100+ Powerful Ways to Use a Quote in an Essay: Proven Copywriting Tips

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do." – Steve Jobs

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." – Winston Churchill

"Believe you can and you're halfway there." – Theodore Roosevelt

"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." – Confucius

"Your time is limited, don't waste it living someone else's life." – Steve Jobs

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." – Eleanor Roosevelt

"Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going." – Sam Levenson

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." – Wayne Gretzky

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." – Thomas Edison

"The best way out is always through." – Robert Frost

"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny." – C.S. Lewis

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." – Arthur Ashe

"Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." – Abraham Lincoln

"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.

"Give me liberty, or give me death!" – Patrick Henry

"Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country." – John F. Kennedy

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." – Abraham Lincoln

"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds…" – Winston Churchill

"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." – Neil Armstrong

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." – Winston Churchill

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." – Thomas Jefferson

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." – Abraham Lincoln

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." – Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi." – Martin Luther King Jr.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…" – Charles Dickens, *A Tale of Two Cities*

"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." – Leo Tolstoy, *Anna Karenina*

"Call me Ishmael." – Herman Melville, *Moby Dick*

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." – F. Scott Fitzgerald, *The Great Gatsby*

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." – Jane Austen, *Pride and Prejudice*

"To be, or not to be: that is the question." – William Shakespeare, *Hamlet*

"Big Brother is watching you." – George Orwell, *1984*

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." – J.R.R. Tolkien, *The Hobbit*

"It was a pleasure to burn." – Ray Bradbury, *Fahrenheit 451*

"He was so terribly rational, and reason is no match for creativity." – Hermann Hesse, *Steppenwolf*

"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." – Jean-Jacques Rousseau (often referenced in literature)

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." – Rudyard Kipling

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." – Albert Einstein

"We are made of star-stuff." – Carl Sagan

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." – Albert Einstein

"Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge." – Carl Sagan

"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." – Theodosius Dobzhansky

"We knew the world would not be the same." – J. Robert Oppenheimer (on the atomic bomb)

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." – Albert Einstein

"The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life." – Carl Sagan

"Science is the acceptance of what works and the rejection of what does not." – Jacob Bronowski

"Data is not information, information is not knowledge, knowledge is not understanding." – Clifford Stoll

"The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it." – Neil deGrasse Tyson

"We stand on the shoulders of giants." – Isaac Newton

"I think, therefore I am." – René Descartes

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

"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how." – Friedrich Nietzsche

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." – Aristotle

"Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself." – Jean-Paul Sartre

"The unexamined life is not worth living." – Socrates

"Everything that exists is logical." – Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness." – Desmond Tutu

"Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness." – Immanuel Kant

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." – Socrates

"Freedom is the recognition of necessity." – Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." – Aristotle

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." – Lord Acton

"Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others." – Winston Churchill

"If you want peace, work for justice." – Pope Paul VI

"An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." – Martin Luther King Jr.

"The ballot is stronger than the bullet." – Abraham Lincoln

"Government exists to protect us from each other." – Ayn Rand

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies." – Groucho Marx

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." – Dwight D. Eisenhower

"In politics, absurdity is not a handicap." – Napoleon Bonaparte

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." – Winston Churchill

"When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty." – Thomas Jefferson

"No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried." – Winston Churchill

"I am not young enough to know everything." – Oscar Wilde

"Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes." – Jim Carrey

"I can resist everything except temptation." – Oscar Wilde

"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." – Mark Twain

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." – Mark Twain

"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made." – Groucho Marx

"I'm not arguing, I'm just explaining why I'm right." – Unknown

"I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific." – Lily Tomlin

"Common sense is like deodorant. The people who need it most never use it." – Unknown

"I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not so sure." – Unknown

"I'm not lazy, I'm on energy-saving mode." – Unknown

"I told my wife she was drawing her eyebrows too high. She looked surprised." – Conan O'Brien

"We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children." – Native American Proverb

"When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion." – Ethiopian Proverb

"It takes a village to raise a child." – African Proverb

"Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes." – Native American Saying

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." – Chinese Proverb (attributed to Lao Tzu)

"Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors." – African Proverb

"The tongue is but a small member, yet it boasts great things." – Biblical Proverb (James 3:5)

"He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever." – Chinese Proverb

"One grain of rice can tip the scale." – Japanese Proverb

"Even the tallest mountain was once a stone at the bottom of the ocean." – Indonesian Proverb

"The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives." – Native American Wisdom

"Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped." – Russian Proverb

"Your attitude determines your direction." – Zig Ziglar

"Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t—you’re right." – Henry Ford

"People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity." – Vince Lombardi

"Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today." – Will Rogers

"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." – Henry Ford

"You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction." – George Lorimer

"The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus." – Bruce Lee

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." – William James

"Opportunities don't happen. You create them." – Chris Grosser

"Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." – Winston Churchill

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today." – Franklin D. Roosevelt

"You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." – Zig Ziglar

"Why so serious?" – The Joker, *The Dark Knight*

"I am inevitable." – Thanos, *Avengers: Endgame*

"After all, tomorrow is another day!" – Scarlett O’Hara, *Gone with the Wind*

"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." – Harvey Dent, *The Dark Knight*

"Just keep swimming." – Dory, *Finding Nemo*

"I’m the king of the world!" – Jack Dawson, *Titanic*

"There’s no place like home." – Dorothy, *The Wizard of Oz*

"I’ll be back." – The Terminator, *The Terminator*

"May the Force be with you." – Star Wars franchise

"You talking to me?" – Travis Bickle, *Taxi Driver*

"Here’s Johnny!" – Jack Torrance, *The Shining*

"Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get." – Forrest Gump, *Forrest Gump*