Top 500 Firsts Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “If you have two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.”

— Brian Tracy

152. “To win, the first thing you have to do is not lose.”

— Warren Buffett

153. “If at first you don’t succeed, Call an airstrike.”

— Banksy

154. “Fear will try to keep you from taking that first step. Don’t give in to fear, do it afraid.”

— Joyce Meyer

155. “Let the first impulse pass, wait for the second.”

— Baltasar Gracián

156. “Don’t invest in what you don’t know. Learn first then invest.”

— Robert T. Kiyosaki

157. “Constancy of purpose is the first principle of success.”

— Napoleon Hill

158. “Be the first to say, “Hello”.”

— H. Jackson Brown Jr.

159. “Freedom, the first-born of science.”

— Thomas Jefferson

160. “No plan ever survives its first encounter with the enemy.”

— Douglas MacArthur

161. “Awareness is always the first step.”

— Miguel Ruiz

162. “The first element of change is awareness. You can’t change something unless you know it exists.”

— T. Harv Eker

163. “If you would not be laughed at, be the first to laugh at yourself.”

— Benjamin Franklin

164. “It is our first duty to serve society.”

— Samuel Johnson

165. “The first move of leadership is learning to think for yourself.”

— Robin S. Sharma

166. “When we preach the love of God there is a danger of forgetting that the Bible reveals not first the love of God but the intense, blazing holiness of God, with His love at the center of that holiness.”

— Oswald Chambers

167. “Prayer is first of all listening to God. It’s openness. God is always speaking; he’s always doing something.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

168. “First doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

— Dieter F. Uchtdorf

169. “To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi.”

— William Faulkner

170. “If you would seek health, look first to the spine.”

— Socrates

171. “It was here in Big Sur that I first learned to say ‘amen.’”

— Henry Miller

172. “Self-confidence results, first, from exact knowledge; second, the ability to impart that knowledge.”

— Napoleon Hill

173. “Set the tone for your day be treating people better than you expect to be treated by them. Be the first to smile. Express your appreciation for them. Expect the best out of them. If you act first, you will set yourself up for success.”

— John C. Maxwell

174. “My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will.”

— William James

175. “Worms have played a more important part in the history of the world than humans would at first suppose.”

— Charles Darwin

176. “Learn to look after your staff first and the rest will follow.”

— Richard Branson

177. “For peace to reign on Earth, humans must evolve into new beings who have learned to see the whole first.”

— Immanuel Kant

178. “First comes smiles, then lies. Last is gunfire.-Roland Deschain, of Gilead.”

— Stephen King

179. “The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

180. “If we are to love sincerely, and with simplicity, we must first of all overcome the fear of not being loved.”

— Thomas Merton

181. “First thought, best thought.”

— Allen Ginsberg

182. “Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first requisite for acquiring learning of any kind.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

183. “Will you marry me? Do you have any money? Answer the second question first.”

— Groucho Marx

184. “You have first to experience what you want to express.”

— Vincent van Gogh

185. “Do what’s right, first. Don’t sit around and wait for someone else to do the right thing first.”

— Joyce Meyer

186. “We can only grasp the gospel’s sweetness if we first grapple with its offense- you can’t save yourself.”

— Timothy Keller

187. “Be content with your lot; one cannot be first in everything.”

— Aesop

188. “Immortality is a long shot, I admit. But somebody has to be first.”

— Bill Cosby

189. “There are two questions that we have to ask ourselves. The first is ‘Where am I going?’ and the second is ‘Who will go with me?’”

— Howard Thurman

190. “Choice is your greatest power. It is an even greater power than love, because you must first choose to be a loving person.”

— Caroline Myss

191. “I don’t care if I pass your test, I don’t care if I follow your rules. If you can cheat, so can I. I won’t let you beat me unfairly – I’ll beat you unfairly first. – Ender.”

— Orson Scott Card

192. “It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

193. “She is my first and only love. Most people know that their first love will not be their only love. But for me, she is both.”

— David Levithan

194. “From the first I was clamorous to learn...”

— Eudora Welty

195. “Habits are first cobwebs, then cables.”

— Napoleon Hill

196. “I think my general disposition on life is finding what’s funny about it. When something happens, the first thing in my mind is, “What’s funny about it?””

— Will Smith

197. “Be willing to take the first step, no matter how small it is. Concentrate on the fact that you are willing to learn. Absolute miracles will happen.”

— Louise Hay

198. “The right to life is the first among human rights.”

— Pope Francis

199. “A good supply of resignation is of the first importance in providing for the journey of life.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

200. “Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche