# Quotogeny > Checks whether a quote is genuine by looking for it, word for word, in the full text of the works it is credited to. Each entry gives the verdict (Genuine, Paraphrase, Misattributed or Not found), the passage, the speaker and the sources. Entries are researched with AI and checked by program; each page says whether an editor has reviewed it. Writers so far: Aristotle, Bernard Baruch, Charles Bukowski, Albert Camus, Marcus Tullius Cicero, C. S. Lewis, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Dr. Seuss, Albert Einstein, Elbert Hubbard, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Epictetus, Epicurus, Frank Zappa, Mahatma Gandhi, André Gide, J. K. Rowling, Carl Gustav Jung, Lucretius, Mae West, Marcus Aurelius, Marilyn Monroe, Mark Twain, Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou, Naval Ravikant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Oscar Wilde, Robert Frost, Seneca the Younger, Stephen Chbosky, Steve Jobs, Henry David Thoreau, William W. Purkey. Every quote page has a plain markdown version at the same address with .md instead of the trailing slash. ## About - [How we check a quote](https://quotogeny.com/method/): what "genuine" means here, and the four verdicts - [Sources](https://quotogeny.com/sources/): the public-domain texts we search, with translators - [Check a quote](https://quotogeny.com/check/): the checker (needs JavaScript; https://quotogeny.com/check/?text=… fills it in) ## Aristotle - [Aristotle](https://quotogeny.com/people/aristotle/): Greek philosopher from Stagira, a pupil of Plato and tutor of Alexander the Great, who founded his own school, the Lyceum, in Athens. ### Genuine - [One swallow does not make a summer.](https://quotogeny.com/q/one-swallow-does-not-make-a-summer.md): Yes. In Nicomachean Ethics (330 BC), Book I, chapter 7, 1098a18–20 (chapter V in D. P. Chase). - [what we have to make when we have learned how, these we learn how to make by making.](https://quotogeny.com/q/we-learn-by-doing.md): Yes. In Nicomachean Ethics (330 BC), Book II, chapter 1, 1103a–b (chapter I in D. P. Chase). - [no one would choose to live without friends.](https://quotogeny.com/q/without-friends-no-one-would-choose-to-live.md): Yes. In Nicomachean Ethics (330 BC), Book VIII, chapter 1, 1155a5–6 (chapter I in D. P. Chase). ### Not Aristotle's words as shared - [It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.](https://quotogeny.com/q/entertain-a-thought-without-accepting-it.md): Not found. No. It is not in Aristotle's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.](https://quotogeny.com/q/plato-is-dear-but-truth-is-dearer.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in Nicomachean Ethics (330 BC), Book I, chapter 6, 1096a11–17 (chapter III in D. P. Chase). - [We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.](https://quotogeny.com/q/we-are-what-we-repeatedly-do.md): Misattributed. No. Will Durant wrote it, not Aristotle. - [The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.](https://quotogeny.com/q/worst-form-of-inequality.md): Not found. No. It is not in Aristotle's works, and who first wrote it is not known. ## Bernard Baruch - [Bernard Baruch](https://quotogeny.com/people/bernard-baruch/): American financier who made a fortune on the New York Stock Exchange, chaired the War Industries Board in the First World War and advised presidents from Wilson to Truman; in 1946 he put the Baruch Plan for international control of atomic energy to the United Nations. ### Genuine - [We are now facing a problem more of ethics than of physics.](https://quotogeny.com/q/a-problem-more-of-ethics-than-of-physics.md): Yes. In Address to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (the Baruch Plan) (1946), Address to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, 14 June 1946, immediately before the numbered measures beginning '1. General.'. - [All economic movements, by their very nature, are motivated by crowd psychology.](https://quotogeny.com/q/all-economic-movements-are-motivated-by-crowd-psychology.md): Yes. In Congressional Record, Senate, 12 March 1948, vol. 94, p. 2628, quotation of Bernard Baruch's preface to the 1932 L. C. Page & Co. edition of Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, p. 2628; PDF page 21. - [We are here to make a choice between the quick and the dead.](https://quotogeny.com/q/choice-between-the-quick-and-the-dead.md): Yes. In Address to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (the Baruch Plan) (1946), Opening of the address to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, 14 June 1946. - [Old age is 15 years older than I am.](https://quotogeny.com/q/old-age-is-fifteen-years-older-than-i-am.md): Yes. In TIME, 'Nation: The Man Behind the Legend', 2 July 1965, final paragraph. ### Not Baruch's words as shared - [Anyone taken as an individual is tolerably sensible—as a member of a crowd, he at once becomes a blockhead.](https://quotogeny.com/q/as-a-member-of-a-crowd-he-becomes-a-blockhead.md): Misattributed. No. Baruch quoted it as Schiller's, not as his own. The German couplet is in Goethe and Schiller's jointly published Xenien; its individual authorship is not resolved here. - [Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.](https://quotogeny.com/q/be-who-you-are-and-say-what-you-feel.md): Misattributed. No. It is not by Baruch; it was written by an unknown writer. - [If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.](https://quotogeny.com/q/if-all-you-have-is-a-hammer.md): Not found. No. The attribution to Baruch is unsubstantiated. Earlier related formulations are documented under Kaplan, Tomkins and Maslow; the later Baruch label does not establish authorship. ## Charles Bukowski - [Charles Bukowski](https://quotogeny.com/people/bukowski/): German-born American poet and novelist of Los Angeles low life: drink, dead-end jobs, the racetrack, women and writing. ### Genuine - [All a guy needed was a chance. Somebody was always controlling who got a chance and who didn’t.](https://quotogeny.com/q/all-a-guy-needed-was-a-chance.md): Yes. In Ham on Rye (1982), Chapter 15, p. 62 in the HarperCollins e-book, said by Henry Chinaski. - [It began as a mistake.](https://quotogeny.com/q/it-began-as-a-mistake.md): Yes. In Post Office (1971), Opening sentence; 'Chapter One' in the licensed publisher excerpt, said by Henry Chinaski. - [People empty me. I have to get away to refill.](https://quotogeny.com/q/people-empty-me.md): Yes. In The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship (1998), Journal entry of 21 September 1991. - [The subs themselves made Jonstone possible by obeying his impossible orders.](https://quotogeny.com/q/the-subs-themselves-made-jonstone-possible.md): Yes. In Post Office (1971), 'Chapter Three' in the licensed publisher excerpt, opening sentence, said by Henry Chinaski. ### Not Bukowski's words as shared - [Find what you love and let it kill you.](https://quotogeny.com/q/find-what-you-love-and-let-it-kill-you.md): Misattributed. No. Kinky Friedman wrote it, not Bukowski. ## Albert Camus - [Albert Camus](https://quotogeny.com/people/camus/): French writer born in Algeria, who wrote about the absurd and about revolt in novels, essays and plays, and edited the Resistance paper Combat; he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957 and died in a car crash in January 1960. ### Genuine - [I rebel, therefore we are.](https://quotogeny.com/q/i-rebel-therefore-we-are.md): Yes. In The Rebel (1951), Part I, “L’Homme révolté”. - [One must imagine Sisyphus happy.](https://quotogeny.com/q/one-must-imagine-sisyphus-happy.md): Yes. In The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), Final sentence of the title essay, “Le mythe de Sisyphe” (before the Kafka appendix in expanded editions). - [There is only one truly serious philosophical problem: suicide.](https://quotogeny.com/q/one-truly-serious-philosophical-problem.md): Yes. In The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), Opening sentence of the essay. ### Not Camus's words as shared - [Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead. Walk beside me… just be my friend.](https://quotogeny.com/q/dont-walk-in-front-of-me.md): Misattributed. No. It is not by Camus; it was written by an unknown writer. - [Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee?](https://quotogeny.com/q/should-i-kill-myself-or-have-a-cup-of-coffee.md): Not found. No. It is not in Camus's works, and who first wrote it is not known. ## Marcus Tullius Cicero - [Marcus Tullius Cicero](https://quotogeny.com/people/cicero/): Roman statesman, lawyer and orator of the late Republic, consul in 63 BC, who was killed in the proscriptions after attacking Mark Antony in the Philippics. ### Genuine - [For he is, as it were, a second self.](https://quotogeny.com/q/a-friend-is-a-second-self.md): Yes. In On Friendship (44 BC), Chapter XXI, section 80 (Laelius de Amicitia 21.80), said by Gaius Laelius. - [Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.](https://quotogeny.com/q/any-man-can-make-mistakes.md): Yes. In Philippics (44 BC), Twelfth Philippic, section 5 (Philippics XII.2.5). - [More law, less justice.](https://quotogeny.com/q/more-law-less-justice.md): Yes. In On Duties (44 BC), Book I, chapter X, section 33 (I.10.33). - [No one is so old as to think that he may not live a year.](https://quotogeny.com/q/no-one-is-so-old.md): Yes. In On Old Age (44 BC), Chapter VII, section 24 (Cato Maior de Senectute 7.24), said by Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder. - [O tempora, o mores!](https://quotogeny.com/q/o-tempora-o-mores.md): Yes. In Against Catiline (63 BC), First Oration, section 2 (In Catilinam I.1.2). - [You might just as well take the sun out of the sky as friendship from life.](https://quotogeny.com/q/take-the-sun-out-of-the-sky.md): Yes. In On Friendship (44 BC), Chapter XIII, section 47 (Laelius de Amicitia 13.47), said by Gaius Laelius. - [The safety of the people shall be the highest law.](https://quotogeny.com/q/the-safety-of-the-people-shall-be-the-highest-law.md): Yes. In On the Laws (52 BC), On the Laws (De Legibus), Book III, section 8 (De Legibus III.3.8). - [We are not born for ourselves alone.](https://quotogeny.com/q/we-are-not-born-for-ourselves-alone.md): Yes. In On Duties (44 BC), Book I, chapter VII, section 22 (I.7.22). ### Not Cicero's words as shared - [A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.](https://quotogeny.com/q/a-nation-can-survive-its-fools.md): Misattributed. No. No. These are words Taylor Caldwell wrote for Cicero in her 1965 novel A Pillar of Iron, not a speech of the real Cicero; a Florida justice quoted them as Cicero's the same year. - [A room without books is like a body without a soul.](https://quotogeny.com/q/a-room-without-books-is-like-a-body-without-a-soul.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in a letter to Atticus, Book IV, letter 8 (Att. IV.8.2), from Antium, April or May 56 BC. - [If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.](https://quotogeny.com/q/if-you-have-a-garden-and-a-library.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in a letter to Marcus Terentius Varro, Book IX, letter 4 (Fam. IX.4), from Tusculum, June 46 BC. - [The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.](https://quotogeny.com/q/the-budget-should-be-balanced.md): Misattributed. No. A modern adaptation of a passage in Taylor Caldwell's 1965 historical novel, not a documented statement by Cicero; the familiar wording has been altered in circulation. - [Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.](https://quotogeny.com/q/times-are-bad-children-no-longer-obey-their-parents.md): Not found. No. No. It is a twentieth-century filler, first printed in 1908 as the translation of an ancient tablet, and credited to Cicero only from about 2001. ## C. S. Lewis - [C. S. Lewis](https://quotogeny.com/people/cs-lewis/): Belfast-born scholar of medieval and Renaissance literature at Oxford and Cambridge, author of the Narnia books and of widely read works of Christian apologetics. ### Genuine - [Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.](https://quotogeny.com/q/aim-at-heaven-and-you-will-get-earth-thrown-in.md): Yes. In Mere Christianity (1952), Book III, chapter 10, ‘Hope’. - [Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.](https://quotogeny.com/q/courage-is-the-form-of-every-virtue-at-the-testing-point.md): Yes. In a letter XXIX, p. 148 in the 1944 printing, said by Screwtape. - [Friendship is born at the moment when one man says to another "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself..."](https://quotogeny.com/q/friendship-is-born-at-the-moment.md): Yes. In The Four Loves (1960), Chapter IV, "Friendship". - [God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains.](https://quotogeny.com/q/god-whispers-to-us-in-our-pleasures.md): Yes. In The Problem of Pain (1940), Chapter VI, ‘Human Pain’, p. 81 in the 1946 printing. - [No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.](https://quotogeny.com/q/no-one-ever-told-me-that-grief-felt-so-like-fear.md): Yes. In A Grief Observed (1961), Part I, opening sentence. - [To love at all is to be vulnerable.](https://quotogeny.com/q/to-love-at-all-is-to-be-vulnerable.md): Yes. In The Four Loves (1960), Chapter VI, ‘Charity’. ### Not Lewis's words as shared - [You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.](https://quotogeny.com/q/never-too-old-to-set-another-goal.md): Misattributed. No. The wording is documented in Les Brown's 1992 book; no primary source in C. S. Lewis has been established. ## Fyodor Dostoevsky - [Fyodor Dostoevsky](https://quotogeny.com/people/dostoevsky/): Russian novelist and journalist. ### Genuine - [My God, a whole moment of happiness! Is that too little for the whole of a man's life?](https://quotogeny.com/q/a-whole-moment-of-happiness.md): Yes. In White Nights (1848), "Morning" (the last section), said by the narrator. - [Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.](https://quotogeny.com/q/above-all-dont-lie-to-yourself.md): Yes. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Part 1, Book 2, chapter 2 ("The Old Buffoon"), said by Father Zosima. - [Accept suffering and achieve atonement through it — that is what you must do.](https://quotogeny.com/q/accept-suffering-and-expiate.md): Yes. In Crime and Punishment (1866), Part 5, chapter 4, said by Sonia Marmeladova. - [Beauty is a terrible and awful thing! … God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man.](https://quotogeny.com/q/beauty-is-a-terrible-thing.md): Yes. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Part 1, Book 3, chapter 3 ("The Confession of a Passionate Heart—in Verse"), said by Dmitri Karamazov. - [Beauty will save the world.](https://quotogeny.com/q/beauty-will-save-the-world.md): Yes. In The Idiot (1869), Part 3, chapter 5, said by Ippolit Terentyev. - [It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool's paradise.](https://quotogeny.com/q/better-unhappy-and-know-the-worst.md): Yes. In The Idiot (1869), Part 4, chapter 5, said by Ippolit Terentyev. - [The one essential condition of human existence is that man should always be able to bow down before something infinitely great.](https://quotogeny.com/q/bow-down-before-the-infinitely-great.md): Yes. In Demons (1872), Part 3, chapter 7 ("Stepan Trofimovitch's Last Wandering"), section 3, said by Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky. - [To become a true Russian means to become brother of all men.](https://quotogeny.com/q/brother-of-all-men.md): Yes. In The Pushkin Speech (1880), Speech of 8 June 1880 at the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, Moscow; printed in A Writer's Diary, August 1880, chapter 2. - [Compassion is the chief and perhaps the only law of human existence.](https://quotogeny.com/q/compassion-chief-law.md): Yes. In The Idiot (1869), Part 2, chapter 5, said by Prince Myshkin. - [If the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.](https://quotogeny.com/q/devil-created-in-mans-image.md): Yes. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Part 2, Book 5, chapter 4 ("Rebellion"), said by Ivan Karamazov. - [The dreamer, if you want an exact definition, is not a human being but a creature of an intermediate sort.](https://quotogeny.com/q/dreamer-creature-of-intermediate-sort.md): Yes. In White Nights (1848), "Second Night", said by the narrator. - [Even in toothache there is enjoyment.](https://quotogeny.com/q/even-in-toothache-there-is-enjoyment.md): Yes. In Notes from Underground (1864), Part 1 ("Underground"), chapter 4, said by the Underground Man. - [An 'extraordinary' man has the right to decide in his own conscience to overstep certain obstacles.](https://quotogeny.com/q/extraordinary-men.md): Yes. In Crime and Punishment (1866), Part 3, chapter 5, said by Rodion Raskolnikov. - [Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering.](https://quotogeny.com/q/freedom-of-conscience-torment.md): Yes. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Part 2, Book 5, chapter 5 ("The Grand Inquisitor"), said by the Grand Inquisitor. - [To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.](https://quotogeny.com/q/go-wrong-in-ones-own-way.md): Yes. In Crime and Punishment (1866), Part 3, chapter 1, said by Dmitri Razumikhin. - [Some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education.](https://quotogeny.com/q/good-memory-from-childhood.md): Yes. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Epilogue, chapter 3 ("Ilusha's Funeral. The Speech at the Stone"), said by Alyosha Karamazov. - [Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of it.](https://quotogeny.com/q/happiness-lies-not-in-happiness.md): Yes. In A Writer's Diary (1876), January 1876, chapter 3, section 2 ("Spiritualism. Something about devils. The extraordinary cunning of devils, if only they are devils"). - [I am a sick man.... I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man.](https://quotogeny.com/q/i-am-a-sick-man.md): Yes. In Notes from Underground (1864), Part 1 ("Underground"), chapter 1, said by the Underground Man. - [I have seen the truth; I have seen and I know that people can be beautiful and happy without losing the power of living on earth. I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of mankind.](https://quotogeny.com/q/i-have-seen-the-truth.md): Yes. In The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877), Chapter 5, said by the ridiculous man. - [If there is no God, then I am God.](https://quotogeny.com/q/if-there-is-no-god-i-am-god.md): Yes. In Demons (1872), Part 3, chapter 6 ("A Busy Night"), section 2, said by Kirillov. - [It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.](https://quotogeny.com/q/it-takes-something-more-than-intelligence.md): Yes. In Crime and Punishment (1866), Part 3, chapter 3, said by Rodion Raskolnikov. - [It's life that matters, nothing but life — the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself, at all.](https://quotogeny.com/q/its-life-that-matters.md): Yes. In The Idiot (1869), Part 3, chapter 5 ("My Necessary Explanation"), said by Ippolit Terentyev. - [Judge the Russian people not by the abominations they so often commit, but by the great and holy things for which, even in their abomination, they constantly yearn.](https://quotogeny.com/q/judge-the-russian-people.md): Yes. In A Writer's Diary (1876), February 1876, chapter 1, section 2 ("On Love of the People. An Essential Pact with the People"). - [I didn't kill a human being, I killed a principle!](https://quotogeny.com/q/killed-a-principle.md): Yes. In Crime and Punishment (1866), Part 3, chapter 6, said by Rodion Raskolnikov. - [Go at once, this very minute, stand at the cross-roads, bow down, first kiss the earth which you have defiled, and then bow down to all the world and say to all men aloud, 'I am a murderer!'](https://quotogeny.com/q/kiss-the-earth.md): Yes. In Crime and Punishment (1866), Part 5, chapter 4, said by Sonia Marmeladova. - [Lack of originality has always been considered the foremost quality of the practical man.](https://quotogeny.com/q/lack-of-originality.md): Yes. In The Idiot (1869), Part 3, chapter 1, said by the narrator. - [What if I were not to die! What if I could go back to life — what eternity! I would turn every minute into an age; I would lose nothing, I would count every minute as it passed.](https://quotogeny.com/q/last-minutes-before-execution.md): Yes. In The Idiot (1869), Part 1, chapter 5, said by Prince Myshkin. - [Life is a gift, life is happiness, every minute can be an eternity of happiness.](https://quotogeny.com/q/life-is-a-gift.md): Yes. In a letter to his brother Mikhail, 22 December 1849. - [Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything.](https://quotogeny.com/q/love-all-gods-creation.md): Yes. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Part 2, Book 6, chapter 3 ("Conversations and Exhortations of Father Zossima"), section (g) ("Of Prayer, of Love, and of Contact with other Worlds"), said by Father Zosima. - [The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular.](https://quotogeny.com/q/love-humanity-in-general.md): Yes. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Part 1, Book 2, chapter 4 ("A Lady of Little Faith"), said by an unnamed elderly doctor. - [Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.](https://quotogeny.com/q/love-in-action-harsh-and-dreadful.md): Yes. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Part 1, Book 2, chapter 4 ("A Lady of Little Faith"), said by Father Zosima. - [Love life more than the meaning of it.](https://quotogeny.com/q/love-life-more-than-its-meaning.md): Yes. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Part 2, Book 5, chapter 3 ("The Brothers Make Friends"), said by Alyosha Karamazov. - [The chief thing is to love others like yourself, that's the great thing, and that's everything; nothing else is wanted.](https://quotogeny.com/q/love-others-as-yourself.md): Yes. In The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877), Chapter 5, said by the ridiculous man. - [To love people as they are is impossible. And yet one must.](https://quotogeny.com/q/love-people-as-they-are-impossible.md): Yes. In The Adolescent (1875), Part 2, chapter 1, section 4, said by Andrei Petrovich Versilov. - [Man is a creature that can get used to anything, and I think that is the best definition of him.](https://quotogeny.com/q/man-can-get-used-to-anything.md): Yes. In The House of the Dead (1862), Part 1, chapter 1 ("The House of the Dead"), said by the narrator. - [Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn't calculate his happiness.](https://quotogeny.com/q/man-counts-his-troubles.md): Yes. In Notes from Underground (1864), Part 2 ("À Propos of the Wet Snow"), chapter 6, said by the Underground Man. - [Man grows used to everything, the scoundrel!](https://quotogeny.com/q/man-gets-used-to-everything-the-scoundrel.md): Yes. In Crime and Punishment (1866), Part 1, chapter 2, said by Rodion Raskolnikov. - [Man is a mystery. It needs to be unravelled, and if you spend your whole life unravelling it, don't say that you've wasted time. I am studying that mystery because I want to be a human being.](https://quotogeny.com/q/man-is-a-mystery.md): Yes. In a letter to his brother Mikhail, 16 August 1839. - [Man is unhappy because he doesn't know he's happy. It's only that.](https://quotogeny.com/q/man-is-unhappy-because-he-doesnt-know-hes-happy.md): Yes. In Demons (1872), Part 2, chapter 1 ("Night"), section 5, said by Kirillov. - [The whole work of man really seems to consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute that he is a man and not a piano-key!](https://quotogeny.com/q/man-not-a-piano-key.md): Yes. In Notes from Underground (1864), Part 1 ("Underground"), chapter 8, said by the Underground Man. - [People, love one another — who said that? Whose commandment is that?](https://quotogeny.com/q/men-love-one-another-who-said-that.md): Yes. In The Meek One (1876), Chapter 2, section 4 ("Only Five Minutes Too Late"), said by the pawnbroker. - [There are three powers, three powers alone, able to conquer and to hold captive for ever the conscience of these impotent rebels for their happiness: miracle, mystery and authority.](https://quotogeny.com/q/miracle-mystery-authority.md): Yes. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Part 2, Book 5, chapter 5 ("The Grand Inquisitor"), said by the Grand Inquisitor. - [Money is coined liberty, and so it is ten times dearer to the man who is deprived of freedom.](https://quotogeny.com/q/money-is-coined-liberty.md): Yes. In The House of the Dead (1862), Part 1, chapter 1 ("The House of the Dead"), said by the narrator. - [If one wanted to crush and destroy a man entirely, to inflict on him the most terrible punishment, one need only give him work of an absolutely, completely useless and meaningless character.](https://quotogeny.com/q/most-terrible-punishment-useless-work.md): Yes. In The House of the Dead (1862), Part 1, chapter 2 ("First Impressions"), said by the narrator. - [Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.](https://quotogeny.com/q/new-step-new-word.md): Yes. In Crime and Punishment (1866), Part 1, chapter 1, said by Rodion Raskolnikov. - [Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.](https://quotogeny.com/q/nothing-harder-than-speaking-truth.md): Yes. In Crime and Punishment (1866), Part 6, chapter 4, said by Arkady Svidrigailov. - [Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.](https://quotogeny.com/q/pain-and-suffering-large-intelligence.md): Yes. In Crime and Punishment (1866), Part 3, chapter 5, said by Rodion Raskolnikov. - [If someone proved to me that Christ is outside the truth, and it really were so that the truth is outside Christ, I would rather remain with Christ than with the truth.](https://quotogeny.com/q/rather-remain-with-christ-than-truth.md): Yes. In a letter to Natalya Fonvizina, end of January to late February 1854. - [If it were mathematically proved to you that the truth excludes Christ, you'd prefer to stick to Christ rather than to the truth.](https://quotogeny.com/q/rather-with-christ-than-with-the-truth.md): Yes. In Demons (1872), Part 2, chapter 1 ("Night"), section 7, said by Ivan Shatov. - [If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself.](https://quotogeny.com/q/respected-by-others-respect-yourself.md): Yes. In Humiliated and Insulted (1861), Part 3, chapter 2, said by Alyosha Valkovsky. - [We are each responsible to all for all.](https://quotogeny.com/q/responsible-for-all.md): Yes. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Part 2, Book 6, chapter 2, section (c) ("Recollections of Father Zossima's Youth before he became a Monk. The Duel"), said by Markel. - [It's not God that I don't accept, only I most respectfully return Him the ticket.](https://quotogeny.com/q/return-the-ticket.md): Yes. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Part 2, Book 5, chapter 4 ("Rebellion"), said by Ivan Karamazov. - [The secret of man's being is not only to live but to have something to live for.](https://quotogeny.com/q/something-to-live-for.md): Yes. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Part 2, Book 5, chapter 5 ("The Grand Inquisitor"), said by the Grand Inquisitor. - [The soul is healed by being with children.](https://quotogeny.com/q/soul-healed-by-children.md): Yes. In The Idiot (1869), Part 1, chapter 6, said by Prince Myshkin. - [Though I may not believe in the order of the universe, yet I love the sticky little leaves as they open in spring. I love the blue sky.](https://quotogeny.com/q/sticky-little-leaves.md): Yes. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Part 2, Book 5, chapter 3 ("The Brothers Make Friends"), said by Ivan Karamazov. - [Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering. … Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness.](https://quotogeny.com/q/suffering-origin-of-consciousness.md): Yes. In Notes from Underground (1864), Part 1 ("Underground"), chapter 9, said by the Underground Man. - [The higher harmony is not worth the tears of one tortured child.](https://quotogeny.com/q/tears-of-a-child.md): Yes. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Part 2, Book 5, chapter 4 ("Rebellion"), said by Ivan Karamazov. - [If he had to remain standing on a square yard of space all his life, a thousand years, eternity, it were better to live so than to die at once! Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!](https://quotogeny.com/q/to-live-on-a-square-yard.md): Yes. In Crime and Punishment (1866), Part 2, chapter 6, said by Rodion Raskolnikov. - [To be too conscious is an illness — a real thorough-going illness.](https://quotogeny.com/q/too-conscious-is-an-illness.md): Yes. In Notes from Underground (1864), Part 1 ("Underground"), chapter 2, said by the Underground Man. - [Twice two makes four is not life, gentlemen, but the beginning of death.](https://quotogeny.com/q/twice-two-makes-four.md): Yes. In Notes from Underground (1864), Part 1 ("Underground"), chapter 9, said by the Underground Man. - [Starting from unlimited freedom, I arrive at unlimited despotism.](https://quotogeny.com/q/unlimited-freedom-unlimited-despotism.md): Yes. In Demons (1872), Part 2, chapter 7 ("A Meeting"), section 2, said by Shigalyov. - [What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.](https://quotogeny.com/q/what-is-hell.md): Yes. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Part 2, Book 6, chapter 3 ("Conversations and Exhortations of Father Zossima"), section (i) ("Of Hell and Hell Fire, a Mystic Reflection"), said by Father Zosima. - [Neither a person nor a nation can exist without some higher idea.](https://quotogeny.com/q/without-a-higher-idea.md): Yes. In A Writer's Diary (1876), December 1876, chapter 1, section 3 ("Unfounded Assertions"). - [I say that the world may go to pot for me so long as I always get my tea.](https://quotogeny.com/q/world-go-to-pot-tea.md): Yes. In Notes from Underground (1864), Part 2 ("À Propos of the Wet Snow"), chapter 9, said by the Underground Man. ### Not Dostoevsky's words as shared - [The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.](https://quotogeny.com/q/civilization-judged-by-its-prisons.md): Not found. No. It is not in Dostoevsky's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [Look at you comforting others with the words you wish someone had said to you.](https://quotogeny.com/q/comforting-others-with-words-you-wished-for.md): Not found. No. It is not in Dostoevsky's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [The darker the night, the brighter the stars, the deeper the grief, the closer is God!](https://quotogeny.com/q/darker-the-night-brighter-the-stars.md): Misattributed. No. Apollon Maykov wrote it, not Dostoevsky. - [If there is no God, everything is permitted.](https://quotogeny.com/q/everything-is-permitted.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Part 4, Book 11, chapter 4 ("A Hymn and a Secret"), said by Dmitri Karamazov. - [I was burning, while you came blaming me for the smell of ashes.](https://quotogeny.com/q/i-was-burning-smell-of-ashes.md): Not found. No. It is not in Dostoevsky's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [Loving someone means giving them power to destroy you and trusting they won't.](https://quotogeny.com/q/loving-someone-power-to-destroy-you.md): Not found. No. It is not in Dostoevsky's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.](https://quotogeny.com/q/much-unhappiness-things-left-unsaid.md): Not found. No. It is not in Dostoevsky's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [The price of loving someone very much is never loving anyone again.](https://quotogeny.com/q/price-of-loving-someone-very-much.md): Not found. No. It is not in Dostoevsky's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [All this struggle for life that just ends on a random day.](https://quotogeny.com/q/struggle-for-life-ends-on-a-random-day.md): Not found. No. It is not in Dostoevsky's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [The most terrifying freedom is discovering that even your suffering is your own fault.](https://quotogeny.com/q/terrifying-freedom-suffering-your-own-fault.md): Not found. No. It is not in Dostoevsky's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [To love someone means to see him as God intended him.](https://quotogeny.com/q/to-love-someone-is-to-see-them-as-god-intended.md): Misattributed. No. Marina Tsvetaeva wrote it, not Dostoevsky. - [Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles.](https://quotogeny.com/q/tolerance-will-reach-such-a-level.md): Not found. No. It is not in Dostoevsky's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [Two intelligent people cannot fall in love; true love needs one idiot.](https://quotogeny.com/q/true-love-needs-one-idiot.md): Not found. No. It is not in Dostoevsky's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [Trust no one in whom the desire to punish is strong.](https://quotogeny.com/q/trust-no-one-in-whom-the-desire-to-punish-is-strong.md): Misattributed. No. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote it, not Dostoevsky. - [We all came out from under Gogol's 'Overcoat'.](https://quotogeny.com/q/we-all-came-out-of-gogols-overcoat.md): Not found. No. It is not in Dostoevsky's works. Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé printed it in 1885 as the remark of an unnamed Russian writer; later retellings gave it to Dostoevsky. ## Dr. Seuss - [Dr. Seuss](https://quotogeny.com/people/dr-seuss/): Theodor Seuss Geisel, the American author and illustrator who wrote as Dr. ### Genuine - [A person’s a person, no matter how small.](https://quotogeny.com/q/a-persons-a-person-no-matter-how-small.md): Yes. In Horton Hears a Who! (1954), Horton's repeated defence of the Whos on the speck of dust (unpaginated picture book), said by Horton the elephant. - [I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.](https://quotogeny.com/q/i-am-the-lorax-i-speak-for-the-trees.md): Yes. In The Lorax (1971), The Lorax introduces himself to the Once-ler after the first Truffula tree is cut down (unpaginated picture book), said by the Lorax. - [Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.](https://quotogeny.com/q/unless-someone-like-you-cares-a-whole-awful-lot.md): Yes. In The Lorax (1971), Closing exchange: the Once-ler explains the word UNLESS and entrusts the last Truffula seed to the child (unpaginated picture book), said by the Once-ler. ### Not Seuss's words as shared - [Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.](https://quotogeny.com/q/dont-cry-because-its-over-smile-because-it-happened.md): Not found. No. It is not in Seuss's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.](https://quotogeny.com/q/reality-is-finally-better-than-your-dreams.md): Not found. No. It is not in Seuss's works, and who first wrote it is not known. ## Albert Einstein - [Albert Einstein](https://quotogeny.com/people/einstein/): German-born theoretical physicist, author of the special and general theories of relativity, who left Germany in 1933 and spent his last two decades at Princeton; he also wrote and spoke widely on religion, pacifism, Zionism and socialism. ### Genuine ### Not Einstein's words as shared - [Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.](https://quotogeny.com/q/everybody-is-a-genius-fish-climbing-a-tree.md): Not found. No. No authenticated Einstein source is known; the documented 2004 wording already credits him, but its actual author remains unknown. - [If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live](https://quotogeny.com/q/if-the-bee-disappears-four-years-to-live.md): Not found. No. No authenticated Einstein source supports this prediction; the four-year claim was attributed to him in print in 1965, but its originator remains unknown. - [Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.](https://quotogeny.com/q/insanity-is-doing-the-same-thing.md): Not found. No. No authenticated Einstein source is known; close versions are documented in recovery communities in 1981, with no individual author established. - [Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.](https://quotogeny.com/q/not-everything-that-counts-can-be-counted.md): Misattributed. No. The best-supported author is sociologist William Bruce Cameron, who printed the full maxim in 1963; the later Einstein blackboard story is unsupported. - [Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.](https://quotogeny.com/q/two-things-are-infinite.md): Not found. No. It is not in Einstein's works, and who first wrote it is not known. ## Elbert Hubbard - [Elbert Hubbard](https://quotogeny.com/people/elbert-hubbard/): American writer and publisher, born in Bloomington, Illinois, who founded the Roycroft arts-and-crafts community at East Aurora, New York, in 1895 and ran its press and its magazines, The Philistine and The Fra; he died with his wife on the Lusitania in 1915. ### Genuine - [Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.](https://quotogeny.com/q/do-not-take-life-too-seriously.md): Yes. In Roycroft Dictionary and Book of Epigrams (1923), Roycroft Dictionary and Book of Epigrams (1923), Book of Epigrams, p. 105; first in The Philistine, December 1900, p. 24. - [Never explain — your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.](https://quotogeny.com/q/never-explain-your-friends-do-not-need-it.md): Yes. In Fra Elbertus [Elbert Hubbard], The Motto Book; Being a Catalogue of Epigrams by Fra Elbertus, Assisted at Times by Solomon, Ruskin, Shakespeare, Joaquin Miller, Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, Ali Baba and Felix Cyrenius (East Aurora: The Roycrofters, copyright 1909 by Elbert Hubbard), p. 31, No. 127. - [The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.](https://quotogeny.com/q/the-greatest-mistake-you-can-make-in-life.md): Yes. In The Philistine (1901), The Philistine, November 1901, p. 188 (among short sayings); later in the Roycroft Dictionary and Book of Epigrams (1923), p. 131, and The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927), p. 129. ### Not Hubbard's words as shared - [A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.](https://quotogeny.com/q/a-friend-is-someone-who-knows-all-about-you.md): Misattributed. No. An unnamed ten-year-old schoolboy, quoted by Agnes Deans Cameron in 'Humor in School', The Century Magazine (April 1905) wrote it, not Hubbard. - [Life is just one damned thing after another.](https://quotogeny.com/q/life-is-just-one-damn-thing-after-another.md): Misattributed. No. No one knows who coined it: it was in print without a name from March 1909, and in a 1909 novel as a wall motto. The same year Hubbard's Roycrofters sold it as a wall motto and The Philistine printed it unsigned; later books credited him. - [No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.](https://quotogeny.com/q/no-man-needs-a-vacation-so-much.md): Misattributed. No. Hubbard used the quip in The Philistine in 1904 and helped spread it, but it was already called 'an old saying' in 1899; who first said it is unknown. - [To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.](https://quotogeny.com/q/to-avoid-criticism-say-nothing-do-nothing-be-nothing.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in Fra Elbertus [Elbert Hubbard], The Motto Book; Being a Catalogue of Epigrams by Fra Elbertus, Assisted at Times by Solomon, Ruskin, Shakespeare, Joaquin Miller, Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, Ali Baba and Felix Cyrenius (East Aurora: The Roycrofters, copyright 1909 by Elbert Hubbard), p. 39, No. 202. ## Ralph Waldo Emerson - [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://quotogeny.com/people/emerson/): American essayist, lecturer and poet from Boston and Concord, a former Unitarian minister who became the leading voice of New England Transcendentalism and Thoreau's friend and mentor. ### Genuine - [A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.](https://quotogeny.com/q/a-foolish-consistency-is-the-hobgoblin-of-little-minds.md): Yes. In Essays: First Series (1841), Essay II, “Self-Reliance”. - [The only way to have a friend is to be one.](https://quotogeny.com/q/the-only-way-to-have-a-friend-is-to-be-one.md): Yes. In Essays: First Series (1841), Essay VI, “Friendship”. - [Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.](https://quotogeny.com/q/trust-thyself.md): Yes. In Essays: First Series (1841), Essay II, “Self-Reliance”. - [Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.](https://quotogeny.com/q/whoso-would-be-a-man-must-be-a-nonconformist.md): Yes. In Essays: First Series (1841), Essay II, “Self-Reliance”. ### Not Emerson's words as shared - [Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.](https://quotogeny.com/q/do-not-go-where-the-path-may-lead.md): Misattributed. No. The Emerson attribution is unsupported. The saying adapts a line published by Muriel Strode in 1903; the person who made the modern imperative is unidentified. - [To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.](https://quotogeny.com/q/to-be-yourself-in-a-world.md): Misattributed. No. An unknown writer rewording E. E. Cummings wrote it, not Emerson. - [To laugh often and much; … This is to have succeeded.](https://quotogeny.com/q/to-laugh-often-and-much.md): Misattributed. No. Not a sourced Emerson quotation. The modern piece adapts Bessie A. Stanley’s 1905 essay; an altered version was credited to Emerson in 1951, but its adapter is unidentified. ## Epictetus - [Epictetus](https://quotogeny.com/people/epictetus/): Greek Stoic philosopher (c. ### Genuine - [If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.](https://quotogeny.com/q/be-content-to-be-thought-foolish-and-stupid.md): Yes. In Enchiridion (Handbook) (107), Section 13; George Long translation, chapter XIII. - [It is circumstances (difficulties) which show what men are.](https://quotogeny.com/q/circumstances-show-what-men-are.md): Yes. In Discourses (108), Book 1, chapter 24, section 1 (opening sentence); George Long translation, Book I, XXIV, 'How We Should Struggle with Circumstances'. - [First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.](https://quotogeny.com/q/first-say-to-yourself-what-you-would-be.md): Yes. In Discourses (108), Book 3, chapter 23, section 1 (opening sentence); George Long translation, Book III, XXIII, "To Those Who Read and Discuss for the Sake of Ostentation". - [It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.](https://quotogeny.com/q/impossible-to-learn-what-you-think-you-know.md): Yes. In Discourses (108), Book 2, chapter 17, section 1 (opening of the chapter); George Long translation, Book II, XVII, "How We Must Adapt Preconceptions to Particular Cases". - [Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things.](https://quotogeny.com/q/men-are-disturbed-by-their-opinions.md): Yes. In Enchiridion (Handbook) (107), Section 5 (opening clause); George Long translation, chapter V. - [No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig.](https://quotogeny.com/q/no-great-thing-is-created-suddenly.md): Yes. In Discourses (108), Book 1, chapter 15, section 7; George Long translation, Book I, XV, "What Philosophy Promises". - [Only the educated are free.](https://quotogeny.com/q/only-the-educated-are-free.md): Yes. In Discourses (108), Book 2, chapter 1, section 22; George Long translation, Book II, I, "That Confidence (Courage) Is Not Inconsistent with Caution". - [Of things some are in our power, and others are not.](https://quotogeny.com/q/some-things-are-in-our-power.md): Yes. In Enchiridion (Handbook) (107), Section 1.1 (opening sentence); George Long translation, chapter I. - [Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.](https://quotogeny.com/q/wish-things-to-be-as-they-are.md): Yes. In Enchiridion (Handbook) (107), Section 8 (complete section); George Long translation, chapter VIII. ### Not Epictetus's words as shared - [Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.](https://quotogeny.com/q/dont-explain-your-philosophy-embody-it.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in Enchiridion (Handbook) (107), Section 46.1 (opening instruction and banquet example); George Long translation, chapter XLVI. - [The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.](https://quotogeny.com/q/skilful-pilots-gain-their-reputation-from-storms.md): Misattributed. No. Charles de Saint-Évremond (the credit attached to the early-modern essay) wrote it, not Epictetus. - [We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.](https://quotogeny.com/q/we-have-two-ears-and-one-mouth.md): Misattributed. No. Not as his own: the oldest record gives it to Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism (Diogenes Laertius, Lives 7.23). Later Greek anthologies credited a form of it to Epictetus, a fragment editors treat as doubtful; it is not in the Discourses or the Handbook. ## Epicurus - [Epicurus](https://quotogeny.com/people/epicurus/): Greek philosopher (341–270 BC), an Athenian brought up on Samos, who founded his school in Mytilene and Lampsacus and then in Athens, where it met in his Garden; he taught that pleasure, understood as freedom from pain and fear, is the goal of life, and that the gods and death are nothing to fear. ### Genuine - [Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not.](https://quotogeny.com/q/death-the-most-awful-of-evils-is-nothing-to-us.md): Yes. In a letter to Menoeceus, section 125 (Diogenes Laertius, Lives X.125); Hicks translation, 1925. - [Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.](https://quotogeny.com/q/do-not-spoil-what-you-have-by-desiring-what-you-have-not.md): Yes. In Vatican Sayings (270 BC), Vatican Sayings 35 (Gnomologium Vaticanum, Vat. gr. 1950); Greek as in Bailey, Epicurus: The Extant Remains (1926), p. 110; English, Peter Saint-Andre (2010, CC0). - [Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.](https://quotogeny.com/q/most-important-is-the-acquisition-of-friends.md): Yes. In Principal Doctrines (270 BC), Principal Doctrines 27 (Diogenes Laertius, Lives X.148); Hicks translation ("Sovran Maxims"), 1925. - [When we say that pleasure is the end and aim, we do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or the pleasures of sensuality. By pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul.](https://quotogeny.com/q/we-do-not-mean-the-pleasures-of-the-prodigal.md): Yes. In a letter to Menoeceus, section 131 (Diogenes Laertius, Lives X.131); Hicks translation, 1925. ### Not Epicurus's words as shared - [Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?](https://quotogeny.com/q/is-god-willing-to-prevent-evil-but-not-able.md): Not found. No. Not in these words, and perhaps not his argument at all: nothing Epicurus wrote that survives contains it. The Christian writer Lactantius credited the argument to him around 313, the question form is David Hume's (1779), and the last line has not been found before 1992. - [The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.](https://quotogeny.com/q/the-greater-the-difficulty-the-more-glory-in-surmounting-it.md): Misattributed. No. No. The two sentences come from an English essay 'In Vindication of Epicurus', credited to Saint-Évremond, in the book Epicurus's Morals (1712); a 1766 anthology cited that book as 'Epic. mor.', and later collections signed it Epicurus. ## Frank Zappa - [Frank Zappa](https://quotogeny.com/people/frank-zappa/): American composer, guitarist and bandleader, leader of the Mothers of Invention, who mixed rock, jazz and orchestral music with satire and campaigned against censorship of records. ### Genuine - [Pessimism and the natural instinct to raise hell are not mutually exclusive.](https://quotogeny.com/q/pessimism-and-raising-hell.md): Yes. In David Sheff, 'Playboy Interview: Frank Zappa', Playboy, April 1993. - [Politics is the entertainment branch of industry.](https://quotogeny.com/q/politics-is-the-entertainment-branch-of-industry.md): Yes. In Bob Marshall, interview with Frank Zappa, 21–22 October 1988, with Carolyn Dean and Gerald Fialka; transcription credited to Loren Gagnon, reproduced by AFKA. - [Stupidity is like hydrogen; it's everywhere, it's the basic building block of the universe.](https://quotogeny.com/q/stupidity-is-like-hydrogen.md): Yes. In Michael Bloom, 'Interview with the Composer', Trouser Press, February 1980. - [In this context, the PMRC’s demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation.](https://quotogeny.com/q/treating-dandruff-by-decapitation.md): Yes. In Testimony to the US Senate Commerce Committee (1985), Statement to the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, record-labeling hearing, 19 September 1985; opening statement after the discussion of the least restrictive alternative. - [Without deviation, progress is not possible.](https://quotogeny.com/q/without-deviation-progress-is-not-possible.md): Yes. In Karl Dallas, 'Enjoying the glandular arena', Melody Maker, 26 January 1980. ### Not Zappa's words as shared - [So many books, so little time.](https://quotogeny.com/q/so-many-books-so-little-time.md): Not found. No. It is not in Zappa's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.](https://quotogeny.com/q/writing-about-music-is-like-dancing-about-architecture.md): Misattributed. No. Often credited to Frank Zappa, but Martin Mull is the probable originator: printed Mull credits date to 1979, while a Zappa credit is documented by 1984. The first utterance remains unconfirmed. ## Mahatma Gandhi - [Mahatma Gandhi](https://quotogeny.com/people/gandhi/): Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, called Mahatma, an Indian lawyer who led the Indian community's campaigns of nonviolent resistance (satyagraha) in South Africa and then the movement for India's independence; he was assassinated in January 1948. ### Genuine - [Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.](https://quotogeny.com/q/strength-does-not-come-from-physical-capacity.md): Yes. In Articles in Indian Opinion, Young India and Harijan (1920), 'The Doctrine of the Sword', Young India, 11 August 1920 (Young India 1919–1922, Madras: S. Ganesan, 1924, p. 260). - [The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.](https://quotogeny.com/q/the-weak-can-never-forgive.md): Yes. In Articles in Indian Opinion, Young India and Harijan (1931), Interview to the press, Karachi, 26 March 1931, as reported in Mahadev Desai's "Weekly Letter", Young India, 2 April 1931 (Collected Works, vol. XLV, item 398, p. 345). ### Not Gandhi's words as shared - [An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.](https://quotogeny.com/q/an-eye-for-an-eye-will-make-the-whole-world-blind.md): Not found. No. It is not in Gandhi's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [Be the change you wish to see in the world.](https://quotogeny.com/q/be-the-change-you-wish-to-see-in-the-world.md): Misattributed. No. Arleen Lorrance wrote it, not Gandhi. - [First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.](https://quotogeny.com/q/first-they-ignore-you-then-they-laugh-at-you.md): Not found. No. It is not in Gandhi's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.](https://quotogeny.com/q/live-as-if-you-were-to-die-tomorrow.md): Not found. No. It is not in Gandhi's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.](https://quotogeny.com/q/the-greatness-of-a-nation-and-its-moral-progress.md): Not found. No. It is not in Gandhi's works, and who first wrote it is not known. ## André Gide - [André Gide](https://quotogeny.com/people/gide/): French novelist, essayist and diarist, a founder of the Nouvelle Revue Française and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947. ### Genuine - [What another would have done as well as you, do not do it. What another would have said as well as you, do not say it; what another would have written as well as you, do not write it.](https://quotogeny.com/q/do-not-do-what-another-would-have-done.md): Yes. In Fruits of the Earth (1897), Envoi (the closing address), Les Nourritures terrestres (1897). - [Families, I hate you! Homes shut tight; doors closed again; jealous possessions of happiness.](https://quotogeny.com/q/families-i-hate-you.md): Yes. In Fruits of the Earth (1897), Livre IV, Les Nourritures terrestres (1897). - [If what you eat does not make you drunk, it is because you were not hungry enough.](https://quotogeny.com/q/if-what-you-eat-does-not-intoxicate-you.md): Yes. In Fruits of the Earth (1897), Livre II, Les Nourritures terrestres (1897). - [It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.](https://quotogeny.com/q/it-is-better-to-be-hated-for-what-you-are.md): Yes. In If It Die… (1926), Draft preface for Si le grain ne meurt ("Projet de préface"), first printed after the memoir in Œuvres complètes, vol. X (1936), pp. 453–454. - [To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one's freedom.](https://quotogeny.com/q/to-know-how-to-free-oneself-is-nothing.md): Yes. In The Immoralist (1902), Première partie, chapter I (Michel's opening speech to his friends), L'Immoraliste (1902). ### Not Gide's words as shared - [Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.](https://quotogeny.com/q/one-does-not-discover-new-lands-without-losing-sight-of-the-shore.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in The Counterfeiters (1925), Troisième partie, chapter XIV (Édouard talking to Bernard), Les Faux-monnayeurs (1925), p. 147 of the NRF edition read. ## J. K. Rowling - [J. K. Rowling](https://quotogeny.com/people/jk-rowling/): British novelist, author of the seven Harry Potter novels (1997–2007) about a boy wizard at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and of crime novels under the pen name Robert Galbraith. ### Genuine - [It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.](https://quotogeny.com/q/bravery-to-stand-up-to-our-friends.md): Yes. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997), Chapter 17 ("The Man with Two Faces"), p. 221 (Bloomsbury, 2004 edition), said by Albus Dumbledore. - [To the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure.](https://quotogeny.com/q/death-is-but-the-next-great-adventure.md): Yes. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997), Chapter 17 ("The Man with Two Faces"), p. 215 (Bloomsbury, 2004 edition), said by Albus Dumbledore. - [Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love.](https://quotogeny.com/q/do-not-pity-the-dead.md): Yes. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007), Chapter 35 ("King's Cross"), p. 578 (Bloomsbury, 2007), said by Albus Dumbledore. - [If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.](https://quotogeny.com/q/how-he-treats-his-inferiors.md): Yes. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), Chapter 27 ("Padfoot Returns"), said by Sirius Black. - [It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.](https://quotogeny.com/q/it-does-not-do-to-dwell-on-dreams.md): Yes. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997), Chapter 12 ("The Mirror of Erised"), p. 157 (Bloomsbury, 2004 edition), said by Albus Dumbledore. - [It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.](https://quotogeny.com/q/it-is-our-choices.md): Yes. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), Chapter 18 ("Dobby's Reward"), p. 245 (Bloomsbury, 2004 edition), said by Albus Dumbledore. ### Not Rowling's words as shared - [Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.](https://quotogeny.com/q/happiness-can-be-found-in-the-darkest-of-times.md): Misattributed. No. Steve Kloves wrote it, not Rowling. ## Carl Gustav Jung - [Carl Gustav Jung](https://quotogeny.com/people/jung/): Swiss psychiatrist who worked with Freud and broke with him in 1913 to found analytical psychology: the collective unconscious, archetypes, introversion and extraversion, individuation. ### Genuine - [I don’t need to believe, I know.](https://quotogeny.com/q/i-dont-need-to-believe-i-know.md): Yes. In Letters (1959), BBC Face to Face interview with John Freeman, broadcast 22 October 1959; quoted in note 1 to the letter to Valentine Brooke, 16 November 1959, Letters vol. 2, pp. 520–521. - [No scientific statement is final: it is a likely formulation of observation and analysis.](https://quotogeny.com/q/no-scientific-statement-is-final.md): Yes. In a letter to Valentine Brooke, 16 November 1959, Letters vol. 2, p. 522. ### Not Jung's words as shared - [All addictions are a low-level search for God.](https://quotogeny.com/q/all-addictions-are-a-search-for-god.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in a letter to William G. Wilson (Bill W.), 30 January 1961. - [Called or uncalled, God will be present.](https://quotogeny.com/q/called-or-uncalled-god-will-be-present.md): Misattributed. No. anonymous wrote it, not Jung. ## Lucretius - [Lucretius](https://quotogeny.com/people/lucretius/): Roman poet and Epicurean philosopher of the late Republic (c. ### Genuine - [Death is nothing to us.](https://quotogeny.com/q/death-is-nothing-to-us.md): Yes. In On the Nature of Things (55 BC), Book III, lines 830–831; Leonard, Book III, "Folly of the Fear of Death". - [Nothing can be created out of nothing.](https://quotogeny.com/q/nothing-can-be-created-out-of-nothing.md): Yes. In On the Nature of Things (55 BC), Book I, lines 149–154 and 156–158 (nullam rem e nihilo gigni, I.150; nil posse creari de nihilo, I.156–157; the Perseus text prints line 155 after 158); Leonard, Book I, "Substance Is Eternal". - [So great the evils to which religion could prompt!](https://quotogeny.com/q/so-great-the-evils-to-which-religion-could-prompt.md): Yes. In On the Nature of Things (55 BC), Book I, lines 95–101 (the quoted line is I.101); Leonard, Book I, "Proem". - [What is food to one, is to others bitter poison.](https://quotogeny.com/q/what-is-food-to-one-is-to-others-bitter-poison.md): Yes. In On the Nature of Things (55 BC), Book IV, lines 633–641 (the quoted line is IV.637); Leonard, Book IV, "The Senses and Mental Pictures". ### Not Lucretius's words as shared - [All religions are equally sublime to the ignorant, useful to the politician, and ridiculous to the philosopher.](https://quotogeny.com/q/all-religions-are-equally-sublime-to-the-ignorant.md): Misattributed. No. No. It is not in Lucretius: it rewords Edward Gibbon's remark, in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776), that Rome's religions were thought equally true by the people, equally false by the philosopher and equally useful by the magistrate. It was credited to Lucretius by 1932. - [Constant dripping hollows out a stone.](https://quotogeny.com/q/constant-dripping-hollows-out-a-stone.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in On the Nature of Things (55 BC), Book I, lines 311–314 (stilicidi casus lapidem cavat, I.313); Leonard, Book I, "Substance Is Eternal". ## Mae West - [Mae West](https://quotogeny.com/people/mae-west/): American actress, playwright and comedian, a Broadway and Hollywood star of the 1920s and 1930s known for sexually confident characters and double entendres. ### Genuine - [A curved line is the loveliest distance between two points.](https://quotogeny.com/q/a-curved-line-is-the-loveliest-distance.md): Yes. In LIFE, vol. 26, no. 21 (23 May 1949), Mae West feature, sidebar Mae's Famous Sayings Are Part of Nation's Folklore, p. 105, ON GEOMETRY. - [I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.](https://quotogeny.com/q/i-used-to-be-snow-white-but-i-drifted.md): Yes. In LIFE, vol. 26, no. 21 (23 May 1949), Mae West feature, sidebar Mae's Famous Sayings Are Part of Nation's Folklore, p. 105, ON HUMAN NATURE. - [Peel me a grape.](https://quotogeny.com/q/peel-me-a-grape.md): Yes. In I'm No Angel (1933), Tira's instruction to Beulah after an offer to buy her off; approximately 00:48:25 in the copy indexed by Clip.Cafe, said by Tira. - [When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad, I'm better.](https://quotogeny.com/q/when-im-good-im-very-good.md): Yes. In I'm No Angel (1933), Tira's answer to a compliment on her evening performance; approximately 00:57:49 in the copy indexed by Clip.Cafe, said by Tira. ### Not West's words as shared - [Come up and see me sometime.](https://quotogeny.com/q/come-up-and-see-me-sometime.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in She Done Him Wrong (1933), Lady Lou's invitation after complimenting Captain Cummings's uniform; extract begins at the host's movie offset 00:24:54, said by Lady Lou. - [You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.](https://quotogeny.com/q/you-only-live-once-if-you-do-it-right.md): Misattributed. No. Joe E. Lewis wrote it, not West. ## Marcus Aurelius - [Marcus Aurelius](https://quotogeny.com/people/marcus-aurelius/): Roman emperor (161–180) and Stoic philosopher. ### Genuine - [Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.](https://quotogeny.com/q/do-not-act-as-if-you-were-going-to-live-ten-thousand-years.md): Yes. In Meditations (180), Book 4, section 17. - [If it is not right, do not do it: if it is not true, do not say it.](https://quotogeny.com/q/if-it-is-not-right-do-not-do-it.md): Yes. In Meditations (180), Book 12, section 17. - [The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong doer.](https://quotogeny.com/q/the-best-revenge-is-not-to-be-like-your-enemy.md): Yes. In Meditations (180), Book 6, section 6. - [That which is an obstacle on the road helps us on this road.](https://quotogeny.com/q/the-obstacle-is-the-way.md): Yes. In Meditations (180), Book 5, section 20, conclusion. - [The soul is dyed by the thoughts.](https://quotogeny.com/q/the-soul-is-dyed-by-the-thoughts.md): Yes. In Meditations (180), Book 5, section 16, opening. - [No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.](https://quotogeny.com/q/waste-no-more-time-arguing-what-a-good-man-should-be.md): Yes. In Meditations (180), Book 10, section 16. ### Not Aurelius's words as shared - [Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.](https://quotogeny.com/q/everything-we-hear-is-an-opinion-not-a-fact.md): Not found. No. It is not in Aurelius's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.](https://quotogeny.com/q/it-is-not-death-that-a-man-should-fear.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in Meditations (180), Book 12, section 1. - [Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.](https://quotogeny.com/q/live-a-good-life-if-there-are-gods.md): Not found. No. It is not in Aurelius's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.](https://quotogeny.com/q/the-universe-is-change-our-life-is-what-our-thoughts-make-it.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in Meditations (180), Book 4, section 3, conclusion. - [When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.](https://quotogeny.com/q/when-you-arise-in-the-morning-think-of-what-a-precious-privilege-it-is-to-be-alive.md): Misattributed. No. Elbert Hubbard wrote it, not Aurelius. - [You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.](https://quotogeny.com/q/you-have-power-over-your-mind-not-outside-events.md): Not found. No. It is not in Aurelius's works, and who first wrote it is not known. ## Marilyn Monroe - [Marilyn Monroe](https://quotogeny.com/people/marilyn-monroe/): American film actress, born Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles, one of the most popular film stars of the 1950s, in comedies such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Some Like It Hot; she died at 36. ### Genuine - [That’s the trouble, a sex symbol becomes a thing. I just hate to be a thing.](https://quotogeny.com/q/a-sex-symbol-becomes-a-thing.md): Yes. In Marilyn Monroe, interview with Richard Meryman, “Marilyn Monroe lets her hair down about being famous: ‘Fame will go by and—so long, I’ve had you’,” LIFE 53, no. 5, 3 August 1962, beginning p. 31; full interview reprinted with Meryman’s letter by The Marilyn Monroe Collection, p. 36, column 3 (locator from Quote Investigator). - [I had the radio on.](https://quotogeny.com/q/i-had-the-radio-on.md): Yes. In TIME, “Cinema: Something for the Boys,” 11 August 1952, publisher’s online archive. ### Not Monroe's words as shared - [Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world.](https://quotogeny.com/q/give-a-girl-the-right-shoes.md): Misattributed. No. Bette Midler wrote it, not Monroe. - [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.](https://quotogeny.com/q/if-you-cant-handle-me-at-my-worst.md): Not found. No. It is not in Monroe's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [Well-behaved women rarely make history.](https://quotogeny.com/q/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history.md): Misattributed. No. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich wrote it, not Monroe. ## Mark Twain - [Mark Twain](https://quotogeny.com/people/mark-twain/): American writer and humorist (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). ### Genuine - [Adam was but human—this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden.](https://quotogeny.com/q/adam-wanted-the-apple-because-it-was-forbidden.md): Yes. In The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), Chapter II ("Driscoll Spares His Slaves"), epigraph from Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar, said by Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar. - [Classic: a book which people praise and don't read.](https://quotogeny.com/q/classic-a-book-people-praise-and-dont-read.md): Yes. In Following the Equator (1897), Chapter XXV, epigraph from Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, said by Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar. - [Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.](https://quotogeny.com/q/courage-is-resistance-to-fear.md): Yes. In The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), Chapter XII ("The Shame of Judge Driscoll"), epigraph from Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar, said by Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar. - [Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.](https://quotogeny.com/q/even-the-undertaker-will-be-sorry.md): Yes. In The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), Chapter VI ("Swimming in Glory"), epigraph from Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar, said by Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar. - [Familiarity breeds contempt—and children.](https://quotogeny.com/q/familiarity-breeds-contempt-and-children.md): Yes. In Mark Twain's Notebook, prepared for publication with comments by Albert Bigelow Paine (New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1935), 237. - [Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.](https://quotogeny.com/q/only-animal-that-blushes.md): Yes. In Following the Equator (1897), Chapter XXVII, epigraph from Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, said by Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar. - [If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.](https://quotogeny.com/q/starving-dog-will-not-bite-you.md): Yes. In The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), Chapter XVI ("Sold Down the River"), epigraph from Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar, said by Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar. - [Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.](https://quotogeny.com/q/travel-is-fatal-to-prejudice.md): Yes. In The Innocents Abroad (1869), Conclusion. - [Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.](https://quotogeny.com/q/truth-is-stranger-than-fiction.md): Yes. In Following the Equator (1897), Chapter XV, epigraph from Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, said by Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar. - [Put all your eggs in one basket—and watch that basket.](https://quotogeny.com/q/watch-that-basket.md): Yes. In The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), Chapter XV ("The Robber Robbed"), epigraph from Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar, said by Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar. - [Wheresoever she was, there was Eden.](https://quotogeny.com/q/wheresoever-she-was-there-was-eden.md): Yes. In Eve's Diary (1906), Last line ("At Eve's Grave"), said by Adam. ### Not Twain's words as shared - [Golf is a good walk spoiled.](https://quotogeny.com/q/golf-is-a-good-walk-spoiled.md): Not found. No. It is not in Twain's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.](https://quotogeny.com/q/kindness-language-deaf-can-hear.md): Misattributed. No. It grew from a line by Christian Nestell Bovee (1857), that kindness is a language the dumb can speak and the deaf understand; the shared wording is a later newspaper form. It is not Twain's. - [There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.](https://quotogeny.com/q/lies-damned-lies-and-statistics.md): Misattributed. No. Twain wrote it down, in a chapter of his autobiography (1907), but as a remark attributed to Disraeli, which no one has found in Disraeli. Who coined it is not known; the earliest uses are British, from 1891. - [Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.](https://quotogeny.com/q/never-argue-with-stupid-people.md): Not found. No. It is not in Twain's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.](https://quotogeny.com/q/reports-of-my-death-are-greatly-exaggerated.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in Mark Twain, 'Chapters from My Autobiography.—II', North American Review, 21 September 1906. - [I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.](https://quotogeny.com/q/schooling-interfere-with-education.md): Misattributed. No. Grant Allen wrote it, not Twain. - [Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.](https://quotogeny.com/q/side-of-the-majority-pause-and-reflect.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in Mark Twain's Notebook, prepared for publication with comments by Albert Bigelow Paine (New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1935), 393. - [It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.](https://quotogeny.com/q/size-of-the-fight-in-the-dog.md): Misattributed. No. The earliest known form is Arthur G. Lewis's, in a railway magazine column of 1911, and it spread as an anonymous proverb. It is not Twain's. - [Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.](https://quotogeny.com/q/twenty-years-from-now.md): Misattributed. No. It is first printed in H. Jackson Brown Jr.'s P.S. I Love You (1990), a book of sayings he credited to his mother; whether she coined it is not known. It is not Twain's. - [The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.](https://quotogeny.com/q/two-most-important-days.md): Not found. No. It is not in Twain's works, and who first wrote it is not known. ## Martin Luther King Jr. - [Martin Luther King Jr.](https://quotogeny.com/people/martin-luther-king/): American Baptist minister and leader of the civil rights movement, from the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955–56 to his assassination in Memphis in 1968; Nobel Peace Prize 1964. ### Genuine - [The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.](https://quotogeny.com/q/arc-of-the-moral-universe.md): Yes. In Martin Luther King, Jr., “A Look to the Future,” address delivered at Highlander Folk School’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary Meeting, Monteagle, Tennessee, 2 September 1957; King Papers, Stanford University, transcript from an audio recording. - [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.](https://quotogeny.com/q/content-of-their-character.md): Yes. In I Have a Dream (1963), March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 28 August 1963; “I have a dream” sequence, after the Mississippi passage. - [Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.](https://quotogeny.com/q/darkness-cannot-drive-out-darkness.md): Yes. In Strength to Love (1963), Sermon "Loving Your Enemies" (chapter V). - [We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.](https://quotogeny.com/q/freedom-is-never-voluntarily-given-by-the-oppressor.md): Yes. In a letter of 16 April 1963, paragraph beginning “We know through painful experience”. - [Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.](https://quotogeny.com/q/injustice-anywhere-is-a-threat-to-justice-everywhere.md): Yes. In a letter of 16 April 1963, paragraph beginning “Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states”. - [Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.](https://quotogeny.com/q/shallow-understanding-from-people-of-good-will.md): Yes. In a letter of 16 April 1963, end of the paragraph beginning “First, I must confess”. ### Not Jr.'s words as shared ## Maya Angelou - [Maya Angelou](https://quotogeny.com/people/maya-angelou/): American poet, memoirist and civil rights activist, born Marguerite Annie Johnson, whose seven autobiographies begin with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969); she read her poem 'On the Pulse of Morning' at Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993. ### Genuine - [You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise.](https://quotogeny.com/q/but-still-like-dust-ill-rise.md): Yes. In And Still I Rise (1978), 'Still I Rise', first stanza, lines 3–4, said by a defiant Black lyric speaker addressing those who would humiliate her. - [History, despite its wrenching pain Cannot be unlived, but if faced With courage, need not be lived again.](https://quotogeny.com/q/history-despite-its-wrenching-pain.md): Yes. In On the Pulse of Morning (1993), 'On the Pulse of Morning', the three lines beginning 'History, despite its wrenching pain', said by the poem's personified Rock. ### Not Angelou's words as shared - [A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.](https://quotogeny.com/q/a-bird-doesnt-sing-because-it-has-an-answer.md): Misattributed. No. The saying derives from Joan Walsh Anglund's 1967 verse, with pronouns changed. Its appearance on Maya Angelou's 2015 stamp did not make it her composition. - [I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.](https://quotogeny.com/q/people-will-never-forget-how-you-made-them-feel.md): Misattributed. No. Carl W. Buehner wrote it, not Angelou. - [There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.](https://quotogeny.com/q/there-is-no-greater-agony-than-bearing-an-untold-story.md): Misattributed. No. A rewording of Zora Neale Hurston's sentence in Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), not a sourced line from Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. ## Naval Ravikant - [Naval Ravikant](https://quotogeny.com/people/naval-ravikant/): Indian-born American entrepreneur and investor, co-founder of AngelList, known for short aphorisms on wealth and happiness posted on Twitter/X and spoken on podcasts. ### Genuine - [Not wanting something is as good as having it.](https://quotogeny.com/q/not-wanting-something-is-as-good-as-having-it.md): Yes. In 44 Harsh Truths About The Game Of Life (Modern Wisdom) (2025), Modern Wisdom podcast with Chris Williamson, 31 March 2025, at about 0:00:30–0:00:40. ### Not Ravikant's words as shared ## Friedrich Nietzsche - [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://quotogeny.com/people/nietzsche/): German philosopher and classical philologist who attacked Christian morality and announced the death of God, writing in aphorisms, polemics and poetic prose; he collapsed mentally in 1889 and his sister edited his notes into books he never wrote. ### Genuine ### Not Nietzsche's words as shared - [Hilarious are the weak who think they are good because they have no claws.](https://quotogeny.com/q/good-because-they-have-no-claws.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883), Part 2, chapter 13 ("The Sublime Ones", Von den Erhabenen), said by Zarathustra. - [Some are born to enjoy illusions, others are cursed to see the truth.](https://quotogeny.com/q/some-are-born-to-enjoy-illusions.md): Not found. No. It is not in Nietzsche's works, and who first wrote it is not known. ## Oscar Wilde - [Oscar Wilde](https://quotogeny.com/people/oscar-wilde/): Irish playwright, novelist and wit, the most quoted epigrammatist in English. ### Genuine - [All art is quite useless.](https://quotogeny.com/q/all-art-is-quite-useless.md): Yes. In The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), The Preface. - [Yet each man kills the thing he loves.](https://quotogeny.com/q/each-man-kills-the-thing-he-loves.md): Yes. In The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), Part I, said by the poem's 'I'. - [Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.](https://quotogeny.com/q/experience-is-the-name-everyone-gives-to-their-mistakes.md): Yes. In Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Act III, said by Cecil Graham. - [Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.](https://quotogeny.com/q/give-him-a-mask-and-he-will-tell-you-the-truth.md): Yes. In Intentions (1891), The Critic as Artist, Part II, said by Gilbert. - [We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.](https://quotogeny.com/q/in-the-gutter-looking-at-the-stars.md): Yes. In Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Act III, said by Lord Darlington. - [Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.](https://quotogeny.com/q/life-imitates-art.md): Yes. In Intentions (1891), The Decay of Lying, said by Vivian. - [Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.](https://quotogeny.com/q/most-people-are-other-people.md): Yes. In De Profundis (1905), De Profundis. - [The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.](https://quotogeny.com/q/only-way-to-get-rid-of-a-temptation.md): Yes. In The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter 2, said by Lord Henry Wotton. - [A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.](https://quotogeny.com/q/price-of-everything-value-of-nothing.md): Yes. In Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Act III, said by Lord Darlington. - [I can resist everything except temptation.](https://quotogeny.com/q/resist-everything-except-temptation.md): Yes. In Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Act I, said by Lord Darlington. - [To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.](https://quotogeny.com/q/to-live-is-the-rarest-thing-in-the-world.md): Yes. In The Soul of Man under Socialism (1891), The paragraph beginning "With the abolition of private property, then", about a third of the way in. - [To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.](https://quotogeny.com/q/to-love-oneself-lifelong-romance.md): Yes. In An Ideal Husband (1895), Act III, said by Lord Goring. - [The truth is rarely pure and never simple.](https://quotogeny.com/q/truth-is-rarely-pure-and-never-simple.md): Yes. In The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), Act I, said by Algernon Moncrieff. - [There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.](https://quotogeny.com/q/worse-than-being-talked-about.md): Yes. In The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter 1, said by Lord Henry Wotton. ### Not Wilde's words as shared - [Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.](https://quotogeny.com/q/always-forgive-your-enemies.md): Misattributed. No. Percy Colson wrote it, not Wilde. - [Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.](https://quotogeny.com/q/be-yourself-everyone-else-is-already-taken.md): Not found. No. It is not in Wilde's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.](https://quotogeny.com/q/either-that-wallpaper-goes-or-i-do.md): Not found. No. Not in these words, and not as his last words. Friends reported a joke of his about a wallpaper from 1908 on; this wording comes from much later retellings. - [Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.](https://quotogeny.com/q/imitation-sincerest-form-of-flattery-mediocrity.md): Not found. No. It is not in Wilde's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [Life is too important to be taken seriously.](https://quotogeny.com/q/life-is-too-important-to-be-taken-seriously.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Act I, said by Lord Darlington. - [I have nothing to declare except my genius.](https://quotogeny.com/q/nothing-to-declare-except-my-genius.md): Not found. No. It is not in Wilde's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.](https://quotogeny.com/q/some-cause-happiness-wherever-they-go.md): Not found. No. It is not in Wilde's works, and who first wrote it is not known. ## Robert Frost - [Robert Frost](https://quotogeny.com/people/robert-frost/): American poet of rural New England, born in San Francisco, who farmed in New Hampshire and Vermont, taught for many years at Amherst College, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry four times. ### Genuine - [But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.](https://quotogeny.com/q/and-miles-to-go-before-i-sleep.md): Yes. In New Hampshire (1923), 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening', stanza 4 (the final stanza); New Hampshire (1923), p. 87, said by the poem's unnamed first-person traveller. - [Good fences make good neighbours.](https://quotogeny.com/q/good-fences-make-good-neighbours.md): Yes. In North of Boston (1914), 'Mending Wall', the neighbour's first reply, after the comparison of apple trees and pines; North of Boston (1914), p. 12, said by the narrator's neighbour. - [I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.](https://quotogeny.com/q/i-took-the-one-less-traveled-by.md): Yes. In Mountain Interval (1916), 'The Road Not Taken', stanza 4 (the final stanza); Mountain Interval (1916), p. 9, said by the poem's first-person traveller. - [In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.](https://quotogeny.com/q/in-three-words-it-goes-on.md): Yes. In Ray Josephs, 'Robert Frost's Secret', This Week Magazine (Sunday newspaper supplement), 5 September 1954, as printed in The Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati, Ohio, This Week Magazine, p. 2, column 1. - [Nothing gold can stay.](https://quotogeny.com/q/nothing-gold-can-stay.md): Yes. In New Hampshire (1923), 'Nothing Gold Can Stay', final three lines (lines 6–8); New Hampshire (1923), p. 84, said by the poem's lyric voice. - [The best way out is always through.](https://quotogeny.com/q/the-best-way-out-is-always-through.md): Yes. In North of Boston (1914), 'A Servant to Servants', the passage beginning with Len's advice about one more steady pull; North of Boston (1914), pp. 69-70, said by an unnamed overworked woman. ### Not Frost's words as shared - [A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back again when it begins to rain.](https://quotogeny.com/q/a-bank-lends-you-an-umbrella-in-fair-weather.md): Not found. No. The Frost credit is unverified. A related banking joke appeared in 1905, and a fuller form circulated anonymously by 1930; a 1949 quotation dictionary later credited Frost without establishing his authorship. ## Seneca the Younger - [Seneca the Younger](https://quotogeny.com/people/seneca/): Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman and dramatist (c. ### Genuine - [It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.](https://quotogeny.com/q/it-is-not-that-we-have-a-short-time-to-live.md): Yes. In On the Shortness of Life (49), Chapter 1, section 3 (De Brevitate Vitae 1.3). - [We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.](https://quotogeny.com/q/we-suffer-more-often-in-imagination-than-in-reality.md): Yes. In a letter XIII ('On Groundless Fears'), section 4 (Ep. 13.4). - [While we wait for life, life passes.](https://quotogeny.com/q/while-we-wait-for-life-life-passes.md): Yes. In a letter I ('On Saving Time'), sections 2–3 (Ep. 1.3). ### Not Younger's words as shared - [Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.](https://quotogeny.com/q/every-new-beginning-comes-from-some-other-beginnings-end.md): Misattributed. No. Dan Wilson (Semisonic) wrote it, not Seneca. - [Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.](https://quotogeny.com/q/luck-is-what-happens-when-preparation-meets-opportunity.md): Not found. No. It is not in Seneca's works, and who first wrote it is not known. - [Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.](https://quotogeny.com/q/religion-is-regarded-by-the-common-people-as-true.md): Misattributed. No. Edward Gibbon wrote it, not Seneca. ## Stephen Chbosky - [Stephen Chbosky](https://quotogeny.com/people/stephen-chbosky/): American novelist, screenwriter and director, born in Pittsburgh, best known for The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999), a coming-of-age novel in letters, which he also adapted and directed as a film in 2012. ### Genuine - [So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be.](https://quotogeny.com/q/i-am-both-happy-and-sad.md): Yes. In The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999), Part One, letter of August 25, 1991, said by Charlie. - [I just need to know that someone out there listens and understands and doesn't try to sleep with people even if they could have. I need to know that these people exist.](https://quotogeny.com/q/i-need-to-know-that-these-people-exist.md): Yes. In The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999), Part One, letter of August 25, 1991, said by Charlie. - [We accept the love we think we deserve.](https://quotogeny.com/q/we-accept-the-love-we-think-we-deserve.md): Yes. In The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999), Part 1, letter of October 6, 1991, said by Bill. ### Not Chbosky's words as shared ## Steve Jobs - [Steve Jobs](https://quotogeny.com/people/steve-jobs/): American entrepreneur who co-founded Apple, left it in 1985, founded NeXT, led Pixar, and returned to run Apple from 1997 until shortly before his death. ### Genuine - [And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.](https://quotogeny.com/q/death-is-lifes-change-agent.md): Yes. In Commencement address at Stanford University (2005), Third story, about death, paragraph beginning “No one wants to die”. - [Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.](https://quotogeny.com/q/here-s-to-the-crazy-ones.md): Yes. In Think different (Apple advertising campaign) (1997), 'Crazy Ones', the 60-second launch commercial of Apple's 'Think different' campaign, narrated by Richard Dreyfuss, said by Richard Dreyfuss. - [Stay hungry. Stay foolish.](https://quotogeny.com/q/stay-hungry-stay-foolish.md): Yes. In Commencement address at Stanford University (2005), Closing wish to the graduates, immediately before the final thanks. - [And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.](https://quotogeny.com/q/the-only-way-to-do-great-work.md): Yes. In Commencement address at Stanford University (2005), Second story, “love and loss”, final paragraph. - [Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.](https://quotogeny.com/q/you-cant-connect-the-dots-looking-forward.md): Yes. In Commencement address at Stanford University (2005), First story, “connecting the dots”, concluding paragraph. - [Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.](https://quotogeny.com/q/your-time-is-limited.md): Yes. In Commencement address at Stanford University (2005), Third story, about death, paragraph beginning “Your time is limited”. ### Not Jobs's words as shared - [I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success.](https://quotogeny.com/q/i-reached-the-pinnacle-of-success.md): Not found. No. No documented source establishes this as Steve Jobs’s writing or last words. Snopes traced the false attribution to circulation in November 2015; its real author remains unconfirmed. ## Henry David Thoreau - [Henry David Thoreau](https://quotogeny.com/people/thoreau/): American essayist and naturalist from Concord, Massachusetts, a Transcendentalist and friend of Emerson, who lived two years in a cabin at Walden Pond and went to jail rather than pay a poll tax that supported slavery and war. ### Genuine - [The language of friendship is not words but meanings.](https://quotogeny.com/q/the-language-of-friendship-is-not-words-but-meanings.md): Yes. In A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849), "Wednesday", the essay on Friendship (p. 286 in the first edition, 1849). ### Not Thoreau's words as shared - [What a man thinks of himself becomes his fate.](https://quotogeny.com/q/what-a-man-thinks-of-himself-becomes-his-fate.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in Walden (1854), Chapter 1, "Economy". ## William W. Purkey - [William W. Purkey](https://quotogeny.com/people/william-w-purkey/): American educational psychologist, professor of counselor education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro from 1976 and co-founder of the International Alliance for Invitational Education, who wrote on self-concept and 'invitational education'. ### Genuine ### Not Purkey's words as shared - [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.](https://quotogeny.com/q/dance-like-there-s-nobody-watching.md): Misattributed. No. Susanna Clark and Richard Leigh wrote it, not Purkey. - [Human potential, though not always apparent, is there waiting to be discovered and invited forth.](https://quotogeny.com/q/human-potential-waiting-to-be-discovered.md): Paraphrase. Not in these words. The idea is in William Watson Purkey, What Is Invitational Education and How Does It Work?, conference paper, Annual California State Conference on Self-Esteem, Santa Clara, February 22–24, 1991; ERIC ED334488, p. 11 (PDF page 12), 'Where Is Invitational Education Headed?', immediately before 'Conclusion'. ## Topics - [Life](https://quotogeny.com/topics/life/) - [Love](https://quotogeny.com/topics/love/) - [Death](https://quotogeny.com/topics/death/) - [God](https://quotogeny.com/topics/god/) - [Faith](https://quotogeny.com/topics/faith/) - [Doubt](https://quotogeny.com/topics/doubt/) - [Hope](https://quotogeny.com/topics/hope/) - [Happiness](https://quotogeny.com/topics/happiness/) - [Suffering](https://quotogeny.com/topics/suffering/) - [Pain](https://quotogeny.com/topics/pain/) - [Freedom](https://quotogeny.com/topics/freedom/) - [Truth](https://quotogeny.com/topics/truth/) - [Lies](https://quotogeny.com/topics/lies/) - [Beauty](https://quotogeny.com/topics/beauty/) - [Kindness](https://quotogeny.com/topics/kindness/) - [Compassion](https://quotogeny.com/topics/compassion/) - [Friendship](https://quotogeny.com/topics/friendship/) - [Loneliness](https://quotogeny.com/topics/loneliness/) - [Children](https://quotogeny.com/topics/children/) - [Family](https://quotogeny.com/topics/family/) - [Money](https://quotogeny.com/topics/money/) - [Work](https://quotogeny.com/topics/work/) - [Power](https://quotogeny.com/topics/power/) - [Society](https://quotogeny.com/topics/society/) - [Politics](https://quotogeny.com/topics/politics/) - [Religion](https://quotogeny.com/topics/religion/) - [Morality](https://quotogeny.com/topics/morality/) - [Evil](https://quotogeny.com/topics/evil/) - [Sin](https://quotogeny.com/topics/sin/) - [Conscience](https://quotogeny.com/topics/conscience/) - [Crime](https://quotogeny.com/topics/crime/) - [Reason](https://quotogeny.com/topics/reason/) - [Emotions](https://quotogeny.com/topics/emotions/) - [Soul](https://quotogeny.com/topics/soul/) - [Dreams](https://quotogeny.com/topics/dreams/) - [Nature](https://quotogeny.com/topics/nature/) - [Time](https://quotogeny.com/topics/time/) - [Change](https://quotogeny.com/topics/change/) - [Courage](https://quotogeny.com/topics/courage/) - [Wisdom](https://quotogeny.com/topics/wisdom/) - [Self-knowledge](https://quotogeny.com/topics/self-knowledge/) - [Pride](https://quotogeny.com/topics/pride/) - [Humility](https://quotogeny.com/topics/humility/) - [Despair](https://quotogeny.com/topics/despair/) - [Meaning of life](https://quotogeny.com/topics/meaning-of-life/) - [Art](https://quotogeny.com/topics/art/) - [Education](https://quotogeny.com/topics/education/)