Quotes about many
page 5

Lemmy Kilmister photo
Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“Many a man fails to become a thinker only because his memory is too good.”

Mancher wird nur deshalb kein Denker, weil sein Gedächtnis zu gut ist.
II.122
Human, All Too Human (1878)

Dilgo Khyentse photo
Milorad Pavić photo
René Descartes photo

“Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.”

René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist

Source: Discourse on Method

Walter Benjamin photo

“How many cities have revealed themselves to me in the marches I undertook in the pursuit of books!”

Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892-1940)

Source: Illuminations: Essays and Reflections

Umberto Eco photo

“Fear prophets, Adso, and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them.”

Temi, Adso, i profeti e coloro disposti a morire per la verità, ché di solito fan morire moltissimo con loro, spesso prima di loro, talvolta al posto loro.
William of Baskerville http://books.google.com/books?id=XY2vXKsHbzIC&q="Fear+prophets+adso+and+those+prepared+to+die+for+the+truth+for+as+a+rule+they+make+many+others+die+with+them+often+before+them+at+times+instead+of+them"&pg=PA549#v=onepage
Source: The Name of the Rose (1980)

Bell Hooks photo
Friedrich Nietzsche photo
Oscar Wilde photo

“I wonder who it was defined man as a rational animal. It was the most premature definition ever given. Man is many things, but he is not rational.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings

Tim Burton photo
John Waters photo

“Being rich is not about how much money you have or how many homes you own; it's the freedom to buy any book you want without looking at the price and wondering if you can afford it.”

John Waters (1946) American filmmaker, actor, comedian and writer

Variant: [W]hat I like best is staying home and reading. Being rich is not about how many homes you own. It’s the freedom to pick up any book you want without looking at the price and wondering whether you can afford it.
Source: Role Models

Jacques Lacan photo
Idries Shah photo
Louis Sachar photo
George Eliot photo
Elias Canetti photo
Joseph Brodsky photo
Jacqueline Woodson photo
Ronald Reagan photo

“It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

1960s, A Time for Choosing (1964)
Variant: The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so.

Jimmy Carter photo

“A visiting pastor at our church in Plains once told a story about a priest from New Orleans. Father Flanagan’s parish lay in the central part of the city, close to many taverns. One night he was walking down the street and saw a drunk thrown out of a pub. The man landed in the gutter, and Father Flanagan quickly recognized him as one of his parishioners, a fellow named Mike. Father Flanagan shook the dazed man and said, “Mike!” Mike opened his eyes and Father Flanagan said, “You’re in trouble. If there is anything I can do for you, please tell me what it is.ℍ “Well, Father,” Mike replied, “I hope you’ll pray for me.” “Yes,” the priest answered, “I’ll pray for you right now.” He knelt down in the gutter and prayed, “Father, please have mercy on this drunken man.ℍ At this, a startled Mike woke up fully and said, “Father, please don’t tell God I’m drunk.ℍ Sometimes we don’t feel much of a personal relationship between God and ourselves, as though we have a secret life full of failures and sins that God knows nothing about. We want to involve God only when we plan to give thanks or when we’re in trouble and need help. But the rest of our lives, we’d rather keep to ourselves.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Source: Through the Year with Jimmy Carter: 366 Daily Meditations from the 39th President

Rainer Maria Rilke photo
Juan Ramón Jimenéz photo
Sylvia Plath photo

“So many people are shut up tight inside themselves like boxes, yet they would open up, unfolding quite wonderfully, if only you were interested in them."

()”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Source: Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose and Diary Excerpts

Barack Obama photo
Lorrie Moore photo
Sylvia Plath photo

“How can you be so many women to so many strange people, oh you strange girl?”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Terry Pratchett photo
William Shakespeare photo

“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.”

Jaques, Act II, scene vii.
Variant: All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts.
Source: As You Like It (1599–1600)

Jimmy Carter photo

“In his early twenties, a man started collecting paintings, many of which later became famous: Picasso, Van Gogh, and others. Over the decades he amassed a wonderful collection. Eventually, the man’s beloved son was drafted into the military and sent to Vietnam, where he died while trying to save his friend. About a month after the war ended, a young man knocked on the devastated father’s door. “Sir,” he said, “I know that you like great art, and I have brought you something not very great.” Inside the package, the father found a portrait of his son. With tears running down his cheeks, the father said, “I want to pay you for this.ℍ “No,” the young man replied, “he saved my life. You don’t owe me anything.ℍ The father cherished the painting and put it in the center of his collection. Whenever people came to visit, he made them look at it. When the man died, his art collection went up for sale. A large crowd of enthusiastic collectors gathered. First up for sale was the amateur portrait. A wave of displeasure rippled through the crowd. “Let’s forget about that painting!” one said. “We want to bid on the valuable ones,” said another. Despite many loud complaints, the auctioneer insisted on starting with the portrait. Finally, the deceased man’s gardener said, “I’ll bid ten dollars.ℍ Hearing no further bids, the auctioneer called out, “Sold for ten dollars!” Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But then the auctioneer said, “And that concludes the auction.” Furious gasps shook the room. The auctioneer explained, “Let me read the stipulation in the will: “Sell the portrait of my son first, and whoever buys it gets the entire art collection. Whoever takes my son gets everything.ℍ It’s the same way with God Almighty. Whoever takes his Son gets everything.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Source: Through the Year with Jimmy Carter: 366 Daily Meditations from the 39th President

William Shakespeare photo
W.B. Yeats photo

“How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.”

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright

When You Are Old http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1756/, st. 1–3
The Rose (1893)
Source: The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats
Context: p>When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.</p

Mark Twain photo

“There are many humorous things in the world; among them, the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Source: Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

Rudyard Kipling photo
Arundhati Roy photo
Brandon Mull photo
Eleanor Roosevelt photo
Valerio Massimo Manfredi photo
George Soros photo
Jane Austen photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Virginia Woolf photo
Miriam Toews photo

“Perhaps depression is caused by asking oneself too many unanswerable questions.”

Miriam Toews (1964) Canadian writer known for novels set in the Mennonite community

Source: Swing Low

Vikram Seth photo
P.G. Wodehouse photo

“"I don't want to seem always to be criticizing your methods of voice production, Jeeves," I said, "but I must inform you that that 'Well, sir' of yours is in many respects fully as unpleasant as your 'Indeed, sir?'”

Like the latter, it seems to be tinged with a definite scepticism. It suggests a lack of faith in my vision. The impression I retain after hearing you shoot it at me a couple of times is that you consider me to be talking through the back of my neck, and that only a feudal sense of what is fitting restrains you from substituting for it the words 'Says you!'"
Source: Right Ho, Jeeves (1934)

Louisa May Alcott photo
Drew Barrymore photo

“You can never, never have too many books”

Drew Barrymore (1975) American actress, director and producer
Anne Frank photo

“A person can be lonely even if he is loved by many people, because he is still not the "One and Only" to anyone.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

29 December 1943
The Diary of a Young Girl (1942 - 1944)
Variant: You can be lonely even when you're loved by many people, since you're still not anybody's "one and only".
Source: Cliffs Notes on Frank's The Diary of Anne Frank

Flannery O’Connor photo

“Your criticism sounds to me as if you have read too many critical books and are too smart in an artificial, destructive, and very limited way.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Source: The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor

John Betjeman photo

“And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.”

John Betjeman (1906–1984) English poet, writer and broadcaster

Source: Selected Poems

Bertrand Russell photo
W.B. Yeats photo
Peter Brook photo

“Reality' is a word with many meanings.”

Peter Brook (1925) English theatre and film director and innovator

Source: The Empty Space: A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate

V.S. Naipaul photo
Hayao Miyazaki photo
Maya Angelou photo
Leonardo Da Vinci photo

“Many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitude. Pharisees — that is to say, friars.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.

Andy Andrews photo
Gabriel García Márquez photo
Pearl S.  Buck photo
Antonin Artaud photo
George Jean Nathan photo
Homér photo

“Too many kings can ruin an army”

Homér Ancient Greek epic poet, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey
Jerry Spinelli photo
Ann Brashares photo

“I killed her once and died for her many times”

Source: My Name Is Memory

Ovid photo
T.D. Jakes photo
Oscar Wilde photo

“Man is many things, but he is not rational.”

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Lewis Carroll photo

“I have seen so many extraordinary things, nothing seems extraordinary any more”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer
John Steinbeck photo
P.G. Wodehouse photo
Marjane Satrapi photo
Frank Zappa photo

“Take the Kama Sutra. How many people died from the Kama Sutra, as opposed to the Bible? Who wins?”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

Late Night Special BBC (1993); the American version this documentary was presented on A&E Biography.

Sigrid Undset photo

“Many a man is given what is intended for another, but no man is given another's fate.”

Sigrid Undset (1882–1949) Norwegian writer

Source: The Wife

Oscar Wilde photo
Fernando Pessoa photo
Mark Twain photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Gabriel García Márquez photo
Alice Munro photo
Jon Krakauer photo
Malcolm X photo
Madeline Miller photo
Frank Herbert photo
Milan Kundera photo
Rainer Maria Rilke photo

“Rose, oh pure contradiction, desire,
To be no one's sleep under so many
Lids.”

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer

Rose, oh reiner Widerspruch, Lust,
Niemandes Schlaf zu sein unter soviel
Lidern.
Rilke wrote his own epitaph sometime before October 27, 1925. He requested that it be inscribed on his gravestone. This was fifteen months before his death. (Translation: John J.L.Mood)
Source: The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke

Terry Pratchett photo
Rabindranath Tagore photo
Dorothy L. Sayers photo
Mark Twain photo
Tamora Pierce photo