Ordinary Quotes

2227 quotes by 1568 authors

A man needs to look, not down, but up to standards set so much above his ordinary self as to make him feel that he… — Irving Babbitt
I just wanted to be an ordinary, middle-class person. When I was at Cambridge, I made great efforts to lose the last remnants of my… — Peter Ackroyd
It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But… — David Bailey
It is the mark of a great man that he puts to flight all ordinary calculations. He is at once sublime and touching, childlike and… — Honore de Balzac
Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace,… — Cecil Beaton
Excellence is a better teacher than mediocrity. The lessons of the ordinary are everywhere. Truly profound and original insights are to be found only in… — Warren G. Bennis
The lowest form of popular culture - lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people's lives… — Carl Bernstein
Anywhere, anytime ordinary people are given the chance to choose, the choice is the same: freedom, not tyranny; democracy, not dictatorship; the rule of law,… — Tony Blair
If Warren Buffett made his money from ordinary income rather than capital gains, his tax rate would be a lot higher than his secretary's. In… — Michael Bloomberg
The most ordinary word, when put into place, suddenly acquires brilliance. That is the brilliance with which your images must shine. — Robert Bresson
I have always been amazed at the way an ordinary observer lends so much more credence and attaches so much more importance to waking events… — Andre Breton
September 11, 2001, revealed heroism in ordinary people who might have gone through their lives never called upon to demonstrate the extent of their courage. — Geraldine Brooks
The courage of very ordinary people is all that stands between us and the dark. — Pam Brown
On sand, you can never be sure of anything. An ordinary shot can take a wicked deflection at the last moment. — Eric Cantona
Certainly being proficient in an instrument does have its problems. Because the better you get, the more you just start sounding like an ordinary guitarist.… — Nick Cave
The idea of songwriting is a transformative thing, and what I do with songwriting is take situations that are quite ordinary and transform them in… — Nick Cave
Gross ignorance is 144 times worse than ordinary ignorance. — Bennett Cerf
The ordinary scientific man is strictly a sentimentalist. He is a sentimentalist in this essential sense, that he is soaked and swept away by mere… — Gilbert K. Chesterton
Now most people do not want an ordinary life in which they do a job well, earn the respect of their collaborators and competitors, bring… — John Cleese
For far too long the world's poorest people have seen no benefit from the vast natural resources in their own backyards. It is time to… — Nick Clegg

Who Wrote These Ordinary Quotes

1,568 authors contributed a total of 2,227 Ordinary Quotes, led by these top contributors: