Quotes about first

A collection of quotes on the topic of first, time, timing, use.

Andrzej Majewski quote: “The first true love is always the last one.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson quote: “Self-trust is the first secret of success.”

Quotes about first

“The first true love is always the last one.”

Andrzej Majewski (1966) Polish writer and photographer

Aphorisms. Magnum in Parvo (2000)

Love

“The closest thing to purgatory is a government agency, only the first does not exist and the second is very real.”

José Baroja book Sueño en Guadalajara y otros cuentos

““Godín”, is said in Mexico of the office worker from nine to eighteen hours or of any other employee to whom his immediate boss says, during his first day of work and with all the naturalness in the world: “Welcome. From today, your body and soul belong to us.”

José Baroja book Sueño en Guadalajara y otros cuentos

Soul, World, Nature

“The person on foot realizes that there is no misery in cities like Madrid or Barcelona, first world cities that, I think, have lost the heart that Latin Americans still have.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: https://www.peruinforma.com/entrevista-cultural-al-escritor-chileno-jose-baroja/

Personality, Heart, Thinking, World

“Columbus was not the first one to discover America, only the first to patent it.”

Andrzej Majewski (1966) Polish writer and photographer

Nie Kolumb pierwszy odkrył Amerykę, ale pierwszy ją opatentował.
Aphorisms. Magnum in Parvo (2000)

“If you love two people, pick the second, because if you truly loved the first, you wouldn't have fallen for the second.”

Johnny Depp (1963) American actor, film producer, and musician

Variant: if you love two people at the same time, choose the second. Because if you really loved the first one, you wouldn't have fallen for the second.

Love, People

“A society where emotions come last and selfishness is considered blessed, or placed first before anything; cannot be expected to produce good fruits!”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Selfishness

“You may not be her first, her last, or her only. She loved before she may love again. But if she loves you now, what else matters? She's not perfect—you aren't either, and the two of you may never be perfect together but if she can make you laugh, cause you to think twice, and admit to being human and making mistakes, hold onto her and give her the most you can. She may not be thinking about you every second of the day, but she will give you a part of her that she knows you can break—her heart. So don't hurt her, don't change her, don't analyze and don't expect more than she can give. Smile when she makes you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss her when she's not there.”

Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician

Variant: You may not be her first, her last, or her only. She loved before she may love again. But if she loves you now, what else matters? She's not perfect — you aren't either, and the two of you may never be perfect together but if she can make you laugh, cause you to think twice, and admit to being human and making mistakes, hold onto her and give her the most you can. She may not be thinking about you every second of the day, but she will give you a part of her that she knows you can break — her heart. So don't hurt her, don't change her, don't analyze and don't expect more than she can give. Smile when she makes you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss her when she's not there.

love, Love, Smile, Thinking

“There is nothing that can take the pain away. But eventually you will find a way to live with it. There will be nightmares. And every day when you wake up, it will be the first thing you think about. Until one day, it will be the second thing.”

Raymond Reddington

The Blacklist

Way, Pain, Thinking

“In the second half of the 18th century, first residences-museums were created in Poland. Old palaces were changed to adapt them for exhibitions purposes, or new buildings were erected with separate museum annexes. First such museums in Poland was established in 1802 by Stanisław Kostka Potocki at Wilanów. The museums at Nieborów, Nieśwież, Puławy, Rogalin, Gołuchów and Kórnik followed. At first these museums were established as a response to fashion, later national and patriotic issues became prevailing reasons.”

Marek Żukow-Karczewski (1961) Polish historian, journalist and opinion journalist

Residences-museums: Heritage of the european culture in Poland, "Aura" 7, 1991-07, p. 14-16. http://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.agro-81720189-fe01-4686-befa-5b1649bfb0d9?q=1248075a-cd0e-4666-81f5-dc2af54d3ff7$4&qt=IN_PAGE

Fashion, Change

“Bless yourself first before expecting God to bless you.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

God

“Learn to pay yourself first, you'll never be broke”

Cornelius Keagon (1996) Liberian humanitarian aid worker

Learning

“The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.”

Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976) German theoretical physicist

“Der erste Trunk aus dem Becher der Naturwissenschaft macht atheistisch, aber auf dem Grund des Bechers wartet Gott.” in 15 Jahrhunderte Würzburg: e. Stadt u. ihre Geschichte [15 centuries Würzburg. A city and its history] (1979), p. 205, by Heinz Otremba. Otremba does not declare his source, and the quote per se cannot be found in Heisenberg's published works.
The journalist Eike Christian Hirsch PhD, a personal acquaintance of Heisenberg, whom he interviewed for his 1981 book Expedition in die Glaubenswelt, claimed in de.wikiquote.org on 22 June 2015, that the content and style of the quote was completely foreign to Heisenberg's convictions and the way he used to express himself, and that Heisenberg's children, Dr. Maria Hirsch and Prof. Dr. Martin Heisenberg, did not recognize their father in this quote.
Statements similar to the quote were made by Francis Bacon, in "Of Atheism" (1601): "A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion", and Alexander Pope, in "An Essay on Criticism" (1709): "A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again."
There is a passage in a lengthy essay written by Heisenberg in 1942, "Ordnung der Wirklichkeit” ("Reality and Its Order"), published in Collected Works. Section C: Philosophical and Popular Writings. Volume I. Physics and Cognition. 1927-1955 (1984), that parallels the ideas expressed in the quote (albeit in a much expanded form):
"The first thing we could say was simply: 'I believe in God, the Father, the almighty creator of heaven and earth.' The next step — at least for our contemporary consciousness — was doubt. There is no god; there is only an impersonal law that directs the fate of the world according to cause and effect... And yet [today], we may with full confidence place ourselves into the hands of the higher power who, during our lifetime and in the course of the centuries, determines our faith and therewith our world and our fate." (English translation by M.B.Rumscheidt and N. Lukens, available at http://www.heisenbergfamily.org/t-OdW-english.htm)
Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, a protégé of Heisenberg, did publish a version of the quote itself in Die Geschichte der Natur (The History of Nature) (1948), appearing to consider it an adage:
"Aus dem Denken gibt es keinen ehrlichen Rückweg in einen naiven Glauben. Nach einem alten Satz trennt uns der erste Schluck aus dem Becher der Erkenntnis von Gott, aber auf dem Grunde des Bechers wartet Gott auf den, der ihn sucht. Wenn es so ist, dann gibt es einen Weg des Denkens, der vorwärts zu religiösen Wahrheiten führt, und nur diesen Weg zu suchen ist lohnend. Wenn es nicht so ist, wird unsere Welt auf die Religion ihre Hoffnungen vergeblich setzen." ("From thinking there is no honest way back into a naive belief. According to an old phrase, the first sip from the cup of knowledge separates us from God, but at the bottom of the cup God is waiting for the one who seeks him. If so, then there is a way of thinking that leads to religious truths, and to seek only that way is rewarding. If it is not so, our world will put its hopes to religion in vain.")
Misattributed

God, Nature, Science, Waiting

“In my first video diary I explained my love for women who have a taste in carrots.”

Louis Tomlinson (1991) English pop singer

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/5834782.Louis_Tomlinson

Love, Women

“I understand that you are claiming it is almost impossible to forgive, but only easier to forget. The truth is that, you can only forgive that which you have forced your mind to forget. We must forget first, then forgiveness will come by itself.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Forgiveness, Understanding, Forgetting, Truth

“Fijians will never be recognized unless our blood is first shed.”

Lala Sukuna (1888–1958) Chief of Lau and civil servant in Fiji

Miscellaneous quotes

“I believe in love at first sight. You want that connection, and then you want some problems.”

Keanu Reeves (1964) Canadian actor, director, producer and musician

Problem, Love, Making love

“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.”

Terry Pratchett book Reaper Man

Source: Reaper Man

Travel, Thinking, Light, Waiting

“Whenever I was asked what I wanted my first impulse was to answer "Nothing." The thought went through my mind that it didn't make any difference, that nothing was going to make me happy.”

Osamu Dazai book No Longer Human

Third Notebook: Part One
Source: No Longer Human

Happiness

“If you ever need anything please don't hesitate to ask someone else first.”

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist

“Whoever wants to be a leader should educate himself before educating others. Before preaching to others he should first practice himself. Whoever educates himself and improves his own morals is superior to the man who tries to teach and train others.”

Ali book Nahj al-Balagha

Nahj al-Balagha

Education, Training

“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

Richard Branson (1950) English business magnate, investor and philanthropist

“The damned thing works! (telegram, on the first successful television broadcast)”

Philo Farnsworth (1906–1971) American inventor

George Everson Official Website of Philo Farnsworth https://www.cmgww.com/historic/farnsworth/

Success

“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”

Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece

Book III, ch. 23.
Discourses

Peaceful, Positive

“If you would take, you must first give, this is the beginning of intelligence.”

Laozi (-604) semi-legendary Chinese figure, attributed to the 6th century, regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and fou…

Intelligence

“Knowledge is a desire that comes after acquiring power. The first type of desire is love, then wealth, health, power and knowledge.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Wealth, Health, Knowledge, Love

“There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first; when you learn to live for others, they will live for you.”

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship

Friendship, For Friend, For Bestfriend, Thinking

“The first duty of a revolutionary is to be educated.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Education

“You should have to pass an IQ test before you breed. You have to take a driving test to operate vehicles and an SAT test to get into college. So why don’t you have to take some sort of test before you give birth to children? When I am President, that’s the first rule I will institute.”

Marilyn Manson (1969) American rock musician and actor

Children, Birth

“I was trying to figure out what I’m doing, and that was the first time I was constantly being kicked down for doing that. When I didn’t know, I just wanted to say, ‘This is what I want, this is where I am in my professional life, things changed in my personal life, things changed in my heart — everything.’ And people just thought, ‘Alright, this is what we think.’ And yeah, I made some decisions that weren’t great as well, and so did he and that’s why we went through all that to only make us better. And he has heard [the song] and he has seen the video, and it’s something that I feel like girls need hear, and it’s something I’m willing to share with people.”

Selena Gomez (1992) American singer and actress

Life, People, Feeling, Girl

“You can spend the entire second half of your life recovering from the mistakes of the first half.”

Saul Bellow book Seize the Day

Source: Seize the Day

Life

“Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Wise, Wisdom, Books

“He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy

“Just as I was starting on my journey the idea came to me for a new symphony, this time with a program, but a program which will remain an enigma to all— let them guess it who can. It will be called "A Programmatic Symphony" (No. 6). During my trip, while composing in my mind, I frequently shed tears. When I got home I settled down to sketch it, and the work went so furiously that I had the first movement completely ready in less than four days and the remaining movements are already clearly outlined in my head. Half the third movement is already done. There will be much innovation of form in this symphony— and incidentally, the finale will not be a noisy allegro but, on the contrary, a long drawn-out adagio. You can't imagine what bliss I feel, being convinced that my time is not yet passed and I can still work. Perhaps, of course, I'm mistaken, but I don't think so.”

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) Russian composer

Letter to a nephew (late February 1893)

Feeling, Home, Imagination, Idea

“The first fruit of forbearance is that people will sympathize with you and they will go against the man who offended you arrogantly.”

Ali book Nahj al-Balagha

Nahj al-Balagha

People

“They treat me like a fox, a cunning fellow (Schlaukopf) of the first rank. But the truth is that with a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and when I have to do with a pirate, I try to be a pirate and a half.”

Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) German statesman, Chancellor of Germany

Talking to Gyula Andrássy in Salzburg on 18 September 1877. As quoted in Disraeli, Gladstone, and the Eastern Question. A Study in Diplomacy and Party Politics (1935) by Robert William Seton-Watson, p. 224 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=5CPVAAAAMAAJ&q=fox; "Schlaukopf" is translated elsewhere as "clever dick" or "smart aleck." With deal (instead of do) with a pirate, in Prime Minister Gyula Andrássy's influence on Habsburg foreign policy during the Franco-German War of 1870-1871 (1979) by János Decsy, p. 21 http://books.google.de/books?id=JtUhAAAAMAAJ&q=111 „Man behandelt mich wie einen Fuchs, wie einen Schlaukopf erster Klasse. Die Wahrheit aber ist, qu'avec un gentleman je suis toujours gentleman et demi, et que quand j'ai affaire à un corsaire, je tâche d'etre corsaire et demi" :Eduard von Wertheimer: Graf Julius Andrássy. Sein Leben und seine Zeit. Vol. III. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt Stuttgart 1914 pp. 42-43 http://books.google.de/books?id=2skhAAAAMAAJ&q=demi 1870s

Truth

“When I first heard it, I thought that's extremely challenging, the vocal — it was almost hysterical, and it was so up there, the register, but it was absolutely fascinating. And I know at the time a lot of my friends couldn't bear it, they thought it was just "too much"”

John Lydon (1956) English singer, songwriter, and musician

but that's exactly what drew me in.
On Kate Bush's first hit, "Wuthering Heights"
The Kate Bush Story (2014)

Time

“Today, the majority of preachers compete to write more personal books, rather than trying to compete to master the holy scriptures first.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Personality, Books

“When I die I'm going to dance first in all the galaxies… I'm gonna play and dance and sing.”

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) American psychiatrist

Singing, Dance

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”

Judy Garland (1922–1969) actress, singer and vaudevillian from the United States

As quoted in Business Etiquette for the Nineties : Your Ticket to Career Success (1992) by Lou Kennedy, p. 8
Variant: Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.

Motivational, For women, Positive, Back To Work

“The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

Success

“Accustom yourself to look first to the dreadful consequences of failure; then fix your eye on the glorious prize which is before you; and when your strength begins to fail, and your spirits are well nigh exhausted, let the animating view rekindle your resolution, and call forth in renewed vigour the fainting energies of your soul.”

William Wilberforce (1759–1833) English politician

Soul, Failure, Animals

“A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake.”

G. I. Gurdjieff (1866–1949) influential spiritual teacher, Armenian philosopher, composer and writer

In Search of the Miraculous (1949)

“If one proves the equality of two numbers a and b by showing first that a \leqq b and then that a \geqq b, it is unfair; one should instead show that they are really equal by disclosing the inner ground for their equality.”

Emmy Noether (1882–1935) German mathematician

As quoted in Hermann Weyl, "Emmy Noether" (April 26, 1935) in Weyl's Levels of Infinity: Selected Writings on Mathematics and Philosophy (2012) p. 64.

“In the course of my life I have very often been a prophet, and have usually been ridiculed for it. During the time of my struggle for power it was in the first instance only the Jewish race that received my prophecies with laughter when I said that I would one day take over the leadership of the State, and with it that of the whole nation, and that I would then among other things settle the Jewish problem. Their laughter was uproarious, but I think that for some time now they have been laughing on the other side of their face. Today I will once more be a prophet: if the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevizing of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

Speech to the Reichstag, 30 January 1939, as quoted at The History Place http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/threat.htm. 1930s

Life, War, World, Problem

“I'm very happy, very delighted.... for I am surrounded here by all that I love. I spent my time out of doors.... and naturally I'm working all the time, and I think this year I'm going to do some serious things. And then in the evening, dear fellow, I come home to my little cottage to find a good fire and a dear little family... Dear friend, it's a delight to watch this person [his first son Jean, born in 1867] grow, and I am glad to have him to be sure…”

Claude Monet (1840–1926) French impressionist painter

in a letter to Frédéric Bazille: as cited by K.E. Sullivan. Monet: Discovering Art, Brockhampton press, London (2004), p. 22
1850 - 1870

Love, Family, Home, Nature

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”

Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty

Variant: Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.
Source: The Art of War, Chapter IV · Disposition of the Army

War, Victory

“Although we accept the inevitability of change, humans meet it with a lot of resistance. In most cases, change threatens those in positions of advantage and for the most part they are there in the first place to keep things the way they are.”

Jacque Fresco (1916–2017) American futurist and self-described social engineer

Designing the Future (2007)

Way, Parting, Change

“Its okay to tell a lie but believing in your own lies makes you the first victim, you become your own enemy which limits ability to think progressively towards success in life.”

Hamis Kiggundu (1984) Ugandan business magnate, Internet entrepreneur, philanthropist, and author

Its okay to tell a lie but believing in your own lies makes you the first victim, you become your own enemy which limits ability to think progressively towards success in life. Quoted from his first book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Success_and_Failure_Based_on_Reason_and_Reality, "Success and Failure Based on Reason and Reality" https://www.amazon.co.uk/SUCCESS-FAILURE-BASED-REASON-REALITY/dp/9970983903/ on Amazon, P.124 (July 2018)

Success, Lie, Thinking, Life

“For abundant freedom will be achieved only when the body is destroyed, and the soul is placed first before everything else.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Soul, Freedom

“God is the CEO of our lives. Therefore, Adam and Eve were the first people to be fired from heaven.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

God, People

“Joe Louis and I were the first modern national sports figures who were black… But neither of us could do national advertising because the South wouldn't buy it. That was the social stigma we lived under.”

Jesse Owens (1913–1980) American track and field athlete

The Tampa Tribune (1 April 1980)

Sport

“Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

Love, Hate

“One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.”

William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospi…

Source: Sir William Osler : Aphorisms (1961), p. 105.

Education

“God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God be our limit and Eternity our measurement.”

Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) Jamaica-born British political activist, Pan-Africanist, orator, and entrepreneur

God, Law, Nature

“It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita

Source: Lolita

love, Cute, Romantic, Anniversary

“You know it's never fifty-fifty in a marriage. It's always seventy-thirty, or sixty-forty. Someone falls in love first. Someone puts someone else up on a pedestal. Someone works very hard to keep things rolling smoothly; someone else sails along for the ride.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Mercy (1996)

Love, Marriage

“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.”

Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) English children's writer and illustrator

“If you want to find out who your real friends are, sink the ship. The first ones to jump aren't your friends.”

Marilyn Manson (1969) American rock musician and actor

“If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

Thinking

“My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people; those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition.”

Indíra Gándhí (1917–1984) Indian politician and Prime Minister

Back To Work, People, Funny

“In order to write about life first you must live it.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Motivational, Deep, Happy, Inspirational

“When we’re doing an action game, we make the second level first. We begin making level 1 once everything else is completed.”

Shigeru Miyamoto (1952) Japanese video game designer and producer

Source: http://gamasutra.com/view/news/175791/A_free_tip_from_Miyamoto_Make_your_first_level_last.php

Game

“It'a an immense joy to be here today. I have received from millions of male and female Brazilians the most important mission of my life. This fact, beyond myself, is a demonstration of the democratic development of our country because for the first time a woman will rule Brazil.”

Dilma Rousseff (1947) 36th President of Brazil

First speech http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/01/dilma-rousseff-wins-brazil-president after being elected President, October 31. 2010

Life, Time, Joy, Country

“Hitler decided that. I thought it was stupid because I believed that first we had to defeat England.”

Hermann Göring (1893–1946) German politician and military leader

To Leon Goldensohn, about attacking the Soviets (15 March 1946)
The Nuremberg Interviews (2004)

Stupidity

“Kings were wont to honour philosophers, but if I had such I would honour them as angels that should have such piety in them that they would not seek where they are the second to be the first, and where the third to be the second and so forth.”

Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603) Queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until 1603

Response to Parliament (October 1566).

Angels

“The first and most important quality of all scientific ways of thinking must be the clear distinction between the outer object of observation and the subjective nature of the observer.”

Max Planck (1858–1947) German theoretical physicist

Where is science going? The Universe in the light of modern physics. (1932)

Way, Nature, Thinking

“I'll be the first to admit that we're the 90's version of Cheap Trick or the Knack but the last to admit that it hasn't been rewarding.”

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist

Incesticide liner notes (1992)

“First, you have to finish.”

Michael Schumacher (1969) German racing driver

Michael Schumacher (2001) after winning the Monaco Grand Prix in 2001: Cited in: Anthony D. Manning, Tony Manning (2002) Gift of Leadership. p. 37

“Music comes first; lyrics are secondary. Most of my lyrics are contradictions. I'll write a few sincere lines, and then I'll have to make fun of [them]. I don't like to make it too obvious, because if it is too obvious, it gets really stale. You shouldn't be in people's faces 100% all the time. We don't mean to be really cryptic or mysterious, but I just think that lyrics that are different and weird and spacey paint a nice picture. It's just the way I like art.”

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist

Date unknown, but appears on Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!.
Interviews (1989-1994), Video

People, Art, Music, Way

“My main professional interest during the 1970s has been in the dramatic change of concepts and ideas that has occurred in physics during the first three decades of the century, and that is still being elaborated in our current theories of matter. The new concepts in physics have brought about a profound change in our world view; from the mechanistic conception of Descartes and Newton to a holistic and ecological view, a view which I have found to be similar to the views of mystics of all ages and traditions.”

Fritjof Capra book The Turning Point

Preface.
The Turning Point (1982)

Age, World, Idea, Change

“We are against the political bourgeoisie, and for genuine nationalism! We are against Marxism, but for true socialism! We are for the first German national state of a socialist nature! We are for the National Socialist German Workers’ Party!”

Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister

“Those Damn Nazis: Why Are We Socialists?” https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/haken32.htm written by Joseph Goebbels and Mjölnir, Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler. Etwas zum Nachdenken, Nazi propaganda pamphlet (Munich: Verlag Frz. Eher, 1932) / 1930s

Nature

“I've always been an actor, the reason I've been successful in the rap-game I think is that I treat my albums like movies, and I treat writing it like I'm a character writing a story, you know, for each album whatever I'm going through, whatever stages I'm going through, and I do it vividly with vivid pitcure, with action and description, and an beginning and with an end, and conflict, and you know, redemption, things like that. So I feel like I always been an actor and acting is my first love.”

Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor

1990s, Interview on the set Gridlock'd (1996)

Love, Feeling, Game, Thinking

“Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.”

Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) eighteenth President of the French Republic

Attributed to de Gaulle by Romain Gary, Life, May 9, 1969
Fifth Republic and other post-WW2

Love, Hate, People

“To me the war was an abomination, a madness, a crime, and from the first moment onwards–more out of impulse than reflection–I inwardly rejected it and could never reconcile myself with it up to this very moment.”

Alexandra Kollontai (1872–1952) Soviet diplomat

About the first World War.
The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

War, Madness

“When I came to New York it was the first time I'd ever taken a plane, the first time I'd ever gotten a taxi-cab, the first time for everything. And I came here with 35 dollars in my pocket. It was the bravest thing I'd ever done.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

http://www.koolcelebrities.com/artists/madonna/biography.shtml.

Time

“The first time that I appeared on stage, it scared me to death. I really didn't know what all the yelling was about.”

Elvis Presley (1935–1977) American singer and actor

Interview (March/April 1972), as quoted in The Leading Men of MGM (2006) by Jane Ellen Wayne, p. 406
Context: The first time that I appeared on stage, it scared me to death. I really didn't know what all the yelling was about. I didn't realize that my body was moving. It's a natural thing to me. So to the manager backstage I said, "What'd I do? What'd I do?" And he said, "Whatever it is, go back and do it again."

Death, Appearance, Time

“Sunzi said: The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy. To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself. Thus the good fighter is able to secure himself against defeat, but cannot make certain of defeating the enemy.”

Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty

Translation by Lionel Giles
Source: The Art of War, Chapter IV · Disposition of the Army

Waiting

“The conscience has a long memory as does the person you inflicted pain upon to create the memory in the first place.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1978

Personality, Pain, Memory

“It really came out of the blue, to be honest. I was in England, and I didn’t get a lot of auditions there. So I did the first audition — a very emotional audition — and they said, ‘Come back for a callback.’ And I was like, ‘Okay!'”

Millie Bobby Brown (2004) British actress

Source: "Meet ‘Stranger Things’ Breakout Millie Bobby Brown, aka Lucky Number Eleven" https://www.indiewire.com/2016/07/stranger-things-millie-bobby-brown-interview-eleven-11-netflix-season-2-1201707207/. IndieWire. (July 19, 2016).

“Since no one wishes to become a weakling in the first place, it would make sense to turn to self-defence.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Sense

“An entrepreneur is the first enemy of capitalism.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Men always want to be a woman’s first love. That is their clumsy vanity. We women have a more subtle instinct about these things. What (women) like is to be a man’s last romance.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Love, Women, Men

“The water you touch in a river is the last of that which has passed, and the first of that which is coming. Thus it is with time present.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
Variant: In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time.
Source: Leonardo's Notebooks

Water, Time

“Numbers aren’t the important thing … what matters is deciding in your heart to accept another person completely. When you do that, it is always the first time and the last.”

Haruki Murakami book Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

The Kidney-shaped Stone that Moves Every Day (translated by Jay Rubin)
Source: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Time, Heart, Personality

“Ye werena the first lass I kissed,” he said softly. “But I swear you’ll be the last.” And he bent his head to my upturned face.”

Diana Gabaldon book Outlander

Variant: Ye werena the first lass I kissed," he said softly. "But I swear you'll be the last.
Source: Outlander

Kiss

“The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can ever end.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Book 4, chapter 1. Often misquoted as "The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can never end".
Books, Coningsby (1844), Henrietta Temple (1837)

Sad, Heartbreaking, Love

“The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego, the second half is going inward and letting go of it.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

Wise, Life, Life

“To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality."
General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, translated by John Beverly Robinson (London: Freedom Press, 1923), pp. 293-294.”

Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865) French politician, mutualist philosopher, economist, and socialist

Wisdom, Justice, Law, Idea

“The first thing a man will do for his ideal is lie”

Joseph Alois Schumpeter (1883–1950) Austrian economist

Source: History of Economic Analysis, p. 43

Lie

“First best is falling in love. Second best is being in love. Least best is falling out of love. But any of it is better than never having been in love.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Love

“The first task of the doctor is… political: the struggle against disease must begin with a war against bad government." Man will be totally and definitively cured only if he is first liberated…”

Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher

Source: The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception

War, Disease

“The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason.”

John Cage (1912–1992) American avant-garde composer

Beauty, Question, Thinking

“If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Valentine's Day, Love

“What a waste that we lost Mussolini. He is a first-rate man who would have led our party to power in Italy. [Addressing to a delegation of Italian socialists in Moscow after Mussolini's March on Rome in 1922]”

Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution

“Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.”

Henry James (1843–1916) American novelist, short story author, and literary critic

Overheard by his nephew, Billy James, in 1902; quoted in Leon Edel, Henry James: A Life, vol V: The Master 1901-1916 (1972).

Relationship, Life

“Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money.”

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer

The Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/tag/virginia-woolf/ traces the origin of such statements to The Intimate Notebooks of George Jean Nathan (1932), where the diarist states: We were sitting one morning two Summers ago, Ferenc Molnár, Dr. Rudolf Kommer and I, in the little garden of a coffee-house in the Austrian Tyrol. “Your writing?” we asked him. “How do you regard it?” Languidly he readjusted the inevitable monocle to his eye. “Like a whore,” he blandly ventured. “First, I did it for my own pleasure. Then I did it for the pleasure of my friends. And now — I do it for money.” Misattributed

Love, Money, Sex