Quote Queen

[Portrait of Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden, between 1938 and 1948] (LOC) (Photo credit: The Library of Congress)

“Treason doth never prosper:  What’s the reason?  Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley – 1792 – Poet

“Fear not for the future, weep not for the past.”

Walter Pater – 1839 – Critic

“Art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass.”

William Henry Hudson – 1841 – Author

“You cannot fly like an eagle with the wings of a wren.”

Harry Lauder – 1870 – Entertainer

“Aye, I’m tellin’ ye, happiness is one of the few things in this world that doubles every time you share it with someone else.”

Ezra Taft Benson – 1899 – Leader

“You cannot do wrong and feel right.  It is impossible.”

Louis Armstrong – 1901 – Jazz Trumpeter and Singer

“All music is folk music.  I ain’t never heard a horse sing a song.”

Helen Thomas – 1920 – Journalist

“We won’t really know what will happen until it happens.”

Klaus Schulze – 1947 – Composer

“Everything changes permanently.  How boring if it wouldn’t.”

Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Billy Bob Thornton – 1955 – Actor

“I don’t have a fear of flying; I have a fear of crashing.”

Mary Decker – 1958 – Athlete

“I’ve always got such high expectations for myself.  I’m aware of them, but I can’t relax them.”

Barack Obama – 1961 – 44th President of the United States

“It’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential.”

Daniel Dae Kim – 1968 – Actor

“There is as much wisdom in listening as there is in speaking – and that goes for all relationships, not just romantic ones.”

Jeff Gordon – 1971 – Race Car Driver

“I don’t feel I’m a step above anyone on this team.  I’m just another link in the chain.”

English: American writer Henry Cuyler Bunner (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

James Wyatt – 1746 – Architect

“Employ oneself upon trifling professional matters which others could do.”

Hamilton Fish – 1808 – Politician

“If our country is worth dying for in time of war let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace.”

H. C. Bunner – 1855 – Journalist (Henry Cuyler Bunner)

“Shakespeare was a dramatist of note who lived by writing things to quote.”

Stanley Baldwin – 1867 – Statesman

“I am one of those who would rather sink with faith then swim without it.”

Rupert Brooke – 1887 – Poet

“Cities, like cats, will reveal themselves at night.”

Ernie Pyle – 1900 – Journalist

“If you go long enough without a bath, even the fleas will leave you alone.”

Clifford D. Simak – 1904 – Writer

“Without consciousness and intelligence, the universe would lack meaning.”

Maggie Kuhn – 1905 – Activist

“When you least expect it, someone may actually listen to what you have to say.”

Maggie Kuhn (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

James MacGregor Burns – 1918 – Author

“In real life, the most practical advice for leaders is not to treat pawns like pawns, nor princes like princes, but all persons like persons.”

Walter Wriston – 1919 – Businessman

“Judgment comes from experience – and experience comes from bad judgment.”

P. D. James – 1920 – Novelist (Phyllis Dorothy James)

“What a child doesn’t receive he can seldom later give.”

Leon Uris – 1924 – Writer

“Often we have no time for our friends but all the time in the world for our enemies.”

Marv Levy – 1925 – Coach

“The age factor means nothing to me.  I’m old enough to know my limitations and I’m young enough to exceed them.”

Tony Bennett – 1926 – Musician

“To work is to feel alive.

Steven Berkoff – 1937 – Actor

“Writing is the antidote for loneliness.”

Roscoe Mitchell – 1940 – Composer

“If you listen to nature, all the sounds are done in a confident way.  I’m trying to do that.”

Martin Sheen – 1940 – Actor

“Anybody who plays golf will tell you that you play against yourself.”

Martha Stewart – 1941 – Entertainer

“My new motto is:  When you’re through changing, you’re through.”

Koichi Tanaka – 1959 – Scientist

“From my father, I learned the importance of working sincerely at things to which I had committed myself, and to persevere untiringly even in the face of little progress.”

John C. McGinley – 1959 – Actor

“I like to be in waiting rooms with people as they’re auditioning, because their terror calms me.”

James Hetfield – 1963 – Musician

“I choose to live, not just exist.”

Tom Brady – 1977 – Football Player

“Every quarterback can throw a ball; every running back can run; every receiver is fast; but that mental toughness that you talk about translates into competitiveness.”

Elisha Gray (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

John Tyndall – 1820 – Physicist

“Knowledge once gained casts a light beyond its own immediate boundaries.”

Elisha Gray – 1835 – Inventor

“As to Bell’s talking telegraph, it only creates interest in scientific circles … its commercial values will be limited.”

Francis Marion Crawford – 1854 – Writer

“No one person can possibly combine all the elements supposed to make up what everyone means by friendship.”

Irving Babbitt – 1865 – Critic

“Anyone who thus looks up has some chance of becoming worthy to be looked up to in turn.”

Westbrook Pegler – 1894 – Journalist

“Golf is the most useless outdoor game ever devised to waste the time and try the spirit of man.”

Myrna Loy – 1905 – Actress

“Life, is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.”

George Kimble – 1908 – Historian

“The darkest thing about Africa has always been our ignorance of it.”

Carroll O’Connor – 1922 – Actor

“Even a true artist does not always produce art.”

James Baldwin – 1924 – Novelist

“When one begins to live by habit and by quotation, one has begun to stop living.”

Peter O’Toole – 1932 – Actor

“It’s my job, it’s what I do, it’s what I’m on earth to do, and it’s who I am.”

Garth Hudson – 1937 – Musician

“Unfortunately or fortunately, in order to become acquainted with the idiom of country or rock music, it is necessary to occasionally play in a bar.  Bars are a rehearsal place.”

Francis Marion Crawford (1854 – 1909), an American writer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Wes Craven – 1939 – Director

“I learned to take the first job that you have in the business that you want to get into.  It doesn’t matter what that job it, you get your foot in the door.”

Phil Condit – 1941 – Businessman

“None of us is as smart as all of us.”

Rose Tremain – 1943 – Novelist

“Life is not a dress rehearsal.”

Isabel Allende – 1942 – Writer

“All stories interest me, and some haunt me until I end up writing them.  Certain themes keep coming up:  justice, loyalty, violence, death, political and social issues, freedom.”

Dennis Prager – 1948 – Journalist

“Conservatives divide the world in terms of good and evil while liberals do it in terms of the rich and poor.”

James Fallows – 1949 – Journalist

“Always write angry letters to your enemies.  Never mail them.”

Lance Ito – 1950 – Judge

“If you take the cameras out of the courtroom, then you hide a certain measure of truth from the public.”

Caleb Carr – 1955 – Novelist

“Every human being must find his own way to cope with severe loss, and the only job of a true friend is to facilitate whatever method he chooses.”

Victoria Jackson – 1959 – Comedianne

“Maybe I’ll learn how, but the only thing I can do is turn down parts that would hurt my conscience.”

Tim Wakefield – 1966 – Athlete

“It’s nice to have a catcher who knows my mechanics, too.  That way if I get into trouble he can stop me before I get out of control.”

Kevin Smith – 1970 – Director

“All these people who say success changes people; well, no, it just magnifies what’s there.”

Sam Worthington – 1976 – Actor

“Well, I think the world changes around you and I think you don’t change.  That’s as simple as that.”

Edward Furlong – 1977 – Actor

“I don’t think anyone has a normal family.”

Francis Scott Key (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Francis Scott Key – 1779 – Author

“Then, in that hour of deliverance, my heart spoke.  Does not such a country, and such defenders of their country, deserve a song?”

Maria Mitchell – 1818 – Scientist

“Do not look at stars as bright spots only.  Try to take in the vastness of the universe.”

Herman Melville – 1819 – Author

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”

Mary Harris Jonas – 1837 – Activist

“In Georgia where children work day and night in the cotton mills, they have just passed a bill to protect song birds.  What about the little children from whom all song is gone?”

Rose Macaulay – 1881 – Novelist

“Love’s a disease.  But curable.”

Benjamin E. Mays – 1895 – Educator

“The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching  your goal.  The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.”

Marvin Bower – 1903 – Businessman

“People should be judged on the basis of their performance, not nationality, personality, education, or personal traits and skills.”

Pam Gems – 1925 – Playwright

Maria Mitchell (Photo credit: nha.library)

“Olivier said that drama is an affair of the heart, or it’s nothing, and he was right.”

Geoffrey Holder – 1930 – Actor

“Education begins at home.  You can’t blame the school for not putting into your child what you don’t put into him.”

Dom DeLuise – 1933 – Actor

“The joys of my life are my granddaughters.  They are beautiful.  You don’t have to believe me.  You can ask my wife.  She’ll tell you.”

Sheldon Adelson – 1933 – Businessman

“I look at every business and ask, How long can this last?  How can I identify the status quo and change it?”

Yves Saint Laurent – 1936 – Designer

“Fashions fade, style is eternal.”

Robert James Waller – 1939 – Writer

“Life is never easy for those who dream.”

Jerry Garcia – 1942 – Musician

“Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.”

Hank Jones, Newport Jazz Festival, 7/14/05 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sebastian Spering Kresge – 1867 – Merchant – Founder of KMart

“I never made a dime – talking.”

Munchi Premchand – 1880 – Writer

“Beauty doesn’t need ornaments – softness can’t bear the weight of ornaments.”

Jean Dubuffet – 1901 – Artist

“For me, insanity is super sanity.  The normal is psychotic.  Normal means lack of imagination, lack of creativity.”

Irv Kupcinet – 1912 – Journalist

“An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.”

Hank Jones – 1918 – Musician

“I am the sum total of everything I have experienced musically.”

Curt Gowdy – 1919 -Sports Broadcaster

“An announcer is only as good as yesterday’s performance.”

Primo Levi – 1919 – Scientist

“Anyone who had obeyed nature by transmitting a piece of gossip experiences the explosive relief that accompanies the satisfying a primary need.”

Primo Levi (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Alan Autry – 1952 – Actor

“Leadership demands that we make tough choices.”

Thomas Leonard – 1955 – Businessman

“A lifestyle is what you pay for; a life is what pays you.”

Mark Cuban – 1958 – Businessman

“Sweat equity is the most valuable equity there is.  Know your business and industry better than anyone else in the world.  Love what you do or don’t do it.”

J. K. Rowling – 1965 – Author (Joanne Rowling)

“Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels.  But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel – 1967 – Writer

“Insanity is knowing that what you’re doing is completely idiotic, but still, somehow, you just can’t stop it.”

Eve Best – 1971 – Actress

“Time is about the need to control.  Let go of control and embrace what happens.”

Portrait of Henry Ford (ca. 1919) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Emily Bronte – 1818 – Author

“Honest people don’t hide their deeds.”

Henry Ford – 1863 – Inventor and Businessman

“Whether you think you can or that you can’t, you are usually right.”

Casey Stengel – 1890 – Athlete

“Never make predictions, especially about the future.”

Henry Moore – 1898 – Sculptor

“To know one thing, you must know the opposite.”

Thomas Sowell – 1930 – Economist

“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.”

Paul Anka – 1941 – Musician

“I’ve always believed that if you don’t stay moving, they will throw dirt on you.”

Arnold Schwarzeneggar – 1947 – Actor and Governor of California

“We all have great inner power.  The power is self-faith.  There’s really an attitude to winning.  You have to see yourself winning before you win.”

Samuel J. Palmisano – 1951 – Businessman

“Smarter is always the answer.”

Delta Burke – 1956 – Actress

English: New York Yankees manager Casey Stengel in a 1953 issue of Baseball Digest. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“If you want to say it with flowers, a single rose says:  ‘I’m cheap.'”

Lisa Kudrow – 1963 – Actress

“I’ve learned you can make a mistake and the whole world doesn’t end.  I had to learn to allow myself to make a mistake without becoming defensive and unforgiving.”

Vivica Fox – 1964 – Actress

“A great figure or physique is nice, but it’s self-confidence that makes someone really sexy.”

Ann Brashares – 1967 – Writer

“As a writer, you live in such isolation.  It’s hard to imagine your book has a life beyond you.”

Hilary Swank – 1974 – Actress

“You only have one life and if you’re not doing what you love, what’s the point?”

Hope Solo – 1981 – Athlete

“Athletes are extremists.  When they’re training, it’s laser focus.”

English: Booth Tarkington (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Actress Theda Bara in a promotional photo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Daniel Drew – 1797 – Businessman

“He who sells what isn’t his’n, must buy it back or go to prison.”

Alexis de Tocqueville – 1805 – Historian

“Life is to be entered upon with courage.”

Max Nordau – 1849 – Critic

“It is well to be alone.  It fertilizes the creative impulse.”

Booth Tarkington – 1869 – Novelist

“The only good in pretending is the fun we get out of fooling ourselves that we fool somebody.”

Don Marquis – 1878 – Poet

“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.”

Theda Bara – 1885 – Actress

“The reason good women like me and flock to my pictures is that there is a little bit of vampire instinct in every woman.”

Sigmund Romberg – 1887 – Composer

“A love song is just a caress set to music.”

Clara Bow – 1905 – Actress

“Even now I can’t trust life.  It did too many awful things to me as a kid.”

Stanley Kunitz – 1905 – Poet

“Old myths, old gods, old heroes have never died.  They are only sleeping at the bottom of our mind, waiting for our call.  We have need for them.  They represent the wisdom of our race.”

Dag Hammarskjold – 1905 Diplomat

“The longest journey is the journey in words.  Of him who has chosen his destiny, who has started upon his quest for the source of his being.”

Diana Vreeland – 1906 – Editor

“You don’t have to be born beautiful to be wildly attractive.”

Jean Baudrillard – 1929 – Sociologist

“Perhaps the world’s second worst crime is boredom.  The first is being a bore.”

Peter Jennings – 1938 – Journalist

“Have a sense of humor about life – you will need it.  And be courteous.”

Gary Busey – 1944 – Actor

“If you take shortcuts, you get cut short.”

Sharon Creech – 1945 – Writer

“Read a lot, live your life, and listen and watch, so that your mind fills up with millions of images.”

Tim Gunn – 1953 – Designer

“Take the high road.  No matter how much strife, and consternation, frustration and anger you might be confronted with – don’t go to that level.”

Lisi Harrison – 1970 – Author

“I like writing about the issues we all bump up against as we get older, but I try to present them in a fun way.”

Josh Radnor – 1974 – Director

“Kindness is not about instant gratification.  More often, it’s akin to a low-risk investment that steadily appreciates steadily over time.”

Keeth Smart – 1978 – Athlete

“Some of my competitors overlook the importance of knowing as much as possible about their opponents, but I think that it is an invaluable asset that I have gained from working.”

Marlen Esparza – 1989 – Athlete

“As an athlete, confidence makes me more competitive and helps me perform better.”

English: Alice Duer Miller (1874-1942) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Beatrix Potter – 1866 – Author

“Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.”

Alice Duer Miller – 1874 – Poet

“Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defense against one’s own despised and unwanted feelings.”

John Ashbery – 1927 – Poet

“The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot be.”

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy – 1929 – Author and Wife of President John Kennedy

“It takes an awful lot of effort to make everything look effortless.”

Robert Hughes – 1938 – Critic

“A determined soul will do more with a rusty monkey wrench than a loafer will accomplish with all the tools in a machine shop.”

Judy Martz – 1943 – Politician

“If you can’t do it and do it well, you can’t do it, period.”

Bill Bradley – 1943 – Athlete and Politician

“Becoming number one is easier than remaining number one.”

Jacqueline Bouvier by David Berne in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jim Davis – 1945 – Cartoonist

“Vegetables are a must on a diet.  I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.”

Vida Blue – 1949 – Baseball Player

“Sometimes in this game it’s as good to be lucky as it is to be good.”

Terry Fox – 1958 – Athlete

“I bet some of you feel sorry for me.  Well don’t.  Having an artificial leg has its advantages.  I’ve broken my right knee many times and it doesn’t hurt a bit.”

Kevin Thomas – 1978 – Athlete

“As a leader, you’re supposed to be above reproach, and what that means is you can’t even give the appearance that you’re going to do something wrong.”

English: New York Giants manager Leo Durocher in a 1948 issue of Baseball Digest. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Douglas Horton – 1891 – Clergyman

“If you love something let it go free.  If it doesn’t come back, you never had it.  If it comes back, love it forever.”

Leo Durocher – 1905 – Athlete

“Show me a good loser and I’ll show you an idiot.”

Philip Guston – 1913 – Artist

“Painting is an illusion, a piece of magic, so what you see is not what you see.”

Elizabeth Hardwick – 1916 – Critic

“Adversity is a great teacher, but this teacher makes us pay dearly for its instruction; and often the profit we derive, is not worth the price we paid.”

Norman Lear – 1922 – Television Producer

“Life is made up of small pleasures.  Happiness is made up of those tiny successes.  The big ones come too infrequently.  And if you don’t collect all these tiny successes, the big ones don’t really mean anything.”

Vincent Canby – 1924 – Critic

“Hack fiction exploits curiosity without really satisfying it or making connections between it and anything else in the world.”

Norman Ralph Augustine – 1935 – Author

“Motivation will almost always beat mere talent.”

Gary Gygax – 1938 – Inventor

“The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don’t need any rules.”

English: Gary Gygax at Gen Con Indy 2007. Gygax is standing in the Troll Lord Games booth (booth 515). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bobbie Gentry – 1944 – Musician

“Euphemism is a euphemism for lying.”

Peggy Fleming – 1948 – Athlete

“The first thing is to love your sport.  Never do it to please someone else.  It has to be yours.”

Juliana Hatfield – 1967 – Musician

“If you want to achieve things in life, you’ve just got to do them, and if you’re talented and smart, you’ll succeed.”

Cassandra Clare – 1973 – Author

“You’re a reader as well as a writer, so write what you’d want to read.”

Alex Rodriguez – 1975 – Athlete

“Enjoy your sweat because hard work doesn’t guarantee success, but without it you don’t have a chance.”

English: George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright, photographed by the press in 1909 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

George Bernard Shaw – 1856 – Playwright

“Liberty means responsibility; that is why most men dread it.”

Carl Jung – 1875 – Psychiatrist

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.  Who looks outside, dreams.  Who looks inside, awakens.”

Aldous Huxley – 1894 – Novelist

“Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.”

Robert Graves – 1895 – Novelist

“There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money, either.”

Gracie Allen – 1895 – Comedianne

“Brains, integrity, and force may be all very well, but what you need today is Charm.  Go ahead and work on your economic programs if you want to, I’ll develop my radio personality.”

Mick Jagger – 1943 – Musician

“The past is a great place and I don’t want to erase it or to regret it, but I don’t want to be its prisoner either.”

Helen Mirren – 1945 – Actress

“We’re all idiots when we’re young.  We don’t think we are, but we are.  So we should be.”

Dorothy Hamill – 1956 – Athlete

“I was passionate.  I found something that I loved.  I could be all alone in a big old skating rink and nobody could get near me and I didn’t have to talk to anybody because of my shyness.  It was great.  I was in my fantasy world.”

Andy Goldsworthy – 1956 – Artist

“People also leave presence in a place even when they are no longer there.”

Gerald Arpey – 1958 – Businessman

Helen Mirren at the Orange British Academy Film Awards in London’s Royal Opera House (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“We need to take excellent care of our customers, and do so at a profit.”

Kevin Spacey – 1959 – Actor

“Success is like death.  The more successful you become, the higher the houses in the hills get and the higher the fences get.”

Sandra Bullock – 1964 – Actress

“I’m a true believer in karma.  You get what you give, whether it’s bad or good.”