269 Quotes by New Zealander authors

New Zealander Flag

From Aotearoa, voices carry the tang of salt and fern, mixing plainspoken wit with quiet resolve. They tend to prize whānau over ego, whenua over possession, mahi done well over talk. You’ll hear te reo Māori beside English, a cadence shaped by marae and shearing sheds, rain-slick cities and alpine shadow. Themes circle mana, kaitiakitanga, and the modest laugh that keeps pride in check. Expect understatement, stubborn hope, and affection that works rather than announces.

See the complete list of authors from New Zealand

"Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere"

Glenn Turner, Athlete

"If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment"

Ernest Rutherford, Psychologist

Small: Ernest Rutherford

"All science is either physics or stamp collecting"

Ernest Rutherford, Psychologist

Small: Ernest Rutherford

"Of all created comforts, God is the lender; you are the borrower, not the owner"

Ernest Rutherford, Psychologist

Small: Ernest Rutherford

"We can survive as a population only if we conserve, develop sustainably, and protect the world's resources"

Silvia Cartwright, Statesman

"The greatest barrier to someone achieving their potential is their denial of it"

Simon Travaglia, Author

"This is not a letter but my arms around you for a brief moment"

Katherine Mansfield, Author

"Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth"

Katherine Mansfield, Author

"It's a terrible thing to be alone - yes it is - it is - but don't lower your mask until you have another mask prepared beneath - as terrible as you like - but a mask"

Katherine Mansfield, Author

"Life never becomes a habit to me. It's always a marvel"

Katherine Mansfield, Author

"Looking back, I imagine I was always writing. Twaddle it was too. But better far write twaddle or anything, anything, than nothing at all"

Katherine Mansfield, Author

"Excellent, there's nothing quite like a blunt object to reinforce proper administration ethics"

Simon Travaglia, Author

"They think I'm going to be a schoolteacher but I'm going to be a poet"

Janet Frame, Novelist

"Writing a novel is not merely going on a shopping expedition across the border to an unreal land: it is hours and years spent in the factories, the streets, the cathedrals of the imagination"

Janet Frame, Novelist

"There is no glory in war, yet from the blackness of its history, there emerge vivid colours of human character and courage. Those who risked their lives to help their friends"

Silvia Cartwright, Statesman

"Electricity, the peril the wind sings to in the wires on a gray day"

Janet Frame, Novelist

"It is important to remember that the Pacific Ocean covers a quarter of the world's surface and that each Pacific country has its own cultural, historical and ethnic identity"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

Small: Jenny Shipley

"NGOs have a significant role to play, alongside governments, in improving the status of women"

Jenny Shipley, Statesman

Small: Jenny Shipley

"And if you're getting a poll coming out month after month saying something and then all of a sudden does an enormous swing in one direction - you are dealing with a more volatile electorate than most people believe they have"

Jim Bolger, Statesman

"And I think the rolling polls put more pressure on them to sustain their beliefs and to improve their delivery of the policy and their delivery of the ideas so that they can garner support for whatever principle they're articulating"

Jim Bolger, Statesman

"The accent got lost somewhere along the way. I'm a little embarrassed about it. When I arrived in LA I assumed I'd be able to put on the American accent. It proved difficult so I had six months working with a dialect coach and it's become a habit"

Martin Henderson, Actor

"It is essential for genetic material to be able to make exact copies of itself; otherwise growth would produce disorder, life could not originate, and favourable forms would not be perpetuated by natural selection"

Maurice Wilkins, Scientist

"That is a big danger, losing your inspiration. When I work in film and television I try to do each take a little differently. I never want to do the same thing twice, because then you're not being spontaneous, you're just recreating something"

Karl Urban, Actor

"To deny women directors, as I suspect is happening in the States, is to deny the feminine vision"

Jane Campion, Director

"On embarking to return we could perceive no sign of One Tree Island; and as we swept down towards the sea the leafy top of a tree seen in the clear water under the boat was the only evidence of its existence; though a few hours ago it had formed so prominent an object"

George Grey, Leader

"The biggest thing for me is just to get out on that field. Just to do that will be incredible"

Jonah Lomu, Athlete

"After all, just one virus on a computer is one too many"

Glenn Turner, Athlete

"As every new breed of virus is conceived, created and released into the wild, another small change is made to the anti-virus software to combat the new threat"

Glenn Turner, Athlete

"There is one major problem with anti-virus software: It needs updating. Users cannot be relied upon to have even the anti-virus software in the first place, let alone be able or willing to pay for the updates"

Glenn Turner, Athlete

"You should never bet against anything in science at odds of more than about 1012 to 1"

Ernest Rutherford, Psychologist

Small: Ernest Rutherford

"When we can begin to take our failures seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves"

Katherine Mansfield, Author

"The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books"

Katherine Mansfield, Author

"It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves"

Katherine Mansfield, Author

"Everything in life that we really accept undergoes a change"

Katherine Mansfield, Author

"Whenever I prepare for a journey I prepare as though for death. Should I never return, all is in order"

Katherine Mansfield, Author

"Once we have learned to read, meaning of words can somehow register without consciousness"

Katherine Mansfield, Author

"If only one could tell true love from false love as one can tell mushrooms from toadstools"

Katherine Mansfield, Author

"Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different"

Katherine Mansfield, Author

"Some couples go over their budgets very carefully every month. Others just go over them"

Katherine Mansfield, Author

"I want, by understanding myself, to understand others. I want to be all that I am capable of becoming"

Katherine Mansfield, Author

Page 1 of 7