People

Develop the art of friendliness. One can experience a variety of emotions staying home and reading or watching television; one will be alive by hardly living. Most of the meaningful aspects of life are closely associated with people. Even the dictionary definition of life involves people.
~ William L. Abbott

The best audience is intelligent, well-educated and a little drunk.
~ Alben William Barkley, recalled on his death (30 April 1956).

Government and business are simple. It's only people that make them complicated.
~ William Andrew Cecil (W.A.C.) Bennett, in Conversations with W. A. C. Bennett (1980).

And who would want to know anything about towns? Are they not full of people who live by telling lies and cheating each other?
~ William Black, Macleod of Dare (1878). Chapter XVIII. Dove or Sea Eagle?

Stupid people and uneducated people do not care for nice discriminations. They have always decided opinions.
~ William Black, In Silk Attire, Vol. 3 (1869). Chapter II

Would to God that all the Lords people were Prophets.
~ William Blake, from Milton, a Poem in 2 Books (c.1804). Preface (Numbers. XI. ch 29 v)

Give the people issues, and you will not need to sell your soul for campaign funds.
~ William Edgar Borah, Remarks before the Idaho State Society of Washington (March 1919).

All I have are the people.
~ Bill Bradley

Do not compute the totality of your poultry population until all the manifestations of incubation have been entirely completed.
~ William Jennings Bryan

People differ in race characteristics, in national traditions, in language, in ideas of government, and in forms of religion, but at heart they are very much alike.
~ William Jennings Bryan, from Speeches of William Jennings Bryan, Volume II (1909). Faith

How fast the flitting figures come!
The mild, the fierce, the stony face;
Some bright with thoughtless smiles, and some
Where secret tears have left their trace.
~ William Cullen Bryant, from Poems (1847 edition). The Crowded Street

I think that what prevents people from seeing other people's minds is that they're so preoccupied with their own minds, with their own petty problems. If you learn to shut your own mind off, you'll get a pretty good idea of what's in other people's minds.
~ William S. Burroughs, in fact magazine, Volume 2, Issue 6 (Nov-Dec 1965). William Burroughs: High Priest of Hipsterism

They tend to be suspicious, bristly, paranoid-type people with huge egos they push around like some elephantiasis victim with his distended testicles in a wheelbarrow terrified no doubt that some skulking ingrate of a clone student will sneak into his very brain and steal his genius work.
~ William S. Burroughs, The Adding Machine (1985). Immortality

People will pay more to be entertained than educated.
~ "Johnny" William Carson

Some people's lives are affected by what happens to their person or their property; but for others fate is what happens to their feelings and their thoughts -- that and nothing more.
~ Willa Sibert Cather, Lucy Gayheart (1935).

There is often a good deal of the child left in people who have had to grow up too soon.
~ Willa Sibert Cather, O Pioneers! (1913). Part I. The Wild Land. Chapter I

We come and go, but the land is always here. And the people who love it and understand it are the people who own it -- for a little while.
~ Willa Sibert Cather, O Pioneers! (1913). Part V. Alexandra. Chapter III

[T]here should be but one caste, that of humanity.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), A Discourse delivered before the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, Boston MA (9 April 1835). The Ministry For The Poor

No activity of a people so exposes their humanity, their character, their capacity for charity in its most generous dimension, as the treatment they accord persons convicted of crime.
~ (William) Ramsey Clark, Crime in America: Observations on Its Nature, Causes, Prevention and Control (1970).

There are many persons of a kind to awaken mistrust or dislike; many to excite a tear or a smile of commiseration; but few or none, except the base or self-perverted, that should inspire contempt.
~ William Benton (W.B.) Clulow, Sunshine and Shadows; or, Sketches of Thought, Philosophic and Religious (1863). The Charity of Great Souls

People never should sit talking till they do not know what to talk about.
~ William Cobbett, Advice to Young Men: And (Incidentally) to Young Women in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life (1829). Letter I: To A Youth

Hopeful people are always critical of the present but only because they hold such as bright view of the future.
~ Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., from A Passion for the Possible: A Message to U.S. Churches (1993). Introduction

Husbands and wives talk of the cares of matrimony; and bachelors and spinsters bear them.
~ (William) Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White (1860).

As I was saying when I was interrupted, it is a powerful hard thing to please all the people all the time.
~ Sir William Connor (Cassandra), in The Daily Mirror (September 1946).

When you have made up your mind to dislike people, it is disturbing when you discover that they are very likable persons indeed.
~ Sir William Connor (Cassandra), in Time Magazine (11 October 1954). The Press: Cassandra of the Mirror

[S]edentary weavers of long tales
Give me the fidgets and my patience fails.
~ William Cowper, from Poems by William Cowper of the Inner Temple, Esq. (1782). Conversation

Some people are more nice than wise.
~ William Cowper, from Poems by William Cowper of the Inner Temple, Esq. (1782). Mutual Forbearance, Necessary to the Happiness of the Married State

Tenants of life's middle state,
Securely placed between the small and great.
~ William Cowper, Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools (1784).

There goes the parson,
O illustrious spark!
And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.
~ William Cowper, On Observing Some Names of Little Note

If we [legislators] don't watch our respective tails, the people are going to be running the government.
~ Bill Craven (on California's citizens' initiatives), The Los Angeles Times (25 August 1998).

Aristotle was famous for knowing everything. He taught that the brain exists merely to cool the blood and is not involved in the process of thinking. This is true only of certain people.
~ Will (William Jacob) Cuppy

Just when you're beginning to think pretty well of people, you run across somebody who puts sugar on sliced tomatoes.
~ Will (William Jacob) Cuppy, in How To Get From January To December (1951).

Some people lose all respect for the lion unless he devours them instantly. There is no pleasing some people.
~ Will (William Jacob) Cuppy, How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes (1931).

Few people can see genius in someone who has offended them.
~ (William) Robertson Davies, from The Enthusiasms of Robertson Davies (1979).

The people need leadership that makes a virtue of courage, of conviction and freedom of expression.
~ William Orville Douglas, in Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953; from a speech to the Authors Guild Council in New York, December 3, 1952). The One Un-American Act

Save us, World-Spirit, from our lesser selves!
Grant us that war and hatred cease,
Reveal our souls in every race and hue!
Help us, O Human God, in this Thy Truce,
To make Humanity divine!
~ William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois, from Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil (1920). Chapter X: The Comet. A Hymn to The Peoples

It has been said that there are three kinds of people in the world; the "Wills," the "Won'ts" and the "Can'ts"; the first accomplish most everything, the second oppose everything and the third fail in everything.
~ William Turner (W.T.) Ellis, Memories; My Seventy-Two Years In The Romantic County Of Yuba, California (1939). Chapter CXII: Conclusion

I suppose that people, using themselves and each other so much by words, are at least consistent in attributing wisdom to a still tongue.
~ William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (October 1929).

People between twenty and forty are not sympathetic. The child has the capacity to do but it can't know. It only knows when it is no longer able to do -- after forty. Between twenty and forty the will of the child to do gets stronger, more dangerous, but it has not begun to learn to know yet. Since his capacity to do is forced into channels of evil through environment and pressures, man is strong before he is moral. The world's anguish is caused by people between twenty and forty.
~ William Faulkner, Interview in The Paris Review, Issue 12 (Spring 1956). The Art of Fiction No. 12

Beware of the person who can't be bothered by details.
~ William Feather

The stinckards oft will hisse without a cause,
And for a bawdy jest will give applause.
Let one but ask the reason why they roare,
They'll answere, 'Cause the rest did so before.'
~ William Fennor, from Descriptions; or, A True Relation of Certaine and Diuers Speeches (1616). The Description of a Poet

There are always people whom it is a privilege to dislike -- a privilege one would miss by not knowing them.
~ Willis Fisher, Small-Town Middle Westerner

Men may be divided into two classes, -- those who have a "one thing", and those who have no "one thing", to do; those with aim, and those without aim, in their lives: and practically it turns out that almost all of the success, and therefore the greater part of the happiness, go to the first class.
~ William Channing Gannett, from The Faith That Makes Faithful (1886). Blesssed Be Drudgery

Some people strengthen the society just by being the kind of people they are.
~ John William Gardner, No Easy Victories (1968).

Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Very few have excellence thrust upon them.
~ John William Gardner, Excellence: Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too? (1961).

Let people reach out and have access to the latest advances.
~ Bill Gates, Remarks, Creating Digital Dividends Conference (18 October 2000).

If the people of a city are generally ignorant, base, and corrupt, they will have that kind of government ... government like water does not rise higher than its source.
~ William Jay Gaynor, in The Century Magazine (1910). The Problem of Efficient City Government

In short, whoever you may be,
To this conclusion you'll agree,
When every one is somebody,
Then no one's anybody!
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, from Songs of a Savoyard (1890). King Goodheart

As to the people who pretend to take your own concerns out of your own hands, and to do everything for you -- I won't say that they are impostors -- I won't even say they are quacks, but I do say they are mistaken people.
~ William Ewart Gladstone, Speech at the Hawarden Amateur Horticultural Society Annual Show (15 August 1876).

The common people -- the toilers, the men of uncommon sense -- these have been responsible for nearly all of the social reform measures which the world accepts today.
~ William Ewart Gladstone

We all need happy, supportive people in our quality worlds; nothing less will do. It is the job of parents, teachers, and employers to be such people.
~ William Glasser, M.D., Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom (1998). Chapter 3: Your Quality World

[P]eople were never quite what you thought they were.
~ William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954).

We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything.
~ William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954).

The really heroic people are not the ones who travel 10,000 miles by dog sled, but those who stay 10,000 days in one place.
~ (Bishop) William Gordon, quoted in Time Magazine (19 November 1965). Adventure & The American Individualist

The global system of production is teaching a powerful lesson: people everywhere are capable, everywhere in the world. Every nation, especially the wealthier ones, promotes its own version of national arrogance, a natural self-centeredness that is very difficult to set aside. But global commerce undermines -- and perhaps will someday destroy -- the ancient, nativist stereotypes by which different peoples are ranked and rank themselves.
~ William Greider, One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism (1997). Nineteen. Oikonomia

Administrations rise and fall,
And parties rise or cease to be,
Obedient to the ballot's call,
The weapon of a people free.
~ William G. Haeselbarth, The Ballot

The world's population can be divided into two groups: some people feel well; some people do not. The presence or absence of disease has relatively little to do with which group you might be included.
~ William S. Haubrich, (1955).

Every one in a crowd has the power to throw dirt: nine out of ten have the inclination.
~ William Hazlitt, in Sketches and Essays (1839). On Reading New Books (written in 1827)

People say ill-natured things without design, but not without having a pleasure in them.
~ William Hazlitt, Characteristics: in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1823).

Popularity is neither fame nor greatness.
~ William Hazlitt, Table-Talk; or, Original Essays, Volume II (1821-1822). Essay IX. The Indian Jugglers

Public bodies are so far worse than the individuals composing them, because the official takes place of the moral sense.
~ William Hazlitt, Table-Talk, or Original Essays on Men and Manners, 2nd series (1824). On Corporate Bodies

The majority, compose them how you will, are a herd, and not a very nice one.
~ William Hazlitt, Butts of Different Sorts (1829).

The most insignificant people are the most apt to sneer at others. They are safe from reprisals, and have no hope of rising in their own self esteem, but by lowering their neighbors.
~ William Hazlitt, Characteristics: in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1823).

The most sensible people to be met with in society are men of business and of the world, who argue from what they see and know, instead of spinning cobweb distinctions of what things ought to be.
~ William Hazlitt, Table-Talk; or, Original Essays, Volume II (1821-1822). Essay VIII. On the Ignorance of the Learned

The person, whose doors I enter with most pleasure, and quit with most regret, never did me the smallest favour.
~ William Hazlitt, from The Plain Speaker, Volume I (1826). Essay VIII. On the Spirit of Obligations

The power rests with the multitude, but let them beware how the exercise of it turns against their own rights! It is not the idol but the worshippers that are to be dreaded, and who, by degrading one of their fellows, render themselves liable to be branded with the same indignities.
~ William Hazlitt, in Winterslow, Essays and Characters Written There (1850). Project for a New Theory of Civil and Criminal Legislation (written in 1828)

The public have neither shame nor gratitude.
~ William Hazlitt, Characteristics: in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1823).

There are a hundred persons of merit for one who willingly acknowledges it in another.
~ William Hazlitt, Characteristics: in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1823).

We like those who give us pleasure, however little they may wish for or deserve our esteem in return.
~ William Hazlitt, Characteristics: in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1823).

Fools live to regret their words, wise men to regret their silence.
~ Will Henry (Henry Wilson Allen), quoted in Reader's Digest (February 1974).

Yes, people that have convictions are difficult. Fortunately, they're rare.
~ William Dean Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes, Volume II (1890). IX

Classes vs. masses. Do-ups vs. done-ups. The world is thus divided.
~ (Col.) William C. Hunter, Brass Tacks (1910).

The worst people in the world are the richest and the poorest.
~ (Col.) William C. Hunter, Brass Tacks (1910).

Big people come out of small towns.
~ William Motter Inge, Centennial Celebration, Independence KS (1970).

The happy people are those who are producing something; the bored people are those who are consuming much and producing nothing.
~ William Ralph (Dean) Inge

As the wicked are hurt by the best things, so the godly are bettered by the worst things.
~ William Jenkyn, in the Morning Exercises: Now is the Time; or, Instructions for the present Improving the Season of Grace (c. 1661).

For far too many people, 19th century working and living standards will continue unchanged into the 21st century.
~ Bill Jordan

I know how to invest my money. I'll invest it in people.
~ W.K. Kellogg, (1929)

All people that on earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
~ William Kethe, All people that on earth do dwell (metrical Psalm; 1561).

Yuppies don't have loyalty. They have useful relationships and meaningful encounters.
~ William Kristol

A faire feeld ful of folk fond I ther bitwene.
~ William Langland, A Vision of William Concerning Piers Plowman (or Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman; c. 1362).

It is the nature of political abuses, to be always on the increase, unless arrested by the virtue, intelligence and firmness of the people.
~ William Leggett, in Evening Post (3 January 1835).

The problem is that the people with the most ridiculous ideas are always the people who are most certain of them.
~ Bill Maher, in HBO-TV special, Bill Maher: The Decider (21 July 2007; Live performance at the Berklee Performance Center, Boston).

Whenever the people are for gay marriage or medical marijuana or assisted suicide, suddenly the "will of the people" goes out the window.
~ Bill Maher

I think the most important issue we have as a people is what we started, and that is to begin to trust our own thinking again and believe in ourselves enough to think that we can articulate our own vision of the future and then work to make sure that that vision becomes a reality.
~ Wilma Mankiller, Speech at Sweet Briar College (2 April 1993). Rebuilding the Cherokee Nation

[E]veryone must seem crazy if you see deep enough into their minds.
~ William March, The Looking-Glass (1943).

Almost all the people who've had most effect on me I seem to have met by chance.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge (1944).

I've always been interested in people, but I've never liked them.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, in The Observer, London (28 August 1949). Sayings of the Week

In this world we're made to act and think things because other people have thought them good. We never have a chance of going our own way. We're bound down by the prejudices and the morals of everybody else. For God's sake, let us be free. Let us do this and that because we want to and because we must, not because other people think we ought.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, A Man of Honour: A Tragedy in Four Acts (1903). Act IV

People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage (1915).

Always deal frankly and fairly with the public.
~ William Vincent McKean

Definition of a victim: a person to whom life happens.
~ Peter McWilliams

Oh, there are people, all right, settled in the sea;
It is as populous as Maine today,
But no one who will give you the time of day.
~ William Morris Meredith, Jr., from The Open Sea And Other Poems (1958). The Open Sea

The worst-tempered people I've ever met were people who knew they were wrong.
~ Wilson Mizner

Most hard-boiled people are half-baked.
~ Wilson Mizner

Some had name, and fame, and honour,
learn'd they were, and wise and strong;
Some were nameless, poor, unlettered,
weak in all but grief and wrong.
~ William Morris, from Poems by the Way (1891). All For The Cause

There are a many folk about me, and they foul, and greedy, and hard; and my spirit is fierce, and my body feeble; and I am set to tasks that I would not do, by them that are unwiser than I.
~ William Morris, The Wood Beyond the World (1895). Chapter XXIV: The Maid Tells Of What Had Befallen Her

On winter afternoons, from my office, there were sunsets across Manhattan when the smog itself shimmered and glowed. ... Despite its difficulties, which become more obvious all the time, one was constantly put to the test by this city, which finally came down to its people; no other place in America had quite such people and they would not allow you to go stale; in the end they were its triumph and its reward.
~ Willie Morris

[D]emocracy only works when we claim it as our own.
~ Bill Moyers, in PBS TV Bill Moyers Journal (30 April 2010). Interview with Jim Hightower

Believe in the people. No man with even ordinary judgment ever went wrong in assuming that the people will support the best that can be furnished them. Human nature is made that way.
~ William Rockhill Nelson, in William Rockhill Nelson: The Story of a Man, a Newspaper and a City (1915).

Much that is dreadful and inhuman in history, much that one hardly likes to believe, is mitigated by the reflection that the one who commands and the one who carries out are different people. The former does not behold the sight and does not experience the strong impression on the imagination. The latter obeys a superior and therefore feels no responsibility for the acts.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, quoted in The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1966).

Not infrequently, one encounters copies of important people; and, as with paintings, most people prefer the copy to the original.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

You become smaller and smaller, you small people! You are fading away, you lovers of the easy life! You are being destroyed ... your soil is too protective, too yielding.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Zarathustra III Before Sunrise

There are just two people entitled to refer to themselves as "we"; one is the editor and the other is the fellow with a tapeworm.
~ (Edgar Wilson) "Bill" Nye

Half of us are blind, few of us feel, and we are all deaf.
~ William Osler, quoted in Sir William Osler: Aphorisms from His Bedside Teachings and Writings (1950).

There are no straight backs, no symmetrical faces, many wry noses, and no even legs. We are a crooked and perverse generation.
~ William Osler, quoted in Sir William Osler: Aphorisms from His Bedside Teachings and Writings (1950).

Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good plays, good company, good conversation -- what are they? They are the happiest people in the world. And they are not only happy in themselves, they are the cause of happiness in others.
~ William Lyon ("Billy") Phelps

There are two kinds of people: those who want to be and those who want to do.
~ Bill Purdin, Legend, Inc. (accessed May 2003). Quote Archives.

People are able, valuable, and responsible and should be treated accordingly. An indispensable element in any human encounter is shared responsibility based on mutual respect.
~ William Watson Purkey, in the Journal of Invitational Theory and Practice (1992). An Introduction To Invitational Theory

While everything in life adds to or detracts from success or failure, nothing is more important in life than people. It is the people who create a respectful, optimistic, trusting and intentional society.
~ William Watson Purkey, in the Journal of Invitational Theory and Practice (1992). An Introduction To Invitational Theory

He need not be cantankerous; he need not be ungentle; he need not be unsociable, when association can be made truthful. His ideals, religious, domestic and other, would be found, when expressed in general terms, to be in accord with those whom most men and women agree to call good, wise and great. But, on the question of methods -- that is to say, of the laws and customs directed to the cultivation of these ideals, an Irreconcilable is simply an uncommitted person; one who not only makes no show of acquiescence in these matters, but who formally holds aloof from everything which could fairly be held to commit him to any such acquiescence.
~ William Brighty Rands, published in The Saint Pauls Magazine, Vol. XI (July-December 1872). The Autobiography of an Irreconcileable

We live in a community of people not so that we can suppress and dominate each other or make each other miserable but so that we can better and more reliably satisfy all life's healthy needs.
~ Wilhelm Reich, in Children of the Future: On the Prevention of Sexual Pathology (1984). The Sexual Rights of Youth (originally published in 1932 as "The Sexual Struggle of Youth")

[A]nything important is never left to a Vote of the people. We only get to Vote on some man; we never get to Vote on what he is to do.
~ Will Rogers, in The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949).

Mothers are the only race of people that speak the same tongue. A mother in Manchuria could converse with a mother in Nebraska and never miss a word.
~ Will Rogers

Nobody wants to be called common people, especially common people.
~ Will Rogers

One-third of the people in the United States promote, while the other two-thirds provide.
~ Will Rogers, The Illiterate Digest (1924). Promoting the Oceanless One-Piece Suit

[P]eople that pay for things never complain. It's the guy you give something to that you can't please.
~ Will Rogers

The Lord put all these millions of people over the earth. They don't all agree on how they got here, and ninety per cent don't care. But he was pretty wise when he did see to it that they do agree on one thing, (whether Christian, Heathen, or Mohammedan), and that is the better lives you live the better you will finish.
~ Will Rogers, Weekly Articles (1925).

The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them.
~ Will Rogers

Society is any band of folks that kinder throw in with each other, and mess around together for each other's discomfort.
~ Will Rogers, Weekly Articles (10 August 1930).

You can't legislate intelligence and common sense into people.
~ Will Rogers, Daily Telegrams (16 March 1934).

It is in the nature of tyranny to deride the will of the people as the voice of the mob, and to denounce the cry for freedom as the roar of anarchy.
~ William L. Safire, in The New York Times (22 May 1989). The Counter-Revolution

What is, after all, wanted most in the world is not great people fitted for great occasions, or ordinary people fitted for the ordinary, but great people who will throw their greatness into the ordinary, who will show how much dignity, how much goodness, how much sweetness may characterize the life of every day.
~ William Mackintire (W.M.) Salter, Personal Morality: Two Lectures Before the Society for Ethical Culture of Chicago (1886). II. The Morality of Daily Life

Every person in San Francisco inhabits and knows his own San Francisco, just as every reader of Shakespeare reads and knows his own Shakespeare.
~ William Saroyan, from San Francisco: West Coast Metropolis (1939). Introduction

There it is. Right in front of me. The whole city. The whole world. People going by. They're going somewhere. I don't know where, but they're going. I ain't going anywhere. Where the hell can you go?
~ William Saroyan, The Time of Your Life (1939 play).

Heavens defend me from that Welsh fairy,
Lest he transform me to a piece of cheese!
~ William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act V, scene v

He's a very dog to the commonalty.
~ William Shakespeare, Coriolanus. Act I, scene i

Let them obey that know not how to rule.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part II. Act V, scene i

Many-headed multitude.
~ William Shakespeare, Coriolanus. Act II, scene iii

Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act IV, scene i

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!
~ William Shakespeare, The Tempest. Act V, scene i

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.
~ William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure. Act II, scene i

Was ever feather so lightly blown to and fro as this multitude?
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part II. Act IV, scene ix

What is the city but the people?
~ William Shakespeare, Coriolanus

I'm a people's man -- only the people matter.
~ Bill Shankly

The voice of the people is the voice of humbug.
~ William Tecumseh Sherman, Letter to his wife (1863).

Some folks will win, they cannot choose;
But think or not think -- some must lose.
~ William Shenstone, in Works in Verse and Prose, Vol. I (1764). III. Levities; or, Pieces of Humour. To a friend

The world may be divided into people that read, people that write, people that think, and fox-hunters.
~ William Shenstone, in Works in Verse and Prose, Vol. II (1764). Essays on Men, Manners, and Things. On Writing and Books

There are very few persons who do not lose something of their esteem for you, upon your approach to familiarity.
~ William Shenstone, in Works in Verse and Prose, Vol. II (1764). Essays on Men, Manners, and Things. Of Men and Manners

We deal out our genuine esteem to our equals; our affection for those beneath us; and a reluctant sort of respect to those that are above us.
~ William Shenstone, in Works in Verse and Prose, Vol. II (1764). Essays on Men, Manners, and Things. Of Men and Manners

Gettin' jiggy wit it, is like, the next level of cool. It's cool to the eighth power. Some people are fly, some people are kind of hot. But when you are the jiggiest, when you exude jiggy-essence, it's the acme of cool.
~ Will Smith

Money and success don't change people; they merely amplify what is already there.
~ Will Smith

The Press is at once the eye and the ear and the tongue of the people. It is the visible speech if not the voice of the democracy. It is the phonograph of the world.
~ W.T. (William Thomas) Stead, in The Contemporary Review Vol. 49 (1886). Government by Journalism

People are no damn good.
~ William Steig, The Lonely Ones (1942 cartoon collection)

In a world where war is everybody's tragedy and everybody's nightmare, diplomacy is everybody's business.
~ William Strang, 1st Baron Strang (Lord Strang), (1959)

Praise we the wise and brave and strong, who graced their generation,
Who helped the right, and fought the wrong, and made our folk a nation.
~ William George (W.G.) Tarrant, Now Praise We Great and Fa­mous Men (hymn)

If you want human liberty you must have educated people.
~ William Temple (archbishop), Citizen and Churchman (1941).

Everybody changes, everybody forgets; nobody has any heart.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero (1848). Chapter LXIII. In Which We Meet an Old Acquaintance

[I]t is the ordinary lot of people to have no friends if they themselves care for nobody.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero (1848). Chapter XIV. Miss Crawley at Home

Of a truth it is good to be with good people!
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The Virginians: A Tale of the Last Century (1857-59). Chapter XXIII

You who despise your neighbour, are a Snob; you who forget your own friends, meanly to follow after those of a higher degree, are a Snob; you who are ashamed of your poverty, and blush for your calling, are a Snob; as are you who boast of your pedigree, or are proud of your wealth.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, in Punch (1846). The Snobs of England. Chapter XLV

The problem with people is that they're only human.
~ Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes (20 September 1989).

What we all tend to complain about most in other people are those things we don't like about ourselves.
~ William Wharton (Albert W. DuAime), Tidings (1987).

Many people would be much better if they would let themselves be as good as they really are. They seem to take delight in making themselves less.
~ William Hale White (aka Mark Rutherford), More Pages from a Journal, With Other Papers (1910). Notes

What attracts people most, it would appear, is other people.
~ William H. Whyte, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (1980).

Nonconformity is an empty goal, and rebellion against prevailing opinion merely because it is prevailing should no more be praised than acquiescence to it. Indeed, it is often a mask for cowardice, and few are more pathetic than those who flaunt outer differences to expiate their inner surrender.
~ William H. Whyte, The Organization Man (1956). Chapter 1

The two kinds of people on earth that I mean
Are the people who lift and the people who lean.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Custer and Other Poems (1896). Which Are You?

I never overestimate the audience, nor do I underestimate them. I just have a very rational idea as to who we're dealing with, and that we're not making a picture for Harvard Law School, we're making a picture for middle-class people, the people that you see on the subway, or the people that you see in a restaurant. Just normal people.
~ Billy Wilder, in Conversations With Wilder (1999).

There are two kinds of people: small-town folks, and others.
~ Ben Ames Williams, The Great Accident (1920). Book I. Chapter I. Hardiston

The chicken crossed the road to get to the other side where she thought the grass was greener. It's the same with people. ... We're all looking for the greener side, so we all have a little bit of chicken in us.
~ Charles E. (Chuck) Williams, in Woman's Day magazine (1 September 2003). Close Up with Chuck Williams

There is no reason they should be fools because their rulers are so.
~ Elisha Williams, The Essential Rights and Liberties of Protestants: A Seasonable Plea ... (1744).

If you mind your own business, you'll stay busy all the time.
~ Hank Williams, Mind Your Own Business (1949 song).

Sometimes I remember:
I am one of everybody.
~ Marie Sheppard Williams, in the California Review, Volume 32, No. 4 (2006). Everybody

Gentiles are people who eat mayonnaise for no reason.
~ Robin Williams

All cruel people describe themselves as paragons of frankness.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1963).

But these seemingly fragile people are the strong people really.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams

[He is] a sweetly vicious old lady.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams (on Truman Capote), in People Magazine (11 March 1985).

Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams

People are not so dreadful when you know them.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, The Glass Menagerie (1944). Scene Seven

At present there is no distinction among the upper ten thousand of the city.
~ Nathaniel Parker (N.P.) Willis, Necessity for a Promenade Drive

Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little, cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more.
~ (Robert) Meredith Willson, from The Music Man (1957 musical). Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little

Some people build fences to keep people out ... and other people build fences to keep people in.
~ August Wilson, Fences (1985). Act II, scene 1

Gossip is when you hear something you like about someone you don't.
~ Earl Wilson

Nowadays, people can be divided into three classes -- the Haves, the Have-Nots, and the Have-Not-Paid-for-What-They-Haves.
~ Earl Wilson

Conversation is a book of knowledge concerning people.
~ Ethel Davis Wilson, from Ethel Wilson: Stories, Essays, and Letters (1987). A Cat Among the Falcons (essay first published in Canadian Literature; Autumn 1959)

I believe that people are good if you give them half a chance and that good is more powerful than evil. The world seems to me excruciatingly, almost painfully beautiful at times, and the goodness and kindness of people often exceed that which even I expect.
~ Lois Burnham Wilson

Cynics regarded everybody as equally corrupt. ... Idealists regarded everybody equally corrupt, except themselves.
~ Robert Anton Wilson, Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy: The Universe Next Door (1988).

Gracious Heaven! What had these poor people done? The simple inhabitants of these peaceful plains, what wrong, what injury, had they offered to the English? My soul melts with pity and shame.
~ William Wirt, The Letters of the British Spy (1803). Letter IV

When I listen to people here who say that of course something was put in the paper because I ordered it in, it scares the hell out of me. That tells me what those people would do if they were in my place.
~ Will Woodward, in The New York Times (3 February 1974). The Little Old Daily of Dubuque

People think they know you. They think they know how you're handling a situation. But the truth is no one knows. No one knows what happens after you leave them.
~ William H. Woodwell, Jr., Coming to Term: A Father's Story of Birth, Loss, and Survival (2001).

We all laugh at pursuing a shadow; although the lives of the multitude are devoted to the chase.
~ William Wordsworth, in Conversations at Cambridge (1836). The Poet Wordsworth And Professor Smythe

[F]olks are like trees, the things they believe are their roots, and the things they do their fruits.
~ William Burnet Wright, The World to Come (1887). XI. Saving Faith

There are two types of men. The first are controlled by principle, the second by impulse.
~ William Burnet Wright, The World to Come (1887). IX. Samson: Self-Deception

I attempt to represent the great mass of the people versus the aristocracy.
~ William Lowndes Yancey, from The life and Times of William Lowndes Yancey (1892).

Cast your mind on other days
That we in coming days may be
Still the indomitable Irishry.
~ William Butler Yeats, from Last Poems (1938-39). Under Ben Bulben

I hate reasonable people, the activity of their brains sucks up all the blood out of their hearts.
~ William Butler Yeats, in The Letters of W.B. Yeats (1954).

We ... are no petty people. We are of the great stocks of Europe. We are the people of Burke; we are the people of Swift, the people of Emmet, the people of Parnell. We have created most of the modern literature of this country. We have created the best of its political intelligence.
~ William Butler Yeats (in the debate on divorce), Speech in the Irish Senate (11 June 1925).