“Remember if people talk behind your back, it only means you are two steps ahead.”
Fannie Flagg book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Quotes about people page 51
P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author
The Man Upstairs (1914)
Source: The Man Upstairs and Other Stories
Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist
Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 16
Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner
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.”
Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer
Gregory Maguire (1954) Novelist
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.”
Lionel Shriver book We Need to Talk About Kevin
Source: We Need to Talk About Kevin
“People could not get enough of what they had lost, even if they no longer wanted it.”
Meg Wolitzer book The Interestings
Source: The Interestings
William Goldman (1931–2018) American novelist, screenwriter and playwright
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.”
Laura Hillenbrand book Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
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.”
John Perkins (1945) American author
Byron Katie (1942) American spiritual writer
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.”
Graham Greene book The Quiet American
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.”
Dorothy L. Sayers book Five Red Herrings
Source: Five Red Herrings
Nicholas Sparks book True Believer
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.”
Patty Duke (1946–2016) American actress
Robert Fulghum book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter
Source: I Remember Nothing: and Other Reflections
Sam Harris Letter to a Christian Nation
Sam Harris in * 2006
September
The Temple Of Reason
Bethany
Saltman
The Sun
0744-9666
http://thesunmagazine.org/issues/369/the_temple_of_reason?page=3
2014-05-04
2000s
Source: Letter to a Christian Nation
“Light yourself on fire with passion and people will come from miles to watch you burn.”
John Wesley (1703–1791) Christian theologian
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.”
Colin Powell (1937) Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general
“I wished I could be alone in my room, with my books, away from these people.”
Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner
Source: The Kite Runner
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977) Nigerian writer
Source: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/15-quotes-from-chimamanda-adichie-that-have-change/
“People always wanted someone to blame, didn't they?”
Eileen Wilks (1952) fiction writer
Source: On the Prowl
Haruki Murakami book Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
Source: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer
As quoted in The Ring of Truth (2004) by Joseph O'Day
Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter
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…”
Anna Sewell book Black Beauty
Source: Black Beauty
“We must talk about poverty, because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it.”
Dorothy Day (1897–1980) Social activist
Edward Gibbon The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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.<br>The bold text has been misattributed to Lucretius and Seneca the Younger. <br class="br">The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire (1776) <br class="br">Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire <br class="br">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. <br class="br">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.<br>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.”
Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care
Source: Handle with Care
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist
Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist
Source: Charmed Thirds
Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Source: The Grass is Singing
John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces
Source: A Confederacy of Dunces (1980, posthumous), Ch. 9, p. 226
Scott Douglas (1963) American wheelchair tennis player
Source: Quiet, Please: Dispatches From A Public Librarian
James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)
Virginia Resolution of 1798 (24 December 1798) http://www.constitution.org/cons/virg1798.htm <br class="br">Federalist No. 46 (29 January 1788) Full text at Wikisource <br class="br">1790s <br class="br">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. <br class="br">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. <br class="br">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.
Michael Thomas Ford (1968) American writer
Source: Suicide Notes
Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) British writer
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.”
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi
Variant: When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people.
L.J. Smith (1965) American author
Source: Dark Visions
