Quotes by topic, for speeches and essays

Looking for a line on a subject, and not by a particular person? This page gathers quotations from across the site under twelve subjects that speeches and essays are most often written on. Every line is taken from the page of the person who wrote it, where you will find its source and more like it. Tap a name to go there.

Before you use one, read how to use a quotation in a speech or essay. It takes two minutes and will make the quotation work twice as hard.

Education, reading and knowledge

For Teachers' Day, library week, annual days and essays on education.

• "Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man."
  Francis Bacon, Essays: Of Studies. See Bacon, Pope, Johnson.
• "Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man."
  Swami Vivekananda, Letter, 1894, in The Complete Works. See Vivekananda.
• "A little learning is a dangerous thing."
  Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1711). See Bacon, Pope, Johnson.
• "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!"
  Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813). See Jane Austen.
• "Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it."
  Samuel Johnson, in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson (1791). See Bacon, Pope, Johnson.
• "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."
  Francis Bacon, Essays: Of Studies. See Bacon, Pope, Johnson.

Courage

For farewells, sports days, and anyone about to do something difficult.

• "Cowards die many times before their deaths; / The valiant never taste of death but once."
  William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 2, Scene 2. See Shakespeare.
• "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear."
  Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894). See Mark Twain.
• "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
  Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, 1933. See Lincoln and others.
• "Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them."
  Rabindranath Tagore, Fruit-Gathering (1916). See Tagore.
• "I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship."
  Louisa May Alcott, Little Women (1868). See Classic novels.

Hard work and perseverance

For prize days, exam seasons and votes of thanks.

• "Great works are performed, not by strength, but perseverance."
  Samuel Johnson, Rasselas (1759). See Bacon, Pope, Johnson.
• "Little strokes fell great oaks."
  Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack. See Benjamin Franklin.
• "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
  Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses (1842). See English poets.
• "The heights by great men reached and kept / Were not attained by sudden flight, / But they, while their companions slept, / Were toiling upward in the night."
  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Ladder of St. Augustine (1858). See English poets.
• "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."
  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Circles (1841). See Emerson.
• "Well done is better than well said."
  Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack. See Benjamin Franklin.

Hope in hard times

For difficult days, get well messages and new beginnings.

• "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?"
  Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind (1820). See English poets.
• "Hope is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul."
  Emily Dickinson, poem published 1891. See English poets.
• "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
  Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan (1892). See Oscar Wilde.
• "Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark."
  Rabindranath Tagore, Fireflies (1928). See Tagore.
• "If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars."
  Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds (1916). See Tagore.

Friendship and kindness

For Friendship Day, thank you speeches and service clubs.

• "The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one."
  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friendship (1841). See Emerson.
• "What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?"
  George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871 to 1872). See Classic novels.
• "No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for any one else."
  Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (1865). See Charles Dickens.
• "If I can stop one heart from breaking, / I shall not live in vain."
  Emily Dickinson, poem published 1890. See English poets.
• "They alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive."
  Swami Vivekananda, Letter to the Maharaja of Mysore, 1894. See Vivekananda.

Truth and honesty

For moral science, debates and value education assemblies.

• "When in doubt, tell the truth."
  Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897). See Mark Twain.
• "Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth."
  Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854). See Thoreau.
• "The truth is rarely pure and never simple."
  Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). See Oscar Wilde.
• "Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
  Mark Twain, Note to the Young People's Society, Brooklyn, 1901. See Mark Twain.

Time

For study habits, new year talks and time management lessons.

• "Lost time is never found again."
  Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack. See Benjamin Franklin.
• "One today is worth two tomorrows."
  Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack. See Benjamin Franklin.
• "My advice is, never do to-morrow what you can do to-day. Procrastination is the thief of time. Collar him!"
  Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (1850). See Charles Dickens.
• "Remember that time is money."
  Benjamin Franklin, Advice to a Young Tradesman (1748). See Benjamin Franklin.

Freedom, democracy and the nation

For Independence Day, Republic Day, Constitution Day and voting awareness.

• "Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
  Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, 1863. See Lincoln and others.
• "Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high."
  Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali (1912), poem 35. See Tagore.
• "Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it."
  Bal Gangadhar Tilak, 1916. See Gandhi and freedom.
• "सारे जहाँ से अच्छा हिन्दोस्ताँ हमारा / हम बुलबुलें हैं इस की ये गुलसिताँ हमारा"
  अल्लामा इक़बाल, तराना-ए-हिन्दी (1904). See Urdu and Hindi poets.
• "If there is no struggle there is no progress."
  Frederick Douglass, West India Emancipation speech, 1857. See Lincoln and others.

Believing in yourself

For Youth Day, send-offs and students stepping into something new.

• "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string."
  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance (1841). See Emerson.
• "I am the master of my fate, / I am the captain of my soul."
  W. E. Henley, Invictus (1888). See English poets.
• "The greatest sin is to think yourself weak."
  Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. See Vivekananda.
• "ख़ुदी को कर बुलंद इतना कि हर तक़दीर से पहले / ख़ुदा बंदे से ख़ुद पूछे बता तेरी रज़ा क्या है"
  अल्लामा इक़बाल. See Urdu and Hindi poets.
• "Insist on yourself; never imitate."
  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance (1841). See Emerson.

Nature

For Environment Day, science exhibitions and nature club boards.

• "To see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, / Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand / And Eternity in an hour."
  William Blake, Auguries of Innocence (written about 1803). See English poets.
• "For oft, when on my couch I lie / In vacant or in pensive mood, / They flash upon that inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude."
  William Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (1807). See English poets.
• "From so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."
  Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (1859), closing words. See Science and thought.
• "He prayeth best, who loveth best / All things both great and small."
  Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798). See English poets.

Life and wisdom

For speeches that need a thoughtful opening or close.

• "All the world's a stage, / And all the men and women merely players."
  William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7. See Shakespeare.
• "The years teach much which the days never know."
  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Experience (1844). See Emerson.
• "Things do not change; we change."
  Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854). See Thoreau.
• "The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."
  John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1 (1667). See English poets.
• "We must cultivate our garden."
  Voltaire, Candide (1759), closing line. See Science and thought.

A smile for the audience

For light openings, toasts and farewell parties.

• "I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours."
  Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (1889). See Classic novels.
• "I can resist everything except temptation."
  Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan (1892). See Oscar Wilde.
• "Fish and visitors stink in three days."
  Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack. See Benjamin Franklin.
• ""Classic." A book which people praise and don't read."
  Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897). See Mark Twain.
• "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
  Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass (1871). See Classic novels.

How to choose between them

Pick the line that fits your own point, not the most famous one. Read it aloud once: if you stumble, your audience will too. Check who is speaking if the line comes from a play or a novel, and give the source when you use it. Sayings without an author are on our proverb pages: English proverbs, Hindi kahavatein, Punjabi akhaan and Latin phrases.

Want all of one person's lines?

Go back to the home page and choose a name, or type a word in the search box there. The search looks through every quotation on the site.