Top 500 Firsts Quotes (2026 Update)
Page 7 of 10

301. “See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.”

— Douglas Adams

302. “I can affect change by transforming the only thing that I ever had control over in the first place and that is myself.”

— Deepak Chopra

303. “The soul, which is the first principle of life, is not a body, but the act of a body; just as heat, which is the principle of calefaction, is not a body, but an act of a body.”

— Thomas Aquinas

304. “Nobody can have the consolations of religion or philosophy unless he has first experienced their desolations.”

— Aldous Huxley

Also featured in: History Quotes

305. “The mark of an innovative company is not only that it comes up with new ideas first, but also that it knows how to leapfrog when it finds itself behind.”

— Steve Jobs

306. “Deism, historically, produces atheism. First you make God a landlord, then an absent landlord, then he becomes simply absent.”

— N. T. Wright

307. “Voting is the first duty of democracy.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

308. “It must be God first, God second, and God third.”

— Oswald Chambers

309. “Tribulation first makes one realize what one is.”

— Marie Antoinette

310. “Teach economy. That is one of the first and highest virtues. It begins with saving money.”

— Abraham Lincoln

311. “You must first of all think justly. Don’t sit in judgment over others when you don’t know the truth of the matter.”

— Pramoedya Ananta Toer

312. “We first observe facts, then generalise, and then draw conclusions or principles.”

— Swami Vivekananda

313. “All I know is this: nobody’s very big in the first place, and it looks to me like everybody spends their whole life tearing everybody else down.”

— Ken Kesey

314. “Feel free to call me by my first name: Master.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

315. “The first duty of the educator, whether he is involved with the newborn infant or the older child, is to recognize the human personality of the young being and respect it.”

— Maria Montessori

316. “If you figure a way to live without serving a master, any master, then let the rest of us know, will you? For you’d be the first person in the history of the world.”

— Paul Thomas Anderson

317. “The second fiddle. I can get plenty of first violinists, but to find someone who can play the second fiddle with enthusiasm.”

— Leonard Bernstein

318. “If at first you don’t succeed, try management.”

— Stephen Hawking

319. “Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves.”

— Helen Keller

320. “To exercise no-thought and rest in nothing is the first step toward resting in Tao. To start from nowhere and follow no road is the first step toward attaining Tao.”

— Zhuangzi

321. “That nothing is static or fixed, that all is fleeting and impermanent, is the first mark of existence. Everything is in process.”

— Pema Chödrön

322. “First you must find your trajectory, and then comes the social coordination.”

— Joseph Campbell

323. “First, say to yourself what you would be; then do what you have to do. Life is a grindstone. Whether it wears you down or polishes you up depends on what YOU are made of.”

— Zig Ziglar

324. “The first thought of God was an angel. The first word of God was a man.”

— Khalil Gibran

325. “Unless you’re one of the first Americans, a Native American, you came from someplace else. Somebody brought you.”

— Barack Obama

326. “The first requisite for success is to develop the ability to focus...”

— Thomas A. Edison

327. “Whatever God does, the first outburst is always compassion.”

— Meister Eckhart

328. “We dare not forget that we are the heirs of that first revolution.”

— John F. Kennedy

Also featured in: 4th Of July Quotes

329. “If at first you don’t succeed, avoid skydiving.”

— Socrates

330. “I know death follows me, but I murder him first.”

— Tupac Shakur

331. “I don’t kick a man when he’s down, unless I’m the one who put him down in the first place. I don’t put him down unless he deserves it. And I don’t break my word if I give it. So I’ll give you my word.”

— Nora Roberts

332. “First, I thought, almost despairing, This must crush my spirit now; Yet I bore it, and am bearing- Only do not ask me how.”

— Heinrich Heine

333. “I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!- Elizabeth Bennet.”

— Jane Austen

334. “I was playing cricket first and my cricket coach was the one that introduced me to track and field.”

— Usain Bolt

335. “Say what you have to say and the first time you come to a sentence with a grammatical ending – sit down.”

— Winston Churchill

336. “Imitation is the first instinct of the awakening mind.”

— Maria Montessori

337. “The most rigid structures, the most impervious to change, will collapse first.”

— Eckhart Tolle

338. “I felt the same fear in my first fight as I did in my last fight. It never goes away.”

— Mike Tyson

339. “When love first tasted the lips of being human, it started singing.”

— Rumi

340. “The first cuckoo’s melancholy cry.”

— William Wordsworth

341. “To give a person an opinion one must first judge well whether that person is of the disposition to receive it or not.”

— Yamamoto Tsunetomo

342. “Birth is life’s first lottery ticket.”

— Jeffrey Archer

343. “Whom you would change, you must first love.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

344. “First the colours. Then the humans. That’s usually how I see things. Or at least, how I try.”

— Markus Zusak

345. “People who invariably put themselves first will find that others tend to put them last.”

— Nido R. Qubein

346. “The first resistance to social change is to say it’s not necessary.”

— Gloria Steinem

347. “Don’t sacrifice your spirit for wealth. Grow your wealth by first growing your spirit.”

— Robert T. Kiyosaki

348. “A conservative believes nothing should be done for the first time.”

— Thomas Fuller

349. “Anything worth doing does not have to be done perfectly – at first.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

350. “No one has ever achieved anything from the smallest to the greatest unless the dream was dreamed first.”

— Laura Ingalls Wilder