Quotes about people
page 15

Oscar Wilde photo
Eleanor Roosevelt photo
Abraham Lincoln photo

“The people of these United States are the rightful masters of both Congresses and courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Lincoln never said these words, but wrote and said some that are very similar to the above quote. As Lincoln's popularity within the Republican Party grew, he was invited to address members of his party throughout the nation. In September 1859 Lincoln gave several speeches to Ohio Republicans. The notes Lincoln used for his 1859 engagements state: "We must not disturb slavery in the states where it exists, because the Constitution, and the peace of the country both forbid us — We must not withhold an efficient fugitive slave law, because the constitution demands it — But we must, by a national policy, prevent the spread of slavery into new territories, or free states, because the constitution does not forbid us, and the general welfare does demand such prevention — We must prevent the revival of the African slave trade, because the constitution does not forbid us, and the general welfare does require the prevention — We must prevent these things being done, by either congresses or courts — The people — the people — are the rightful masters of both Congresses, and courts — not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it —" Source: Abraham Lincoln [September 16-17, 1859<nowiki> http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mal:@field(DOCID+@lit(d0189300))#I379</nowiki>] (Notes for Speech in Kansas and Ohio) http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mal&fileName=mal1/018/0189300/malpage.db&recNum=1 in "Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. Series 1. General Correspondence. 1833-1916." Transcribed and Annotated by the Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College. Galesburg, Illinois. Lincoln transformed his prior quoted notes in the following words: "I say that we must not interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists, because the Constitution forbids it, and the general welfare does not require us to do so. We must not withhold an efficient Fugitive Slave law, because the Constitution requires us, as I understand it, not to withhold such a law. But we must prevent the outspreading of the institution, because neither the Constitution nor general welfare requires us to extend it. We must prevent the revival of the African slave trade, and the enacting by Congress of a Territorial slave code. We must prevent each of these things being done by either Congresses or courts. The people of these United States are the rightful masters of both Congresses and courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution." Source: Speech at Cincinnati, Ohio, September 17, 1859 http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/5/3253/3253-h/files/2657/2657-h/2657-h.htm#2H_4_0043; in "The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Volume Five, Constitutional Edition", edited by Arthur Brooks Lapsley and released as " The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Volume Five, by Abraham Lincoln http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/5/3253/3253-h/files/2657/2657-h/2657-h.htm" (2009) by Project Gutenberg.
Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Abraham Lincoln / Disputed
1850s

Mark Twain photo
Derek Landy photo
Oscar Wilde photo

“I can't help detesting my relations. I suppose it comes from the fact that none of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray and Selected Stories

Aristotle photo

“To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
Tamora Pierce photo
T. Harv Eker photo

“The number one reason most people don't get what they want is that they don't know what they want.”

T. Harv Eker (1954) American writer

Source: Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth

Jasper Fforde photo
David Ogilvy photo
Malcolm X photo

“The greatest mistake of the movement has been trying to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first, then you'll get action.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

Source: Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements

Ian Stewart photo

“There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary numerals, and those who don't.”

Ian Stewart (1945) British mathematician and science fiction author

Source: Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities

Terry Pratchett photo
Carlos Ruiz Zafón photo
Alice Walker photo
William Gaddis photo
Terry Pratchett photo

“Anyway, if you stop tellin' people it's all sorted out afer they're dead, they might try sorting it all out while they're alive.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

Variant: If you stopped tellin' people it's all sorted out after they're dead, they might try sorting it all out while they're alive.
Source: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

Terry Pratchett photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Salvador Dalí photo
Marilyn Manson photo
Muhammad Iqbál photo
Jean Jacques Rousseau photo
Theodor W. Adorno photo

“People know what they want because they know what other people want.”

Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for his critical theory of society
Terry Pratchett photo
Stephen King photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Coretta Scott King photo
Alice Munro photo
Ronald Reagan photo

“I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989), Farewell Address (1989)
Context: I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.

Vladimir Lenin photo

“I am bound to accord you, in the name of free speech, the full right to shout, lie and write to your heart’s content. But you are bound to grant me, in the name of freedom of association, the right to enter into, or withdraw from, association with people advocating this or that view.”

Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution

.
1900s
Context: Everyone is free to write and say whatever he likes, without any restrictions. But every voluntary association (including the party) is also free to expel members who use the name of the party to advocate anti-party views. Freedom of speech and the press must be complete. But then freedom of association must be complete too. I am bound to accord you, in the name of free speech, the full right to shout, lie and write to your heart’s content. But you are bound to grant me, in the name of freedom of association, the right to enter into, or withdraw from, association with people advocating this or that view. The party is a voluntary association, which would inevitably break up, first ideologically and then physically, if it did not cleanse itself of people advocating anti-party views.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón photo
Heinrich Heine photo
Edmund Burke photo

“People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.”

Volume iii, p. 274
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Oscar Wilde photo
Sylvia Plath photo
Noah Gordon photo
Jodi Picoult photo

“Saying goodbye to the people you love isn't easy”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Between the Lines

Henry Ford photo

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

Source: As quoted in "My Philosophy of Industry" an interview of Ford by Fay Leone Faurote, The Forum, Vol. 79, No. 4 (April 1928), p. 481;

also in "Thinking Is Hardest Work, Therefore Few Engage in It", San Francisco Chronicle (13 April 1928), p. 25;

both articles are cited as the primary sources of other variants which later arose, in https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/04/05/so-few "Thinking Is the Hardest Work There Is, which Is the Probable Reason Why So Few Engage In It" in Quote Investigator (5 April 2016)

Dorothy L. Sayers photo

“We are much too much inclined in these days to divide people into permanent categories, forgetting that a category only exists for its special purpose and must be forgotten as soon as that purpose is served.”

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) English crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer

Source: Are Women Human? Astute and Witty Essays on the Role of Women in Society

Corrie ten Boom photo

“Corrie, if people can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love! We must find the way, you and I, no matter how long it takes.”

Corrie ten Boom (1892–1983) Dutch resistance hero and writer

Source: The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom

Rainer Maria Rilke photo

“Some people there's no getting over.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Sugar Daddy

Huey P. Newton photo

“Laws should be made to serve the people. People should not be made to serve the laws.”

Huey P. Newton (1942–1989) Co-founder of the Black Panther Party

Source: To Die for the People: The Writings of Huey P. Newton

Terry Pratchett photo
Yukio Mishima photo
Jim Morrison photo
Borís Pasternak photo
Mark Twain photo
V.S. Naipaul photo
Berenice Abbott photo
Abraham Lincoln photo

“Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Address Delivered in Candidacy for the State Legislature (9 March 1832)
1830s
Context: Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in. That every man may receive at least a moderate education, and thereby be enabled to read the histories of his own and other countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our free institutions, appears to be an object of vital importance, even on this account alone, to say nothing of the advantages and satisfaction to be derived from all being able to read the Scriptures, and other works both of a religious and moral nature, for themselves.

Scott Adams photo
William Shakespeare photo

“The world must be peopled!”

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet
Arthur Schopenhauer photo
Nick Hornby photo
Jeannette Walls photo
Stephen Hawking photo

“I regard the afterlife to be a fairy story for people that are afraid of the dark”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author
William Shakespeare photo

“How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in it!”

Variant: O, brave new world
that has such people in't!
Source: The Tempest

Salman Rushdie photo
Alice Munro photo
Mary Kay Ash photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Nicholas Sparks photo

“…she was struck by the simple truth that sometimes the most ordinary things could be made extraordinary, simply by doing them with the right people.”

Elizabeth Green, Chapter 15, Beth, p. 274
Variant: Sometimes the most ordinary things could be made extraordinary, simply by doin them with the right people.(Elizabeth Green)
Source: 2000s, The Lucky One (2008)

Ray Bradbury photo

“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

As quoted in "Bradbury Still Believes in Heat of ‘Fahrenheit 451’" http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19930312&slug=1689996, interview by Misha Berson, in ', credited to "Ray Bradbury, quoted by Misha Berson in Seattle Times", in "Quotable Quotes", The Reader's Digest, Vol. 144, No. 861, January 1994, p. 25 http://books.google.com/books?output=html&id=ZqqUAAAAIAAJ&q=%22people+to+stop+reading%22#search_anchor), or an indirect reference to the re-quoting in Reader's Digest (such as: The Times Book of Quotations (Philip Howard, ed.), 2000, Times Books and HarperCollins, p. 93
Variant: We're not teaching kids to read and write and think. … There's no reason to burn books if you don't read them.
As quoted in "At 80, Ray Bradbury Still Fighting the Future He Foresaw" http://www.raybradbury.com/articles_peoria.html, interview by Roger Moore, in The Peoria Journal Star (August 2000)
Context: The problem in our country isn't with books being banned, but with people no longer reading. Look at the magazines, the newspapers around us – it's all junk, all trash, tidbits of news. The average TV ad has 120 images a minute. Everything just falls off your mind. … You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

Ernest Hemingway photo
Thomas Mann photo
Mark Twain photo
Bertrand Russell photo

“Really high-minded people are indifferent to happiness, especially other people's.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Source: The Impact of Science on Society

Jim Butcher photo

“Punctuality is for people with nothing better to do”

Source: Small Favor

Jeannette Walls photo
Virginia Woolf photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Chris Hedges photo
Warren Buffett photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Bertrand Russell photo
Arundhati Roy photo
Orhan Pamuk photo
Yann Martel photo
Franz Schubert photo
Terry Pratchett photo
C.G. Jung photo

“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.

Charles Bukowski photo