Anyone can give me good quotations by your country's famous people?

Question

I'm trying to enhance my students's enthusiasm in learning English Language. I use a lot of methods but I'm thinking to use sentences by real people, hoping that they'll interested in reading them. It might help them to improve their speaking skills.

Answer 1

I'd rather do this: http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/qframe.htm

And many of the quotes are by Americans. Here's one:

The "terror" of the French Revolution lasted for ten years. The terror that preceded and led to it lasted for a thousand years.
-- Edward Abbey, from, Vox Clamantis In Deserto (A Voice Crying In The Wilderness)

Whatever we cannot easily understand we call God; this saves much wear and tear on the brain tissues.
-- Edward Abbey, from, Vox Clamantis In Deserto (A Voice Crying In The Wilderness), quoted from Steve Cichowski, personal letter to Cliff Walker (February 21, 2002)

God is a sound people make when they're too tired to think anymore.
-- Edward Abbey, from, Vox Clamantis In Deserto (A Voice Crying In The Wilderness), quoted from Steve Cichowski, personal letter to Cliff Walker (February 21, 2002)

What's the difference between the Lone Ranger and God? There really is a Lone Ranger.
-- Edward Abbey, from, Vox Clamantis In Deserto (A Voice Crying In The Wilderness), quoted from Steve Cichowski, personal letter to Cliff Walker (February 21, 2002)

From the point of view of a tapeworm, man was created by God to serve the appetite of the tapeworm.
-- Edward Abbey, from, Vox Clamantis In Deserto (A Voice Crying In The Wilderness), quoted from Steve Cichowski, personal letter to Cliff Walker (February 21, 2002)

Answer 2

A very famous British one:-
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" Sir Winston Churchill about our pilots after the Battle of Britain.

Answer 3

"Such is life" Ned Kelly (Bushranger and folk hero) before being executed

"Keep the barstards honest" Don Chipp (Politician)

"I like the boy!" Bert Newton to Muhammad Ali ...it was offensive to call an African American 'boy' ...poor Bert was just repeating the catch phrase from an Aussie ad ...he didn't know it had a ifferent meaning in America ...this highlights the importance of understanding how the meaning of word/phrases differ between cultures.

Answer 4

"We will fight them on the beaches.."

Winston Churchill speech.


"One may smile, and smile, and be a villain."

Spoken by Hamlet in "Hamlet".
William Shakespeare 1564-1616, British Poet, Playwright, Actor

Answer 5

" To be without some of the
things you want is an
indispensable part of
happiness " - Bertrand Russel.
( 1872 - 1970 )

Answer 6

"I hate Quotations, tell me what you know"
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The important thing is to never stop questioning, curiosity has its own reason for existing"
-Albert Einstein

Answer 7

"Ask not what your country can do you; ask what you can do for your country." John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech