Top 500 Firsts Quotes (2026 Update)
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151. “First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin.”

— Leonard Cohen

152. “A friend of mine told me to shoot first and ask questions later. I was going to ask him why, but I had to shoot him.”

— John Wayne

153. “Everyone who has ever built anywhere a “new heaven” first found the power thereto in his own hell.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

154. “The care of the public health is the first duty of the statesman.”

— Benjamin Disraeli

155. “I am struck by the fact that the more slowly trees grow at first, the sounder they are at the core, and I think that the same is true of human beings.”

— Henry David Thoreau

156. “If you have two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.”

— Brian Tracy

Also featured in: Silly Quotes

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

— Banksy

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

— Douglas MacArthur

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

— Baltasar Gracián

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

— Napoleon Hill

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

— Joyce Meyer

162. “Awareness is always the first step.”

— Miguel Ruiz

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

— Thomas Jefferson

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

— T. Harv Eker

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

— Benjamin Franklin

166. “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

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

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Robin S. Sharma

169. “Every step is a first step if it’s a step in the right direction.”

— Terry Pratchett

170. “Act first, explain later.”

— Dan Brown

171. “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

172. “If the first button of one’s coat is wrongly buttoned, all the rest will be crooked.”

— Giordano Bruno

173. “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

Also featured in: Happy Sunday Quotes, Faith Quotes, Doubt Quotes

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

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

Also featured in: Quotes About Listening

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

— Socrates

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

— Henry Miller

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

— Napoleon Hill

178. “Set the tone for your day by 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

179. “First we become the best, then we’ll become first.”

— Lou Holtz

180. “Comfort comes into your house first as guest, then as a host, then finally as the master.”

— Khalil Gibran

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

— Charles Darwin

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

— William James

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

— Richard Branson

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

— Immanuel Kant

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

— Stephen King

186. “You can’t get second things by putting them first. You get second things only by putting first things first.”

— C. S. Lewis

187. “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

188. “First thought, best thought.”

— Allen Ginsberg

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

— Mahatma Gandhi

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

— Thomas Merton

Also featured in: Simplicity Quotes

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

— Vincent van Gogh

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

— Groucho Marx

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

— Timothy Keller

194. “Before you can control conditions, you must first control yourself.”

— Napoleon Hill

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

— Aesop

196. “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

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

— Bill Cosby

198. “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

199. “All things that are truly great are at first thought impossible.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

200. “All new learning looks at first like chaos.”

— Adrienne Rich