Famous English Quotations

List of famous English quotations from

politicians, authors, actors, scientists and philosophers.

(page 1)

Quotation

Author

A "After all is said and done, more is said than done."

"Persuasion is often more effectual than force."
"United we stand, divided we fall."
"When I was born, I was so surprised I didn't talk for a
year and a half."
"If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign
you're not doing
anything very innovative."
"I'm not afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when
it happens."
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from
happening at once."
"The secret of life is not to do what you like, but to like
what you do."
"Love is not about who you live with. It's about who you
can't live
without."
"A real friend is someone who walks in when the rest of
the world walks
out"
"Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation leans
on the
doorbell."
"Good supervision is the art of getting average people to
do superior
work."

Aesop
Aesop
Aesop
Gracie Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Anonymous
Anonymous

Anonymous

Anonymous

Anonymous
Aristotle

"Wit is educated insolence."

"Education is the best provision for the journey to old
age."
"One swallow does not make the spring."
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work."
1

Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle

"We are what we repeatedly do."

"Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a
slow ripening
fruit."
"There is safety in numbers."

Aristotle

"The worst solitude is to be destitute of sincere

friendship."

Sir
Francis Bacon
Sir
Francis Bacon
Sir
Francis Bacon
Honore
de Balzac

"Knowledge is power."
"A prudent question is one-half of wisdom."
"Behind every great fortune there is a crime."

Aristotle
Anonymous

"It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is

Honore
getting up and
de Balzac
taking action."
"An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to Orlando
A. Battisa
correct it."
"There is no such thing as a long piece of work, except
Charles Baudela
one that you
ire
dare not start.
"When one door closes, another opens; but we often
look so long and
Alexander
so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see
GrahamBell
the one which
has opened for us."
Ingrid Bergman
"Happiness lies in good health and a bad memory."
"Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man
Otto
learns from
von Bismarck
the mistakes of others.
Napoleon Bona
"Ability is nothing without opportunity."
parte
Napoleon Bona
"Glory is fleeting but obscurity is forever."
parte
Napoleon Bona
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a
parte
mistake."
"The heart has reasons that reason does not
Jacques Bossuet
understand."
H.
"Never make fun of someone who speaks broken
English.
Jackson Brown,
2

Jr.

It means they know another language.

Famous English Quotations

List of famous English quotations from
politicians, authors, actors, scientists and philosophers.

(page 2)

Quotation
C

Author

"Never stand begging for that which you have the power to
earn."
"Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to
you to merit
the face you have at fifty."
"There are people who have money and people who are
rich."
"Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it
was put up."
"A woman used her intelligence to find reasons to support
her intuition."
"I married an archaeologist because the older I grow the
more he
appreciates me."

Miguel
de Cervantes
Coco Chanel
Coco Chanel
G.K. Chestert
on
G.K. Chestert
on
Agatha Christi
e

Agatha Christi
e
"We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what Winston Chur
chill
we give."
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an
Winston Chur
optimist sees
chill
the opportunity in every difficulty."
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another
Winston Chur
with no loss of
chill
enthusiasm."
Winston Chur
"If you are going through hell, keep going."
chill
Winston Chur
"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."
chill
"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a Winston Chur
"Very few of us are what we seem."

chance to get
its pants on."

chill

Winston Chur
chill
Winston Chur
"Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge."
chill
"You have enemies? Good.
Winston Chur
That means you've stood up for something, sometime in
chill
your life."
"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent
Cicero
of all others."
"Progress is the injustice each generation commits with
E.M.Cioran
regard to its
predecessors."
"I believe in luck; how else can you explain the success of
Jean Cocteau
those you
dislike?"
"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a
Conficius
day in your
life.
Conficius
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."
"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising
Conficius
every time we fall."
Conficius
"Respect yourself and others will respect you."
"The superior man is slow in his words and earnest in his
Conficius
conduct."
"Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood." Marie Curie
"The price of greatness is responsibility."

"The only difference between me and a madman is that

I'm not mad."
"Have no fear of perfection; you'll never reach it."
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the
most
intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
"It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter."
"Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours."

Salvador Dali
Salvador Dali
Charles Darwi
n
Marlene Dietri
ch
Benjamin Disr
aeli

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just share
Benjamin Disr
your riches,
aeli
but reveal to him his own."
4

Benjamin
aeli
Benjamin
aeli
Benjamin
aeli
Benjamin
aeli
Benjamin
aeli

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and

statistics."
"Little things affect little minds."
"My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees
with me."
"The secret of success is constancy of purpose."
"Success is the child of audacity."

Disr
Disr
Disr
Disr
Disr

"Pure love and suspicion cannot dwell together; at the door

Alexandre Du
where the
mas
latter enters, the former makes its exit.
Alexandre Du
"All for one and one for all."
mas

Famous English Quotations

List of famous English quotations from
politicians, authors, actors, scientists and philosophers.

(page 3)

Quotation
E

Author

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent

perspiration."
You dont really understand something unless you can
explain it to
your grandmother.
"Only two things are infinite - the universe and human
stupidity, and
I'm not sure about the former."
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not
everything that
counts can be counted."
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that
genius has its
limits."
"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems
5

Thomas Edison
Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein

longer."
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried
anything new."
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish."
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability
to climb a
tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition
from mediocre
minds."
"Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling
in love."
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."
"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."
"When you are courting a nice girl, an hour seems like a
second.
When you sit on a red-hot cinder, a second seems like an
hour.
That's relativity."
"You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you
have to play
better than anyone else."
"Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art."
"The only way to have a friend is to be one."
"In case of dissension, never dare to judge till you've
heard the other
side."
"Man's best possession is a sympathetic wife."
"A writer is congenitally unable to tell the truth, and that is
F why we call
what he writes fiction."
"A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind
of business."
"Don't find fault, find a remedy."
"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you
take your eyes
off your goal."
6

Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein
Ralph
WaldoEmerson
Ralph
WaldoEmerson
Euripedes
Euripedes
William Faulkn
er
Henry Ford
Henry Ford
Henry Ford

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do."

"The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to
make a living
at doing what they most enjoy."
"To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also
dream; not
only plan but also believe."

Henry Ford
Malcolm Forbe
s
Anatole France

Benjamin Fran
klin
Benjamin Fran
In order for three people to keep a secret, two must be
klin
dead.
Benjamin Fran
"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."
klin
Benjamin Fran
"Most fools think they are only ignorant."
klin
"Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be Benjamin Fran
klin
disappointed."
"Creative minds have always been known to survive any
Anna Freud
kind of bad
training."
"Men are more moral than they think, and far more
Sigmund Freud
immoral that they
can imagine."
"Admiration is the daughter of ignorance."

Famous English Quotations

List of famous English quotations from
politicians, authors, actors, scientists and philosophers.

(page 4)

Quotation

Author

"We cannot teach people anything; we can only help

G them discover it
within themselves."
"I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and
photographers."
"I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but
today it means
7

Galileo Gallilei
Mahatma Gand
hi
Mahatma Gand
hi

getting along with people."

There is enough on earth for everybodys need, but not
Mahatma Gand
for everyones
hi
greed.
Mahatma Gand
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
hi
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow; learn as if you were Mahatma Gand
hi
to live forever."
Bill Gates
"Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction."
Charles
"Nothing strengthens authority as much as silence."
de Gaulle
Charles
"Graveyards are full of indispensable men."
de Gaulle
J. Paul Getty
"Formula for success : rise early, work hard, strike oil."
"Money isn't everything but it sure keeps you in touch
J. Paul Getty
with your children"
"If you can actually count your money then you are not a
J. Paul Getty
rich man."
William Gladsto
"All the world over I will back the masses against the
ne
classes."
J.W. van Goethe
"Enjoy when you can and endure when you must."
J.W.
"Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
van Goethe
Willing is not enough; we must do."
J.W. van Goethe
"Whatever you can do or dream, begin it."
"A man can stand anything except a succession of
J.W. van Goethe
ordinary days."
"Talent develops in tranquillity, character in the full
J.W. van Goethe
current of human life."
"However difficult life may seem, there is always
H something you can do
and succeed at."

Stephen Hawki
ng

Stephen
Hawking
Stephen
"Life would be tragic if it weren't funny."
Hawking
"Work gives you meaning and purpose, and life is empty Stephen Hawki
ng
without it."
ErnestHemmin
"Never confuse movement with action."
gway
"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change."

"There is no better friend than a book."

"Drama is life with the dull bits cut out."
"Seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow."
"Forty is the old age of youth; fifty is the youth of old
age."
"He who opens a school door, closes a prison."
"Life is the flower for which love is the honey."
"Intelligence is the wife, imagination is the mistress,
memory is the
servant."
"Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a
man does with
what happens to him."
"Maybe this world is another planet's hell."
"In matters of style, swim with the current, in matters of
J principle, stand
like a rock."
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a
follower."
"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to
me.
Going to bed at night saying we've done something
wonderful, that's
what matters to me."
"Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies
disappointed."
"Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by
unexpected sparks."
"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and
knowledge without
integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

ErnestHemmin
gway
Alfred Hitchcoc
k
Horace
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo

Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Thomas Jeffers
on
Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs

Samuel Johnso
n
Samuel Johnso
n
Samuel Johnso
n

"Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise."

Samuel Johnso
n

"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone

who can do him
absolutely no good."

Samuel Johnso
n

"When making your choices in life, do not forget to live."

Samuel Johnso
n

Famous English Quotations

List of famous English quotations from
politicians, authors, actors, scientists and philosophers.

(page 5)

Quotation
K

Author

"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized

Immanuel Kant
life."
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the
John
past or the
F. Kennedy
present are certain to miss the future.
John
"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."
F. Kennedy
"When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of
John
two
F. Kennedy
characters. One represents danger, the other
represents opportunity."
John
"Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all."
F. Kennedy
"Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning
John
without liberty is
F. Kennedy
always in vain."
"There are those who look at things the way they are,
Robert Kenned
and ask why...
y
I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?"
"More business is lost every year through neglect than
Rose Kennedy
through any
other cause."
"Education : the inculcation of the incomprehensible into
John
the indifferent
MaynardKeynes
by the incompetent.
"In the end we will remember not the words of our
Martin
enemies but the
Luther King
silence of our friends."
Martin
"The time is always right to do what is right."
Luther King

10

"We may have all come on different ships, but we're in

the same boat
now."
"Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves."
"A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's
certainty."
"Gardens are not made by sitting in the shade."
"He travels the fastest who travels alone."

Martin
Luther King
Rudyard
g
Rudyard
g
Rudyard
g
Rudyard
g

Kiplin
Kiplin
Kiplin
Kiplin

"The absence of alternatives clears the mind

Henry Kissinger
marvellously."
"The nice thing about being a celebrity is that if you bore
Henry Kissinger
people they
think it's their fault."
"We can live without religion and meditation, but we
L cannot survive
without human affection."
"Life is what happens when you are busy making other
plans."
"In the end it's not the years in your life that count, it's
the life in your
years."
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to
test a man's
character, give him power."
"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by
evading it today."
"You can fool all of the people some of the time, and
some of the people
all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of
the time."
"No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one
M concealed from the
enemy until it is ripe for execution."

Dalai Lama
John Lennon
Abraham Lincol
n
Abraham Lincol
n
Abraham Lincol
n
Abraham Lincol
n

Niccolo Machia
velli

Somerset Maug
ham
"It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too Somerset Maug
"People ask for criticism, but they only want praise."

11

ham
late."
"The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming
Moliere
it."
"To the soul there is hardly anything more healing than
Thomas Moore
friendship."

Famous English Quotations

List of famous English quotations from
politicians, authors, actors, scientists and philosophers.

(page 6)

Quotation
N

Author

"Tact is the knack of making a point without making an

enemy."
"The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys
several times the
same good things for the first time."
"What doesn't kill you will make you stronger."

Isaac Newton
Friedrich Nietzs
che
Friedrich Nietzs
che
Friedrich Nietzs
che

"When one has much to put into them, a day has a

hundred pockets."
"We don't see things as they are; we see things as we
Anais Nin
are."
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." Anais Nin
O "Burdens become light when cheerfully borne."
P

"In the field of observation, chance favours only the

prepared mind."
"Avoid popularity; it has many snares and no real
benefit."
"Time is what we want most, but what we use worst."
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working."
"The chief enemy of creativity is good taste."
"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be
kindled."
12

Ovid
Louis Pasteur
William Penn
William Penn
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Plutarch

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

"The voyage to discovery is not in seeking new
landscapes but in having
new eyes."
R

Alexander Pope
Marcel Proust

"If you wish to avoid seeing a fool, you must break your Francois Rabelai
s
mirror."
Thomas
"A statesman is a successful politician who is dead."
BrackettReed
Cesar Ritz
"The customer is never wrong."
"Instruction ends in the schoolroom, but education ends
F.W. Robertson
only with life."
"Many people despise wealth but few know how to give F. de
laRochefoucauld
it away."
F. de
"Men give away nothing so liberally as their advice."
laRochefoucauld
Eleanor Rooseve
"No one can make you feel inferior without your
lt
consent."
Franklin
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
D.Roosevelt
Franklin
"Rules are not necessarily sacred; principles are."
D.Roosevelt
Franklin
"I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made."
D.Roosevelt
Theodore Roose
"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to
velt
succeed."
"The only man who never makes mistakes is the man
Theodore Roose
who never does
velt
anything."
Theodore Roose
"With self-discipline most anything is possible."
velt
Salman Rushdie
"If it can't be cured it must be endured."
"When love and skill work together, expect a
John Ruskin
masterpiece."

Famous English Quotations

List of famous English quotations from
politicians, authors, actors, scientists and philosophers.

13

(page 7)

Quotation

Author

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more

S to add, but
when there is nothing left to take away."
"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at
each other
but in looking outward together in the same direction.

Antoine de St
Exupery
Antoine de St
Exupery

Jean-Paul Sartr
e
John Saxe
"It is wise to learn; it is God-like to create."
"For success, attitude is equally as important as ability." Sir Walter Scott
Lucius
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets
AnnaeusSeneca
opportunity."
"Life is a play. It's not its length but its performance that Lucius
AnnaeusSeneca
counts."
WilliamShakesp
"Action is eloquence."
eare
WilliamShakesp
"All that glitters is not gold."
eare
WilliamShakesp
"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."
eare
WilliamShakesp
"Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are
eare
gardeners."
WilliamShakesp
"Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind."
eare
"A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always
George
depend on the
BernardShaw
support of Paul."
"Great Britain and the United States are nations
George
separated by a
BernardShaw
common language."
"The greatest of our evils and the worst of our crimes is George
BernardShaw
poverty."
"Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on George
BernardShaw
children!"
George
"Martyrdom ... is the only way in which a man can
become famous
BernardShaw
"Hell is other people."

14

without ability."
"We don't stop playing because we grow; we grow old
because we
stop playing."
"Reasonable men adapt to the world. Unreasonable men
adapt
the world to themselves. That's why all progress
depends on
unreasonable men."
"Can a man who is warm understand one who is
freezing?"
"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap ... but by
the seeds
you plant!"
"Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no
preparation is
thought necessary."
"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
"May you live every day of your life."
"I am more afraid of an army of a hundred sheep led by
T a lion, than by
an army of a hundred lions led by a sheep."
"'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have
loved at all."
"A good laugh is sunshine in a house."
"If you want something said, ask a man; if you want
something done,
ask a woman."
"It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love
of money for
its own sake."
"I'm extraordinarily patient provided I get my own way in
the end."
"It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays
the eggs."
"Love is real only when a person can sacrifice himself for
another."
"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it
doesn't matter."
15

George
BernardShaw

George
BernardShaw
Alexander
Solzhenitsyn
Robert
LouisStevenson
Robert
LouisStevenson
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift

Talleyrand
Alfred
LordTennyson
William Thacker
y
Margaret Thatc
her
Margaret Thatc
her
Margaret Thatc
her
Margaret Thatc
her
Leo Tolstoy
Mark Twain

"Be careful of reading health books. You may die of a

misprint."
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The
world owes you
nothing. It was here first."
"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people
think you are a
fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
"Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have
been."

Mark Twain
Mark Twain

Mark Twain
Mark Twain

Famous English Quotations

List of famous English quotations from
politicians, authors, actors, scientists and philosophers.

(page 8)

Quotation

Author

U "The only thing in life achieved without effort is failure."

"The speed of the leader determines the rate of the
pack."
"Many receive advice; only the wise profit from it."
"Remember, no one can make you feel inferior without
your consent."
"Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the
simple."
"The secret of happiness is not doing what one likes, but
in liking what
one does."
"Only those who keep trying eventually win."
"Getting something done is an accomplishment; getting
something done
right is an achievement."
"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you
can do."
"The best time to do something worthwhile is between
yesterday and
tomorrow."
16

Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown

Vinvent Van
Gogh

V "Conscience is a man's compass."

"The progress of rivers to the ocean is not as rapid as
that of man to
error."
"Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung."
"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to
laugh."
"The greatest consolation in life is to say what one
thinks."
"Doubt is not an agreeable condition, but certainty is an
absurd one."
"The secret of being a bore is to tell everything."
"Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of
doing so too."
W "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to get rid of it."
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others
whenever they go."
"My own business always bores me to death; I prefer
other people's."
"Experience is the name so many people give to their
mistakes."
"Wisdom is knowing how little we know."
"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people
exist, that's all."
"The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect
everything, the
young know everything."
"No man is rich enough to buy back his past."
"There are only two tragedies in life : one is not getting
what one wants,
the other is getting it."
"True friends stab you in the front."
"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have
to alter it every
six months."
"All cruel people describe themselves as paragons of
frankness."
17

Voltaire
Voltaire
Voltaire
Voltaire
Voltaire
Voltaire
Voltaire
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Tennessee Willi
ams

"Education is not the filling of a pail but rather the lighting

of a fire."
"There are no strangers here, only friends you haven't
yet met."

William
ButlerYeats
William
ButlerYeats

"The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is

nothing without work."

Emile Zola

18