Quote Queen

Charles Reade – 1814 – Novelist

“Sow an act and you reap a habit.  Sow a habit and you reap a character.  Sow a character and you reap a destiny.”

Frank Lloyd Wright – 1867 – Architect

“The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.”

Leroy Neiman – 1921 Artist

“The businessman says ‘If I don’t do it first, somebody else will.’  The artist says ‘If I don’t do it first, nobody else will.”

Barbara Bush – 1925 – Wife of President George H. W. Bush

“At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal.  You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a parent.”

Jerry Stiller – 1927 – Comedian

“Creative comedy is like growing geraniums in a mine field.”

Joan Rivers – 1933 – Actress

” Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is God’s gift, that’s why we call it the present.”

Nancy Sinatra – 1940 – Singer

“I think most people are aware of the garbage in the tabloids and don’t give them a lot of credence.”

Karen Kingsbury – 1963 – Novelist

“You don’t have love without sacrifice; you can’t have sacrifice without love.”

Julianna Marguiles – 1966 – Actress

“If you walk down the street and smile at someone, that will get passed on to the next person.  That has the power to change someone’s day.”

Kanye West – 1977 – Rapper

“I refuse to accept other people’s ideas of happiness for me.  As if there’s a ‘one size fits all’ standard for happiness.”

English: Bear Grylls in front of an Alaska Air National Guard, 210th Rescue Squadron HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter before heading out to Spencer Glacier to film Man vs. Wild (Born

Anna Kournikova at a tennis clinic. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Survivor). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Paul Gauguin – 1848 – French Painter and Wood Engraver

“I shut my eyes in order to see.”

Robert S. Mulliken – 1896 – Chemist

“I would like to emphasize strongly my belief that the era of computing chemists, when hundreds if not thousands of chemists will go to the computing machine instead of the laboratory for increasingly many facets of chemical information, is already at hand.  There is only one obstacle, namely that someone must pay for the computing time.”

Jessica Tandy – 1909 – Actress

“You are richer by doing things.”

Gwendolyn Brooks – 1917 – Writer and Poet

“A writer should get as much education as possible, but just going to school is not enough; if it were, all owners of doctorates would be inspired writers.”

Nikki Giovanni – 1943 – Poet

“I really don’t think life is about the I-could-have-beens.  Life is only about the I-tried-to-do.  I don’t mind the failure but I can’t imagine that I’d forgive myself if I didn’t try.”

Liam Neeson – 1952 – Irish Actor

“It’s interesting, the more successful you become the more people want to give you stuff for nothing.”

Louise Erdrich – 1954 – Writer and Poet

“Love won’t be tampered with, love won’t go away.  Push it to one side and it creeps to the other.”

Prince – 1958 (Prince Rogers Nelson) – Musician

“Everyday is a blessing from God.  And I consider it a new beginning.  Yeah, everything is beautiful.”

Bear Grylls – 1974 (Edward Michael Grylls) – TV Personality

“A man’s pride can be his downfall, and he needs to learn when to turn to others for support and guidance.”

Allen Iverson – 1975 – Basketball Player

“This is the thing you dream about when you’re a kid, even before getting into the league.”

Anna Kournikova – 1981 – Russian Tennis Player and Model

“I think it’s really important for me not to forget where I came from.”

Carl Sandburg, American poet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nathan Hale – 1755 – American Revolutionary War Officer and Hero

“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”

Dean Inge – 1860 – Author

“A cat can be trusted to purr when she is pleased, which is more than can be said of human beings.”

Robert Falcon Scott – 1868 – Explorer

“Every day some new fact comes to light – some new obstacle which threatens the gravest obstruction.  I suppose this is the reason which makes the game so well worth playing.”

Thomas Mann – 1875 – Novelist

“A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”

Carl Sandburg – 1878 – Poet

“A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.”

Paul Dudley White – 1886 – Scientist

“A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.”

Richard E. Smalley – 1943 – Chemist

“I don’t think that most people thought I would amount to anything when I was a high schooler.  Neither did I, frankly…I never thought I would even get a job, let alone be a scientist, let alone be lucky enough to have been in areas that have had an impact so far beyond my expectations.”

Lasse Hallstrom – 1946 – Director

“I love mixing amateurs and professionals.”

Robert Englund – 1947 – Actor and Director

“I always get inspiration from whatever characters say about my characters.”

Sandra Bernhard – 1955 – Actress

English: Sandra Bernhard at Daryl Roth Theatre New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Everybody has their own way of tapping into their realness.”

John Maynard Keynes Русский: Джон Мейнард Кейнс Türkçe: John Maynard Keynes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Adam Smith – 1723 – Economist

“Man is an animal that makes bargains:  no other animal does this – no dog exchanges bones with another.”

George Stephen – 1829 – Businessman

“When I decided to take writing seriously, I did a lot of reading and analyzing of the books I liked, and came up with what I thought were pretty sound plotting and structure basics.”

Robert Mayer – 1879 – Businessman

“I look upon myself as a musical bricklayer with architectural aspirations.”

John Maynard Keynes – 1883 – Economist

“Successful investing is anticipating the anticipation of others.”

Ivy Compton Burnett – 1884 – Novelist

“A leopard does not change his spots, or change his feeling that spots are rather a credit.”

Ruth Benedict – 1887 – Scientist

“The trouble with life isn’t that there is no answer, it’s that there are so many answers.”

Roy Thomson – 1894 – Publisher

“Think until it hurts.”

Federico Garcia Lorca – 1898 – Poet

“The two elements the traveler first captures in the big city are extra human architecture and furious rhythm.  Geometry and anguish.”

Garrett Fort – 1900 – Writer Mark Wahlberg (Photo credit: Eva Rinaldi Celebrity and Live Music Photographer)

Mark Wahlberg (Photo credit: Eva Rinaldi Celebrity and Live Music Photographer)

“Superstition?  Who can define the boundary line between the superstition of yesterday and the scientific fact of tomorrow?”

Alfred Kazin – 1915 – Critic

“If we practiced medicine like we practice education, we’d look for the liver on the right side and left side in alternate years.”

Tony Richardson – 1928 – Stage and Film Director

“Failure is not fatal; victory is not success.”

Helene Cixous – 1937 – Writer

“Only when you are lost can love find itself in you without losing its way.”

Joe Clark – 1939 – Scientist

“Self-respect permeates every aspect of your life.”

Margaret Drabble – 1939 – Novelist

“When nothing is sure, everything is possible.”

MARGARET DRABBLE AT BEVERLEY BOOKFEST (Photo credit: summonedbyfells)

Whitfield Diffie – 1944 – Scientist

“If you have ambition, you might not achieve anything, but without ambition, you are almost certain not to achieve anything.”

John Bach – 1946 – Actor

“To the timid soul, nothing is possible.”

David Horne – 1947 – Playwright

“No one but a fool is always right.”

Laurie Anderson – 1947 – Musician

“As a New Yorker, I’m someone who lives on an island and looks across to America.”

Ken Follett – 1949 – Author

“The research is the easiest.  The outline is the most fun.  The first draft is the hardest because every word of the outline has to be fleshed out.  The rewrite is very satisfying.”

Suze Orman – 1951 – Financial Advisor and Writer

“If you have debt I’m willing to bet that general clutter is a problem for you too.”

Peter Erskine – 1954 – Musician

“There is no point in launching technology before customers are ready to use it.”

Kenny G – 1956 – Musician

“I really create everything I do from the heart.”

Ron Livingston – 1968 – Actor

“Life is not always like chess.  Just because you have the king surrounded, don’t think he is not capable of hurting you.”

Brian McKnight – 1969 – Musician

“I don’t care how small the game.  I want to win.”

Mark Wahlberg – 1971 – Actor

“A lot of talented actors still have to pay their bills.”

Cover of Life Is a Banquet

Rosalind Russell – 1907 – Actress

“Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death.”

Jacques Roumain – 1907 – Writer

“You cannot eat a cluster of grapes at once, but it is very easy if you eat them one by one.”

Robert Merrill – 1917 – Baritone Opera Singer

“When in doubt, sing loud.”

Dennis Weaver – 1924 – Actor

“Business must be the solution, not the problem.”

Robert Fulghum – 1937 – Author

“Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.”

Anthony Braxton – 1945 – Musician

“Everybody in America is angry about something.”

Jim Wallis – 1948 – Writer

“Hope unbelieved is always considered nonsense.  But hope believed is history in the process of being changed.”

Parker Stevenson – 1952 – Actor

“I made a classic mistake.  I held out for something better.”

Scott Wolf – 1968 – Actor

“You can’t do your work worrying about what people will think of it – you kind of just have to do your work.”

Noah Wyle – 1971 – Actor

Angelina Jolie on the set of “Changeling” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     “I think when you are names Noah, you are destined for a certain way of life.”

Angelina Jolie – 1975 – Actress

“We come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.”

Philippe Quinault (Photo credit: Stifts- och landsbiblioteket i Skara)

Philippe Quinault – 1635 – Dramatist

“It is not wise to be wiser than is necessary.”

James Hutton – 1726 – Scientist

“What more can we require?  Nothing but time.”

William Hone – 1780 – Writer

“A good lather is half the shave.”

Richard Cobden – 1804 – Businessman

“For every credibility gap there is a gullibility gap.”

Jefferson Finis Davis – 1808 – U.S. Statesman and Soldier

“Never be haughty to the humble or humble to the haughty.”

Raoul Dufy – 1877 – Artist

“I don’t follow any system.  All the laws you can lay down are only so many props to be cast aside when the hour of creation arrives.”

Alfred Korzybski – 1879 – Scientist

“There are two ways to slice easily through life; to believe everything or to doubt everything.  Both ways save us from thinking.”

English: Alfred Korzybski, Polish philosopher and scientist. Polski: Alfred Korzybski, inżynier, filozof, matematyk (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Josephine Baker – 1906 (Freda Josephine McDonald) – Dancer and Entertainer

“Beautiful?  It’s all a question of luck.  I was born with good legs.  As for the rest…beautiful, no.  Amusing, yes.”

Tony Curtis – 1925 (Bernard Schwartz) – Actor

“I enlisted when I was a boy.  The Navy looked after me like my mother.  It fed me, took care of me and gave me wonderful opportunities.”

Allen Ginsberg – 1926 – Poet

“Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.”

Chuck Barris – 1929 – Television Producer

“Spontaneity is such an entertaining facet of show business.”

Howard Simons – 1929 – Editor

“People who are funny and smart and return phone calls get much better press than people who are just funny and smart.”

Larry McMurtry – 1936 – Writer, Bookseller, and Academic

“Incompetents invariably make trouble for people other than themselves.”

Ian Hunter – 1939 – Musician

“I think writers, by nature, are more observers instead of participators.”

Curtis Mayfield – 1942 – Rhythm and Blues Singer and Songwriter

“Our purpose is to educate as well as to entertain.”

Hale Irwin – 1945 – Athlete

“If you’re not just a bit nervous before a match, you probably don’t have the expectations of yourself that you should have.”

John Dykstra – 1947 – Scientist

“If you can imagine it, we can make it.”

Silas Robertson – 1948 – Celebrity

“America, everybody is in too big a rush.  Lay back, take a sip of tea, mow a little grass.  Then if you get tired, take a nap.”

Anderson Cooper – 1967 – Journalist

“Anyone who has experienced a certain amount of loss in their life has empathy for those who have experienced loss.”

Katie Hoff – 1989 – Athlete

“I can just put my head down and train hard.”

Hedda Hopper, American actress/newspaper columnist (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Johnny Weissmuller at a swim meet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Martha Washington – 1731 – Wife of President George Washington

“I am more like a state prisoner than anything else.”

Hedda Hopper – 1890 (Elda Furry) – Gossip Columnist

“And in singing, what my voice lacked in quality it made up for in volume.”

Johnny Weissmuller – 1904 – U.S. Freestyle Swimmer and Actor

“How can a guy climb trees, say Me Tarzan, You Jane, and make a million?”

Dorothy West – 1907 – Writer and Editor

“There is no life that does not contribute to history.”

Pete Conrad – 1930 – Astronaut

“The flight was extremely normal…for the first 36 seconds then after that it got very interesting.”

Tony Buzan – 1942 – Author

“Learning how to learn is life’s most important skill.”

Marvin Hamlisch – 1944 – Composer

“There have been studies that clearly state that children who are exposed to arts education at a young age will in fact do markedly better in their SAT scores.”

Michael Leunig – 1945 – Cartoonist

“Love one another and you will be happy.  It’s a simple and as difficult as that.”

Dana Carvey – 1955 – Comedian

“I’m thirty years old, but I read at the thirty-four-year-old level.”

Wayne Brady – 1972 – Actor

“Work is the thing that happens around the game time.”

English: John Marshall Harlan, 1833-1911, United States Supreme Court Justice (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Brigham Young – 1801 – Religious Leader and Founder of Utah

“It is wise for us to forget our troubles, there are always new ones to replace them.”

John Marshall Harlan – 1833 – Judge

“Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.”

John Masefield – 1878 – Poet

“Poetry is a mixture of common sense, which not all have, with an uncommon sense, which very few have.”

John Drinkwater – 1882 – Poet

“Poetry is the communication through words of certain experiences that can be communicated in no other way.”

Henry Beston – 1888 – Writer

“The seas are the heart’s blood of the earth.”

Frank Morgan – 1890 – Actor

“A heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.”

Walter Legge – 1906 Businessman

“I am convinced that in the arts, committees are useless.”

Bob Monkhouse (a)Live on the Tube (Photo credit: Annie Mole)

Frank Whittle – 1907 – Inventor

“A nation’s ability to fight a modern war is as good as its technological ability.”

Bart Howard – 1915 – Composer

“I’ve always said it took me 20 years to find out how to write a song in 20 minutes.”

Bob Monkhouse – 1928 – Comedian

“Silence is not only golden, it is seldom misquoted.”

Marilyn Monroe – 1929 – (Norma Jeane Mortenson) Actress

“I don’t want to make money.  I just want to be wonderful.”

Cropped screenshot of Marilyn Monroe from the trailer for the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Morgan Freeman – 1937 – Actor

“As you grow in this business, you learn how to do more with less.”

Colleen McCullough – 1937 – Author

“It’s a dead giveaway of an inexperienced writer if every character speaks with the same voice.”

Robert Powell – 1944 – Actor

“There is no teaching to compare with example.”

Tony Snow – 1955 – Journalist

“Every one of our greatest national treasures, our liberty, enterprise, vitality, wealth, military power, global authority, flow from a surprising source:  our ability to give thanks.”

Jeff Hawkins – 1957 – Inventor

“Whatever the difference between brilliant and average brains, we are all creative.  And through practice and study we can enhance our skills and talents.”

Paul Coffey – 1961 – Athlete

“Nobody’s a natural.  You work hard to get good and then work to get better.  It’s hard to stay on top.”

Alan Lewis – 1964 – Athlete

“If at first you don’t succeed, get a bigger hammer.”

Heidi Klum – 1973 – Model

“I like to dream, but I like to make things happen.”

Joe Namath was the quarterback for the 1968 AFC champion New York Jets, the first AFL team to win the Super Bowl. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud – 1753 – Statesman

“When justice has spoken, humanity must have its turn.”

Horatio Seymour – 1810 – Politician

“The merit of our Constitution was, not that it promoted democracy, but checks it.”

Walt Whitman – 1819 – Poet

“Be curious, not judgmental.”

Walter Sickert – 1860 – Artist

“You must come again when you have less time.”

Phyllis Bottome – 1884 – Novelist

“There are two ways of meeting difficulties:  you alter the difficulties or you alter yourself meeting them.”

Fred Allen – 1894 – Comedian (John Florence Sullivan)

“A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.”

Norman Vincent Peale – 1898 – Author

“Change your thoughts and you change your world.”

Henry M. Jackson – 1912 – Politician

“The best politics is no politics.”

Judith Wright – 1915 – Poet

“Feelings or emotions are the universal language and are to be honored.  They are the authentic expression of who you are at your deepest place.”

Edward Bennett Williams – 1920 – Lawyer

“I will defend anyone as long as the client gives me total control of the case and pays up front.”

Clint Eastwood – 1930 – Actor

“I don’t believe in pessimism.  If something doesn’t come up the way you want, forge ahead.  If you think it’s going to rain, it will.”

Johnny Paycheck – 1938 – Musician

Brooke Shields (Microscopic photo of original celluloid) (Photo credit: an0nym0n0us)

“Always go hard and fast enough so that when you hit the ditch you can pull out the other side.”

Terry Waite – 1939 – Author

“Sometimes the wheels of justice grind slowly.”

John S. Herrington – 1939 – Politician

“There are no dreams too large, no innovation unimaginable and no frontiers beyond our reach.”

Joe Namath – 1943 – Athlete

“To be a leader, you have to make people want to follow you, and nobody wants to follow someone who doesn’t know where he’s going.”

Sharon Gless – 1943 – Actress

“I’ve come to learn that there is a real difference between men and women.  It’s genetic.”

Bernard Goldberg – 1945 – Writer

“The evening news is a concept whose time has come and gone.”

Tom Berenger – 1949 – Actor

“Around mid-life everyone goes manic a little bit.”

Corey Hart – 1962 – Musician

“Wearing sunglasses at night hurts your eyes after a while.”

Brooke Shields – 1965 – Actress

“Don’t waste a minute not being happy.  If one window closes, run to the next window – or break down a door.”

Phil Keoghan – 1967 – Celebrity

“With any good story, you need the adversary, the heroes and villains.  You need a good mixture to make it work.”

Colin Farrell – 1976 – Actor

“Being Irish is very much a part of who I am.  I take it everywhere with me.”

Photo of actor Mel Blanc (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Alfred Austin – 1835 – Poet

“Public opinion is no more than this:  what people think that other people think.”

Randolph Bourne – 1886 – Writer

“Friendships are fragile things, and require as much handling as any other fragile and precious thing.”

Irving Thalberg – 1899 – Producer

“Credit you give yourself is not worth having.”

Cornelia Otis Skinner – 1901 – Actress

“One learns in life to keep silent and draw one’s own confusions.”

Mel Blanc – 1908 – Actor

“That’s all folks!”

Benny Goodman – 1909 – Musician

“Sometimes when you start losing detail, whether it’s in music or in life, something as small as failing to be polite, you start to lose substance.”

Hal Clement – 1922 – Writer

“Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there, you’ve only found a superstition.  If you test it, you’ve started a science.”

Clint Walker – 1927 – Actor

“That TV box has a tremendous capacity to reach people.”

Agnes Varda – 1928 – Director

“Hands are the tool of the painter, the artist.”

Gale Sayers – 1943 – Athlete

Wynonna is welcomed with warm applause as she arrives on stage for A Christmas Classic tour. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“I don’t care to be remembered as the man who scored six touchdowns in a game.  I want to be remembered as a winner in life.”

Kim Weston – 1953 – Photographer

“I think all photographers fit their vision to their personality.”

Jake Roberts – 1955 – Celebrity

“Every moment is an experience.”

Ted McGinley – 1958 – Actor

“You have to like the characters you play.”

Wynonna Judd – 1964 – Musician

“I learned again that the mind – body – spirit connection has to be in balance.”

Stephen Malkmus – 1966 – Musician

“A good voice isn’t so important.  It’s more important to sound really unique.”

Steven Gerrard – 1980 – Athlete

“I’m a fan myself and I’m frustrated just as much as them when we get beat.”