Moving Words

We've been asking people from around the world to nominate their favourite quotations - from speeches to books, poetry and plays....
The winning Moving Words are...
The words of Lao Tzu have been voted the world's favourite quotation! More
Our language expert, Professor David Crystal, explainswhy he thinks these words have been so popular...
The runners up...
2
21.9%
Mahatma Gandhi:"An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind" More
3
12%
Nelson Mandela:"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." More
4
10%
Saint Augustine:"Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all." More
5
7%
Dalai Lama:"You can't shake hands with a clenched fist." More
6
6.9%
Gospel of Luke, 6.31:"And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." More
7
5.6%
US Declaration of Independence:"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." More
8
5.4%
Woody Allen:"To you I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the Loyal Opposition." More
9
5.2%
William Shakespeare - As You Like It:"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts ..." More
10
4%
Sir Isaac Newton:"If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants..." More
TRY OUR PHONE QUIZ >>
TRY OUR FRIDGE QUIZ... >>

Test your knowledge and hear some famous voices from the past and present...
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... and see if you can find the hidden quotations in the jumble of words...
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nTotalQuotes = 7;
strQuotes = new Array(7);
strSources = new Array(7);
strQuotes[0] = "Do not go gentle into that good night.../ Rage, rage against the dying of the light.";
strSources[0] = "Dylan Thomas";
strQuotes[1] = "Don't it always seem to go / That you don't know what you've got till it's gone?";
strSources[1] = "Joni Mitchell";
strQuotes[2] = "Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist.";
strSources[2] = "David Ben-Gurion";
strQuotes[3] = "One has to grow hard, but without losing the tenderness ever.";
strSources[3] = "Che Guevara";
strQuotes[4] = "What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.";
strSources[4] = "Aristotle";
strQuotes[5] = "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.";
strSources[5] = "John Donne";
strQuotes[6] = "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.";
strSources[6] = "Bob Marley";
function get_random() {
var ranNum= Math.floor(Math.random() * nTotalQuotes);
return ranNum;
}
function SelectRandomQuote () {
bGotUnusedSelection = false;
while (!bGotUnusedSelection) {
nNewSelection = get_random ()
if (
(nNewSelection == nFirstSelection)
(nNewSelection == nSecondSelection)
(nNewSelection == nThirdSelection)
) {
bGotUnusedSelection = false;
} else {
bGotUnusedSelection = true;
}
}
return nNewSelection;
}
nFirstSelection = 0;
nSecondSelection = 0;
nThirdSelection = 0;
nFirstSelection = SelectRandomQuote ();
nSecondSelection = SelectRandomQuote ();
nThirdSelection = SelectRandomQuote ();
nThirdSelection = SelectRandomQuote ();
OTHER NOMINATIONS
document.write(""" + strQuotes[nFirstSelection] + """);
document.write("-" + strSources[nFirstSelection] + "\n");
document.write("");
"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds."-Bob Marley
document.write(""" + strQuotes[nSecondSelection] + """);
document.write("-" + strSources[nSecondSelection] + "\n");
document.write("");
"Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist."-David Ben-Gurion
document.write(""" + strQuotes[nThirdSelection] + """);
document.write("-" + strSources[nThirdSelection] + "\n");
document.write("");
"Don't it always seem to go / That you don't know what you've got till it's gone?"-Joni Mitchell
Quote Features
Mae West
Marx
Rumi
Shakespeare
Aung San Suu Kyi
Chekhov
Gandhi
Albert Einstein
Oscar Wilde
Celebrity Choices
Tony Benn
Joyce Carol Oates
Michio Kaku
Adeline Yen Mah
Gary Player
Hari Kunzru
P.D. James
Mzwakhe Mbuli
The Dalai Lama
Explore our map to see which other quotations people from around the world have nominated and why...
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