Quotations
People love to talk and when they say something memorable we call it a quotation.
Here’s a select list of phrases which have entered the language that were first said by particular individuals – complete with details on how, when and why they originated.
A picture paints a thousand words – Frederick R. Barnard
A riddle wrapped up in an enigma – Winston Churchill
Absolute power corrupts absolutely – Lord Acton
Blood, sweat and tears – Winston Churchill
Bugger Bognor! – King George V
Cogito ergo sum – René Descartes
Darling buds of May – William Shakespeare
Et tu, Brute – William Shakespeare
Excuse me while I kiss this guy – Jimi Hendrix
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears – William Shakespeare
From sea to shining sea – Katharine Lee Bates
Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration – Thomas Edison
History is bunk – Henry Ford
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child – William Shakespeare
I have nothing to offer but blood toil tears and sweat – Winston Churchill
I have nothing to declare but my genius – Oscar Wilde
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips – William Shakespeare
If music be the food of love, play on – William Shakespeare
Less is more – Robert Browning
Let not poor Nelly starve – King Charles II
Let’s roll – Todd Beamer
Life’s not all beer and skittles – Thomas Hughes
Like being savaged by a dead sheep – Dennis Healey
Many a true word is spoken in jest – Geoffrey Chaucer
May you live in interesting times – Frederic Coudert
Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water – William Shakespeare
Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows – William Shakespeare
More light! – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Nasty, brutish and short – Thomas Hobbes
Necessity is the mother of invention – Richard Franck
Never give a sucker an even break – W.C.Fields
No man is an island – John Donne
Nothing is certain but death and taxes – Daniel Defoe
One small step for man – Neil Armstrong
Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely – Lord Acton
Say goodnight Gracie – George Burns
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em – William Shakespeare
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men, have mediocrity thrust upon them – Joseph Heller
Spare the rod and spoil the child – Samuel Butler
Standing on the shoulders of giants – Robert Hooke
The best laid schemes of mice and men – Robert Burns
The female of the species is more deadly then the male – Rudyard Kipling
To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive – Robert Louis Stevenson
The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated – Mark Twain
Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things – Dan Quayle
We are a grandmother – Margaret Thatcher
We are not amused – Queen Victoria
You can lead a w**** to culture but you can’t make her think – Dorothy Parker.
You’ve never had it so good – Harold Macmillan
See also, our collection of quotations from Lincoln, Einstein and Marilyn Monroe.
…and, of course, a list of quotations wouldn’t be complete without a link to famous misquotations.
