Quotes about people
page 51

“Remember if people talk behind your back, it only means you are two steps ahead.”
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

The Man Upstairs (1914)
Source: The Man Upstairs and Other Stories
Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 16

As quoted in The Mammoth Book of Zingers, Quips, and One-Liners (2004) by Geoff Tibballs, p. 255

“There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.”
Source: What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy

“People seem to get used to anything, and it is a short step from adaptation to attachment.”
Source: We Need to Talk About Kevin

“Adulthood can do the most horrific things to the best of people.”
Source: Everwild

“People could not get enough of what they had lost, even if they no longer wanted it.”
Source: The Interestings

Source: Adventures In The Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood
“People had long conversations with him, only to realize later that he hadn't spoken.”
Source: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

“I've never met anyone who wanted to be a terrorist. They are desperate people.”

Source: Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life

“Sooner or later…one has to take sides – if one is to remain human.”
Pt. IV, ch. 2, pg 230
Source: The Quiet American (1955)

“Still, it doesn't do to murder people, no matter how offensive they may be.”
Source: Five Red Herrings

Jeremy Marsh, Chapter 7, p. 113
Variant: I think it happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you've known forever don't see things the way you do. And so you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on. It's perfectly normal.
Source: 2000s, True Believer (2005)

“I tell people to monitor their self-pity. Self-pity is very unattractive.”

Source: I Remember Nothing: and Other Reflections

“Light yourself on fire with passion and people will come from miles to watch you burn.”
As quoted in The Peaceful Path of Prosperity : Practical and Spiritual Approaches to Enrich Your Life with Your Inner Wealth (2001) by Danny Babineaux; not found in any record of Wesley before 2001.
Misattributed
Variant: I set myself on fire and people come to watch me burn.

“Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves.”

“I wished I could be alone in my room, with my books, away from these people.”
Source: The Kite Runner

Source: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/15-quotes-from-chimamanda-adichie-that-have-change/
“People always wanted someone to blame, didn't they?”
Source: On the Prowl
As quoted in The Ring of Truth (2004) by Joseph O'Day

Variant: Yes, I guess you could say I am a loner, but i feel more lonely in a crowded room with boring people then i feel on my owm.
“Oh! if people knew what a comfort to a horse a light hand is…”
Source: Black Beauty

“Most people don’t know how to appreciate the silence. They can’t help talking.”
Source: The Lucky One

“We must talk about poverty, because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it.”

Volume 1, Chapter 2 "Of the Union and Internal Prosperity of the Roman Empire, in the Age of the Antonines" http://www.ccel.org/ccel/gibbon/decline/files/volume1/chap2.htm. The portion regarding the views of the religions of the time taken by various constituencies has been misreported as Gibbon's own assessment of religion generally. See Paul F. Boller, John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions (1990), pp. 34–35.
The bold text has been misattributed to Lucretius and Seneca the Younger.
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire (1776)
Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Context: The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord.
Context: The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened, and by the habits of the superstitious, part of their subjects. The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord.
The superstition of the people was not embittered by any mixture of theological rancour; nor was it confined by the chains of any speculative system. The devout polytheist, though fondly attached to his national rites, admitted with implicit faith the different religions of the earth. Fear, gratitude, and curiosity, a dream or an omen, a singular disorder, or a distant journey, perpetually disposed him to multiply the articles of his belief, and to enlarge the list of his protectors. The thin texture of the Pagan mythology was interwoven with various but not discordant materials.

“People ask all the time how I'm doing, but the truth is, they don't really want to know.”
Source: Handle with Care


Source: The Grass is Singing
Source: Quiet, Please: Dispatches From A Public Librarian

Virginia Resolution of 1798 (24 December 1798) http://www.constitution.org/cons/virg1798.htm
Federalist No. 46 (29 January 1788) Full text at Wikisource
1790s
Variant: [The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation (where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
Context: That the General Assembly doth particularly protest against the palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution, in the two late cases of the "Alien and Sedition Acts" passed at the last session of Congress; the first of which exercises a power no where delegated to the federal government, and which by uniting legislative and judicial powers to those of executive, subverts the general principles of free government; as well as the particular organization, and positive provisions of the federal constitution; and the other of which acts, exercises in like manner, a power not delegated by the constitution, but on the contrary, expressly and positively forbidden by one of the amendments thereto; a power, which more than any other, ought to produce universal alarm, because it is levelled against that right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon, which has ever been justly deemed, the only effectual guardian of every other right.
Context: Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

Source: Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder

“When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.”
Variant: When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people.
Source: Dark Visions