Famous Quotes GK brings inspirational, historical and scientific quotes from leaders, reformers, philosophers and scientists for essays, speeches and competitive exams.

India CultureWorld HistoryScience AbbreviationsNobel Winners

Famous Quotes GK

Inspirational, historical and scientific quotes for essays, speeches, interviews and competitive exam revision.

Inspirational Quotes

Use these quotes for speeches, essays, interviews and daily motivation.

All Quotes by Category

World Leaders

Leader
"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
- Mahatma Gandhi
Leader
"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
- Barack Obama
Leader
"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."
- Winston Churchill
Leader
"If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner."
- Nelson Mandela
Leader
"The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things."
- Ronald Reagan
Leader
"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way."
- John C. Maxwell
Leader
"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers."
- Ralph Nader
Leader
"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality."
- Warren Bennis

Freedom Fighters

Freedom
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
Freedom
"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
Freedom
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
- Mahatma Gandhi
Freedom
"I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
- Patrick Henry
Freedom
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."
- Abraham Lincoln
Freedom
"Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes."
- Mahatma Gandhi
Freedom
"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."
- Nelson Mandela
Freedom
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
- Thomas Jefferson

Scientists & Innovators

Science
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
- Albert Einstein
Science
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
- Albert Einstein
Science
"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
- John F. Kennedy
Science
"The science of today is the technology of tomorrow."
- Edward Teller
Science
"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."
- Marie Curie
Science
"The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it."
- Neil deGrasse Tyson
Science
"Science is not only a disciple of reason but also one of romance and passion."
- Stephen Hawking
Science
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'"
- Isaac Asimov

Philosophers & Thinkers

Philosophy
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
- Socrates
Philosophy
"I think, therefore I am."
- René Descartes
Philosophy
"The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays."
- Søren Kierkegaard
Philosophy
"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Philosophy
"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."
- Socrates
Philosophy
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
- Aristotle
Philosophy
"The mind is everything. What you think you become."
- Buddha
Philosophy
"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions."
- Dalai Lama

Writers & Poets

Literature
"The pen is mightier than the sword."
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Literature
"If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write."
- Martin Luther
Literature
"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."
- Maya Angelou
Literature
"You can make anything by writing."
- C.S. Lewis
Literature
"A word after a word after a word is power."
- Margaret Atwood
Literature
"Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic."
- J.K. Rowling
Literature
"The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say."
- Anaïs Nin
Literature
"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect."
- Anaïs Nin

Entrepreneurs & Business Leaders

Business
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."
- Walt Disney
Business
"It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure."
- Bill Gates
Business
"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work."
- Steve Jobs
Business
"If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late."
- Reid Hoffman
Business
"The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks."
- Mark Zuckerberg
Business
"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."
- John D. Rockefeller
Business
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
- Thomas Edison
Business
"The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to every evening think what can be done better tomorrow."
- Ingvar Kamprad

Artists & Creatives

Art
"Every artist was first an amateur."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Art
"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."
- Pablo Picasso
Art
"Creativity takes courage."
- Henri Matisse
Art
"I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart."
- Vincent van Gogh
Art
"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls."
- Pablo Picasso
Art
"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."
- Edgar Degas
Art
"The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery."
- Francis Bacon
Art
"I dream my painting and I paint my dream."
- Vincent van Gogh

Historical Quotes

Important historical quotes arranged with timelines and eras for quick GK revision.

Timeline of Historical Quotes

~500 BC
"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."
- Lao Tzu
~400 BC
"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."
- Socrates
~350 BC
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
- Aristotle
~50 BC
"Experience is the teacher of all things."
- Julius Caesar
~20 BC
"Fortune favors the bold."
- Virgil
~1600
"I think, therefore I am."
- René Descartes
1776
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
- Thomas Jefferson
1863
"Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."
- Abraham Lincoln
1940
"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
- Winston Churchill
1963
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Ancient Times

"The unexamined life is not worth living."
- Socrates
Philosophy Wisdom
"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."
- Aristotle
Philosophy Wisdom
"The mind is everything. What you think you become."
- Buddha
Philosophy Wisdom
"He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions."
- Confucius
Philosophy Wisdom

Middle Ages

"The truth will set you free."
- Jesus Christ
Wisdom Truth
"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive."
- Dalai Lama XIV
Compassion Wisdom
"The pen is mightier than the sword."
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Knowledge Power
"To be, or not to be: that is the question."
- William Shakespeare
Philosophy Wisdom

Renaissance

"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions."
- Leonardo da Vinci
Wisdom Truth
"I think, therefore I am."
- René Descartes
Philosophy Knowledge
"The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do."
- Galileo Galilei
Science Wisdom
"Knowledge is power."
- Francis Bacon
Knowledge Power

Enlightenment

"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Freedom Philosophy
"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
- Voltaire
Freedom Courage
"The duty of man is to pursue happiness."
- Thomas Paine
Wisdom Happiness
"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid."
- Benjamin Franklin
Knowledge Wisdom

Modern Era

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Courage Leadership
"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."
- Albert Einstein
Wisdom Optimism
"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."
- Mahatma Gandhi
Change Courage
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
- Eleanor Roosevelt
Optimism Courage

Scientific Quotes

Science quotes from physicists, mathematicians, inventors and Indian scientists.

Scientific Quotes by Field

Physicists

Physics
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
- Albert Einstein
Physics
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."
- Isaac Newton
Physics
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
- Albert Einstein
Physics
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."
- Albert Einstein
Physics
"The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine."
- J.B.S. Haldane
Physics
"God does not play dice with the universe."
- Albert Einstein

Biologists

Biology
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change."
- Charles Darwin
Biology
"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."
- Theodosius Dobzhansky
Biology
"The double helix structure of DNA was too pretty not to be true."
- Francis Crick
Biology
"We are survival machines - robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes."
- Richard Dawkins
Biology
"The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts."
- Paul Ehrlich
Biology
"The cell is the fundamental unit of life."
- Theodor Schwann

Chemists

Chemistry
"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."
- Marie Curie
Chemistry
"In nature, nothing is created, nothing is lost, everything changes."
- Antoine Lavoisier
Chemistry
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'"
- Isaac Asimov
Chemistry
"Chemistry can be a good and bad thing. Chemistry is good when you make love with it. Chemistry is bad when you make crack with it."
- Adam Sandler
Chemistry
"The atoms of our bodies are traceable to stars that manufactured them in their cores and exploded these enriched ingredients across our galaxy."
- Neil deGrasse Tyson
Chemistry
"We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically."
- Neil deGrasse Tyson

Mathematicians

Mathematics
"Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas."
- Albert Einstein
Mathematics
"Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe."
- Galileo Galilei
Mathematics
"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."
- Albert Einstein
Mathematics
"The essence of mathematics is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple."
- S. Gudder
Mathematics
"Mathematics is the music of reason."
- James Joseph Sylvester
Mathematics
"The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence."
- Charles Caleb Colton

Astronomers

Astronomy
"The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself."
- Carl Sagan
Astronomy
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
- Carl Sagan
Astronomy
"The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it."
- Neil deGrasse Tyson
Astronomy
"We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically."
- Neil deGrasse Tyson
Astronomy
"The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space."
- Carl Sagan
Astronomy
"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love."
- Carl Sagan

Inventors

Invention
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
- Thomas Edison
Invention
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'"
- Isaac Asimov
Invention
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."
- Alan Kay
Invention
"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."
- Thomas Edison
Invention
"The science of today is the technology of tomorrow."
- Edward Teller
Invention
"Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas."
- Marie Curie

Science Philosophers

Philosophy
"Science is not only a disciple of reason but also one of romance and passion."
- Stephen Hawking
Philosophy
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."
- Stephen Hawking
Philosophy
"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science."
- Albert Einstein
Philosophy
"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."
- Isaac Asimov
Philosophy
"Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge."
- Carl Sagan
Philosophy
"The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it."
- Neil deGrasse Tyson