23 Thought-Provoking Quotes by History’s Favorite Writers

 

Throughout history writers have put our thoughts, fears and insights into words we can cherish, remember and live by.

Below is a collection of thought-provoking quotes by some of the most celebrated and revered writers in history.

If you enjoy these quote compilations, be sure to check out our previous posts here.

 

 

 

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss

 

 

 

“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.” – Maya Angelou

 

 

 

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde

 

 

 

“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” – Mark Twain

 

 

 

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” – Neil Gaiman

 

 

 

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw

 

 

 

“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” – J.K. Rowling

 

 

 

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” – Ernest Hemingway

 

 

 

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – Aristotle

 

 

 

“Friendship is born at that moment when one man says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .’” – C.S. Lewis

 

 

 

“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

 

 

 

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” – William Shakespeare

 

 

 

“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” – Virginia Woolf

 

 

 

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

 

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” – E.E. Cummings

 

 

 

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” – Benjamin Franklin

 

 

 

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy

 

 

 

“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent” – Victor Hugo

 

 

 

“Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.” – Alfred Tennyson

 

 

 

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot

 

 

 

“Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” – Roald Dahl

 

 

 

“It’s not denial. I’m just selective about the reality I accept.” – Bill Watterson

 

 

 

“Not all those who wander are lost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien