These quotes are the all time favorites. The best of the best. The hall of fame of famous quotes.
What makes a quote so popular that it endures year after year, finding itself again and again on the inside of dust jackets in every book store across America?
As the editor of this site, I come across some of the same quotes over and over again.
But I don’t mind… Some quotes are just plain awesome. And below we have some of the best, most quotable quotes ever uttered.
Methodology
I used a few different sources to decide which quotes should make the cut, but mostly I relied on publicly available search data.
Basically, if lots of people are searching for a quote, it’s probably pretty popular.
There are a few different sites that allow users to “vote” on quotes, such as goodreads.com. This was helpful in finding popular quotes by specific authors if I knew that there was a lot of interest in a specific person.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to the quoteinvestigator.com. Many famous quotes have uncertain origins, and this site helped me approximate the proper source when it was unclear.
A lot of the usual characters are here. Mark Twain, Einstein, Benjamin Franklin… But there are a few I didn’t expect as well.
I’ll update this list with new quotes if people think I missed a good one. So if you have a contribution, feel free to add it in the comments below.
But for now, enough chit chat. Here are the quotes:
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.-Friedrich Nietzsche
“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.-Albert Einstein
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.-Maurice Switzer
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.-Mahatma Gandhi
“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.-Dr Suess
“If you want something done right, do it yourself.-Charles-Guillaume Étienne
“The unexamined life is not worth living.-Socrates
“Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.-St Augustine
“An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.-Mahatma Gandhi
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.-Robert Frost
“Necessity is the mother of invention.-Plato
“To err is human; to forgive, divine.-Alexander Pope
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.-Albert Einstein
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.-Martin Luther King Jr
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.-Mark Twain
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.-Proverb
“With great power comes great responsibility.-Voltaire
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.-Theodore Roosevelt
“The pen is mightier than the sword.-Proverb
“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.-Forrest Gump’s Mom
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.-Albert Einstein
“Familiarity breeds contempt.-Aesop
“It is always darkest just before the dawn.-Thomas Fuller
“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.-John F. Kennedy
“The ballot is stronger than the bullet.-Lincoln
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.-Mark Twain
“If you are going through hell, keep going.-Winston Churchill
“You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching, love like you’ll never be hurt, sing like there’s nobody listening, and live like it’s heaven on earth.-William W. Purkey
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t – you are right.-Henry Ford
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.-Juliet
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.-Albert Einstein
“A penny saved is a penny earned.-Benjamin Franklin
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.-John F. Kennedy
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.-Ralph Waldo Emerson
“You talking to me?-Taxi Driver
“Ignorance is bliss.-Thomas Gray
“Fortune favours the bold.-Proverb
“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.-Theodore Roosevelt
“Without music, life would be a mistake.-Friedrich Nietzsche
“Go to heaven for the climate and hell for the company.-Mark Twain
“You can’t always get what you want.-The Rolling Stones
“If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. If they don’t, they never were.-Kahlil Gibran
“Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.-Thomas Jefferson
“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.-James Dean
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again.-William Edward Hickson
“I think therefore I am. - Descartes
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.-Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.-Mae West
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.-Martin Luther King Jr
“Hell has no fury like a woman scorned.-William Congreve
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.-Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Idle hands are the devil’s playground.-Unknown
“Time is money.-Benjamin Franklin
“First do no harm.-Hippocrates
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.-William Shakespeare
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.-Proverb
“Living well is the best revenge.-George Herbert
“Show me the money!!!-Jerry Maguire
“That’s one small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind.-Neil Armstrong
“You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.-Proverb
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.-Plato
“Good artists copy; great artists steal.-T. S. Eliot
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.-Mark Twain
“Do one thing every day that scares you.-Eleanor Roosevelt
“Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.-John Dalberg-Acton
“Whatever you are, be a good one.-Abraham Lincoln
“Eighty percent of success is showing up.-Woody Allen
“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.-Albert Einstein
“Occasionally the tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants.-Thomas Jefferson
“Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse.-Irene L. Luce
“The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.-Malcolm Forbes
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.-Buddha
“People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.-Proverb
“It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.-William Shakespeare
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.-Corinthians 13:4-8
“For those to whom much is given, much is required.-John F. Kennedy
“I’m selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best.-Marilyn Monroe
“Houston, we have a problem.-Opollo 13
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.-Walt Disney
“Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.-Groucho Marx
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.-Albert Einstein
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.-Proverb
“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.-Marthe Troly-Curtin
“I haven’t failed, I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.-Thomas Edison
“To thine own self, be true.-William Shakespeare
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.-Eleanor Roosevelt
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.-Mark Twain
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot.-Albert Einstein
“Nothing is certain except for death and taxes.-Christopher Bullock
