Quotes about people page 52
“Some people think I'm a mythical genius, others think I'm a junkie madman.”
Keith Richards (1943) British rock musician, member of The Rolling Stones
“Those full of fear were the most dangerous of people.”
Melina Marchetta Finnikin of the Rock
Source: Finnikin of the Rock
“I am overwhelmed by the grace and persistence of my people.”
Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet
“Reality is a crutch for people who can't cope with drugs.”
Lily Tomlin (1939) American actress, comedian, writer, and producer
As "Trudy"
Unsourced variant: Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle drugs.
Contributions of Jane Wagner, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1985)
“… religion either produces the very best people or the very worst.”
Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest
Source: Breathing Underwater: Spirituality and the 12 Steps
“How many people ask you to come share their life?”
Janet Fitch book White Oleander
Source: White Oleander
“This country will kill you in a heartbeat and still people love it.”
Cormac McCarthy book No Country for Old Men
Source: No Country for Old Men
“He loved the people just as much as he feared and detested persons.”
Sinclair Lewis book It Can't Happen Here
Source: It Can't Happen Here
Anthony Bourdain book Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
Medium Raw (2010)
Source: Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
“Well, to put it delicately, she has the power to suck out people's brains.”
Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer
Source: Playing with Fire
“Most people who decide to grow personally find their first mentors in the pages of books.”
John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor
Source: The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth: Live Them and Reach Your Potential
“Politics is just show business for ugly people.”
Jay Leno (1950) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, voice actor and television host
“I've heard that the best way to help poor people is to make sure you don't become one of them”
Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer
Source: The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life
Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince
Source: The Infernal Devices, Clockwork Princess (2013), p. 564, inscription on the back of Tessa's jade pendant
“Nothing wrong with shooting… as long as the right people get shot.”
Clint Eastwood (1930) actor and director from the United States
Cassandra Clare book City of Bones
Variant: Pretty soon the only people left without a girlfriend will be me and Wendell the school janitor, and he smells like windex."
"At least you know he's still available.
Source: City of Bones
Howard Thurman (1899–1981) American writer
As quoted in Violence Unveiled (1996) by Gil Bailie, p. xv
Variant: Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
Source: The Living Wisdom of Howard Thurman: A Visionary for Our Time
“Some people had attack dogs. Ghastek had attack lawyers.”
Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Gunmetal Magic
Carl Sagan book The Demon-Haunted World
Source: From the book The Demon-Haunted World Sagan quoting from Kenneth V. Lanning, FBI Behavioral Science Research Unit, from an article Satanic, Occult and Ritualistic Crime in The Police Chief, Oct 1989 note: Misattributed
“People who hadn't suffered a loss yet struck me as not quite grown up.”
Anne Tyler The Beginner's Goodbye
Source: The Beginner's Goodbye
Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter
Cut It Out (2004)
Source: Wall and Piece
“I use the grotesque the way I do because people are deaf and dumb and need help to see and hear.”
Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer
Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer
Positive Thinking Every Day : An Inspiration for Each Day of the Year (1993), "April 13"
Earlier variant: People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. And those who have learned to have a realistic, nonegotistical belief in themselves, who possess a deep and sound self-confidence, are assets to mankind, too, for they transmit their dynamic quality to those lacking it.
You Can If You Think You Can (1987), p. 84
Cassandra Clare book Lord of Shadows
Variant: We fear things because we value them. We fear losing people because we love them. We fear dying because we value being alive. Don’t wish you didn’t fear anything. All that would mean is that you didn’t feel anything.
Source: Lord of Shadows
“People who are most afraid of their dreams convince themselves they don't dream at all.”
John Steinbeck book The Winter of Our Discontent
Source: The Winter of Our Discontent
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
Letter to Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours (24 April 1816)
1810s
Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie
Variant: That's what life is about: People come and go.
Source: Love, Rosie
Brenda Ueland (1891–1985) Journalist and writer
Source: If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Variant: He suddenly recalled from Plato's Symposium: People were hermaphrodites until God split then in two, and now all the halves wander the world over seeking one another. Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Neil deGrasse Tyson book The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist
Source: The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist
Marie-Louise von Franz (1915–1998) Swiss psychologist and scholar
Source: Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology
John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic
The New Yorker (March 29, 1976)
Douglas Adams book The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Source: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
“If you're going to tell people the truth, you better make them laugh; otherwise they'll kill you.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
Credited to Shaw in the lead in to the mockumentary C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004) and other recent works, but this or slight variants of it are also sometimes attributed to W. C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, and Oscar Wilde. It might possibly be derived from Shaw's statement in John Bull's Other Island (1907): "My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world."
Another possibility is that it is derived from Shaw's characteristic of Mark Twain: "He has to put things in such a way as to make people who would otherwise hang him believe he is joking."
Variants:
If you are going to tell people the truth, you'd better make them laugh. Otherwise, they'll kill you.
If you're going to tell people the truth, you'd better make them laugh. Otherwise, they'll kill you.
Disputed
“Come on sempai, would you please stop growing mushrooms in other people's closets?
-Haruhi”
Bisco Hatori (1975) Japanese manga artist
Tony Benn (1925–2014) British Labour Party politician
Question Time (22 March 2007).
2000s
Context: I was born about a quarter of a mile from where we are sitting now and I was here in London during the Blitz. And every night I went down into the shelter. 500 people killed, my brother was killed, my friends were killed. And when the Charter of the UN was read to me, I was a pilot coming home in a troop ship: 'We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind.' That was the pledge my generation gave to the younger generation and you tore it up. And it's a war crime that's been committed in Iraq, because there is no moral difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. Both kill innocent people for political reasons.
“Obviously this person's a hazard. Stupid people are dangerous.”
Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games
Variant: Stupid people are dangerous.
Source: The Hunger Games
Source: Old Kingdom series (The Abhorsen Trilogy), Sabriel (1995), p. 216.
Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist
Source: The Best of Oprah's What I Know For Sure
Assata Shakur (1947) American activist who was a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army
Variant: Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.
Source: Assata: An Autobiography
Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People
Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Cheryl Strayed book Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar
Source: Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar
Gena Showalter (1975) American writer
Source: The Darkest Surrender
Brandon Sanderson book Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia
Source: Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia
“Hannah: Life could be wonderful if people would leave you alone.”
Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker
To the barber, while being shaved by him.
The Great Dictator (1940)
