Famously Said Random quote

Miscellaneous quotes

973 quotes from 439 people

Most readBy personPage 38 of 65

The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.
James A. Michener1907–1997
If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.
James A. Michener1907–1997
The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it’s so accidental. It’s so much like life.
Arthur Miller1915–2005The New York Times (May 9, 1984)
- Acting
- Entertainment
Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon;
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide:
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.
John Milton1608–1674Paradise Lost (1667), Book XIIIn context
- Change
- Hope
In my music, I’m trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it’s difficult is because I’m changing all the time.
Charles Mingus1922–1979Statement to Nat Hentoff , as quoted in California Rock, California Sound: The Music of Los Angeles and Southern California (1979) by Anthony Fawcett, p. 56
- Change
- Music
Until you’ve lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is.
Margaret Mitchell1900–1949
The fruit that can fall without shaking, indeed is too mellow for me.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu1689–1762“To a Lady Making Love”
How many things served us yesterday for articles of faith, which today are fables for us?
Michel de Montaigne1533–1592Essays, Book I, Ch. 27, It is folly to measure the true and false by our own capacity
- Change
- Faith
Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water.
Christopher Morley1890–1957
Simplicity of life, even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of refinement.
William Morris1834–1896“The Prospects of Architecture in Civilisation”, lecture at the London Institution (10 March 1880), in Hopes and Fears for Art (1882)
Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence.
Napoleon1769–1821
There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Napoleon1769–1821Speaking about troubles in the invasions of Russia (10 December 1812), as recorded by Abbé du Pradt, and quoted in History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution in 1789, to the Restoration of the Bourbons in 1815, Vol. 3 (1842) by
From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step.
Napoleon1769–1821Speaking about troubles in the invasions of Russia (10 December 1812), as recorded by Abbé du Pradt, and quoted in History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution in 1789, to the Restoration of the Bourbons in 1815, Vol. 3 (1842) …
Labels are for filing. Labels are for clothing. Labels are not for people.
Martina Navratilovaborn 1956Queer Notions, A Fabulous Collection of Gay and Lesbian Wit and Wisdom, 1996, p. 18.
In a higher world it is otherwise; but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.
John Henry Newman1801–1890An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845), Chapter 1, Section 1, p. 39
- Change