Biography Quotes

231 quotes by 193 authors

I think biography can be more personal than fiction, and certainly can be more expressive. — Peter Ackroyd
Biography should be written by an acute enemy. — Arthur Balfour
I'm looking for backing for an unauthorized auto-biography that I am writing. Hopefully, this will sell in such huge numbers that I will be able… — David Bowie
Like many rich men, he thought in anecdotes; like many simple women, she thought in terms of biography. — Anita Brookner
When I read Andrew Motion's biography, I wept. It's something about the purity of the story and how fresh it was because of the love… — Jane Campion
No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men. — Thomas Carlyle
I was reading William Shawcross's biography of the Queen Mother, dressed in my witch outfit! And you know what? It was a really good mix;… — Helena Bonham Carter
One good anecdote is worth a volume of biography. — William Ellery Channing
Our Bible reveals to us the character of our god with minute and remorseless exactness... It is perhaps the most damnatory biography that exists in… — Mark Twain
I have no desire to write my own biography, as long as I have strength and means to do better work. — Charles Babbage
The history of men of science has one peculiar advantage, as it shows the importance of little things in producing great results. Smeaton learned his… — Robert Aris Willmott
Someone calls biography the home aspect of history. — Henry Ward Beecher
Only when one has lost all curiosity about the future has one reached the age to write an autobiography. — Evelyn Waugh
In writing biography, fact and fiction shouldn't be mixed. And if they are, the fictional points should be printed in red ink, the facts printed… — Catherine Drinker Bowen
I discovered in writing the biography of Bill Clinton that it is actually easier to write a biography of someone who is dead. Although you… — David Maraniss
A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the… — Andre Maurois
Biography is the only true history. — Thomas Carlyle
Rich as we are in biography, a well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one; and there are certainly many more men whose… — Thomas Carlyle
Biography is one of the new terrors of death. — John Arbuthnot
You can use a biography to examine political power, but only if you pick the right guy. — Robert Caro

Who Wrote These Biography Quotes

193 authors contributed a total of 231 Biography Quotes, led by these top contributors: