Firsts quotes
8.8K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside firsts — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"This was my first novel [The Dissemblers ]. I've never seriously written short stories, and actually find short stories much more intimidating as an art form than novels."
"You must know nothing before you can learn something, and be empty before you can be filled. Is not the emptiness of the bowl what makes it useful? As for laws, a parrot can repeat them word for word. Their spirit is something else again. As for governing, one must first be lowest before being highest."
"I die but first I have possessed, And come what may, I have been blessed."
"I'll be the first to admit that we're the 90's version of Cheap Trick or the Knack..."
"I got all of my out-of-work time done in the years when I first came to L.A.!"
"That is the first thing I know for sure: (1.) If the questions don't make sense, neither will the answers."
"Here is a lesson in writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college."
"But he is tired. He puts the pistol to his head again. He says, “I never asked to be born in the first place."
"My first kiss can be summed up in one word - unsuccessful."
"Sometimes you're fooled quickly. You want to be fooled. If you can't trust your first impression you're going to have a harder time than you should."
"Mine first --mine last-- mine even in the grave!"
"I can get on with wild beasts first-rate; but men rile me awfully."
"If children gave up when they fell for the first time, they would never learn to walk."
"I'm doing philosophy like an old woman, first I'm looking for my pencil, then I'm looking for my glasses, then I'm looking for my pencil again."
"If there were a verb meaning "to believe falsely," it would not have any significant first person, present indicative."
"Well, I first started going to Europe in the late '70s."
"I write first for myself as a therapeutic process, to get stuff out and to deal with it."
"Jude remembered this pain. Every woman had felt some version of it: the end of first love. It was when you learned, for good and always, that love could be impermanent."
