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Misattributed quotes — Tom Stoppard

1937–2025 Czech Republic

← All quotes by Tom Stoppard

10 quotes

Most men give advice by the bucket, but take it by the grain.

Misattributed

Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them.

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From principles is derived probability, but truth or certainty is obtained only from facts.

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If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.

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It is better of course to know useless things than to know nothing.

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Good things, when short, are twice as good.

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A movie camera is like having someone you have a crush on watching you from afar— you pretend it's not there.

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If you associate enough with older people who do enjoy their lives, who are not stored away in any golden ghettos, you will gain a sense of continuity and of the possibility for a full life.

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My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful; but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful.

Misattributed

Beauty is desired in order that it may be befouled; not for its own sake, but for the joy brought by the certainty of profaning it. [Elle est désirée pour la salir. Non pour elle-même, mais pour la joie goûtée dans la certitude de la profaner.]

Misattributed

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Tom Stoppard (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.