Quote Queen

James Joseph Sylvester – 1814 – Mathematician

“Mathematics is the music of reason.”

Sarah Orne Jewett – 1849 – Author

“What has made this nation great?  Not its heroes but its households.”

Louis Sullivan – 1856 – Architect

“Words are the most malignant, the most treacherous possession of mankind.  They are saturated with the sorrows of all time.”

Ferdinand Porsche – 1875 – Designer

“I couldn’t find the sports car of my dreams, so I built it myself.”

Loren Eiseley – 1907 – Scientist

“Man is always marveling at what he has blown apart, never at what the universe has put together, and this is his limitation.”

Kitty Carlisle – 1910 – Musician

“My mother thought Hollywood was a den of iniquity, and people came to terrible bad ends there.”

Alan Ladd – 1913 – Actor

“Nobody’s strong enough to stand up under a floor of weak material.”

Dixie Lee Ray – 1914 – Politician

“The general public has long been divided into two parts, those who think science can do anything, and those who are afraid it will.”

Mort Walker – 1923 – Artist

“Laughter is the brush that sweeps away the cobwebs of your heart.”

Alison Lurie – 1926 – Novelist

“We can lie in the language of dress or try to tell the truth; but unless we are naked and bald, it is impossible to be silent.”

Hugh Sidey – 1927 – Journalist

“A sense of humor … is needed armor.  Joy in one’s heart and some laughter on ones lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp on life.”

Eileen Brennan – 1935 – Actress

“Actors are crazy or we wouldn’t be doing this.”

Eduardo Galeano – 1940 – Journalist

“We are all mortal until the first kiss and the second glass of wine.”

Al Jardine – 1942 – Musician

“Yes, my grandfather worked with Thomas Edison on the electric car, and he sold electric cars at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris.”

Michael Huffington – 1947 – Politician

“In so many things, growth comes from adversity.”

Kjell Magne Bondevik – 1947 – Norwegian Statesman

“Knowledge of other people’s beliefs and ways of thinking must be used to build bridges, not to create conflicts.”

Dave Ramsey – 1960 – Author

“Credit is an ‘I love debt’ score.”

Malcolm Gladwell – 1963 – Author

“We don’t know where our first impressions come from or precisely what they mean, so we don’t always appreciate their fragility.”

William Eardley IV – 1964 – Public Servant

“Lord, bless me with the ability to achieve all that I can, and the wisdom to realize it doesn’t all have to be by tomorrow.”

Rachel Johnson – 1965 – Author

“Being boring is just wrong, isn’t it?  You wouldn’t have got anywhere being boring.”

Charlie Sheen – 1965 – Actor

“As kids we’re not taught how to deal with success; we’re taught how to deal with failure.  If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.  If at first you succeed, then what?”

Kiran Desai – 1971 – Author

“The publishing world is very timid.  Readers are much braver.”

Jeannie Finch – 1980 – Athlete

“There’s nothing better than working up a good sweat.”

Paz de la Huerta – 1984 – Actress

“I don’t ever wear makeup.  I steam my face.  I put hot water to open pores and cold water to close them.”

Shaun White – 1986 – Athlete

“The hardest thing about skateboarding is consistency.  The slightest flick of your foot or gust of wind can send your board flying, so it’s really anybody’s game out there.”

Abraham Tucker – 1705 – Philosopher

“Dwell upon the brightest parts in every prospect … and strive to be pleased with the present circumstances.”

Henry George – 1839 – Economist

“What has destroyed every previous civilization has been the tendency to the unequal distribution of wealth and power.”

George Robert Sims – 1847 – Journalist

“The way was long and weary, But gallantly they strode, A country lad and lassie, Along the heavy road.”

Al Spalding – 1850 – Athlete

“Two hours is about as long as any American can wait for the close of a baseball game, or anything else for that matter.”

Eugene Field – 1850 – Poet

“Here we have a baby.  It is composed of a bald head and a pair of lungs.”

Paul Bourget – 1852 – Novelist

“One must live the way one thinks or end up thinking the way one has lived.”

Hiram Johnson – 1866 – Politician

“The first casualty when war comes is truth.”

Bill Shankly – 1913 – Athlete

“Aim for the sky and you’ll reach the ceiling.  Aim for the ceiling and you’ll stay on the floor.”

Tom Glazer – 1914 – Musician

“Participation, I think, is one of the best methods of educating.”

Cleveland Amory – 1917 – Historian

“I can’t take a well-tanned person seriously.”

Alan K. Simpson – 1931 – Politician

“If you have integrity, nothing else matters.  If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”

Andy Grove – 1936 – Businessman

“Success breeds complacency.  Complacency breeds failure.  Only the paranoid survive.”

Peter Ueberroth – 1937 – Businessman

“The integrity of the game is everything.”

Lynn Samuels – 1942 – Entertainer

“People think they’re getting objective information, but they’re not.  They’re getting news wrapped up in opinion.”

Terry Bradshaw – 1948 – Professional Football Player and Broadcaster

“I’m against people reading statements.  When you read a statement, I automatically take it as though you can’t talk, and it’s not real.”

Christa McAuliffe – 1948 – Teacher and Astronaut

“I touch the future.  I teach.”

Mark Harmon – 1951 – Actor

“How many times have you been on the freeway and had someone fly by you at 100 mph then end up two cars ahead of you at the off ramp?  What’s the point?”

Jimmy Connors – 1952 – Athlete

“Use it or lose it.”

Keanu Reeves – 1964 – Actor

“The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way.”

Salma Hayek – 1966 – Actress

“What is important is to believe in something so strongly that you’re never discouraged.”

William Cartwright – 1611 – Dramatist

“The fool inherits, but the wise must get.”

Marguerite Gardiner – 1789 – Writer

“Happiness consists not in having much, but in being content with little.”

Lydia Sigourney – 1791 – Poet

“The strength of a nation, especially a republican nation, is in the intelligent and well ordered homes of the people.”

Elizabeth Harrison – 1849 – Educator

“Those who are lifting the world upward and onward are those who encourage more than criticize.”

James J. Corbett – 1866 – Athlete

“Only those who have patience to do simple things perfectly ever acquire the skills to do difficult things easily.”

Kin Hubbord – 1868 – Journalist

“Don’t knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn’t start a conversation if it didn’t change once in a while.”

Edgar Rice Burroughs – 1875 – Author

“Imagination is but another name for super intelligence.”

Andrei Platonov – 1899 – Writer

“What if we all suddenly get carried away thinking – who will be left to act?”

Walter Reuther – 1907 – Leader

“There is no greater calling than to serve your fellow men.  There is no greater contribution than to help the weak.  There is no greater satisfaction than to have done it well.”

Jacob Bronowski – 1908 – Scientist

“Every animal leaves traces of what it was; man alone leaves traces of what he created.”

Liz Carpenter – 1920 – Writer

“A major advantage of age is learning to accept people without passing judgment.”

Vittorio Gassman – 1922 – Actor

“Acting is not that far from mental disease:  An actor works on splitting his character into others.  It is like a kind of schizophrenia.”

Rocky Marciano – 1923 – Professional Boxer (Rocco Francis Marchegiano)

“I don’t want to be remembered as a beaten champion.”

Conway Twitty – 1933 – Musician

“Listen to advice, but follow your heart.”

Ann Richards – 1933 – Politician and Former Governor of Texas

“Teaching was the hardest work I had ever done, and it remains the hardest work I have done to date.”

Lily Tomlin – 1939 – Actress

“The trouble with being in the rat-race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.”

Barry Gibb – 1946 – Musician

“The secret is to make sure your family comes before anything else, because no matter what you do you’ve got to come home.”

Dr. Phil McGraw – 1950 – Psychologist

“My father used to say, ‘You would worry less about what people think if you knew how little they did.'”

Timothy Zahn – 1951 – Writer

“Luck is merely an illusion, trusted by the ignorant and chased by the foolish.”

Gloria Estefan – 1957 – Singer

“The sad truth is that opportunity doesn’t knock twice.”

Dee Dee Myers – 1961 – Public Servant

“Having a sense of humor has served me more than it has hurt me – just in the sense that it has allowed me to keep my sanity.”

Grant-Lee Phillips – 1963 – Musician

“I’m always keen to head to where the greatest gravitation pull is tugging me.”

Padma Lakshmi – 1970 – Actress, Model, and Chef

“Jewelry should not upstage you.  I pick one hot point on my body that I’m going to highlight.  Let one area do the singing – you don’t want to hear three songs at once.”

Herman von Helmholtz – 1821 – Physicist

“A moving body whose motion was not retarded by any resisting force would continue to move to all eternity.”

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps – 1844 – Writer

“Happiness must be cultivated.  It is like character.  It is not a thing to be safely let alone for a moment, or it will run to weeds.”

Maria Montessori – 1870 – Educator

“The greatest sign of a success for a teacher … is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.'”

Edward Thorndike – 1874 – Psychologist

“Psychology helps to measure the probability that an aim is attainable.”

L. Wolfe Gilbert – 1886 – Poet

“Those who find beauty in all of nature will find themselves at one with the secrets of life itself.”

Charles Reznikoff – 1894 – Poet

“The fingers of your thoughts are molding your face ceaselessly.”

Fredric March – 1897 – Actor

“Keep interested in others; keep interested in the wide and wonderful world.  Then in a spiritual sense you will always be young.”

Arthur Godfrey – 1903 – Entertainer

“You know, it sounds corny, but I believe in myself.  And I work hard.”

Dore Schary – 1905 – Producer

“The true portrait of a man is fusion of what he thinks he is, what others think he is, what he really is and what he tries to be.”

William Shawn – 1907 – Editor

“Falling short of perfection is a process that just never stops.”

Daniel Schorr – 1916 – Journalist

“All news is an exaggeration of life.”

Alan Jay Lerner – 1918 – Dramatist

“You write a hit the same way you write a flop.”

George Sewell – 1924 – Actor

“Fear is the tax that conscience pays to guilt.”

Buddy Hackett – 1924 – Comedian (Leonard Hacker)

“Don’t carry a grudge.  While you’re carrying the grudge, the other guy’s out dancing.”

James Coburn – 1928 – Actor

“The Magnificent Seven was really kind of a miraculous event that took place in my life.”

Roy Castle – 1932 – Musician

“Don’t whine – laugh.”

Frank Robinson – 1935 – Professional Baseball Player

“Close don’t count in baseball.  Close only counts in horseshoes and grenades.”

Eldridge Cleaver – 1935 – Activist

“You’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem.”

Itzhak Perlman – 1945 – Musician

“The most important thing to do is really listen.”

Van Morrison – 1945 – Musician

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

Richard Gere – 1949 – Actor

“Everyone responds to kindness.”

Robert Kocharian – 1954 – Armenian Statesman

“You can’t lose a game in which you’re not even competing.”

Edwin Moses – 1955 – Athlete

“Lots of people let it go by and never accomplish what they want.  I just wanted to see what I could do.”

Julie Brown – 1958 – Actress

“I don’t just want to be successful, I want to have fun.”

Queen Rania of Jordan – 1970 – Royalty

“Being popular comes when you have everything.  But to be liked, it means that you must be treating people with respect and you must be showing kindness toward them.”

Kris Carr – 1971 – Author

“Your self-worth has nothing to do with your craft or calling, and everything to do with how you treat yourself.”

Marc Webb – 1974 – Director

“When you don’t inherit an identity you have to define it on your own.”

Jacques-Louis David – 1748 – Artist

“In the arts the way in which an idea is rendered, and the manner in which it is expressed, is much more important than the idea itself.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley – 1797 – Author

“I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.”

Theophile Gautier – 1811 – Poet

“To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind.”

Ernest Rutherford – 1871 – Scientist

“If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.”

Huey Long – 1893 – Politician

“One of these days the people of Louisiana are going to get good government – and they aren’t going to like it.”

John Gunther – 1901 – Journalist

“All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.”

Joan Blondell – 1906 – Actress

“In the 20s, you were a face.  And that was enough.  In the 30s, you also had to be a voice.  And your voice had to match your face, if you can imagine that.”

Nancy Wake – 1912 – New Zealand Soldier

“I hate wars and violence but if they come then I don’t see why we women should just wave our men a proud goodbye and then knit them balaclaves.”

Edward M. Purcell – 1912 – Scientist

“To see the world for a moment as something rich and strange is the private reward of many discovery.”

Denis Healey – 1917 – Politician

“It is a good thing to follow the First Law of Holes:  if you are in one, stop digging.”

Ted Williams – 1918 – Athlete

“Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.”

Goeffrey Beene – 1927 – Fashion Designer

“Fashion is in a terrible state.  An overdose of too much flesh.”

Warren Buffett – 1930 – Businessman

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

Sylvia Earle – 1935 – Scientist

“Everyone has power.  But it doesn’t help if you don’t use it.”

John Phillips – 1935 – Musician

“Technology makes things faster and more cost-effective, but it’s not perfect.  It requires you to be as flexible as you can be.”

John Peel – 1939 – Entertainer

“I never make stupid mistakes.  Only very, very clever ones.”

Elizabeth Ashley – 1939 – Actress

“In a great romance, each person basically plays a part that the other really likes.”

Jean-Claude Killy – 1942 – Athlete

“Winning tastes good.”

Molly Ivins – 1944 – Journalist

“You can’t ignore politics, no matter how much you’d like to.”

Tug McGraw – 1944 – Athlete (Frank Edwin McGraw, Jr.)

“Kids should practice autographing baseballs.  This is a skill that’s often overlooked in Little League.”

William Ivey Long – 1947 – Fashion Designer

“My mind still runs too fast.  If we get the wrong fabric or something is stitched the wrong way, I get so angry and flummoxed that I start spelling my words, just to slow myself down.”

Lewis Black – 1948 – Comedian

“There’s no such thing as soy milk.  It’s soy juice.”

Guy Kawasaki – 1954 – Businessman

“Patience is the art of concealing your impatience.”

John King – 1963 – Journalist

“The world has changed.  People have amazing access to whatever they want, whenever they want it.”

Stephen Baker – 1964 – Athlete

“To bathe a cat takes brute force, perseverance, courage of conviction – and a cat.  The last ingredient is usually hardest to come by.”

Cameron Diaz – 1972 – Actress

“What we women need to do, instead of worrying about what we don’t have, is just love what we do have.”

Shaun Alexander – 1977 – Athlete

“Time heals all wounds, unless you pick at them.”

Andy Roddick – 1982 – Athlete

“Stay in school kids or you’ll end up being an umpire.”

Lawrence Jackson – 1985 – Athlete

“It’s all about work when you reach up, tap in and step on that field.  You don’t mess around when you go through that gate.”

John Locke – 1632 – Philosopher

“As people are walking all the time, in the same spot, a path appears.”

Charles Townshend – 1725 – British Politician

“I cannot go to the Opera, because I have forsworn all expense which does not end in pleasing me.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes – 1809 – Writer

“Where we love is home – home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.”

Henry Bergh – 1811 – Activist

“Mercy to animals means mercy to mankind.”

Edward Carpenter – 1844 – Activist

“Great success in examinations does naturally not as a rule go with originality of thought.”

Maurice Maeterlinck – 1862 – Dramatist

“We possess only the happiness we are able to understand.”

Charles Kettering – 1876 – Inventor

“People are very open-minded about new things – as long as they’re exactly like the old ones.”

Ingrid Bergman – 1915 – Actress

“Happiness is good health and a bad memory.”

George Montgomery – 1916 – Artist

“The toughest workout can never match the pain of being out of work.”

Anthony Crosland – 1918 – Politician

“What one generation sees as a luxury, the next sees as a necessity.”

Charlie Parker – 1920 – Musician

“Don’t play the saxophone.  Let it play you.”

Richard Attenborough – 1923 – Actor

“And I believe we need heroes, I believe we need certain people who we can measure our own shortcomings by.”

John McCain – 1936 – Politician

“We cannot forever hide the truth about ourselves, from ourselves.”

Elliott Gould – 1938 – Actor

“There’s nothing more arrogant or conceited than youth, and there’s nothing other then machinery that can replace youth.”

James Brady – 1940 – Activist

“When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.  I have several stands around here.”

Gordon Bethune – 1941 – Businessman

“You’re only as good as your dumbest competitor.”

Bob Beamon – 1946 – Athlete

“Whatever you do, don’t do it halfway.”

Humphrey Carpenter – 1946 – Author

“Autobiography is probably the most respectable form of lying.”

Michael Jackson – 1958 – Musician

“If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with.”

Thomas Marshburn – 1960 – Astronaut

“The blackness of space was a big shock to me.  It is a deep, three-dimensional, oily blackness.  You can feel the distance.”

Todd English – 1960 – Chef

“I liked the energy of cooking, the action, the camaraderie.  I often compare the kitchen to sports and compare the chef to a coach.  There are a lot of similarities to it.”

Brian Chesky – 1981 – Businessman

“The stuff that matters in life is no longer stuff.  It’s other people.  It’s relationships.  It’s experience.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – 1749 – Poet

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply.  Willing is not enough; we must do.”

Umberto Giordano – 1867 – Composer

“Love forbids you not to love.”

Arthur Calwell – 1896 – Politician

“It is better to be defeated on principle than to win on lies.”

Bruno Bettelheim – 1903 – Writer

“The fear of failure is so great, it is no wonder that the desire to do right by one’s children has led to a whole library of books offering advice on how to raise them.”

John Betjeman – 1906 – Poet

“Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows.”

Roger Tory Peterson – 1908 – Environmentalist

“Birds are indicators of the environment.  If they are in trouble, we know we’ll soon be in trouble.”

Robertson Davies – 1913 – Novelist

“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.”

Jack Vance – 1916 – Author

“A reader is not supposed to be aware that someone’s written the story.  He’s supposed to be completely immersed, submerged in the environment.”

Janet Frame – 1924 – Novelist

“Writing a novel is not merely going on a shopping expedition across the border to an unreal land:  it is hours and years spent in the factories, the cathedrals of the imagination.”

Donald O’Connor – 1925 – Musician and Dancer

“Going up walls doing somersaults, that trick took a couple of days.”

Marvin Davis – 1925 – Businessman

“As men get older, the toys get more expensive.”

Ben Gazzara – 1930 – Actor

“I love awards, especially if I get them.”

David Soul – 1943 – Actor

“It’s only when gravity starts to take over you begin to think about your body.”

Rita Dove – 1952 – Poet

“When we are touched by something it’s as if we’re being brushed by an angel’s wings.”

Leroy Chiao – 1960 – Astronaut

“Tinkering is something we need to know how to do in order to keep something like the space station running.  I am a tinkerer by nature.”

Melissa Rosenberg – 1962 – Writer

“When I’m stuck in my writing, the world is amiss.  If I’m eating a sandwich, it’s an unsettled sandwich.  If I’m in the shower, it’s an incorrect shower.  It’s profoundly uncomfortable.  But it’s what keeps me pushing.”

Shania Twain – 1965 – Musician

“Being betrayed is one of the most valuable lessons life can teach.”

Billy Boyd – 1968 – Actor

“My worst habit is whistling while I sleep.”

Sheryl Sandberg – 1969 – Businesswoman

“I want to tell any young girl out there who’s a geek, I was a really serious geek in high school.  It works out.  Study harder.”

Jason Priestley – 1969 – Actor

“You never appreciate your anonymity until you don’t have it anymore.”

Terrell Davis – 1972 – Athlete

“There is no such thing as sportsmanship.”

Jake Owen – 1982 – Musician

“I think if you just look at life in a positive way, positive things will happen.”

LeAnn Rimes – 1982 – Musician

“You can’t break what’s already broken.”

Samuel Larsen – 1991 – Actor

“One of the biggest things I learned was that it’s OK to be nervous and admit that you’re having a hard time.”

Johann Georg Hamann – 1730 – Philosopher

“A writer who is in a hurry to be understood today or tomorrow runs the danger of being misunderstood the day after tomorrow.”

James Henry Breasted – 1865 – Historian

“Disapproval is a very important factor in all progress.  There has really never been any progress without it.”

Charles G. Dawes – 1865 – Vice President of the United States

“Mediocrity requires aloofness to preserve its dignity.”

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel – 1870 – Philosopher

“An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking.  To generalize means to think.”

Lloyd C. Douglas – 1877 – Clergyman

“If a man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates through all his thinking, damages his personality, makes him a landlord to a ghost.”

Kenji Miyazawa – 1896 – Poet

“We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.”

C. S. Forester – 1899 – Novelist (Cecil Louis Troughton Smith)

“There is no other way of writing a novel than to begin at the beginning and to continue to the end.”

Lyndon B. Johnson – 1908 – 36th President of the United States

“Only two things are necessary to keep one’s wife happy.  One is to let her think she is having her own way, and the other, to let her have it.”

Frank Leahy – 1908 – Coach

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

Frank Kelly Freas – 1922 – Writer

“We get too soon old and too late smart.”

William Least Heat-Moon – 1939 – Writer

“Be careful going in search of adventure – it’s ridiculously easy to find.”

Tuesday Weld – 1943 – Actress

“It seems the brighter you are, the deeper the hole you get into!”

Jeanette Winterson – 1959 – Novelist

“Writers have to have a knack for listening.  I need to be able to hear what is being said to me by the voices I create.”

United States Capitol (Photo credit: Jack’s LOST FILM)

Dean Devin – 1962 – Director

“Filmmaking is a real democracy – it’s up to the audience to vote with their tickets.”

Chandra Wilson – 1969 – Actress

“Our happiness is certainly mixed in with the tragedies of life.  You have to find the lemonade.  You have to find the silver lining in the middle of everything that happens in life.”

Cesar Millan – 1969 – The Dog Whisperer

“Owners lavish love on their pets. which is why so many go from non-aggressive pups to being out of control when they’re older.  People just don’t realize their dog must respect them as leader of the pack.”

Christine O’Donnell – 1969 – Politician

“Americans want our leaders to defend our values, our culture, our legacy of liberty, and our way of life, not apologize.”

Jim Thome – 1970 – Athlete

“Charisma’s good every night.  Something special is always about to happen.  You’ve got to believe it.”

Mark Webber – 1976 – Driver

“Only one guy can be world champion, and so if everyone else thought they were failures you’d have no one left on the grid.”

Aaron Paul – 1979 – Actor

“I saw a lot of people have success handed to them and them exploited it.  They didn’t protect it or cherish it.”