My Favorite Famous Quotes

I keep a list of hilarious quotes, and bits of wisdom, from some of the world’s greatest thinkers. It’s a New Year—we’re here looking out for you. Meanwhile--enjoy! – EMac aka Liz MacDonald

"Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people."— W. C. Fields, American humorist

"Anybody who plays the stock market not as an insider is like a man buying cows in the moonlight."— Daniel Drew, 19th century speculator

"Few things are more irritating than when someone who is wrong is also very effective in making his point.”— Mark Twain, American author, humorist

“It’s easy being a humorist when you’ve got the whole government working for you.”—Will Rogers, American humorist

“I do not rule Russia, 10,000 clerks do.”— Czar Nicholas of Russia

“The role of third parties is to sting like a bee, then die.”— Richard Hofstadter, American historian

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits target no one else can see.”— Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher

“A healthy male consumes one and a half times his own weight in other people’s patience.”— John Updike, American author

“Everybody gets so much information all day long they lose their common sense.”— Gertrude Stein, American author

“This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but an ulcer.”— TS Eliot, British author, attributed

“A modest little person, with much to be modest about.”— Winston Churchill, former prime minister, Great Britain

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."— Winston Churchill

“It is easier to run a revolution than a government.”— Ferdinand Marcos, former president of the Philippines

“It is doubly tainted. Taint yours and taint mine.”— Mark Twain, when challenged on the wealth of his friend, Standard Oil magnate H.H. Rogers, as being ‘tainted’

“Standing in the middle of road is very dangerous--you get knocked down by traffic from both sides.”— Dame Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister, Great Britain

“Pennies don't fall from heaven, they have to be earned here on earth.”— Dame Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister, Great Britain

“No-one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well.”— Dame Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister, Great Britain

“Being prime minister is a lonely job... you cannot lead from the crowd.”— Dame Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister, Great Britain

“I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.”— Dame Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister, Great Britain

“I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.”— Dame Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister, Great Britain

“I don't mind how much my Ministers talk, so long as they do what I say.”— Dame Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister, Great Britain

“I love argument, I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that's not their job.”— Dame Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister, Great Britain

“If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn't swim.”— Dame Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister, Great Britain

“If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.”— Dame Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister, Great Britain

“Of course it's the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story.”— Dame Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister, Great Britain

“I am ready to meet my maker. Whether He is prepared for the ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”— Winston Churchill.

“If you live like there’s no God, you’d better be right.”— Anonymous

“Be yourself--everyone else is taken.”— Oscar Wilde, British author

“Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.”— Kenneth Ewart Boulding, British economist

“History must repeat itself as we pay so little attention to it the first time.”— Blackie Sherrod, sports writer

"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."— Mark Twain, attributed

"…the United States has experienced high rates of inflation in the past and appears to be running the same type of fiscal policies that engendered hyperinflations in 20 countries over the past century."— Laurence Kotlikoff, American economist

"Stability is unstable."— Hyman Minsky, American economist

"If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free."— P.J. O'Rourke, American humorist

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery."— Winston Churchill, prime minister, Great Britain

"If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning."— Catherine Aird, pseudonym of novelist Kinn Hamilton McIntosh

"It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it."— W. Somerset Maugham, British playwright, author

"Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't."— Pete Seeger, American folk singer

"I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”— Thomas Jefferson, American Founding Father

"Bull markets are born in pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism, and die of euphoria."— Sir John Templeton, American businessman, philanthropist

"The four most dangerous words in investing are, 'It's different this time.'"— Sir John Templeton