Welcome to our curated collection of timeless classics quotes! Delve into the wisdom of the ages as we explore the profound insights and enduring truths encapsulated in the words of literary giants, philosophers, and visionaries from across history. In this treasury of profound reflections, you’ll discover pearls of wisdom that have stood the test of time, offering guidance, inspiration, and contemplation for generations.
Classical literature and philosophy have left an indelible mark on human civilization, shaping our understanding of the world and our place within it. From the philosophical musings of Aristotle to the poetic eloquence of Shakespeare, from the profound insights of Confucius to the timeless wisdom of Marcus Aurelius, these quotes resonate with universal themes of love, life, wisdom, and human nature.
Below, you’ll find a selection of quotes that have transcended the boundaries of time and culture, waiting to be savored, pondered, and shared. Whether you seek inspiration, solace, or simply a moment of reflection, these classics quotes are sure to ignite your imagination and stir your soul. So, without further ado, let the journey through the corridors of literary greatness begin!
Although reading the classics in Latin in school may be not as fulfilling as it would be at a more mature age, few scientists can afford the time for such diversion later in life. George Andrew Olah
The novel is about five students of classics who are studying with a classics professor, and they take the ideas of the things that they’re learning from him a bit too seriously, with terrible consequences. Donna Tartt
I call it an old-fashioned seafood house for the new millennium. We are trying to update what we know as old fish houses and places like that, which are great, but I want to give it a new, fresh look with updated versions of the classics we all love. Todd English
I went through different styles but realized Ray-Bans are the classics. You can’t go wrong with them. I explore and cheat on them occasionally, but I always go back to the aviators. Waris Ahluwalia
Stick to the classics, and you can’t ever go wrong. I see old ladies on the street who have fabulous style and realize it’s because they are probably wearing really classic items that they’ve had for years and years. I think if you find something that suits you, you should just stick to it. Alexa Chung
My background is somewhat unusual, as I trained to be a ballet dancer. I worked in the theatre for eight or nine years as a contemporary dancer. But as an actor one does read Shakespeare and does try to learn the classics. William Kempe
Bad movies: they can be tatty classics of crazed ineptitude, like Edward D. Wood’s ‘Glen or Glenda’ and ‘Plan 9 from Outer Space,’ or big-budget misfires like the 1987 ‘Ishtar,’ a would-be comedy that sent Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman on a Hope-Crosby Road to Dystopia. Richard Corliss
My mum is great for keeping hold of old classics – pieces of clothing that never age and never go out of fashion. Amber Le Bon
One of the books I remember reading when I was young and always thought would be a great role to play is Catherine in ‘Wuthering Heights.’ I like the classics. Yvonne Strahovski
I love the Russian classics very much, the Russian classical literature. But I also read modern literature. As far as Russian literature is concerned, I am very fond of Tolstoy and Chekhov, and I also enjoy reading Gogol very much. Vladimir Putin
Books that have become classics – books that have had their day and now get more praise than perusal – always remind me of retired colonels and majors and captains who, having reached the age limit, find themselves retired on half pay. Thomas Bailey Aldrich
I read some older books when I worked at Barnes And Noble, like some of the American classics. I read a lot of Hemingway. I fell in love with Hemingway’s prose and with the way he wrote. I feel like he’s talking to me, like we’re in a bar and he’s not trying to jazz it up and sound smart, he’s just being him. Bert Kreischer
I have always admired the work of Phil Farmer and was glad for the chance to work with him. Readers today may be too young to remember his classics like The Lovers. Piers Anthony
Darwin himself, in his day, was unable to fight free of the theoretical errors of which he was guilty. It was the classics of Marxism that revealed those errors and pointed them out. Trofim Lysenko
I’d somehow always thought of the classics of literature as something apart from me, something to do with academic life and not something you enjoyed. Alan Bennett
When planning a Thanksgiving menu, it’s always a balancing act between representing all the classics and satisfying all the members of your family. J. Kenji Lopez-Alt
I loved watching classics such as ‘Casablanca’ and goofball comedies such as ‘How To Murder Your Wife’ on WGN-TV. Richard Roeper
We played in bars and other such establishments and anywhere where people would listen. Sometimes they did, and sometimes not. The outfits we wore were classics of the 50’s. Phil Harris
I don’t read a great deal of fiction, to my shame, other than the classics. Richard Attenborough
Professors of classics – not even a professor of English – professors of classics, they’re something sacred; it’s almost like being a priest. Erich Segal
Kate Spade has great feminine classics and I love her bags. Designs by Rebecca Taylor, BCBG and Herve Leger are sexy and fun, and they work on my body. Katrina Bowden
The great Chinese classics have always said that it’s better not to fight; that the clever man achieves his ends without violence; that a battle delayed is better than a battle fought. John Keegan
Style, no matter how outrageous it is, is still an expression of someone’s personality. And my personality is somewhere stuck in the classics. Liev Schreiber
Music critics think of lyrics first and don’t consider melody but so many songs are lyrically depressing but musically great, and that’s why they become classics. Aloe Blacc
After college, I went on a real big classics kick. Read everything by Faulkner, Hemingway, Woolf, Proust, Dostoevsky. And that classics train dropped me off at ‘Dracula.’ Halfway through it, I understood I’d never be going back, never ‘leaving’ the genre again. Since then, I’ve been on a fairly strict horror diet. Josh Malerman
I like classics but I always add a twist because I don’t like to think of my clothes as classic. Monique Lhuillier
The great classics that, as a professional you don’t get to do, you do as a student, when you don’t know any better. Marion Ross
Classics are books which, the more we think we know them through hearsay, the more original, unexpected, and innovative we find them when we actually read them. Italo Calvino
The fact that Stravinsky used the classics as a major influence is obvious. What is interesting is how he used them, how he turned Bach into Stravinsky. Lukas Foss
Virtually the only subject in which one could ever get a scholarship to Oxford or Cambridge was classics. So I went to Oxford to study classics and, unlike Cambridge, it had a philosophy component, and I became completely transported by it. Bernard Williams
What interests me is the idea that classics is actually quite democratic. It isn’t only the toff, upper-class subject it’s often thought to be. Every generation enjoys rediscovering it. Mary Beard
Now that I’m taking some time off from school, I’ve been reading a lot to make sure I don’t forget everything. It’s mostly classics and nonfiction accounts from actors, directors and writers from the ’40s and ’50s. Fred Savage
I love soundtracks. I used to have three iPod classics: one with regular music, one with soundtracks, and one with demos on it. JPEGMAFIA
Classics stay alive because a great actor or a great director wants to do them. Scott Rudin
I often lament that new picture books don’t get read because the classics hold up so well. It’s a ridiculous complaint because, um, the classics hold up so well. Rebecca Serle
I’m more comfortable weaving Indian flavors into American classics. Aarti Sequeira
In my class – in all fifth-grade classes – we were required to read ‘classics,’ books like ‘Shiloh,’ which is about a white boy and the dog he rescues. And ‘Old Yeller,’ which is about a white boy and the dog that rescues him. And ‘Where the Red Fern Grows,’ which is about a white boy and the two dogs he trains. Marley Dias
Luckily for me, my father had impeccable taste. No contemporary collector was he. His treasure trove of comics included gems such as ‘Little Lulu,’ ‘Frontline Combat’ and ‘Classics Illustrated.’ But the works that stood head and shoulders above the rest were Carl Barks’s ‘Donald Duck’ and ‘Uncle Scrooge’ comics from the 1940s through the 1960s. Jeff Kinney
I didn’t belong to the sort of family where the children’s classics were laid on. I went to the public library and read everything I could get my hands on. Pat Barker
I like to read first thing in the morning. I’m addicted to the Kindle. I read a lot of business books, because I feel like I should figure out how to be a real businessman before someone figures out that I’m not one. I really enjoy reading classics as well, which I try to work in once every two months. Matt Mullenweg
When I wrote ‘Barefoot in Paris,’ I wanted to make simple recipes that you could make at home that tasted like French classics. Ina Garten
Perhaps because my background is theatrical, I have a great affinity with the classics. Hamlet has always been a character of great interest to me and a character I would really love to play. Or a character in a Tennessee Williams play, maybe Tom in ‘The Glass Menagerie.’ Adhir Kalyan
I had learning problems when I was in elementary school, and didn’t really start to read well until high school. I never read any of the middle grade classics that were popular when I was young – ‘Harriet the Spy’, ‘Charlotte’s Web’, ‘The Witch of Blackbird Pond’, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. Lauren Tarshis
I do love the provocative side of my collection, but I also like the classics – the simpler skirts and the sweater sets and the shirtdresses. And I always love to see girls in jackets and trousers. Thom Browne
The title song of David Bowie’s ‘Young Americans’ is one of his handful of classics, a bizarre mixture of social comment, run-on lyric style, English pop and American soul. Jon Landau
In the past, I used to counter any such notions by asking myself: ‘Would you really want President Hattersley?’ I now find that possibility rather cheers me up. With his chubby, Dickensian features and his knowledge of T.H. Green and other harmless leftish political classics, Hattersley might not be such a bad thing after all. A. N. Wilson
My father was a low-budget monster movie maker, so he made classics like ‘The Crater Lake Monster.’ There were always creatures around. And my dad was a huge fan of Ray Harryhausen. One of our neighbors, who went on to win several Academy Awards, was close friends with my dad. His name is Phil Tippett. Robert Stromberg
I don’t repeat that many styles if I can help, although some have become classics. I try not to repeat. I’d rather surprise people. Christian Louboutin
Songs like Reach and S Club Party are pop classics. I’m really proud that I had a part in them. Rachel Stevens
You know, I find it very strange when movies that I made that were just excoriated – I mean that I was just vilified for – are now looked at as classics. John Milius
Classics isn’t about the ancient world. It’s partly about the ancient world, but it’s about our conversation. It’s how we try to talk to antiquity. Mary Beard
Tarjei Vesaas has written the best Norwegian novel ever, ‘The Birds’ – it is absolutely wonderful: the prose is so simple and so subtle, and the story is so moving that it would have been counted amongst the great classics from the last century if it had been written in one of the major languages. Karl Ove Knausgard
I love Carpenter, I love Craven – these are all the classics – the Romeros of the world, but I think the biggest influence on me as a storyteller and as a filmmaker is actually Steven Spielberg. I love that even though Steven isn’t known for being a horror director, he started out his career making scary movies. James Wan
You have to know the classics if you want to cook modern food. Tom Colicchio
It’s so important your customer can rely on you for your classics. L’Wren Scott
To be involved with movies that become kind of cult classics… I’ve been very fortunate. ‘The Warriors’ is certainly a cult classic, and ‘Xanadu’ is, to a certain degree, a cult classic as well. Michael Beck
The great thing about university is that they incline you to get up and do it, from the Classics to modern plays, to the humor that Monty Pythons made popular. Michael York
I start each collection thinking how I can refresh my classics. Jean Paul Gaultier
‘Basic Black with Pearls’ contains overt references to Virginia Woolf and covert ones to feminist classics like Kate Chopin’s ‘The Awakening’ and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’ The scholar Ruth Panofsky, who writes extensively about Weinzweig, sees echoes of George Eliot. Sarah Weinman
I think all writers of my age who are brought up on films probably by the age of 16 have seen many more films than they have read classics of literature. We can’t help but be influenced by film. Film has got some great tricks that it’s taught writers. David Mitchell
I like the classics! Greg Kinnear
I’m not into trends, but more enduring classics and styles. J. J. Redick
Hallmark makes beautiful films that feel as if they should be watched in a theater. The Hall family knows the power of stories, and they give us unforgettable movies with heart and depth and the resonance of classics. Luanne Rice
I get letters from college kids who have read Percy Jackson when they were younger who tell me, ‘I just passed my Classics exam.’ The books are accurate enough that they can serve as a gateway to Homer and Virgil. Rick Riordan
I will never forget the pleasure and instruction I derived from working with a true master of his art, such as Edward G. Robinson was – and is. Surely his record for versatility, studied characterization – ranging from modern colloquial to the classics – and artistic integrity is unsurpassed. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
School is very important; it was very important for me. It gave me an enormous amount of confidence, especially at Yale where we were dealing with all the classics. In dealing with the classics, you are dealing with the very best. Enrico Colantoni
Do not suppose, however, that I intend to urge a diet of classics on anybody. I have seen such diets at work. I have known people who have actually read all, or almost all, the guaranteed Hundred Best Books. God save us from reading nothing but the best. Robertson Davies
‘The Conjuring’ is incredibly effective and scary without the use of blood, gore, and death. It’s a horror film that emphasizes atmosphere and suspense in the tradition of classics like ‘Psycho’ or ‘The Others.’ Toby Emmerich
I’ve never studied the classics, but I’d like to. My teacher offered to show me how the Greeks were able to sculpt someone perfectly. From there, you can go off and experiment – sort of like jazz. Once you learn to play anything, you can break the form and go and do something even bigger. Channing Tatum
I played Hamlet, I played Chekhov and Ibsen and all the classics. Harvey Korman
I believe in classics. I like keeping it simple, whether its colours, cuts, or the outfits I wear. Kubra Sait
In science, read by preference the newest works. In literature, read the oldest. The classics are always modern. Amy Lowell
When it comes to shoes, you don’t really need more than a few pairs of wing tips or oxfords. They’re classics. And I wear only black shoes in the city. Brown ones are for the country. Thom Browne
There’s no question that Whale’s movies are classics. They were wonderful, and successful. Bill Condon
Negative books can be bestsellers, but seldom classics. Mark Skousen
As artists, we must not go down to the level of the masa; we should bring them up, intellectualize our languages, create classics out of our folk arts. We can do this if we are true to our roots and strive for excellence. F. Sionil Jose
Periodically, I return to the classics for inspiration and refreshment. Cecilia Dart-Thornton
Remember this: classics never make a comeback. They wait for that perfect moment to take the spotlight from overdone, tired trends. Tabatha Coffey
I didn’t care for most of the books I was being asked to read in school. I started reading like crazy right after high school when I got a job in a mental hospital. I was working my way through college, and I did a lot of night shifts, and there was nothing to do. So I read like crazy, serious stuff, all the classics. James Patterson
I’m a big believer than a great bit is a great bit – if I go and see someone I love, like Robert Klein. I want to hear some classics and some new stuff. But a great stand-up bit takes a long time to really polish and perfect, and they’re beautiful things when they’re done. Jerry Seinfeld
My family was going back to England to visit my mother’s grandmother, who was very ill. We went up to Liverpool and I met my great-aunt, who was just a force of nature. She was an elocution teacher and a huge enthusiast for theater and the classics. I took her amateur acting class, and she was really impressed with me. Kim Cattrall
My mom and dad played this music all the time when I was growing up, so to me songs by Jerry Lee and Fats Domino are the classics, they’re the best songs ever. Chris Isaak
I kinda go for the Jane Eyre type of film. I am fascinated by classics. Tippi Hedren
But really, it was reading that led me to writing. And in particular, reading the American classics like Twain who taught me at an early age that ordinary lives of ordinary people can be made into high art. Russell Banks
Ranking among the greatest Christmas movie classics, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ tells a beautiful story about the priceless value of relationships. John C. Maxwell
I was able to do Classics, the U.S. national championships and the Pan American Games and feel like I improved with each meet, but I was still struggling with a lot of residual pain from the two surgeries. Shawn Johnson
I like reading… French, Russian classics – Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert. I also like Hemingway, Virginia Woolf. Andrea Bocelli
Every man with a bellyful of the classics is an enemy to the human race. Henry Miller
Classics are constantly being re-imagined and transformed, and the originals are none the worse for it; they endure. Robert Gottlieb
Really important books to me are the classics. I try very hard to read them well – you know, especially once I got serious about writing. So, reading Tolstoy several times – ‘War and Peace,’ ‘The Kreutzer Sonata’ – all those were really important to me. Karl Marlantes
The classics are only primitive literature. They belong to the same class as primitive machinery and primitive music and primitive medicine. Stephen Leacock
I grew up with the classics. My mom and I would sit and watch ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ and ‘White Christmas’ – those kind of movies. Lucas Grabeel
I studied classics, and I find it mystifying that we had Medea and Electra and Antigone and all these amazing characters, and they don’t really exist in cinema now. The only person who’s really doing it, and he gets loads of criticism for it, is Lars Von Trier. Alice Lowe
Introductions, that is, belong to the masterpieces and classics of the world, to the great and ancient and accepted things; and I am here introducing a short, small story of my own which appeared in The Evening News about ten months ago. Arthur Machen
I’m a huge classics fan. I love Ernest Hemingway and J.D. Salinger. I’m that guy who rereads a book before I read newer stuff, which is probably not all that progressive, and it’s not really going to make me a better reader. I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, you should read To Kill a Mockingbird.’ John Krasinski
You can write a great book and be ignored. Literary history is full of classics that were under-appreciated in their own time. William Landay
My favourite designer is Mulberry – their bags are lovely, but their clothes are amazing, I don’t think people realise. I love D&G, Fendi, Moschino, Chanel, Armani – all the classics! Pixie Lott
I owe the little formal education I got to my drama teacher, Mr. Pickett, who got us to read Shakespeare, Moliere, and other classics. Dennis Quaid
‘Menace II Society’ itself was a groundbreaking film. It’s definitely going to go in the vaults of classics in all of cinema. The Hughes Brothers created an incredible project. Just gave the world something a little different than what we had seen in previous films in that same genre. Larenz Tate
I don’t know if the ’80s were unique, but we certainly got original, groundbreaking stuff at the time with movies like ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘Star Wars’ – movies that became classics. Ernest Cline
