Explore well-known and useful English quotes, phrases and sayings. Quotes in English with translations.
“The sadness will last forever.”
Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)
Attributed to Vincent, as quoted by Theo van gogh in his letter from Paris, to Elisabeth van Gogh, 5 August 1890 http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/21/etc-Theo-Lies.htm <br class="br">Some of the last words Vincent said to Theo, while dying <br class="br">1890s
“I believe that if you focus on what you should do, the road ahead will open up naturally.”
Yuzuru Hanyu (1994) Japanese figure skater (1994-)
Other quotes, 2016 <br class="br">Original: (ja) 自分がすべきことを集中してやっていけば、自ずと道は開かれてくると信じているので。 <br class="br">Source: Interview at the arrival in Marseille ahead of the Grand Prix Final 2016, published 7 December 2016 by テレビ朝日 フィギュアスケート https://twitter.com/figureskate5ch/status/806400507698876416 (TV Asahi Figure Skate on Twitter). (Retrieved 11 September 2020)
“Communication is an essential factor in any type of relationship; friend, romantic, or business.”
Paul J. Alessi (1968) Actor / Producer
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/communication-is-an-essential-factor-in-any-type-of-relationship-friend-romantic-or-business-paul-j-alessi-q--10696117851703955/?mt=login
Source: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1568493/bio?ref_=nm_dyk_qt_sm#quotes
“The first true love is always the last one.”
Andrzej Majewski (1966) Polish writer and photographer
Aphorisms. Magnum in Parvo (2000)
“Breathe. It’s only a bad day, not a bad life.”
Johnny Depp (1963) American actor, film producer, and musician
“We all have two lives. The second begins when you realize you only have one.”
Tom Hiddleston (1981) English actor, producer and musical performer
“The noblest art is that of making others happy”
P.T. Barnum (1810–1891) American showman and businessman
“I am a hard person to love but when I love, I love really hard.”
Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor
“Don't live to fight, fight to live.”
Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor
Source: Resurrection, 1971-1996
“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
“You'll never achieve real success unless you like what you're doing.”
Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer
“Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.”
C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology
Variant: Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.
“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.”
Ovid (-43–17 BC) Roman poet
“The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
“We can do no great things; only small things with great love.(mother Teresa)”
Robert Fulghum book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest
Cecily, Act II
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Variant: If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.
“A legal kiss is never as good as a stolen one.”
Guy De Maupassant (1850–1893) French writer
"A Wife's Confession"
“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) Italian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and astronomer
As quoted in Angels in the workplace: stories and inspirations for creating a new world of work (1999) by Melissa Giovagnoli
Attributed
“I am not young enough to know everything.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Variant: I am not young enough to know everything.
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman
Variant: Without a struggle, there can be no progress.
“Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut!”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist
From a set of "rules for life" sent to publisher Charles Scribner IV; quoted in Scribner's memoir In the Company of Writers (New York: Scribner, 1991), p. 64 https://books.google.com/books?id=yYdHGtlgIsYC&pg=PA64&dq=hemingway+%22rules+for+life%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-zvyfgNDMAhUJ_mMKHU6zDrYQ6AEIIzAB#v=onepage&q=%20%22rules%20for%20life%22&f=false
“I would rather be a little nobody, then to be a evil somebody.”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
“The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream.”
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer
“Let nothing dim the light that shines from within”
Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet
Variant: Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.
“Art is the proper task of life.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Variant: I've lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.
“One mistake does not have to rule a person's entire life.”
Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker
Source: Any Minute
“How can I go forward when I don't know which way I'm facing?”
John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter
Lyrics, Imagine (1971 album)
Variant: How can I give love when I don't know what it is I'm giving?
"How?" (song)
“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
“Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) American psychologist
As quoted in Third and Possibly the Best 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said (1987) by Robert Byrne, #40
“When words leave off, music begins.”
Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic
As quoted in Peter's Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1977) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 343
“Strength lies in differences, not in similarities”
Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker
“Mary wished to say something very sensible, but knew not how.”
Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice
Source: Pride and Prejudice
“Happiness depends upon ourselves”
Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
An interpretative gloss of Aristotle's position in Nicomachean Ethics book 1 section 9, tacitly inserted by J. A. K. Thomson in his English translation The Ethics of Aristotle (1955). The original Greek at Book I 1099b.29 http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=GreekFeb2011&getid=0&query=Arist.%20Eth.%20Nic.%201099b.25, reads ὁμολογούμενα δὲ ταῦτ’ ἂν εἴη καὶ τοῖς ἐν ἀρχῇ, which W. D. Ross translates fairly literally as [a]nd this will be found to agree with what we said at the outset. Thomson's much freer translation renders the same passage thus: [t]he conclusion that happiness depends upon ourselves is in harmony with what I said in the first of these lectures; the words "that happiness depends upon ourselves" were added by Thomson to clarify what "the conclusion" is, but they do not appear in the original Greek of Aristotle. Rackham's earlier English translation added a similar gloss, but averted confusion by confining it to a footnote. <br class="br">Disputed <br class="br">Variant: Happiness depends upon ourselves <br class="br">Source: See http://www.mikrosapoplous.gr/aristotle/nicom1b.htm#I9 for the original Greek and Ross's translation; Thomson's translation can be viewed on Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=9SFrNWmO654C&dq=%22happiness+depends+upon+ourselves%22+aristotle&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22happiness+depends+upon+ourselves%22+. <br class="br">Source: Rackham's translation of this passage is available here http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0054%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D9%3Asection%3D8
“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.”
Henry David Thoreau A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Source: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
“Invisible threads are the strongest ties.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
Variant: Art is never finished, only abandoned.
Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest
Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young (1894)
Variant: The only way to atone for being occasionally a little over-dressed is by being always absolutely over-educated
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest
Context: The only way to atone for being occasionally a little over-dressed is by being always absolutely over-educated.
“DON'T THINK OF IT AS DYING, said Death. JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.”
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
Source: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
“I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up.”
Mark Twain book The Innocents Abroad
Source: The Innocents Abroad (1869), Ch. 7
George Bernard Shaw Man and Superman
#124
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)
Source: Man and Superman
“The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order.”
Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English mathematician and philosopher
1920s, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology (1929)
“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
“Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get.”
Ingrid Bergman (1915–1982) Film actress from Sweden
“To be happy is to be able to become aware of oneself without fright.”
Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892-1940)
“I am too fond of reading books to care to write them.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“The mistakes I've made are dead to me. But I can't take back the things I never did.”
Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005), p. 309
Marcus Aurelius book Meditations
Variant: When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive-to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
Source: Meditations
“Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.”
Terry Pratchett book I Shall Wear Midnight
Variant: And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things.
Source: I Shall Wear Midnight
Source: La Fin de Chéri (The Last of Cheri) (1926)
“Friendship is Love without wings.”
George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement
L'Amitié est l'Amour sans Ailes, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“There's nothing wrong with not understanding yourself.”
Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
“I don’t say we all ought to misbehave. But we ought to look as if we could”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
“I hate him for himself, but despise him for the memories he revives.”
Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights
Source: Wuthering Heights
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
More Maxims of Mark (1927) edited by Merle Johnson
“After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois
After December 6, 1845
Journals (1838-1859)
Source: Walden
“There is only one success … to be able to spend your life in your own way.”
Christopher Morley Where the Blue Begins
Where the Blue Begins (1922)
“My books are water; those of the great geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Source: Notebook
“If you don't turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else's story.”
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
Source: The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
Amy Bloom (1953) Fiction writer, screenwriter, social worker, psychotherapist
Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer
Variant: Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life
Source: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author
These are paraphrases of Muir's quote from My First Summer in the Sierra (1911) - the actual quote is listed above: "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." See Sierra Club explanation http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/misquotes.aspx. <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Variant: Tug on anything at all and you'll find it connected to everything else in the universe. <br class="br">Variant: When we tug at a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world.
“There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.”
John Cage (1912–1992) American avant-garde composer
“If you have enough book space, I don't want to talk to you.”
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
“All thinking men are atheists.”
Ernest Hemingway book A Farewell to Arms
Source: A Farewell to Arms (1929), Ch. 2
“My wish is that you may be loved to the point of madness.”
André Breton (1896–1966) French writer
Source: What is Surrealism?: Selected Writings
“Of course it's possible to love a human being if you don't know them too well.”
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
“It is not that I'm so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Variant: It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.
Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker
Source: Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World
“There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Attributed to Disraeli by Mark Twain in "Chapters from My Autobiography — XX", North American Review No. DCXVIII (JULY 5, 1907) http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19987. His attribution is considered unreliable, and the actual origin is uncertain, with one of the earliest known publications of such a phrase being that of Leonard H. Courtney: see Lies, damned lies, and statistics. <br class="br">Misattributed
Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera
Variant: .. the heart's memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and [that] thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past
Source: Love in the Time of Cholera
“Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
Variant: Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
Source: Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices on Resistance, Reform, and Renewal an African American Anthology
“To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.”
Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker
“A thought, even a possibility, can shatter and transform us.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“Let us accept truth, even when it surprises us and alters our views.”
George Sand (1804–1876) French novelist and memoirist; pseudonym of Lucile Aurore Dupin
Source: Letters Of George Sand
“The fuckers. There, I feel better. God-damned human race. There, I feel better.”
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
Source: The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship
“Soon I'll find the right words, they'll be very simple.”
Jack Kerouac book The Dharma Bums
Some of the Dharma (1997)
Source: Sometimes paraphrased as "One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple" or "Someday I will find the right words … ", and sometimes misattributed to The Dharma Bums rather than to Some of the Dharma.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“It doesn’t matter what you say you believe - it only matters what you do.”
Robert Fulghum book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
1960s, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (1967-1969)
Context: Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
