“Art is about trying to find the good in people and making the world a more compassionate place.”
As quoted in an interview with entertainment.ie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment.ie (2018)
"On the Principles of Political Morality that Should Guide the National Convention in the Domestic Administration of the Republic" (5 February 1784/18 Ploviôse Year 2)
– during a speech in São Luís, the capital of the Brazilian state of Maranhão. After recognizing he cursed, he stated: "Of course I cursed. Tomorrow, commentators of the major newspapers will say that Lula cursed, but I'm aware that they curse more than I do everyday, and I'm aware of how the poor people of this country live.
"Quero tirar o povo da merda", diz Lula; watch http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/videocasts/ult10038u664689.shtml, at folha.uol.com, 10.12.2009
Address to the people of the Bhutan on the coronation day, 2 June 1974, quoted in The Talking Mountains (26 Oct 2015)
Source: A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles" (1992), Ch. 7 : Work, §3 : Personal Power, p. 190 (p. 165 in some editions). This famous passage from her book is very often erroneously attributed to Nelson Mandela. About the mis-attribution Williamson said, "Several years ago, this paragraph from A Return to Love began popping up everywhere, attributed to Nelson Mandela's 1994 inaugural address. As honored as I would be had President Mandela quoted my words, indeed he did not. I have no idea where that story came from, but I am gratified that the paragraph has come to mean so much to so many people."
Variant which appears in the film Coach Carter (2005): "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
Variant which appears in the film Akeelah and the Bee (2006), displayed in a picture frame on the wall, attributing it to Mandela: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."
Source: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/14108295.alexis_karpouzos?page=2
“People often ask me when am I gonna slow down. You know what I tell 'em? I'm just gettin' started.”
Spoken interlude during "Proud Mary", live at The Apollo, Manchester, 14 March 1979 ("On the Road", VHS)
Lyrics
On the rumours about his sexuality.
Shawn Mendes: ‘I’m 20. I want to have fun’, The Guardian, April 07, 2019 https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/apr/07/shawn-mendes-im-20-i-want-to-have-fun-interview-social-media,
"We are not opposition anymore. We are the majority" in TVN24 https://tvn24.pl/tvn24-news-in-english/belarusian-opposition-leader-sviatlanatsikhanouskaya-in-an-interview-for-tvn24-4681692 (2 September 2020)
"Shavkat Mirziyoyev: Every young man is as dear to me as to his parents" in UZ Daily https://www.uzdaily.uz/en/post/63421 (4 February 2021)
"Sunisa Lee Says She's 'Going to Delete Twitter' So She Can Focus on Preparing for Beam Final" in People (1 August 2021) https://people.com/sports/tokyo-olympics-sunisa-lee-going-to-delete-twitter-focus-preparing-beam-final/
"Sunisa Lee Says She's 'Going to Delete Twitter' So She Can Focus on Preparing for Beam Final" in People (1 August 2021) https://people.com/sports/tokyo-olympics-sunisa-lee-going-to-delete-twitter-focus-preparing-beam-final/
“An extrovert imagines that the people around him are his best friends.”
Source: Katrín Jakobsdóttir (2021) cited in: " Iceland's left-right coalition takes office for second term https://www.dw.com/en/icelands-left-right-coalition-takes-office-for-second-term/a-59962630" in DW, December 2021.
Source https://gazeta.ua/articles/opinions-journal/_koli-pomizh-hlibom-i-svobodoyu-narod-obiraye-hlib-vin-zreshtoyu-vtrachaye-vse-akscho-obiraye-svobodu-matime-viroschenij-nim-i-nikim-ne-vidibranij-hlib/876589
Source: https://www.frasicelebri.it/frasi-di/rita-levi-montalcini/.
“You can´t just tell people what to do and then expect them to perform well.”
Source: Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence
Source: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
“There are no desperate situations, there are only desperate people.”
Es gibt keine verzweifelten Lagen, es gibt nur verzweifelte Menschen.
As quoted in Die Deutschen gepanzerten Truppen bis 1945 (1965) by Oskar Munzel
“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
Variant: Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.
“I don't trust people who don't love themselves and tell me "I love you."”
The Distinguished Annie Clark Tanner Lecture, 16th-annual Families Alive Conference, Weber State University, May 8, 1997 - Full text online at weber.edu http://departments.weber.edu/chfam/familiesalive/angelouspeech.html3
Context: I don't trust people who don't love themselves and tell me "I love you." … There is an African saying which is: "Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt."
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl
“Poverty frees them from normal standards of behaviour, just as money frees people from work”
Source: Down and out in Paris and London (1933), Ch. 1
Source: Down and Out in Paris and London
Context: The Paris slums are a gathering-place for eccentric people — people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent. Poverty frees them from normal standards of behaviour, just as money frees people from work. Some of the lodgers in our hotel lived lives that were curious beyond words.
Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
“Most people are real nice, when you finally see them.”
Pt. 2, ch. 31
Jean Louise (Scout) Finch & Atticus Finch
Source: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Context: "An' they chased him 'n' never could catch him 'cause they didn't know what he looked like, an' Atticus, when they finally saw him, why he hadn't done any of those things... Atticus, he was real nice..."
"Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them."
“People did change, and a change could be a bloom as well as a withering…”
Source: Revolutionary Road
Source: Through the Year with Jimmy Carter: 366 Daily Meditations from the 39th President
A defense http://www.thelizlibrary.org/undelete/library/library005.html of Elizabeth Cady Stanton against a motion to repudiate her Woman's Bible at a meeting of the National-American Woman Suffrage Association 1896 Convention, HWS, IV (1902), p. 263
Variant: I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because it always coincides with their own desires.
Context: The one distinct feature of our Association has been the right of the individual opinion for every member. We have been beset at every step with the cry that somebody was injuring the cause by the expression of some sentiments that differed with those held by the majority of mankind. The religious persecution of the ages has been done under what was claimed to be the command of God. I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because it always coincides with their own desires.
Source: This Is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography, And Life Through The Distorted Lens Of Nikki Sixx
Source: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
“People who are filled with hate don't know how to handle love.”
“People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book.”
Source: The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), p. 400
“People who try hard to do the right thing always seem mad.”
Source: The Stand
“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.”
Source: Smart Girls Get What They Want
Source: The Alchemy of Finance
“Liberals can understand everything but people
who don't understand them.”
Source: The Last Wish (1993)
Variant translation: The only way to truly know a person is to argue with them. For when they argue in full swing, then they reveal their true character.
28 September 1942
Variant: I've learned one thing: you only really get to know a person after a fight. Only then can you judge their true character!
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl (1942 - 1944)
Source: A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989)
Source: Your True Home: The Everyday Wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh: 365 days of practical, powerful teachings from the beloved Zen teacher
“People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.”
Source: State and Revolution
Variant: The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others.
Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 15 (p. 130)
Context: "We have heard stories about white men who make the powerful guns and the strong drinks and took slaves away across the seas, but no one thought the stories were true." [said Obierika]
"There is no story that is not true," said Uchendu. "The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others. We have albinos among us. Do you not think that they came to our clan by mistake, that they have strayed from their way to a land where everybody is like them?"
“The more i get to know people, the more i like dogs.”
Context: I would never apologize for photographing rocks. Rocks can be very beautiful. But, yes, people have asked why I don’t put people into my pictures of the natural scene. I respond, “There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.” That usually doesn’t go over at all.
“People are strange when you're a stranger
Faces look ugly when you're alone”
"People Are Strange" on the album Strange Days (1967)
Context: People are strange when you're a stranger
Faces look ugly when you're alone
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven when you're down.
“If you live to be one hundred, you've got it made. Very few people die past that age.”
Source: What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire
“If people can just love each other a little bit, they can be so happy.”
Source: Germinal
“The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.”
Inside the Whale (1940) http://orwell.ru/library/essays/whale/english/e_itw
Source: Inside the Whale and Other Essays
Variant: In the beginning the Universe was created.
This had made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.
Source: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
"The Coalmining Situation", Speech to the House of Commons (October 13, 1943)
The Second World War (1939–1945)
Source: Google books link https://books.google.com/books?id=hc8pAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT373&lpg=PT373&dq=%22if+anyone+says+anything+back+that+is+an+outrage%22&source=bl&ots=vQG7eKCVNO&sig=FgGJGUVc7MSNY3-hyQrYpC8tiOY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CFEQ6AEwDWoVChMI-J-rpoiWyQIVF9tjCh2cLAel#v=onepage&q=%22if%20anyone%20says%20anything%20back%20that%20is%20an%20outrage%22&f=false
Source: The World Ahead: An Anthropologist Anticipates the Future
“I like people too much or not at all.”
Source: Out of Africa (1937)
Context: People who dream when they sleep at night know of a special kind of happiness which the world of the day holds not, a placid ecstasy, and ease of heart, that are like honey on the tongue. They also know that the real glory of dreams lies in their atmosphere of unlimited freedom. It is not the freedom of the dictator, who enforces his own will on the world, but the freedom of the artist, who has no will, who is free of will. The pleasure of the true dreamer does not lie in the substance of the dream, but in this: that there things happen without any interference from his side, and altogether outside his control. Great landscapes create themselves, long splendid views, rich and delicate colours, roads, houses, which he has never seen or heard of...
