Quotes about people page 17
Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister
Source: Waiting and Dating
“99% of failures come from people who make excuses.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States
“Inspiration is a word used by people who aren't really doing anything.”
Nick Cave (1957) Australian musician
Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author
Big Lies in Politics http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2012/05/22/big_lies_in_politics/page/full, 22 May 2012. <br class="br">2010s
Source: The Prophecy Answer Book
“If you are not extreme, then people will take shortcuts because they don't fear you.”
Marco Pierre White (1961) English chef and restaurateur
Source: The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness and the Making of a Great Chef
“People destined to meet will do so, apparently by chance, at precisely the right moment.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“Comedy is the blues for people who can't sing.”
Chris Rock (1965) American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and director
Miscellaneous
“Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.”
Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist
“I could not take lightly the idea that people made love without me.”
Jean Genet book The Thief's Journal
Source: The Thief's Journal
“What people have the capacity to choose, they have the ability to change.”
Madeleine K. Albright (1937–2022) Former U.S. Secretary of State
“Nothing annoys people so much as not receiving invitations.”
Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest
“Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
Remarks at the National Conference of the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO (30 March 1981)) (source: http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1981/33081b.htm) <br class="br">1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician
Get Up, Stand Up (cowritten with Peter Tosh), from the album Burnin (1973)
Song lyrics
“I didn't know that other people thought things about me. I didn't know that they looked.”
Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Widely attributed to Emerson on the internet, this actually originates with "What is Success?” http://www.cas.sc.edu/engl/emerson/Ephemera/Success.html by Bessie Anderson Stanley in Heart Throbs Volume Two (1911) edited by Joseph Mitchell Chapple. <br class="br">Misattributed
“Development is about transforming the lives of people, not just transforming economies.”
Joseph E. Stiglitz book Making Globalization Work
Source: Making Globalization Work
“But why should you care what people will say? All you have to do is please yourself.”
Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher
“People want to change everything and, at the same time, want it all to remain the same.”
Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym
Source: The Devil and Miss Prym
“Evil prevails when good people do nothing.”
Erin Gruwell book The Freedom Writers Diary
Source: The Freedom Writers Diary
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Jimmy Carter book A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power
Source: A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power
“The trouble is if you don’t spend your life yourself, other people spend it for you.”
Peter Shaffer (1926–2016) English playwright and screenwriter
Source: Five Finger Exercise
Marshall B. Rosenberg (1934–2015) American psychologist
Source: Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life
“I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
“Most people are far too much occupied with themselves to be malicious.”
Friedrich Nietzsche book Human, All Too Human
I.85
Source: Human, All Too Human (1878)
Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer
Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
“Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Variant: Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist
“People either love me or they hate me, or they don't really care.”
Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter
Source: Wall and Piece
“Shattered people are best represented by bits and pieces.”
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer
“He'd been an angel once. He hadn't meant to Fall. He'd just hung around with the wrong people.”
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
Source: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
“A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“Oh, always all right. You remember that. We happen to other people.
-Nanny Ogg”
Terry Pratchett book Carpe Jugulum
Source: Carpe Jugulum
Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Variant: Have I gone mad? I'm afraid so.
You're entirely Bonkers.
But I will tell you a secret,
All the best people are.
Source: Alice in Wonderland
“Thanking people is dangerous business. A name always slips your mind.”
John Wayne (1907–1979) American film actor
Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American women's rights activist
On the Campaign for Divorce Law Reform (1860)
“Life, for people, begins to crumble on the edges; they don't realize it.”
Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) American photojournalist
“Half of the people lie with their lips; the other half with their tears”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb book The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms
Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms
“People are not lazy, they simply have impotent goals.. that is.. goals that do not inspire them.”
Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker
“The reason for evil in the world is that people are not able to tell their stories.”
C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology
“Tradition:' one of those words conservative people use as a shortcut to thinking.”
Warren Ellis (1968) English comics and fiction writer
Source: Transmetropolitan, Vol. 4: The New Scum
Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist
Attributed to Karl Marx, a composer with the same name.
Misattributed
William T. Sherman (1820–1891) American General, businessman, educator, and author.
1860s, 1864, Letter to the City of Atlanta (September 1864)
Source: Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman
Context: You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices today than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. If the United States submits to a division now, it will not stop
Context: You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices today than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. If the United States submits to a division now, it will not stop, but will go on until we reap the fate of Mexico, which is eternal war. The United States does and must assert its authority, wherever it once had power; for, if it relaxes one bit to pressure, it is gone, and I believe that such is the national feeling.
Alice Munro book Runaway
Source: Runaway (2004)
Context: This is what happens. You put it away for a little while, and now and again you look in the closet for something else and you remember, and you think, soon. Then it becomes something that is just there, in the closet, and other things get crowded in front of it and on top of it and finally you don't think about it at all.
The thing that was your bright treasure. You don't think about it. A loss you could not contemplate at one time, and now it becomes something you can barely remember.
This is what happens.
Few people, very few, have a treasure, and if you do you must hang onto it. You must not let yourself be waylaid, and have it taken from you.