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Anonymous

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Not to be confused with Anonymity or Anonymous (group).
Illegitimi non carborundum is a famous anonymous saying

Anonymous is the adjective form of anonymity derived from the Greek word ἀνωνυμία, anonymia, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness." It commonly refers to the state of an individual's personal identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown, intentionally or unintentionally. This article is for famous or notable quotes whose author is unknown.

Quotes by anonymous authors

Antiquity

  • He who saw the deep, the country's foundation, ...
    He came a far road, was weary, found peace,
    And set all his labours on a tablet of stone.
  • Who is there, my friend, can climb to the sky?
    Only the gods dwell forever in sunlight.
    As for man, his days are numbered,
    Whatever he may do, it is but wind.
    • Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet III of the Old-Babylonian version (tr. Andrew R. George, 2003)
  • There is no one who can return from there,
    To describe their nature, to describe their dissolution,
    That he may still our desires,
    Until we reach the place where they have gone.
    • The Song of the Harper, st. 5; tr. W. K. Simpson, in The Literature of Ancient Egypt (1972)
  • Remember: it is not given to man to take his goods with him.
    • The Song of the Harper, st. 10
  • No one goes away and then comes back.
    • The Song of the Harper, st. 10
  • Provide for men, the cattle of God, for He made heaven and earth at their desire. He suppressed the greed of the waters, he gave the breath of life to their noses, for they are likenesses of Him which issued from His flesh.
  • Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of heaven,
    O living Aton, Beginning of life!
    When thou risest in the eastern horizon of heaven,
    Thou fillest every land with thy beauty;
    For thou art beautiful, great, glittering, high over the earth;
    Thy rays, they encompass the lands, even all thou hast made.
  • Γνῶθι σεαυτόν. / Know thyself.
  • Μηδὲν ἄγαν. / Nothing too much.
  • Τὁ ῥὀδον ἀκμἀζει βαιὀν χρονὁν’ ἢν δἑ παρἐλθυ,
    ζητῶν εὐρἠσεισ οὐ ῥὀδον, ἀλλἁ βἀτον.
    • Soon fades the rose; once past the fragrant hour,
      The loiterer finds a bramble for a flow’r.
    • Greek Anthology, bk. 11, no. 53; tr. Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, no. 71 (20 November 1750)
  • Εἴθ᾿ ἄπυρον καλὸν γενοίμην μέγα χρυσίον,
    καί με καλὴ γυνὴ φοροίη καθαρὸν θεμένη νόον.
  • Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
    Look to this Day!
    For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
    In its brief Course lie all the
    Varieties and Realities of your Existence:
    The Bliss of Growth,
    The Glory of Action,
    The Splendour of Beauty;
    For Yesterday is but a Dream
    And Tomorrow is only a Vision;
    But Today well lived makes
    Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
    And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
    Look well therefore to this Day!
    Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!

Middle Ages

  • Multae terricolis linguae, coelestibus una.
    • Ten thousand, thousand are their tongues,
      But all their joys are one.
    • Quoted as epigraph in Theron Brown and Hezekiah Butterworth, The Story of the Hymns and Tunes (1906) title page
  • Bothe lered and lewed, olde and yonge,
    Alle understonden English tonge.
  • Perle, pleasaunte to prynces paye
    To clanly clos in golde so clere,
    Oute of oryent, I hardyly saye,
    Ne proued I neuer her precios pere.
    • Pearl (late 14th century) opening lines
  • O little booke, thou art so unconning,
    How darst thou put thy-self in prees for drede?

16th century

  • (I would topple with ye
    And) pluck a good crow.
    • The History of Jacob and Esau (c. 1558) act 2, sc. 2 (Ragan)
  • Ground me no grounds.
    • The Marriage of Wit and Science (1569–70) act 2, sc. 1 (Will)
      Cf. John Redford, The Play of Wit and Science
  • Break her betimes, and bring her under by force,
    Or else the grey mare will be the better horse.
    • The Marriage of Wit and Science (1569–70) act 2, sc. 1 (Will)
  • But he that takes not such time, while he may,
    Shall leap at a whiting, when time is away.
    • The Marriage of Wit and Science (1569–70) act 4, sc. 1 (Will)
  • For he that leaps, before he look, good son,
    May leap in the mire, and miss what he hath done.
    • The Marriage of Wit and Science (1569–70) act 4, sc. 1 (Wit)
  • More haste than good speed makes many fare the worse.
    • The Marriage of Wit and Science (1569–70) act 4, sc. 1 (Wit)
  •              (They are) no more like,
    Than chalk is to cheese.
    • The Marriage of Wit and Science (1569–70) act 5, sc. 1 (Science)
  • A right woman — either love like an angel,
    Or hate like a devil — in extremes to dwell.
    • The Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune (1589) act 1 (Penulo)
  • Why, what is Love but Fortune’s tennis-ball?
    • Soliman and Perseda (1592–93) act 1 (Fortune)
  • The sound is honey, but the sense is gall.
    • Soliman and Perseda (1592–93) act 4 (Soliman)
  • He’s best at ease that meddleth least.
    • Fair Em (1590s) act 3, sc. 17, l. 1383
  •                    Love, that covers multitude of sins,
    Makes love in parents wink at children’s faults.
    • Fair Em (1590s) act 3, sc. 17, l. 1270 (Zeveno)
  • He’s best at ease that meddleth least.
    • Fair Em (1590s) act 3, sc. 17, l. 1383 (Manville)
  • ’Tis an ill wind that blows no man to profit.
    • A Merry Knack to Know a Knave (ed. 1594) p. 32 (Coneycatcher)
  • A crafty knave needs no broker.
    • A Merry Knack to Know a Knave (ed. 1594) p. 33 (Honesty)

17th century

  • A heavy purse makes a light heart.
    • Wily Beguiled (c. 1602) l. 1
      Cf. Ben Jonson, The New Inn, act 1, sc. 1 (Host)
  • Virtue is the shoeing-horn of justice.
    • The Return from Parnassus: or, The Scourge of Simony (1606) act 4, sc. 3 (Kemp)
  • I had need of a long spoon, now I go to eat with the devil.
    • Grim, the Collier of Croydon (1662) act 5, sc. 1 (Grim)
  • In the year 1690, the same in which Ichabod Paddock was sent for from Cape Cod, ... some persons were on a high hill, afterwards called Folly House Hill, observing the whales spouting and sporting with each other, when one observed "there," pointing to the sea, "is a green pasture where our children's grand-children will go for bread."
    • Attributed in Obed Macy, The History of Nantucket (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, and Co., 1835) p. 33

18th century

Praise undeserv'd is satire in disguise. —Mr. Br----
  • Praise undeserv'd is satire in disguise.
    • "Epigram on a Certain Line of Mr. Br----, Author of a Copy of Verses, Call'd the British Beauties", in Lewis Theobald (ed.) The Grove; or, A Collection of Original Poems, Translations, &c (1721), p. 294 [1] [2]
  • Xerxes did die,
    And so must I.
    • The New England Primer (ed. 1777)
  • Send him victorious,
    Happy and glorious,
    Long to reign over us,
    God save the king.

19th century

  • Tho' lost to sight, to memory dear.
    • Inscription on a civic arch, for the procession of Lafayette through Lynn, MA, August 1824. A Sketch of the Tour of General Lafayette, on his Late Visit to the United States (Portland, ME, 1824) p. 120
  • Remember the Alamo!
    • Common American war cry (after 6 March 1836)
  • There are 'quips and quillets' which seem actual conundrums, but yet are none. Of such is this: 'Why does a chicken cross the street?' Are you 'out of town?' Do you 'give it up?' Well, then: 'Because it wants to get on the other side!'
  • Whatever you have to say, my friend,
    Whether witty or grave or gay,
    Condense as much as ever you can,
    And say it the readiest way;
    And whether you write of rural affairs
    Or of matter and things in town,
    Just take a word of friendly advice—
    Boil it down.
  • Ni Dieu ni maître. / No gods, no masters.
    • Anarchist slogan. A similar phrase appeared in an 1870 pamphlet by a disciple of Auguste Blanqui. The exact phrase appeared as the title of Blanqui's 1880 newspaper before it spread throughout the anarchist movement, appearing in Kropotkin's Words of a Rebel (1885)
Tremble, oppressors of the world! Not far beyond your purblind sight there dawns the scarlet and sable lights of the Judgment Day. —Pittsburgh Manifesto
  • What we would achieve is, therefore, plainly and simply,—
    First, Destruction of the existing class rule, by all means, i.e., by energetic, relentless, revolutionary, and international action.
    Second, Establishment of a free society based upon co-operative organization of production.
    Third, Free exchange of equivalent products by and between the productive organizations without commerce and profit-mongery.
    Fourth, Organization of education on a secular, scientific, and equal basis for both sexes.
    Fifth, Equal rights for all without distinction to sex or race.
    Sixth, Regulation of all public affairs by free contracts between the autonomous (independent) communes and associations, resting on a federalistic basis.
    Whoever agrees with this ideal let him grasp our outstretched brother hands!
    Proletarians of all countries, unite!
    Fellow-workmen, all we need for the achievement of this great end is organization and unity.
    There exists now no great obstacle to that unity. The work of peaceful education and revolutionary conspiracy well can and ought to run in parallel lines.
    The day has come for solidarity. Join our ranks! Let the drum beat defiantly the roll of battle, "Workmen of all lands, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains; you have a world to win!"
    Tremble, oppressors of the world! Not far beyond your purblind sight there dawns the scarlet and sable lights of the Judgment Day.
  • Faster horses, older whiskey, younger women, and more money.
    • Boast of the American West, variously attributed to railroad men who came to Texas in search of oil money (late 19th or early 20th century); in Sally Helgesen, Wildcatters: A Story of Texans, Oil, and Money (1981) p. 29. Cf. Tom T. Hall

20th century

  • Question everything; accept nothing without proof.
  • Love starts when you sink in his arms and ends with your arms in his sink.
    • Reported in The Shepherd College Picket, vol. 47 (November 9, 1943), p. 4
  • If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.
    • Quoted among the Extension of Remarks of Charles B. Rangel before the U.S. House of Representatives, 25 October 1973, in the Congressional Record (26 October 1973) p. 35189; also in Paul du Feu, Let's Hear It for the Long-Legged Women (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1973) p. 65. Variant ("you shouldn't" instead of "don't") quoted by Leo Aikman, "You're Never Out of Reach", in The Atlanta Constitution (28 May 1957) p. 2
  • Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned.

See also

  • Proverbs, which are often passed down through the generations anonymously
  • Bible — much of its material is of disputed authorship and is not believed to have been written by its purported authors
  • Laozi — likely mythical founder of Taoism, most sayings attributed to him were probably written anonymously
  • Nursery rhymes, many of unclear origin
  • Beowulf
  • Junius
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