Quotes about people page 58
“People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet
“Sensible people get the greater part of their own dying done during their own lifetime.”
Samuel Butler book The Way of All Flesh
Source: The Way of All Flesh (1903), Ch. 24
Craig Ferguson (1962) Scottish-born American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, producer and voice a…
Kresley Cole American writer
Source: Dreams of a Dark Warrior
“I think some people call this love. I call it hell.”
Ellen Schreiber book Vampire Kisses
Source: Vampire Kisses
“Don't waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear.”
Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist
Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer
Source: Enchanted Love: The Mystical Power Of Intimate Relationships
L. Frank Baum book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
Source: Oz: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 (1953), Coda (1979)
Context: There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women's Lib/Republican, Mattachine/FourSquareGospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) English crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer
Source: The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers. Vol. 1, 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist
Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer
Source: This is Where I Leave You
“wats yr typ?
people who can spell”
Laurie Halse Anderson (1961) American children's writer
Source: The Impossible Knife of Memory
“writers are desperate people and when they stop being desperate they stop being writers.”
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
“Other people's marriages are a perpetual source of amazement.”
Patrick O'Brian book The Commodore
Source: The Commodore (1995)
“People can snap. People have a limit. And some people are just plain nuts.”
Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Laurie Notaro American writer
Source: There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble
“People don't get to our ages without having pasts. I'm more interested in the future.”
Robyn Donald (1940) New Zealand writer
Source: Tiger, Tiger
Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Magic Slays
“people are more than the worst thing they have ever done in their lives”
Helen Prejean (1939) advocate for the abolition of the death penalty
“A guy can do far far worse than surrounding himself with people who restore his faith in humanity.”
David Levithan (1972) American author and editor
Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“I give boring people something to discuss over corn.”
Aimee Bender (1969) Novelist, short story writer
Source: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt
John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) American business magnate and philanthropist
Attributed in How to Win Friends and Influence People (1937) by Dale Carnegie
“I learned to go into business only with people whom I like, trust, and admire.”
Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist
“Madness is always a wonderful excuse, don’t you think? For doing terrible things to other people.”
Jennifer McMahon (1968) American writer
Source: The Winter People
Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer
Source: How to Kill a Rock Star
“I don't evenclowns. Clowns are not normal people.”
Barbara Park (1947–2013) American juvenile author
Source: Junie B. Jones and That Meanie Jim's Birthday
“It takes two people to make you, and one people to die. That's how the world is going to end.”
William Faulkner book As I Lay Dying
Source: As I Lay Dying (1930)
Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927) Indian Sufi
Source: The Bowl of Saki: Thoughts for Daily Contemplation from the Sayings and Teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan
“Superheroes were born in the minds of people desperate to be rescued.”
Jodi Picoult book The Tenth Circle
Source: The Tenth Circle
Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer
Variant: All I ever really want to know is how other people are making it through life—where do they put their body, hour by hour, and how do they cope inside of it.
Source: It Chooses You
L.J. Smith (1965) American author
Source: Secret Vampire/Daughters of Darkness/Spellbinder
“what a luxury it was for people to be
able to hold their loved ones whenever they wanted.”
Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist
Variant: what a luxury it was for people to hold their loved ones whenever they wanted
Source: P.S. I Love You
“The shortest distance between two people is a smile.”
Victor Borge (1909–2000) Danish and US-American comedian and musician
Variant: Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
“Two things are infinite: the universe and the human stupidity.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
As discussed in this entry from The Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/04/universe-einstein/#more-173, the earliest published attribution of a similar quote to Einstein seems to have been in Gestalt therapist Frederick S. Perls' 1969 book Gestalt Theory Verbatim, where he wrote on p. 33: "As Albert Einstein once said to me: 'Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity.' But what is much more widespread than the actual stupidity is the playing stupid, turning off your ear, not listening, not seeing." Perls also offered another variant in his 1972 book In and Out the Garbage Pail, where he mentioned a meeting with Einstein and on p. 52 http://books.google.com/books?id=HuxFAAAAYAAJ&q=human+stupidity#search_anchor quoted him saying: "Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not yet completely sure about the universe." However, Perls had given yet another variant of this quote in an earlier book, Ego, Hunger, and Aggression: a Revision of Freud’s Theory and Method (originally published 1942, although the Quote Investigator only checked that the quote appeared in the 1947 edition), where he attributed it not to Einstein but to a "great astronomer", writing: "As modern times promote hasty eating to a large extent, it is not surprising to learn that a great astronomer said: 'Two things are infinite, as far as we know – the universe and human stupidity.' To-day we know that this statement is not quite correct. Einstein has proved that the universe is limited." So, the later attributions in 1969 and 1972 may have been a case of faulty memory, or of intentionally trying to increase the authority of the quote by attributing it to Einstein. The quote itself may be a variant of a similar quote attributed even earlier to the philosopher Ernest Renan, found for example in The Public: Volume 18 from 1915, which says on p. 1126 http://books.google.com/books?id=cTPmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1126#v=onepage&q&f=false: "He quotes the saying of Renan: it isn't the stars that give him an idea of infinity; it is man's stupidity." (Other examples of similar attributions to Renan can be found on this Google Books search http://www.google.com/search?q=renan+infinity+stupidity&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1.) Renan was French so this is presumably intended as a translation, but different sources give different versions of the supposed original French quote, such as "La bêtise humaine est la seule chose qui donne une idée de l'infini" (found for example in Réflexions sur la vie, 1895-1898 by Remy de Gourmont from 1903, p. 103 http://books.google.com/books?id=RtrtAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA103#v=onepage&q&f=false, along with several other early sources as seen in this search http://www.google.com/search?q=%22humaine+est+la+seule+chose+qui%22+renan&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1) and "Ce n'est pas l'immensité de la voûte étoilée qui peut donner le plus complétement l'idée de l'infini, mais bien la bêtise humaine!" (found in Broad views, Volume 2 from 1904, p. 465 http://books.google.com/books?id=9NEaAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA465#v=onepage&q&f=false). Since these variants have not been found in Renan's own writings, they may represent false attributions as well. They may also be variants of an even older saying; for example, the 1880 book Des vers by Guy de Maupassant includes on p. 9 http://books.google.com/books?id=cQUvAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP21#v=onepage&q&f=false a quote from a letter (dated February 19, 1880) by Gustave Flaubert where Flaubert writes "Cependant, qui sait? La terre a des limites, mais la bêtise humaine est infinie!" which translates to "But who knows? The earth has its boundaries, but human stupidity is infinite!" Similarly the 1887 book Melanges by Jules-Paul Tardivel includes on p. 273 http://books.google.com/books?id=n9cOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA273#v=onepage&q&f=false a piece said to have been written in 1880 in which he writes "Aujourd'hui je sais qu'il n'y a pas de limites à la bêtise humaine, qu'elle est infinie" which translates to "today I know that there is no limit to human stupidity, it is infinite." <br class="br">Disputed <br class="br">Variant: "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." Earliest version located is in Technocracy digest: Issues 287–314 from 1988, p. 76 http://books.google.com/books?id=L7LnAAAAMAAJ&q=%22sure+about+the+former%22#search_anchor. Translated to German as: "Zwei Dinge sind unendlich: das Universum und die menschliche Dummheit. Aber beim Universum bin ich mir nicht ganz sicher." (Earliest version located is Arndt-Michael Meyer, Die Macht der Kürze, Books on Demand GmbH, 2004, p. 14 http://books.google.gr/books?id=12DW-RBKTW8C&pg=PA14&dq=%22Zwei+Dinge+sind+unendlich:+das+Universum+und+die+menschliche+%22+arnd&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gquJUsrYBomM7AapmYGgCQ&ved=0CC8Q6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Zwei%20Dinge%20sind%20unendlich%3A%20das%20Universum%20und%20die%20menschliche%20%22%20arnd&f=false.) <br class="br">Variant: Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
“APOLLO'S DAILY MOTIVATIONAL SPEECH
"You are gorgeous and people love you!”
Rick Riordan book The Hidden Oracle
Source: The Hidden Oracle
“People always remember the worst day of their lifes. It becomes a part of them forever.”
James Patterson book Sundays at Tiffany's
Source: Sundays at Tiffany's
“People always try to do the right thing.. after they've tried everything else.”
Tyler Perry (1966) American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, producer, author, and songwriter
“Eye contact made people think you were being truthful even if you weren't.”
Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer
Source: All These Things I've Done
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet
Thoughts on Various Subjects (1727)
Source: Miscellanies in Verse and Prose. by Alexander Pope, Esq; And Dean Swift. in One Volume. Viz. the Strange and Deplorable Frensy of Mr. John Dennis. ... Epitaph on Francis Ch-Is. Soldier and Scholar. with Several More Epigrams, Epitaphs, and Poems.
“When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles.”
Horace Walpole (1717–1797) English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician
