Marley photo

“You have to be someone.”

Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician
Jane Austen photo

“I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”

Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist

Letter to Cassandra (1798-12-24) [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters
Source: Jane Austen's Letters

George Carlin photo

“It’s called the American Dream, 'cause you have to be asleep to believe it.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Life Is Worth Losing (2005)
Context: They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fuckin’ years ago. They don’t want that. You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your fuckin' retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you sooner or later 'cause they own this fuckin' place. It’s a big club and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club.... The table is tilted, folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice.... And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that’s being jammed up their assholes every day, because the owners of this country know the truth. It’s called the American Dream, 'cause you have to be asleep to believe it.

Ernest Hemingway quote: “Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”
Ernest Hemingway photo

“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Introduction to Treasury of the Free World (1946)
Source: Ernest Hemingway: A Literary Reference
Context: An aggressive war is the great crime against everything good in the world. A defensive war, which must necessarily turn to aggressive at the earliest moment, is the necessary great counter-crime. But never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. Ask the infantry and ask the dead.

William Shakespeare photo

“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”

Variant: Go wisely and slowly. Those who rush stumble and fall.
Source: Romeo and Juliet

Oscar Wilde photo
George Orwell photo
Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings — always darker, emptier, simpler.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

Sec. 179
The Gay Science (1882)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo

“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Variant: The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.

Aristotle quote: “Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”
Aristotle photo

“Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
Albert Einstein photo

“Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others, it is the only means.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

The original: "Example is not the main thing. It is the only thing. That is, if the one giving the example is not saying to himself, 'Behold I am giving an example." That spoils it. Anyone thinking of the example he will give to others has lost his simplicity. Only as a man has simplicity can his example influence others" is a quote by Albert Schweitzer, from a 1952 interview in United Nations World magazine https://books.google.com/books?id=qTAoAAAAMAAJ&q=%22example+is+not+the+main+thing%22&dq=%22example+is+not+the+main+thing%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjz7f_2v6vMAhUJxmMKHeEAB-QQ6AEIHDAA. Not attributed to Einstein until the 1990s https://books.google.com/books?id=JdRZAAAAYAAJ&q=%22example+is+not+the+main+thing%22+einstein&dq=%22example+is+not+the+main+thing%22+einstein&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwif56qcwqvMAhXGMGMKHST5DRIQ6AEIHTAA.
Misattributed

Eckhart Tolle photo

“I love you still,
Against my will.”

Source: Crave

Stephen King photo

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