Quote Queen

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1955. Deutsch: Winston Churchill, 1940 bis 1945 sowie 1951 bis 1955 Premier des Vereinigten Königreichs und Literaturnobelpreisträger des Jahres 1953. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jonathan Swift – 1667 – Writer

“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.”

Mark Twain – 1835 – Author (Samuel Clemmons)

“It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have honors and not deserve them.”

Ernest Newman – 1868 – Critic

“The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working.”

Winston Churchill – 1874 – British Prime Minister

“It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.”

L.M. Montgomery – 1874 – Author (Lucy  Maud Montgomery)

“Proverbs are all very fine when there’s nothing to worry you, but when you’re in real trouble, they’re not a bit of help.”

Millicent Carey McIntosh – 1898 – Educator

“The most important phase of living with a person is respect for that person as an individual.”

Jacques Barzun –  1907 – Educator

“Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.”

Gordon Parks – 1912 – Photographer

“The subject matter is so much more important than the photographer.”

Henry Taube – 1915 – Scientist

“This joy of discovery is real, and it is one of our rewards.  So too is the approval of our work by our peers.”

Allan Sherman – 1924 – Musician

“Grandma cheated whenever she could.  She cheated because it was a much more scientific and surer way to winning than trusting to luck.”

G. Gordon Liddy – 1929 – Entertainer

“If I can go from burglar for the government to talk show host, you can go from entertainer to congressman.”

Jerry Hunt – 1943 – Composer

English: Cropped version of File:Lucy_Maud_Montgomery.JPG Français : Version rognée de File:Lucy_Maud_Montgomery.JPG (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“My mother says I was vaccinated with a phonograph needle.  I love to talk.  I just love to talk.”

Marina Abramovic – 1946 – Artist

“Your ego can become an obstacle to your work.  If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity.”

David Mamet – 1947 – Dramatist

“People may or may not say what they mean . . . but they always say something designed to get what they want.”

Paul Westphal – 1950 – Athlete

“The key to any game is to use your strengths and hide your weaknesses.”

Lawrence Summers – 1954 – Economist

“In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car.”

Kevin Conroy – 1955 – Actor

“Everyone is handed adversity in life.  No one’s journey is easy.  It’s how they handle it that makes people unique.”

Billy Idol – 1955 – Musician

“I  love it when someone insults me.  That means that I don’t have to be nice anymore.”

Bo Jackson – 1962 – Athlete

“Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.”

Ben Stiller – 1965 – Comedian

“I’m always willing to endure humiliation on behalf of my characters.”

David  Nichols – 1966 – Novelist

“As a novelist, I’m incredibly lucky to make a living, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t lie awake at four o’clock in the morning, worrying.”

Clay Aiken – 1978 – Musician

“It doesn’t matter to me how I make a difference, I just wanna make sure that I do.”

English: Reproduced image of American Transcendentalist Amos Bronson Alcott, standing with coat and top hat. Printed in Christmas Bookshelf. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

John Jay – 1627 – Environmentalist

“Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.”

Amos Bronson Alcott – 1799 – Educator

“Our friends interpret the world and ourselves to us, if we take them tenderly and truly.”

Louisa May Alcott – 1832 – Author

“Never use a long word when a short one will do.”

Cass Gilbert – 1859 – Architect

“It is only the young and callow and ignorant that admire rashness.  Think before you speak.  Know your subject.”

C. S. Lewis – 1898 – Author (Clive Staples Lewis)

“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.”

Harry Essex – 1910 – Writer

“Somebody ought to tell him his ambition is showing.”

John Templeton – 1912 – Businessman

“It is nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”

Taisen Deshimaru – 1914 – Philosopher

“Time is not a line, but a series of now-points.”

Billy Strayhorn – 1915 – Composer

“Ever up and onward.”

Merle Travis – 1917 – Musician

“The saddest songs are written when a person is happy.”

Madeleine L’Engle – 1918 – Author (Madeleine Camp)

English: Portrait drawing of author Louisa May Alcott. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.”

John D. Barrow – 1952 – Scientist

“There was no ‘before’ the beginning of our universe, because once upon a time there was no time.”

Howie Mandel – 1955 – Comedian

“People who annoy people are the luckiest people in the world.”

Cathy Moriarty – 1960 – Actress

“Robert De Niro taught me how to listen, and how to be part of the conversation.  It’s not just about reading your lines and saying what’s in the script; you have to understand your character, along with the other characters so that you can always respond.”

Martha Beck – 1962 – Author

“Hopeful thinking can get you out of your fear zone and into your appreciation zone.”

Jonathan Knight – 1968 – Musician

“My belief is that you live your life by example, and not by a caption on a magazine!”

Sheena Iyengar – 1969 – Educator

“Balancing hopes, desires and an appreciation of the possibilities with a clear-eyed assessment of the limitations:  that is the art of choosing.”

Portrait of Victor Cousin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

John Bunyan – 1628 – Clergyman

“In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”

William Blake – 1757 – Poet

“The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”

Victor Cousin – 1792 – Philosopher

“Ignorance is the primary source of all misery and vice.”

Friedrich Engels – 1820 – Philosopher

“Freedom is the recognition of necessity.”

Leslie Stephen – 1832 – Author

“Chance is a name for our ignorance.”

Stefan Zweig – 1881 – Writer

“Only the person who has experienced light and darkness, war and peace, rise and fall, only that person has truly experienced life.”

Brooks Atkinson – 1894 – Critic

“Don’t be condescending to unskilled labor.  Try it for a half day first.”

Claude Levi-Strauss – 1908 – Scientist

“The wise man doesn’t give the right answers, he poses the right questions.”

Carol Gilligan – 1936 – Psychologist

“I’ve found that if I say what I’m really thinking and feeling, people are more likely to say what they really think and feel.  The conversation becomes a real conversation.”

English: Stefan Zweig in Vienna, circa 1900 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rita Mae Brown – 1944 – Writer

“The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness.  Think of your three best friends.  If they’re okay, then it’s you.”

Ed Harris – 1950 – Actor

“You can’t betray yourself too often, or you become somebody else.”

Judd Nelson – 1959 – Actor

“Remember to be as smart as you are.”

Jon Stewart – 1962 – Entertainer

“The Internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom.”

L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp at Nolacon II in New Orleans (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Charles A. Beard – 1874 – Historian

“When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.”

Katharine Anthony – 1877 – Writer

“To the biographers all lives bar none are dramatic constructions.”

Konosuke Matsushita – 1894 – Businessman

“No matter how deep a study you make, what you really have to rely on is your own intuition and when it comes down to it, you really don’t know what’s going to happen until you do.”

L. Sprague de Camp – 1907 – Author

“There is no mistaking the dismay on the face of a writer who has just heard that his brain child is a deformed idiot.”

James Agee – 1909 – Novelist

“The mere attempt to examine my own confusion would consume volumes.”

Chick Hearn – 1916 – Journalist

“My work is a love for me; I’d do it for free, but don’t tell my bosses.”

Gail Sheehy – 1937 – Writer

Caroline Kennedy, Chancellor Joel I. Klein (Photo credit: Rubenstein)

“If we don’t change, we don’t grow.  If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.”

Bruce Lee – 1940 – Actor

“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.”

Marilyn Hacker – 1942 – Poet

“Good writing gives energy, whatever it is about.”

Manolo Blahnik – 1942 – Designer

“You put high heels on and you change.”

Jimi Hendrix – 1942 – Guitarist and Singer

“Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel.”

Jill Sander – 1943 – Designer

“If I had the power, I would ban leggings.”

James Avery – 1948 – Actor

“I don’t understand this whole Twitter, Facebook stuff.  I don’t get it.  Make a phone call.  Talk to somebody.”

Bob Parsons – 1950 – Businessman

“Any company has got to reinvent itself again and again.”

Bill Nye – 1955 – Educator and TV Host

“We are both great men, but I have succeeded better in keeping it a profound secret than he has.”

Caroline Kennedy – 1957 – Writer and Lawyer

“John and I were lucky because our mother was a strong woman with high expectations and a strong sense of values.  She encouraged us to pursue things we were interested in and not think about what other people wanted us to do.”

Pioneering broadcast journalist Eric Sevareid. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

William Cowper – 1731 – Poet

“Variety’s the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.”

Ellen G. White – 1827 – Writer

“Talk unbelief, and you will have unbelief; but talk faith, and you will have faith.  According to the seed sown will be the harvest.”

Major Taylor – 1878 – Athlete

“I would advise all youths aspiring to athletic fame or a professional career to practice clean living, fair play and good sportsmanship.”

Eugene Ionesco – 1912- Dramatist

“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.”

Eric Sevareid – 1912 – Journalist

“Consultant:  any ordinary guy more than fifty miles from home.”

Charles M. Schutlz – 1922 – Cartoonist

“Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today.  It is already tomorrow in Australia.”

Robert Goulet – 1933 – Actor and Singer

“I wanted to be a plumber.”

Celia Green – 1935 – Author

Robert Goulet (Photo credit: sarahinvegas)

“The way to do research is to attack the facts at the point of greatest astonishment.”

Rich Little – 1938 – Impressionist and Comedian

“If you become president, you’re guaranteed to develop some nervous habit.”

Tina Turner – 1939 – Singer (Anna Mae Bullock)

“There is no strict regimen that says when you are in your late 40s you cannot wear a mini-dress.”

Greg Brenneman – 1961 – Businessman

“Business is a team sport.”

Enric Sala – 1968 – Explorer

“The ocean is like a checking account where everybody withdraws but nobody makes a deposit.  This is what’s happening because of overfishing.”

Ryan Robbins – 1971 – Actor

“Everything in moderation, and there’s a perfect balance in this life if we can find it.”

Arjun Rampal – 1972 – Actor

“Everybody can be desirable if they take care of themselves.”

James Dashner – 1972 – Author

“I don’t think anything’s more rewarding than hearing that you’ve helped someone gain a love of reading.”

Andrew Carnegie, American businessman and philanthropist. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Andrew Carnegie – 1835 – Industrialist and Philanthropist

“There is little success where there is little laughter.”

Virgil Thomson – 1896 – Composer

“I don’t go around regretting things that don’t happen.”

Joe DiMaggio – 1914 – Professional Baseball Player

“A person always doing his or her best becomes a natural leader, just by example.”

Ricardo Montalban – 1920 – Actor

“Ask not what the role can do for you; ask what you can do for the role.”

Ben Stein – 1944 – Actor

“It’s amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions.”

Amy Grant – 1960 – Musician

“Every good relationship, especially marriage, is based on respect.  If it’s not based on respect, nothing that appears to be good will last very long.”

Jill Hennessy – 1968 – Actress

“I like someone who embraces life; who wants to be on a long journey but has no particular plan or destination in mind.  An adventurous man, open to the concept of living life in the moment.”

Christine Applegate – 1971 – Actress

“I think maintaining relationships with my friends, my mother, manager, they’re all important.”

English: 1936 Goudey World Wide Gum baseball card of Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees #51. PD-not-renewed. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jenna Bush – 1981 – Daughter of George and Laura Bush

“People ask me if I ever see my father and I say yes, because he puts in the effort.  He calls all the time to tell us he’s proud of us.”

Photo of Carlo Collodi. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Baruch Spinoza – 1632 – Philosopher

“All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.”

Junipero Serra – 1713 – Clergyman

“We found on our journey as well as in the place where we stopped, that they treated us with as much confidence and good-will as if they had known us all their lives.”

Laurence Sterne – 1713 – Novelist

“Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.”

John Bacon – 1740 – Sculptor

“It comes down to the way you treat people.  When you treat people with dignity and respect all the time, you can work through anything.”

Zachary Taylor – 1784 – 12th President of the United States

“It would be judicious to act with magnanimity towards a prostrate foe.”

Alphonse Karr – 1808 – Critic

“Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses.”

English: Frances Hodgson Burnett (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Carlo Collodi – 1826 – Author of Pinocchio

“When poverty shows itself, even mischievous boys understand what it means.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett – 1849 – Playwright

“I am writing in the garden.  To write as one should of a garden one must write not outside it or merely somewhere near it, but in the garden.”

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – 1864 – Artist

“Of course one should not drink much, but often.”

Alben W. Barkley – 1877 – Vice President of the United States

“The best audience is intelligent, well-educated and a little drunk.”

Anna Louise Strong – 1885 – Journalist

“To fall in love is easy, even to remain in it is not difficult; our human loneliness is cause enough.  But it is a hard quest worth making to find a comrade through whose steady presence one becomes steadily the person one desires to be.”

Margaret Anderson – 1886 – Editor

“Self-preservation is the first responsibility.”

Dale Carnegie – 1888 – Writer and Public Speaker

“Develop success from failures.  Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”

Garson Kanin – 1912 – Playwright

“Amateurs hope, professionals work.”

John Lindsay – 1921 – Politician

“Not only is New York City the nation’s melting pot, it is also the casserole, the chafing dish and the charcoal grill.”

William F. Buckley, Jr. – 1925 – Journalist

“Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.”

Billy Connolly – 1942 – Comedian

“My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger.”

Denise Crosby – 1957 – Actress

“The Crosby family is sort of legendary for all of its traumas and familial problems, even though it has this appearance of being this perfect world.  It had quite a dark side to it.”

Shirley Henderson – 1965 – Actress

“There is such pressure on kids these days to be the best at everything.”

Colin Hanks – 1977 – Actor

“I don’t need to know how they make Coca-Cola.  I think it tastes just fine not knowing what the ingredients are.  I think there are some things that should be kept secret.”

The image of British actor William Henry Pratt pka, Boris Karloff (November 23, 1887–February 2, 1969) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Franklin Pierce – 1804 – 14th President of the United States

“Frequently the more trifling the subject, the more animated and protracted the discussion.”

Boris Karloff – 1887 – Actor (William Henry Pratt)

“The monster was the best friend I ever had.”

Harpo Marx – 1888 – Comedian (Adolph Arthur Marx)

“I was the same kind of father as I was a harpist – I played by ear.”

Robert Towne – 1934 – Actor

“One of the reasons for going back into the past is that it’s almost the only place that there’s any drama.”

Joe Eszterhas – 1944 – Writer

“Cigarettes are not a part of human behavior, they are a habit.”

Charles Schumer – 1950 – Politician

“Inaction is perhaps the greatest mistake of all.”

Bruce Hornsby – 1954 – Musician

“I’m a kid for a living:  I get to play the piano for a living.”

Steven Brust – 1955 – Author

English: Photograph of Harpo Marx playing the harpo. Vandamm Studio. Courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collection. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“A young man without ambition is an old man waiting to be.”

Steve Harvey – 1956 – Actor

“Failure is a great teacher, and I think when you make mistakes and you recover from them and you treat them as valuable learning experiences, then you’ve got something to share.”

Maxwell Caulfield – 1959 – Actor

“There isn’t a single business where anybody feels secure.”

Steve Alford – 1964 – Coach

“Fans will come if you have a good product.”

Chris Hardwick – 1971 – Comedian

“A big company is like trying to steer a luxury liner.”

Miley Cyrus – 1992 – Singer (Hope Destiny Cyrus)

“My mom is always telling me it takes a long time to get to the top, but a short time to get to the bottom.”

Abagail Adams, wife of United States President John Adams. Engraving based upon a portrait by Gilbert Stuart. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Abigail Adams – 1744 – First Lady, Wife of President John Adams

“I have been so used to a freedom of sentiment that I know not how to place so many guards about me, and to impose a silence upon myself, when I long to talk.”

George Eliot – 1819 – Author (Mary Anne Evans)

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

George Gissing – 1857 – Novelist

“For the man sound of body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather; every day has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously,”

Charles de Gaulle – 1890 – French General and President

“A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.”

Wiley Post – 1898 – Aviator

“I cut the emergency switch just in time to keep ‘Winnie Mae’ from making an exhibition of herself by standing on her nose.  That would have been fatal to our hopes.”

Hoagy Carmichael – 1899 – Composer

“Ragtime was my lullaby.”

Benjamin Britten – 1913 – Composer

“Composing is like driving down a foggy road toward a house.  Slowly you see more details of the house – the color of the slates and bricks, the shape of the windows.  The notes are the bricks and mortar of the house.”

Charles Mengel Allen – 1916 – Judge

“You can make more friends in a month by being interested in them than in ten years by trying to get them interested in you.”

Si veda :en:Image:George_Gissing.jpg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Percy Ross – 1916 – Businessman

“You’ve got to ask!  Asking is, in my opinion, the world’s most powerful – and neglected – secret to success and happiness.”

Jon Cleary – 1917 – Writer

“New Orleans music is really about three things:  Good songs, good funk, and a good time.”

Rodney Dangerfield – 1921 – Comedian

“My psychiatrist told me I was crazy and I said I want a second opinion.  He said okay, you’re ugly too.”

Tom Conti – 1941 – Actor

“Fame is a silly business.  People who chase it are almost always going to be disappointed.”

Billie Jean King – 1943 – Tennis Player

“Champions keep playing until they get it right.”

Jamie Lee Curtis – 1958 – Actress

“If you just watch a teenager, you see a lot of uncertainty.”

Mariel Hemingway – 1961 – Actress

“Finding some quiet time in your life, I think, is hugely important.”

Boris Becker – 1967 – Athlete

“I don’t really care what the man on the street thinks.  I never did anything to please him in the first place, and I’m not going to start now.”

Rasmus Lerdorf – 1968 – Scientist

“When the world becomes standard, I will start caring about standards.”

Shawn Fanning – 1980 – Businessman

“If you think about computer programming, it’s as antisocial as it gets.”

Actress Juliet Mills in 2004. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Voltaire – 1694 – Writer

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing:  It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”

Friedrich Schleiermacher – 1768 – Theologian

“The essence of religion consists in the feeling of an absolute dependence.”

Barry Cornwell – 1787 – Poet

“Oh, the summer night, Has a smile of light, And she sits on a sapphire throne.”

Harold Nicolson – 1886 – Diplomat

“The great secret of a successful marriage is to treat all disasters as incidents and none of the incidents as disasters.”

Hugh Kingsmill – 1889 – Writer

“Friends are God’s apology for relations.”

Rene Magritte – 1898 – Artist

“Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.”

Coleman Hawkins – 1904 – Musician

“If you don’t make mistakes, you aren’t really trying.”

Jim Bishop – 1907 – Journalist

“Watching your daughter being collected by her date feels like handing over a million dollar Stradivarius to a gorilla.”

Eleanor Powell – 1912 – Actress

“What we are is God’s gift to us.  What we become is our gift to God.”

Stan Musial – 1920 – Professional Baseball Player

Goldie Hawn in Sweden (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Hitting is like swimming.  Once you learn the stroke, you never forget it.”

Abe Lemons – 1922 – Coach

“Finish last in your league and they call you idiot.  Finish last in medical school and they call you doctor.”

Marilyn French – 1929 – Author

“Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains.”

Beryl Bainbridge – 1934 – Novelist

“Everything else  you grow out of, but you never recover from childhood.”

Marlo Thomas – 1937 – Actress

“My father said there were two kinds of people in the world:  givers and takers.  The takers may eat better, but the givers sleep better.”

Juliet Mills – 1941 – Actor

“Do some work in the theater if you can.  It is the best training you can get.”

Harold Ramis – 1944 – Actor

“Nothing reinforces a professional relationship more than enjoying success with someone.”

Earl Monroe – 1944 – Athlete

“Just be patient.  Let the game come to you.  Don’t rush.  Be quick, but don’t hurry.”

Goldie Hawn – 1945 – Actress

“The only thing that will make you happy is being happy with who you are, and not who people think you are.”