Quotes about anything
A collection of quotes on the topic of anything, doing, likeness, people.
Quotes about anything
Yuzuru Hanyu (1994) Japanese figure skater (1994-)
Other quotes, 2018 <br class="br">Original: (ja) 特に自分からコメントを常に発信したいなとは思ってないし、何よりも、自分がたくさんの方々に愛してもらってるのはすごく分かってるので…うん…あのー、何だろう？ 特別自分から何かをしなくてもいいかなという風に思っています。 <br class="br">Source: Hanyu about his absence from social media in an interview https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/video/detail/yuzuru-hanyu-happy-to-say-nothing-at-all/ at the Olympics 2018, published 27 February 2018 on the Olympic Channel. (Retrieved 18 September 2020)
Yuzuru Hanyu (1994) Japanese figure skater (1994-)
Page: 165.
Blue Flame
Original: (ja) 今はとにかく、一日一日を大事にしたいと思う。何気ない日常の一日一日、アイスショーの日々、練習の日々、試合の日々をすべて大切にしたい。そんなことを、あの日を境により強く感じるようになりました。
Yuzuru Hanyu (1994) Japanese figure skater (1994-)
Translation source: https://kaerb.tumblr.com/post/169666201799/i-always-open-my-heart-if-you-dont-open-your (user-translation) from 13 January 2018. <br class="br">Annotation: This quote originates from an interview of the 2012/13 season. A variation can be found in the Japanese magazine Sports Graphic Number, issue no. 822, released on 7 February 2013. <br class="br">Page: 25. <br class="br">Original: (ja) いつも心を開いているんです。心を開いていなければ何も吸収できないし、おもしろくない。心を開くことが成長の原動力。
“Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine.”
Alan Turing (1912–1954) British mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist
Variant: Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.
“You can achieve anything in life. It just depends on how desperate you are to achieve it.”
Milkha Singh (1935) Indian track and field athlete
The Race of My Life: An Autobiography Milkha Singh (2013)
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Variant: A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
“Anyone from anywhere can do anything.”
Tyler Joseph (1988) American singer-songwriter and record producer
“Some mothers will do anything for their children, except let them be themselves.”
Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter
Cut It Out (2004)
Source: Wall and Piece
Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer
http://rocknrollworldmagazine.com/2015/08/82915-rock-history/
“If you ever need anything please don't hesitate to ask someone else first.”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
Sophie Scholl (1921–1943) White Rose member
As quoted in O<sub>2</sub> : Breathing New Life Into Faith (2008) by Richard Dahlstrom, Ch. 4 : Artisans of Hope: Stepping into God's Kingdom Story, p. 63; this source is disputed as it does not cite an original document for the quote. It is also used in <i> The White Rose </i> (1991) by Lillian Garrett-Groag, a monologue during Sophie's interrogation.
Disputed
Context: The real damage is done by those millions who want to "survive." The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don't want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won't take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don't like to make waves — or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honor, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small. It's the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you'll keep it under control. If you don't make any noise, the bogeyman won't find you. But it's all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn.
“If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.”
Mark Twain book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Notebook entry, January or February 1894, Mark Twain's Notebook, ed. Albert Bigelow Paine (1935), p. 240 http://books.google.com/books?id=DjBVlb7cBSIC&pg=PA240 <br class="br">Variant: If you tell the truth you do not need a good memory! <br class="br">Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
“People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls.”
C.G. Jung book Psychology and Alchemy
CW 12, par. 126 (p 99)
Psychology and Alchemy (1952)
Context: People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. They will practice Indian yoga and all its exercises, observe a strict regimen of diet, learn the literature of the whole world - all because they cannot get on with themselves and have not the slightest faith that anything useful could ever come out of their own souls. Thus the soul has gradually been turned into a Nazareth from which nothing good can come.
“Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning.”
Erwin Rommel (1891–1944) German field marshal of World War II
This is cited to to Rommel's Infanterie Greift An [Infantry Attacks] (1937) in World War II : The Definitive Visual History (2009) by Richard Holmes, p. 128, and Timelines of History (2011) by DK Publishing, p. 392, but to George S. Patton, in Patton's Principles : A Handbook for Managers Who Mean It! (1982) by Porter B. Williamson as well as Leadership (1990) by William Safire and Leonard Safir, p. 47
Disputed
Source: Rommel: In His Own Words
“Sadness is almost never anything but a form of fatigue.”
André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist
“Those who can imagine anything, can create the impossible.”
Alan Turing (1912–1954) British mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist
“Anything forced is not beautiful”
Xenophon (-430–-354 BC) ancient Greek historian and philosopher
Source: The Art of Horsemanship
“Life is like a trumpet. If you don't put anything into it, you don't get anything out.”
W. C. Handy (1873–1958) American blues composer and musician
Music Preservation Society biography http://www.wchandymusicfestival.org/downloads/HandyBiography.pdf <br class="br">Variant: Life is like a trumpet - if you don't put anything into it, you don't get anything out of it.
“I never tried to prove anything to someone else. I wanted to prove something to myself.”
Kobe Bryant (1978–2020) American basketball player
“Never was anything great achieved without danger.”
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Italian politician, Writer and Author
“I love anything that haunts me… and never leaves”
Jeff Buckley (1966–1997) American singer, guitarist and songwriter
“It's better to have something to remember than anything to regret.”
Frank Zappa book The Real Frank Zappa Book
Source: The Real Frank Zappa Book
“I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to.”
Elvis Presley (1935–1977) American singer and actor
Ayrton Senna (1960–1994) Brazilian racing driver
Interview at the 1989 Australian Grand Prix, November 1989 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6brLntJE8s
Anton LaVey book The Satanic Bible
The Satanic Bible (1969)
“You'll never know everything about anything, especially something you love.”
Julia Child (1921–2004) American chef
“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.”
Arthur Conan Doyle book A Case of Identity
Source: A Case of Identity
“We hardly ever realize that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye.”
Carlos Castaneda book Journey to Ixtlan
Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe, (1998), Quotations from "Journey to Ixtlan" (Chapter 8)
“To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet
The Letters of Emily Dickinson (1958), edited by Thomas H. Johnson, associate editor Theodora Ward. Quoted in "The Conscious Self in Emily Dickinson's Poetry" by Charles A. Anderson: American Literature, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Nov. 1959), pp. 290-308.
“We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate; it oppresses.”
C.G. Jung book Modern Man in Search of a Soul
Variant: We cannot change anything unless we accept it.
Source: Modern Man in Search of a Soul
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
George Orwell book Animal Farm
Sometimes paraphrased as "Liberty is telling people what they do not want to hear."
Variant: Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
Source: Original preface to Animal Farm; as published in George Orwell: Some Materials for a Bibliography (1953) by Ian R. Willison
“Anything Anytime Anyplace For No Reason At All (or AAAFNRAA)”
Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer
“If there's one thing I believe, its that I don't know anything and anything can happen”
Amy Lee (1981) American singer-songwriter and pianist
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
Quoted in: Ingo F. Walther (1996), Picasso, p. 67.
Attributed from posthumous publications
Bismillah Khan (1916–2006) Indian musician
He said ‘play my son’ but I was sweating. I stopped playing.
Khan used to do riyaz (practice) before the temple of Balaji as advised by his mamu (maternal uncle) who had also told him not talk to any body about anything that might happen. But when he told his mamu about his seeing Balaji, mamu was annoyed and slapped him.
Quote, Power Profiles
Rosa Parks (1913–2005) African-American civil rights activist
Quoted in "Standing Up for Freedom," Academy of Achievement.org (2005-10-31)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Austrian Romantic composer
Letter to Leopold Mozart (Mannheim, 2 February 1778), from The letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1769-1791, translated, from the collection of Ludwig Nohl, by Lady [Grace] Wallace (Oxford University Press, 1865, digitized 2006) vol. I, # 91 (p. 164) http://books.google.com/books?vid=0SGwLiCNxu7qZ5ch&id=KEgBAAAAQAAJ&printsec=titlepage&dq=%22The+letters+of+Wolfgang+Amadeus+Mozart,+1769-1791%22&hl=en#PRA1-PA164,M1
“The more you put into anything in life, the more you get out”
Rich Piana (1970–2017) American bodybuilder and internet personality
Hermann Göring (1893–1946) German politician and military leader
To Leon Goldensohn (21 May 1946)
The Nuremberg Interviews (2004)
Hermann Göring (1893–1946) German politician and military leader
To Leon Goldensohn (24 May 1946)
The Nuremberg Interviews (2004)
Lady Gaga (1986) American singer, songwriter, and actress
Context: Grace Jones said this to me when I met her. I washed her feet, and I looked up at her and she said, "No matter what you do in your life, don’t you ever let anybody take your creative people away from you." And what my creative friends always remind me of is they say, "Only value the opinion of those that you respect. And anyone that you don’t respect, pay no mind to their opinion about you or anything else." And that’s how I live my life. If I worried about everything that everyone said, I would not be a good artist.
Avicenna (980–1037) medieval Persian polymath, physician, and philosopher
"On Medicine, (c. 1020) http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1020Avicenna-Medicine.html <br class="br">Context: The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its causes. Therefore in medicine we ought to know the causes of sickness and health. And because health and sickness and their causes are sometimes manifest, and sometimes hidden and not to be comprehended except by the study of symptoms, we must also study the symptoms of health and disease. Now it is established in the sciences that no knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings, if it has had causes and beginnings; nor completed except by knowledge of its accidents and accompanying essentials. Of these causes there are four kinds: material, efficient, formal, and final.
“Making mistakes is a lot better than not doing anything.”
Billie Joe Armstrong (1972) American singer and guitarist
“I still remember when my teacher told me that football wouldn't give me anything to eat”
Cristiano Ronaldo (1985) Portuguese association football player
“I suppose if you're scared enough, you're capable of doing anything.”
Tomás Rivera (1935–1984) American academic
Source: ... y no se lo tragó la tierra ... and the Earth Did Not Devour Him
Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet
Variant: You are educated when you have the ability to hear almost anything without losing your temper, or your self-confidence.
Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors
As quoted in Straight Whisky: A Living History of Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll on the Sunset Strip (2003), by Erik Quisling, and Austin Lowry Williams p. 152
“If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.”
Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy
Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel book Lectures on the Philosophy of History
Introduction, as translated by H. B. Nisbet (1975)
Variant translation: What experience and history teach is this — that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.
Pragmatical (didactic) reflections, though in their nature decidedly abstract, are truly and indefeasibly of the Present, and quicken the annals of the dead Past with the life of to-day. Whether, indeed, such reflections are truly interesting and enlivening, depends on the writer's own spirit. Moral reflections must here be specially noticed, the moral teaching expected from history; which latter has not unfrequently been treated with a direct view to the former. It may be allowed that examples of virtue elevate the soul, and are applicable in the moral instruction of children for impressing excellence upon their minds. But the destinies of peoples and states, their interests, relations, and the complicated tissue of their affairs, present quite another field. Rulers, Statesmen, Nations, are wont to be emphatically commended to the teaching which experience offers in history. But what experience and history teach is this, that peoples and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it. Each period is involved in such peculiar circumstances, exhibits a condition of things so strictly idiosyncratic, that its conduct must be regulated by considerations connected with itself, and itself alone. Amid the pressure of great events, a general principle gives no help. It is useless to revert to similar circumstances in the Past. The pallid shades of memory struggle in vain with the life and freedom of the Present.
Lectures on the History of History Vol 1 p. 6 John Sibree translation (1857), 1914
Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1832), Volume 1
“Never do anything yourself that others can do for you.”
Agatha Christie book The Labours of Hercules
Source: The Labours of Hercules
“What I have to say is all in the music. If I want to say anything, I write a song.”
Paul McCartney (1942) English singer-songwriter and composer
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) American psychiatrist
Source: The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth