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
“Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
“The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.”
René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist
“A sex symbol becomes a thing. I hate being a thing.”
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer
Comment on her sex symbol status, quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40
Context: That's the trouble, a sex symbol becomes a thing. But if I'm going to be a symbol of something, I'd rather it be sex than some of the things we've got symbols of... I just hate to be a thing.
“Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.”
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
“Perhaps they were right putting love into books. Perhaps it could not live anywhere else.”
William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer
“There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind…”
F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
Source: The Great Gatsby
“The best stories don't come from "good vs. bad" but "good vs. good.”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer
“If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?”
George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian
“Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Letter to high school student Barbara Lee Wilson (7 January 1943), Einstein Archives 42-606
1940s
“Life begins on the other side of despair.”
Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …
“Her heart did whisper that he had done it for her.”
Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice
Source: Pride and Prejudice
Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina
Variant: When you love someone, you love the person as they are, and not as you'd like them to be.
Source: Anna Karenina
“What comes from the heart goes to the heart”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher
“Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author
No. 36
Apophthegms (1624)
Variant: Money is a great servant but a bad master.
“All love that has not friendship for its base,
Is like a mansion built upon the sand.”
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American author and poet
Love
Poetry quotes, New Thought Pastels (1913)
“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”
Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
Dr. Seuss book Happy Birthday to You!
Variant: There is no one alive who
is Youer than You!
Source: Happy Birthday to You!
William Lyon Phelps (1865–1943) American author, critic and scholar
“A short cut to riches is to subtract from our desires.”
Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) Italian scholar and poet
“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
“Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter
“What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.”
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
As quoted by Ernst Straus in Einstein: A Centenary Volume by A.P. French (1980), p. 32. <br class="br">Attributed in posthumous publications <br class="br">Variant: "if you want to be a happy man, you should tie your life to a goal, not to other people and not to things." A quote from Ernst Straus' memoir of Einstein in Albert Einstein: Historical and Cultural Perspectives edited by Gerald Holton and Yehuda Elkana (1982), p. 420 http://books.google.com/books?id=CNuwE3NL1QgC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA420#v=onepage&q&f=false
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer
Attributed to Monroe in self-help books and on social media, this quotation is of unknown origin and date.
Misattributed
“Happiness is the reward we get for living to the highest right we know.”
Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer
Source: Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit
“I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
Has been attributed to Stephen Leacock's "Literary Lapses" (1910), but the quote does not appear in the Project Gutenberg edition http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6340/6340.txt of this work. <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Variant: I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. <br class="br">Variant: I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
“A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
The attribution to Shaw comes from Leadership Skills for Managers (2000) by Marlene Caroselli, p. 71. But this quote seems more likely to come from William H. Whyte. The Biggest Problem in Communication Is the Illusion That It Has Taken Place, Quote Investigator, 2014-08-31, 2015-11-09 http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/08/31/illusion/, <br class="br">Misattributed
“I live to suceed, not to please you or anyone else.”
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer
“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson book The Conduct of Life
The Conduct of Life, Chapter 6, “Worship,” p. 214
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)
“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”
Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)
“Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Variant: You can't blame gravity for falling in love.
“There is only one good thing in life, and that is love.”
Guy De Maupassant (1850–1893) French writer
"The Love of Long Ago"
Source: The Complete Short Stories of de Maupassant
Context: There is only one good thing in life, and that is love. And how you misunderstand it! how you spoil it! You treat it as something solemn like a sacrament, or something to be bought, like a dress.
“The clouds were disappearing rapidly, leaving the stars to die. The night dried up.”
André Breton (1896–1966) French writer
Source: The Magnetic Fields
“Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another.”
John Dewey book Democracy and Education
Source: Democracy and Education
“To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death.”
Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American writer
"To the Young"
Source: To My Daughters, With Love (1967)
Charles Darwin book The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
volume I, chapter III: "Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals — continued", page 101 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=114&itemID=F937.1&viewtype=image <br class="br">The Descent of Man (1871)
“It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.”
John Steinbeck book The Winter of Our Discontent
Source: The Winter of Our Discontent
“If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative.”
Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician
“Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.”
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
First mentioned as "Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking and using our potential." according to Quote Investigator in the 1981 book The Reflecting Pond: Meditations for Self-Discovery by Liane Cordes, Quote Page 89, Hazelden Publishing, Center City, Minnesota. For further research on this quote see: Quote Investigator (August 31, 2013): Continuous Effort — Not Strength or Intelligence — Is the Key to Unlocking and Using Our Potential Winston Churchill? Liane Cordes? Liane Cardes? Apocryphal? Archived http://archive.is/E0M12 on June 2, 2020. <br class="br">Source: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/08/21/effort/ from the original
“You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore”
André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist
“Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
“But man is not made for defeat... a man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
Ernest Hemingway book The Old Man and the Sea
Variant: A man can be destroyed but not defeated.
Source: The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor
“Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief”
Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman
“Eighty percent of success is showing up.”
Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician
“I cannot make my days longer, so I strive to make them better.”
Paul Theroux (1941) American travel writer and novelist
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
As quoted in The Life and Writings of Thomas Jefferson : Including All of His Important Utterances on Public Questions (1900) by Samuel E. Forman, p. 429
Posthumous publications
“Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live.”
Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician and brother of John F. Kennedy
"Conflict in Vietnam and at Home" speech http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rfk/filmmore/ps_ksu.html at Kansas State University on March 18, 1968 as part of the Alfred M. Landon Lectures on Public Issues.
“He had the look of one who had drunk the cup of life and found a dead beetle at the bottom.”
P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author
“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”
Ray Bradbury book Zen in the Art of Writing
Source: Zen in the Art of Writing
“For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use to be anything else.”
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Lord Mayor’s Banquet, Guildhall, London (9 November 1954) The Unwritten Alliance, page 195, Columbia University, NY (1966),page 195,
Post-war years (1945–1955)
“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Amelia Earhart (1897–1937) American aviation pioneer and author
The Official Website of Amelia Earhart - Quotes http://www.ameliaearhart.com/about/quotes.html
“There’s an unspoken law that you should never start to cry if you have too many reasons to do so.”
Herta Müller book The Hunger Angel
Source: The Hunger Angel (2012), p. 68
George S. Patton (1885–1945) United States Army general
War As I Knew It (1947) "Reflections and Suggestions"
“Sex appeal is fifty percent what you've got and fifty percent what people think you've got.”
Sophia Loren (1934) Italian actress
As quoted in Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion (1984) Leslie Halliwell
Variant: Sex appeal is fifty percent what you've got and fifty percent what people think you've got.
“Accept the challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) United States Army general
As quoted in Textbook of Phacoemulsification (1988) by William F. Maloney and Lincoln Grindle, p. 79
“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his picture.”
Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887) American clergyman and activist
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit (1887)
“Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.”
Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer
Sand and Foam (1926)
“Yesterday's home runs don't win today's games”
Babe Ruth (1895–1948) American baseball player
The earliest quotes similar to this are presented as unattributed folk wisdom, such as this example from 1959:
As Brother Allen of Newsweek indicated, it has been fun, but don't try to rest on your laurels. Always remember, “YESTERDAY’S HOME-RUN DOESN’T COUNT IN TODAY’S GAME,” and today’s game is well under way.
The quote does not begin to be attributed to Babe Ruth until the 1980s, nearly 30 years after its first appearance.
Disputed
Source: F. N. Abbott, "On Your Marks", in [The Palm, vol lxxix, no. 1 (February 1959), Harry L., Bird (ed.), 1959, Champaign, IL, Alpha Tau Omega, 17, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiuc.1744313v0079?urlappend=%3Bseq=19]
Source: https://books.google.com/books?id=cQsKAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Yesterday%27s+home+runs%22&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Ruth
Ralph Waldo Emerson book Nature
Nature, Addresses and Lectures. The American Scholar <br class="br">1830s, The American Scholar http://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htm (1837) <br class="br">Variant: If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him. 6.
“When a thing is done, it's done. Don't look back. Look forward to your next objective.”
George Marshall (1880–1959) US military leader, Army Chief of Staff
As quoted in "George C. Marshall and the Marshall Plan: A Model of Transformational Diplomacy" (2005) by Tom Callahan http://web.archive.org/web/20050616023457/http://www.state.gov/r/pa/dc/rks/47848.htm
“Where there is great love there are always miracles.”
Willa Cather book Death Comes for the Archbishop
Book I, Ch. 4
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)
“The imagination is not a talent of some men but is the health of every man.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Poetry and Imagination <br class="br">1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Books, Letters and Social Aims http://www.rwe.org/comm/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=5&id=74&Itemid=149 (1876)
“The pain passes but the beauty remains.”
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) French painter and sculptor
As quoted in: Instituto Nacional de Previsión (Spain) (1974). 6.o Congreso Internacional de Medicina Fisica: 2-6 julio 1974. p. 424
Renoir replied to Matisse, who had asked him why he persisted in painting at the expense of such torture.
undated quotes
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him.”
Chinmayananda Saraswati (1916–1993) Indian spiritual teacher
Quotations from Gurudev’s teachings, Chinmya Mission Chicago
“A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool.”
Joseph Roux (1834–1905) French poet
Part 1, LXXIV
Meditations of a Parish Priest (1866)
Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer
As quoted in Become a Conscious Creator: A Return to Self-Empowerment (2007) by Lisa Ford, p. 44
“Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.”
Tenzin Gyatso (1935) spiritual leader of Tibet
As quoted in Words Of Wisdom: Selected Quotes by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (2001) edited by Margaret Gee, p. 71.
