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People quotes

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“Wealth is the means—and people are the ends.” John F. Kennedy, “State of the Union Address” - 11 January 1962

“What is the city but the people?” William Shakespeare, “Coriolanus” - 1623

“Dad always told me that you can judge people by the way they treat waiters and assistants.” John Green, “The Fault in Our Stars” - 2012

“There is no art which one government sooner learns of another, than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.” Adam Smith, “The Wealth of Nations” - 1776

“But when he has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.” Plato, “The Republic”

“Let your evinced desires be for what is good, and the people will be good.” Confucius, “Analects”

“It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigour.” Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia” - 1785

“Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people.” Charlie Chaplin, “My Autobiography” - 1964

“The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.” Mao Zedong, “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung” - 1964

“There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do.” John Steinbeck, “The Grapes of Wrath” - 1939

“Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.” John Steinbeck, “Of Mice and Men” - 1937

“It is no use trying to sum people up.” Virginia Woolf, “Jacob's Room” - 1922

“An habitation giddy and unsure hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.” William Shakespeare, “Henry IV, Part 2” - 1600

“The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.” Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” - 1849

“The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.” Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” - 1849

“She would not say of any one in the world now that they were this or were that.” Virginia Woolf, “Mrs Dalloway” - 1925

“Let us show that, if the people abandon the republicans, the republicans do not abandon the people.” Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables” - 1862

“Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition; and where all the superior ranks of people were secured from it, the inferior ranks could not be much exposed to it.” Adam Smith, “The Wealth of Nations” - 1776

“Every tax ought to be so contrived, as both to take out and to keep out of the pockets of the people as little as possible, over and above what it brings into the public treasury of the state.” Adam Smith, “The Wealth of Nations” - 1776

“As a general rule, people, even the wicked, are much more naïve and simple-hearted than we suppose. And we ourselves are, too.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov” - 1880

“Through me the way is to the city dolent; Through me the way is to eternal dole; Through me the way among the people lost.” Dante Alighieri, “Divine Comedy” - 1320

“In the United States each separate journal exercises but little authority, but the power of the periodical press is only second to that of the people.” Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” - 1835

“People would be surprised if they knew how much in this world was due to prayers.” Kurt Vonnegut, “Slaughterhouse-Five” - 1969

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves therefore are its only safe depositories.” Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia” - 1785

“If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.” Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching” - 4th century BC

“Why, because an author has more rights than ordinary people, as everybody knows. People will stand much more from him.” Albert Camus, “The Plague” - 1947

“The atom bomb is a paper tiger which the U.S. reactionaries use to scare people. It looks terrible, but in fact it isn't. Of course, the atom bomb is a weapon of mass slaughter, but the outcome of a war is decided by the people, not by one or two...” Mao Zedong, “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung” - 1964

“Weapons are an important factor in war, but not the decisive factor; it is people, not things, that are decisive. The contest of strength is not only a contest of military and economic power, but also a contest of human power and morale. Military...” Mao Zedong, “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung” - 1964

“People. You must love people. Men are admirable. I want to vomit—and suddenly, there it is: the Nausea.” Jean-Paul Sartre, “Nausea” - 1938

“She belonged to that one of the two divisions of the human race in which the untiring curiosity which the other half feels about the people whom it does not know is replaced by an unfailing interest in the people whom it does.” Marcel Proust, “Swann's Way” - 1913

“Why do you necessarily have to be wrong just because a few million people think you are?” Frank Zappa, “The Real Frank Zappa Book” - 1989

“For, although one may be very strong in armed forces, yet in entering a province one has always need of the goodwill of the natives.” Niccolò Machiavelli, “The Prince” - 1532

“Besides this, one cannot by fair dealing, and without injury to others, satisfy the nobles, but you can satisfy the people, for their object is more righteous than that of the nobles, the latter wishing to oppress, while the former only desire...” Niccolò Machiavelli, “The Prince” - 1532

“The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends . . . It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace.” George R. R. Martin, “A Game of Thrones” - 1996

“People are like lice—they get under your skin and bury themselves there. You scratch and scratch until the blood comes, but you can’t get permanently deloused.” Henry Miller, “Tropic of Cancer” - 1934

Related topics

government power war leadership peace force republic tax fear sin complexity virtue desire world freedom slavery weapons authority spirit kindness

Related authors

Adam Smith (3)
Mao Zedong (3)
William Shakespeare (2)
Henry David Thoreau (2)
Virginia Woolf (2)
Thomas Jefferson (2)
John Steinbeck (2)
Niccolò Machiavelli (2)
George R. R. Martin (1)
John Green (1)
Victor Hugo (1)
Plato (1)
Confucius (1)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1)
Dante Alighieri (1)
Alexis de Tocqueville (1)
Kurt Vonnegut (1)
Lao Tzu (1)
Charlie Chaplin (1)
Albert Camus (1)

Related sources

The Wealth of Nations (3)
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (3)
Civil Disobedience (2)
Notes on the State of Virginia (2)
The Prince (2)
Henry IV, Part 2 (1)
Coriolanus (1)
A Game of Thrones (1)
The Fault in Our Stars (1)
State of the Union Address (1)
Mrs Dalloway (1)
Les Misérables (1)
The Republic (1)
Analects (1)
The Brothers Karamazov (1)
Divine Comedy (1)
Democracy in America (1)
Slaughterhouse-Five (1)
Tao Te Ching (1)
My Autobiography (1)