Quote Queen

Fats Waller, three-quarter length portrait, seated at piano, facing front / World Telegram & Sun photo by Alan Fisher. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Alexander Pope – 1688 – Poet

“Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.”

Elizabeth Fry – 1780 – Clergywoman

“Punishment is not for revenge, but to lessen crime and reform the criminal.”

Henri Rousseau – 1844 – Artist

“Excuse my scribbling, it is late, and I have a poor candle.”

Armand Hammer – 1898 – Businessman

“When I work fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, I get lucky.”

Fats Waller – 1904 – Musician (Thomas Wright Waller)

“If you don’t know what it is, don’t mess with it.”

Harold Robbins – 1916 – Author

“I won’t leave any unfinished manuscript.”

Raymond Burr – 1917 – Actor

“Try and live your life the way you wish other people would live theirs.”

Andrei Sakharov – 1921 – Physicist

“Both now and for always, I intend to hold fast to my belief in the hidden strength of the human spirit.”

David Smith – 1930 – Educator

“The big question society will have to answer is whether it wants computers thinking like humans.”

Mary Robinson – 1944 – Stateswoman

Cropped screenshot of Raymond Burr from the film Please Murder Me. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“In a society where the rights and potential of woman are constrained, no man can be truly free.  He may have power, but he will not have freedom.”

Richard Hatch – 1946 – Actor

“Whatever you determine to be true in the subconscious becomes true for you.”

Al Franken – 1951 – Comedian

“Mistakes are a part of being human.  Appreciate your mistakes for what they are:  precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way.  Unless it’s a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.”

Marc Ribot – 1954 – Musician

“Good is the director who lets you do what you have to do.”

Dolley Madison, First Lady of the United States. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dolley Madison – 1768 – Wife of President James Madison

“There is one secret.  And that is the power we all have in forming our own destinies.”

Honore de Balzac – 1799 – Novelist

“A mother who is really a mother is never free.”

Mikhail Glinka – 1804 – Composer

“A nation creates music – the composer only arranges it.”

John Stuart Mill – 1806 – Philosopher

“He who knows only his side of the case knows little of that.”

Margery Allingham – 1889 – Writer

“If one cannot command attention by one’s admirable qualities one can at least be a nuisance.”

Jimmy Stewart – 1908 – Actor

“Never treat your audience as customers, always as partners.”

George Gobel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

William Reddington Hewlett – 1913 – Businessman

“Men and women want to do a good job, and if they are provided the proper environment, they will do so.”

Moshe Dayan – 1915 – Soldier

“Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.”

George Gobel – 1919 – Comedian

“If you build a better mousetrap, you will catch better mice.”

Dieter Rams – 1932 – Designer

“Good design is making something intelligible and memorable.  Great design is making something memorable and meaningful.”

Sadaharu Oh – 1940 – Athlete

“The efforts you make will surely be rewarded.  If not, then you are simply not ready to call them effort.”

Stan Mikita – 1940 – Athlete

“If you plan to win as I do, the game never ends.”

Lynn Davies – 1942 – Athlete

“It’s perseverance that’s the key.  It’s persevering for long enough, to achieve your potential.”

Joe Cocker – 1944 – Musician

“I have always been a sucker for ballads, but you have to be careful these days, you can’t overload people.”

Cher – 1946 – Musician (Cherilyn Sarkisiam)

“If you really want something you can figure out how to make it happen.”

Ted Allen – 1965 – Entertainer

“I am much more interested in the process than results.”

Mindy Cohn – 1966 – Actress

“So that’s my philosophy:  If you believe in yourself, the chances and the opportunities will come around.”

Timothy Olyphant – 1968 – Actor

“I punch a lot guys on set.  It’s much easier than in real life as your hands don’t hurt afterwards.  The key is that you miss.”

Tony Stewart – 1971 – Race Car Driver

“When I go home, it’s an easy way to be grounded.  You learn to realize what truly matters.”

The philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Johann Gottlieb Fichte – 1762 – Philosopher

“A man can do what he ought to do; and when he says he cannot, it is because he will not.”

Nellie Melba – 1861 – Musician

“One of the drawbacks of fame is that one can never escape from it.”

Wilson Mizner – 1876 – Playwright and Entrepreneur

“The best way to keep your friends is not to give them away.”

Nancy Astor – 1879 – Politician

“One reason why I don’t drink is because I wish to know when I am having a good time.”

Ho Chi Minh – 1890 – Revolutionary

“Love other human beings as you would love yourself.”

Ida Pauline Rolf – 1896 – Scientist

“An effective human being is a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Bert Hardy – 1913 – Photographer

“Everywhere I look and most of the time I look, I see photographs.”

Malcolm X – 1925 – African American Leader (Malcolm Little)

Kevin Garnett (Photo credit: Keith Allison)

“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

Harvey Cox – 1929 – Theologian

“What we are seeking so frantically elsewhere may turn out to be the horse we have been riding all along.”

Lorraine Hansberry – 1930 – Playwright

“Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.”

Edward de Bono – 1933 – Psychologist

“A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.”

Jim Lehrer – 1934 – Journalist

“There’s always a germ of truth in just about everything.”

David Hartman – 1935 – Journalist

“Kids are capable of handling a lot more than you think if you are willing to commit some time.”

Nora Ephron – 1941 – Author

“Summer bachelors, like summer breezes, are never as cool as they pretend to be.”

Grace Jones – 1948 – Model

“Use, don’t abuse.”

Joey Ramone – 1951 – Musician

“I enjoyed my life when I had nothing … and kinda like the idea of just being happy with me.”

Kevin Garnett – 1976 – Athlete

“I’m from the bottom, I understand what it’s like to have and to not have.  My perception on giving is to put yourself in those people’s shoes and go from there.  So that’s what I did.”

Margot Fonteyn in Ashton’s Ondine, whose title role was created for her. This official postcard of her was autographed. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Omar Khayyam – 1048 – Poet

“Be happy for this moment.  This moment is your life.”

Bertrand Russell – 1872 – Philosopher, Logician, and Mathematician

“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt.”

Walter Gropius – 1883 – Architect

“Architecture begins where engineering ends.”

Frank Capra – 1897 – Director

“A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.”

Fred Perry – 1909 – Athlete

“Tactics, fitness, stroke ability, adaptability, experience, and sportsmanship are all necessary for winning.”

Perry Como – 1912 – Musician

“For the amount of talent I had – and I couldn’t dance, act, or tell a joke – I enjoyed a tremendous career.”

Eddy Arnold – 1918 – Musician

“Don’t be afraid to fall flat on your face.”

Margot Fonteyn – 1919 – Dancer

“Take your work seriously, but never yourself.”

Pope John Paul II – 1920 – Clergyman

“An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded.”

Don Martin – 1931 – Cartoonist

“There’s always been physical suffering in comedy.”

Dwayne Hickman – 1934 – Actor

English: Pope John Paul II on 12 August 1993 in Denver (Colorado) Polski: Papież Jan Paweł II 12 sierpnia 1993 roku w Denwer (Colorado) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“You can never spend enough time with children.”

Brooks Robinson – 1937 – Athlete

“If you’re not practicing, somebody else is, somewhere, and he’ll be ready to take your job.”

Andreas Katsulas – 1946 – Actor

“You’re only as good as you are now – not as good as you were before.”

Reggie Jackson – 1946 – Athlete

“A baseball swing is a very finely tuned instrument.  It is repetition, and more repetition, then a little more after that.”

George Strait – 1952 – Musician

“You know, traditional country music is something that’s going to be around forever.”

Diane Duane – 1952 – Writer

“What I try to do for my readers is to pass on some of the things that I found out about being thirteen after doing it for forty years.”

Chow Yun-Fat – 1955 – Actor

“As an actor we’re just like workers in a factory, we provide our services to directors.”

Yannick Noah – 1960 – Athlete

“I believe Karma.  If the good is sown, the good is collected.  When positive things are made, that returns well.”

Anna Brownell Jameson (1794-1860) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Edward Jenner – 1749 – Scientist

“The deviation of man from the state in which he was originally placed by nature seems to have proved to him a prolific source of diseases.”

Anna Jameson – 1794 – Writer

“The only competition worthy a wise man is with himself.”

Erik Satie – 1866 – Composer

“The musician is perhaps the most modest of animals, but he is also the proudest.  It is he who invented the sublime art of ruining poetry.”

Jean Gabin – 1904 – Actor

“I understood immediately that to get success I had to make for the front door, not for the back one.”

Harriet Van Horne – 1920 – Journalist

“There are days when any electrical appliance in the house, including the vacuum cleaner, seems to offer more entertainment possibilities than the television set.”

Bob Merrill – 1921 – Musician

“Who told you you’re allowed to rain on my parade?”

Dennis Potter – 1935 – Author

“The trouble with words is that you never know whose mouths they’ve been in.”

Alan Kay – 1940 – Scientist

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

English: African American boxer Sugar Ray Leonard (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dave Sim – 1956 – Cartoonist

“Everyone is normal until you get to know them.”

Sugar Ray Leonard – 1956 – Professional Boxer (Ray Charles Leonard)

“Before I fight, I always pray that no one gets hurt.”

Enya – 1961 – Musician (Eithne Ni Bhraonain)

“I know every note in every song, the whole history of it, even parts that were there and are gone.”

Jordan Knight – 1970 – Musician

“I think if you stop bad habits, and you stop long enough, you develop good habits.”

A photo I took of Liberace in 1983. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

John Bulwer – 1906 – Scientist

“It is astonishing how little one feels alone when one loves.”

Studs Terkel – 1912 – Journalist

“But once you become active in something, something happens to you.  You get excited and suddenly you realize you count.”

Edward T. Hall – 1914 – Scientist

“I may be able to spot arrowheads on the desert but a refrigerator is a jungle in which I am easily lost.”

Liberace – 1919 – Pianist and Entertainer (Wladziu Valentino Liberace)

“You know that bank I used to cry all the way to?  I bought it.”

Merton Miller – 1923 – Economist

“If you take money out of your left pocket and put it in your right pocket, you’re no richer.”

Adrienne Rich – 1929 – Poet

“Lying is done with words and also with silence.”

Betty Carter – 1930 – Musician

“You can do anything you want to do, if you know what to do.”

Janet Jackson Tour 2011 (Photo credit: Edward Beavers)

Carol Shields – 1935 – Author

“There are chapters in every life which are seldom read and certainly not aloud.”

Yvonne Craig – 1937 – Actress

“Everybody in their own imagination decides what scary is.”

Bob Edwards – 1947 – Journalist

“If you want anything done well, do it yourself.  This is why most people laugh at their own jokes.”

Christian Lacroix – 1951 – Designer

“We all look for lost time.”

Pierce Bronsan – 1953 – Actor

“When people don’t believe in you, you have to believe in yourself.”

Debra Winger – 1955 – Actress

“I don’t believe in careers.  I believe in work.”

Anne Parillaud – 1960 – Actress

“I adore people who ask questions and who cause others to share in their search.”

Janet Jackson – 1966 – Musician

“All those songs reflect all the people that live within me.”

Tucker Carlson – 1969 – Journalist

“I have never been one to look beyond today.”

Bill Rancic – 1971 – Businessman

“The American Dream is still alive out there, and hard work will get you there.  You don’t necessarily need to have an Ivy League education or to have millions of dollars startup money.  It can be done with an idea, hard work, and determination.”

Tori Spelling – 1973 – Actress

“I do have odd habits.  I check under my bed every night for the bogeyman.  That’s just a little thing, though.”

Megan Fox – 1986 – Actress

“I have a mouth and I’m not afraid to use it.”

Porter in 1930 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Claudio Monteverdi – 1567 – Composer

“Music is spiritual.  The music business is not.”

L. Frank Baum – 1856 – Author

“Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.”

Pierre Curie – 1859 – Scientist

“Is it right to probe so deeply into Nature’s secrets?  The question must here be raised whether it will benefit mankind, or whether the knowledge will be harmful.”

Katherine Anne Porter – 1890 – Journalist

“Experience is what really happens to you in the long run; the truth that finally overtakes you.”

Jean Renoir – 1894 – Director

“A director makes only one movie in his life.  Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again.”

Clifton Fadiman – 1904 – Writer

Tenzing Norgay (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke – and that the joke is oneself.”

Max Frisch – 1911 – Novelist

“A man with convictions finds an answer for everything.  Convictions are the best form of protection against the living truth.”

Arthur Berger – 1921 – Composer

“Sometimes you know you find precious things in the creative process that you couldn’t find out of it.”

Tenzing Norgay – 1914 – Explorer

“If it is a shame to be the second man on Mount Everest, then I will have to live with this shame.”

Paul Samuelson – 1915 – Economist

“Every good cause is worth some inefficiency.”

Richard Avedon – 1923 – Photographer

“All photographs are accurate.  None of them is the truth.”

Peter Shaffer – 1926 – Playwright

“Everything we feel is made of Time.  All the beauties of life are shaped by it.”

Jasper Johns – 1930 – Artist

“Do something, do something to that, and then do something to that.”

Ken Venturi – 1931 – Athlete

“There are two great rules of life:  never tell everything at once.”

Ralph Steadman – 1936 – Cartoonist

“I get my best ideas in a thunderstorm.  I have the power and majesty of nature on my side.”

Brian Eno – 1948 – Musician

“As soon as I hear a sound, it always suggests a mood to me.”

Emmitt Smith – 1969 – Professional Football Player

“For me, winning isn’t something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowd roars.  Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream.”

Marguerite of Valois, Queen of Navarre). Miniatures. Dated in gold: “Ano Dni. 1577”. On vellum stuck to card: oval, 2 1/4 in (5.7 cm) high. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Marguerite de Valois – 1553 – French Royalty

“A woman of honor should never suspect another of things she would not do herself.”

William Emerson – 1701 – Mathematician

“Beware of the man who will not engage in idle conversation; he is planning to steal your walking stick or water your stock.”

Robert Owen – 1771 – Writer

“Never argue; repeat your assertion.”

Kurt Eisner – 1867 – Politician

“Truth is the greatest of all national possessions.  A state, a people, a system which surpasses the truth or fears to publish it, deserves to collapse.”

B. C. Forbes – 1880 – Journalist

“Better to be occasionally cheated than perpetually suspicious.”

Hal Borland – 1900 – Author

“No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.”

Lou Harrison – 1917 – Composer

“I don’t want to wear my compositional tools on my sleeve.”

Agha Hasan Abedi – 1922 – Businessman

“The conventional definition of management is getting work done through people, but real management is developing people through work.”

Eric Morecambe – 1926 – Comedian

“I’m playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.”

Bobby Darin – 1936 – Musician

“Any fool knows that bravado is always a cover-up for insecurity.  That’s the truth.”

George Lucas – 1944 – Director

“Everybody has talent, it’s just a matter of moving around until you’ve discovered what it is.”

Francesca Annis – 1944 – Actress

“As you grow older, your whole life becomes very rich, multifaceted.”

Mark zuckerberg el Fundador de Facebook es un Hombre Feliz (Photo credit: Debubuntu.)

Robert Jarvik – 1946 – Inventor

“Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them.”

Robert Zemeckis – 1952 – Director

“No matter how many obstacles that are thrown in our path, there are ways to expect them and to live through them.”

Tom Cochrane – 1953 – Musician

“As a songwriter, if you can touch people and make them feel a little less alone in the world, then you’ve done your job.”

Amber Tamblyn – 1983 – Actress

“A business like acting is 90% luck.  You can be a star one minute and out of work the next.”

Mark Zuckerberg – 1984 – Businessman

“By giving people the power to share, we’re making the world more transparent.”

English: Young Daphne du Maurier (about 1930) Русский: Портрет Дафны дю Морье в молодости (начало 30-х годов ХХ века) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Alphonse Daudet – 1840 – Novelist

“Poets are people who can still see the world through the eyes of children.”

Arthur Sullivan – 1842 – Composer

“I am terrified at the thought that so much hideous and bad music will be put on records forever.”

George Braque – 1882 – Artist

“Reality only reveals itself when it is illuminated by a ray of poetry.”

Daphne du Maurier – 1907 – Novelist

“Writers should be read, but neither seen nor heard.”

Joe Louis – 1914 – Athlete

“Every man’s got to figure to get beat sometime.”

Bea Arthur – 1923 – Actress

“Keep fighting for animals by making compassionate, cruelty-free choices every day and encouraging those around you to do the same.”

Clive Barnes – 1927 – Journalist

“Television is the first truly democratic culture – the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want.  The most terrifying thing is what people do want.”

Madeleine Albright – 1937 – Stateswoman

“While democracy in the long run is the most stable form of government, in the short run, it is among the most fragile.”

Stephen R. Donaldson – 1947 – Writer

Madeleine Albright, official secretary of State portrait (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“I respect my limitations, but I don’t use them as an excuse.”

Zoe Wanamaker – 1949 – Actress

“I don’t have the confidence to be a personality.”

Stevie Wonder – 1950 – Musician and Singer (Stevland Hardaway Judkins)

“We all have ability.  The difference is how we use it.”

Dennis Rodman – 1961 – Athlete

“A player dreams of being a superstar, but he doesn’t want people flocking all over him asking for an autograph.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Florence Nightengale – 1820 – Philosopher of Modern Nursing

“I attribute my success to this – I never gave or took any excuse.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti – 1828 – Poet

“Conception, my boy, fundamental brain work, is what makes all the difference in art.”

Henry Cabot Lodge – 1850 – Politician

“Beware how you trifle with your marvelous inheritance, this great land of ordered liberty, for if we stumble and fall, freedom and civilization everywhere will go down in ruin.”

Lincoln Ellsworth – 1880 – Explorer

“Not until, years later, I found my true interest in life did I discover that I could master a subject, no matter how difficult, if it helped me in what I wanted to do.”

Theodor Reik – 1888 – Psychologist

“Love is an attempt to change a piece of a dream world into reality.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti – 1895 – Philosopher

“Freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem.”

Paul Tournier – 1898 – Author

“Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets.”

Indra Devi – 1899 – Celebrity

“Laughter drives shouting away.”

Mary Kay Ash (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Philip Wylie – 1902 – Writer

“One good teacher in a lifetime may sometimes change a delinquent into a solid citizen.”

Katharine Hepburn – 1907 – Actress

“Enemies are so stimulating.”

Mary Kay Ash – 1918 – Business Leader

“What you believe, remember, you can achieve.”

Joseph Beuys – 1921 – Artist

“Every man is an artist.”

Yogi Berra – 1925 – Athlete

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”

James S. Coleman – 1926 – Sociologist

“Children from a given family background, when put in schools of different social compositions, will achieve at quite different levels.”

Burt Bacharach – 1928- Composer

“A synonym is a word you use when you can’t spell the word you first thought of.”

Frank Stella – 1936 – Artist

“I don’t like to say I have given my life to art.  I prefer to say art has given me my life.”

Tom Snyder – 1936 – Celebrity

“When everything is coming your way, you’re probably in the wrong lane.”

Susan Hampshire – 1937 – Actress

“Some people can only be happy being a star.  What happens if and when the work dries up?”

George Carlin – 1937 – Comedian

“The day after tomorrow is the third day of the rest of your life.”

Chris Patten – 1944 – Politician

“I believe in trying to get a balance between individual freedom on the one hand and social responsibility on the other.”

L. Neil Smith – 1946 – Writer

“City governments ought to be abolished, if only as a public health measure.”

Daniel Libeskind – 1946 – Architect

“Cities are the greatest creations of humanity.”

Bruce Boxleitner – 1950 – Actor

“I think every leading man wants to be a character actor, and every character actor wants to be a leading man. ”

Ving Rhames – 1959 – Actor

“I like to say that I didn’t choose acting – acting chose me.”

Emilio Estevez – 1962 – Actor

“Film is an illusion.  Fame is ephemeral. Faith and family are what endure.”

Malin Akerman – 1978 – Actress

“I can’t walk by chocolate without eating it.”