Anonymous

For quotes on the subject of anonymity, see Anonymity.

For quotes by or about the social activist group which promotes anonymous social action, see Anonymous (group).

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.

Illegitimi non carborundum is a famous anonymous saying

Quotes by anonymous authors

Praise undeserv'd is satire in disguise. —Mr. Br----

Tremble, oppressors of the world! Not far beyond your purblind sight there dawns the scarlet and sable lights of the Judgment Day. —Pittsburgh Manifesto

• Patriotism - There are people in every country who shamelessly hide their corrupt practises and sheer incompetence behind their country's flag.
  • Quoted in Dennett, Daniel C. (2006). Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (1st ed. ed.). Viking Penguin. pp. p. 17. ISBN 0-670-03472-X. 

• 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," Published in The Grove; or, A Collection of Original Poems, Translations, &c, which was edited by Lewis Theobald (1721)

• Question everything, accept nothing.
  • Quoted by Ethan Skyler; used in 2002 in reference to Galileo, para 9 [1]

• Real programmers don't comment their code. If it was hard to write it should be hard to understand.
  • Appeared in "Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal", but may or may not have been in existence beforehand.

• Remember the Alamo!
  • Common American war cry

• Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will still be among the stars.
  • Attributed to "Les Brown" (specific person not identified)

• You ladies, young and beautiful, we kindly you invite,
  To come to our grand Soiree and Ball to spend a happy night,
  So heed the invitation, and come with hearts so true,
  Unto the boys of Tubbermore, who love to wear the blue.
  • Poem from an invitational ticket to "A Grand Ball" in connection with Tobermore Flute Band that was held on Friday, 23rd October 1896.

• 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.
  • ”Boil it down”, poem in Manitoba Free Press, June 5, 1875

• Let us move the village!—
  And where shall we move it?—
  Among the legs of a girl,
  Now, there could a village be:
  There is forest, there is water,
  There is land to plough in!
  • ”The best place for a village”, Serbian erotic folk song^{[citation needed]}

• 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”, 14th century

• Sumer is icumen in,
  Lhude sing cuccu!
  Groweth sed, and bloweth med,
  And springth the wude nu—
  Sing cuccu!
  • ”Sumer is icumen in”, 13th century English folk song

• 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 loose 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.
  • Pittsburgh Manifesto, 1883, anonymous Anarchist work

• Illegitimi non carborundum
  • Dog latin phrase meant to be read as “don’t let the bastards grind you down”, even though a more accurate translation would be “The unlawful are not silicon carbide”

• Love starts when you sink in his arms and ends with your arms in his sink.
  • Cited in: The Shepherd College Picket, Vol. 47 (November 9, 1943), p. 4

• Hospes, quod deico paullum est, asta ac pellage.
  haic est sepulcrum hau pulcrum pulcrai feminae:
  nomen parentes nominarunt Claudiam.
  suom mareitum corde deilexit souo:
  gnatos duos creauit: horunc alterum
  in terra linquit, alium sub terra locat.
  sermone lepido, tum autem incessu commodo.
  domum seruauit. lanam fecit. dixi. abei.
  • Anonymous Old Latin, "Epitaph of Claudia", c. 150 BC
    • H. W. Garrod compares this Epitaph with Alexander Pope's "Epitaph upon Mrs. Corbet", with Samuel Johnson's comment:
      Here rests a woman good without pretence,
      Blest with plain reason and with sober sense.
      No conquest she, but o'er herself, desired.
      No arts essayed but not to be admired.
      Passion and pride were to her soul unknown,
      Convinced that Virtue only is our own.
      So unaffected, so composed a mind,
      So firm, yet soft, so strong, yet so refined,
      Heaven, as its purest gold, by tortures tried;
      The saint sustained it, but the woman died.
      Johnson's comment: "The subject of it is a character not discriminated by any shining or eminent peculiarities: yet that which really makes, though not the splendour, the felicity of life, and that which every wise man will choose for his final and lasting companion in the languor of age, in the quiet of privacy, when he departs weary and disgusted from the ostentatious, the volatile and the vain. Of such a character, which the dull overlook, and the gay despise, it was fit that the value should be made known and the dignity established."
      • H. W. Garrod, ed. The Oxford Book of Latin Verse (1912), no. 44

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
• Beowulf