I'm sorry if there's already a thread for this, but I think it would be interesting for everyone to contribute their favorite quotes. Here's some of mine: "Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all, And the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought And moments of great pitch and enterprise With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action." -Hamlet, Shakespeare "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." -Jack London "It seems, in fact, as though the second half of a man's life is made up of nothing more than the habits he has accumulated during the first half." -Fyodor Dostoyevsky "It is curious that physical courage should be so common and moral courage so rare." -Mark Twain I have other good ones, but can't get to them now. I'll post them later; those are just from memory.
"Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; but if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach. " - Marcus Aurelius. "Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content." Conan of Cimmeria in Robert E. Howard's "Queen of the Black Coast". "The Way of the Samurai is found in death. When it comes to either/or, there is only the quick choice of death. It is not particularly difficult. Be determined and advance. To say that dying without reaching one's aim is to die a dog's death is the frivolous way of sophisticates. When pressed with the choice of life or death, it is not necessary to gain one's aim. We all want to live. And in large part we make our logic according to what we like. But not having attained our aim and continuing to live is cowardice. This is a thin dangerous line. To die without gaining one's aim is a dog's death and fanaticism. But there is no shame in this. This is the substance of the Way of the Samurai. If by setting one's heart right every morning and evening, one is able to live as though his body were already dead, he gains freedom in the Way. His whole life will be without blame, and he will succeed in his calling." - Yamamato Tsunetomo "Hagakure". "Is virtue a thing remote? I look to be virtuous, and lo! virtue is at hand" - Confucius. "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." "The Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear" from Frank Herbert's "Dune".
We've been keeping a book of quotes from TV for about twenty years. Most of them don't have attribution. Here's a handful. I'm in jail for "attempted murder." Do they give Nobel Prizes for "attempted chemistry?" We can solve the gang problem by turning 20 or 25 grannies loose with belts. French men talk about food the way other men talk about women: "Save your egg whites for later. Perhaps you'll want to make a little meringue on the side." "Oprah" is like a road accident: I'm horrified, but I can't look away. You're not really drunk until you have to hang onto the grass to keep from falling off the Earth.
There was a time when I had this litany memorized and I would recite it in my head whenever I felt fear or deep anxiety. It does seem to work.
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. - Bertrand Russell For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a dictum. I am my own God. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us. - Charles Bukowski By your belief in granular singularities, you deny all movement evolutionary or devolutionary. Belief fixes a granular universe and causes that universe to persist. Nothing can be allowed to change because that way your non-moving universe vanishes. But it moves of itself when you do not move. It evolves beyond you and is no longer accessible to you. - "Heretics of Dune" by Frank Herbert To give pleasure to a single heart by a single kind act is better than a thousand head-bowings in prayer. - Saddi That a man is successful who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much, who has gained the respect of the intelligent men and the love of children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who leaves the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who looked for the best in others and gave the best he had. - Robert Louis Stevenson Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters. - Noah Webster
"You can lead a horse to the pond, but you can't make him drink"- I think it's an old proverb "You can't bring every horse to the pond and let him drink"- I've only heard it from the rapper Cassidy, regarding friends and life "To conquer oneself is a greater task thean conquering others"-Buddha, also I think Thales of Miletus said somethng similar. "Do or do not; there is no try"-Yoda "Great talent takes time to ripen"- Greek(?) proverb "If you would be loved, love and be lovable"-Benjamin Franklin "The MORAL LAW causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger." -Sun Tzu(The Art of War) "One who knows nothing can understand nothing"-Ansem(Kingdom Hearts) "Whatever doesn't kill e only makes me stronger" -Nietzsche "Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. "-Nietzsche "There is more to life than increasing its speed"- Gandhi
"It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man." "I don't think I'm alone when I say I'd like to see more and more planets fall under the ruthless domination of our solar system." "Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis." "Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself: "Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate words - "mank" and "ind". What do these words mean ? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind." "The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face." "We tend to scoff at the beliefs of the ancients. But we can't scoff at them personally, to their faces, and this is what annoys me." - All are by Jack Handy Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear foolish then to open it and remove all doubt. -Ben Franklin
Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right. & Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. -Isaac Asimov
"The only people who do any real good in the world are whores and bartenders." T. Jefferson Parker Baron Max
I have so many it is hard to choose just a few... "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt- From a speech given in Paris at the Sorbonne in 1910 "Truth is a pathless land." - J Krishnamurti "It is truth that frees, not your effort to be free." - J Krishnamurti "...you give it a name, and you think you have understood it. Is not the very naming of the thing a hindrance to the understanding of it?" J Krishnamurti Bombay, February 12, 1950 "Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - HL Mencken "When I examined my political faith I found that my strongest belief was in democracy according to my own definition. Democracy-the essential thing as distinguished from this or that democratic government-was primarily an attitude of mind, a spiritual testament, and not an economic structure or a political machine. The testament involved certain basic beliefs-that the personality was sacrosanct, which was the meaning of liberty; that policy should be settled by free discussion; that normally a minority should be ready to yield to a majority, which in turn should respect a minority’s sacred things. It seemed to me that democracy had been in the past too narrowly defined and had been identified illogically with some particular economic or political system such as laissez-faire or British parliamentarism. I could imagine a democracy which economically was largely socialist and which had not our constitutional pattern." - John Buchan "Yes, God and the politicians willing, the United States can declare peace upon the world, and win it." - Ely Culbertson Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. - NIV Romans 3:19 From The Onion's horoscopes: "The answer to all of your problems lies in reading the mis-translated myths of a stone age desert nomad tribe." "There are similarities between absolute power and absolute faith: a demand for absolute obedience, a readiness to attempt the impossible, a bias for simple solutions-to cut the knot rather than unravel it, the viewing of compromise as surrender. Both absolute power and absolute faith are instruments of dehumanization. Hence, absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power." - Eric Hoffer "Imagine: stalking elk past department store windows and stinking racks of beautiful rotting dresses and tuxedos on hangers. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life, and you'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. Like Jack and the Beanstalk, you'll climb up through the dripping forest canopy and the air will be so clean you'll see tiny figures pounding corn and laying strips of venison to dry in the empty car pool lane of an abandoned superhighway stretching eight-lanes and August-hot for a thousand miles. You'll hunt elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center, and dig clams next to the skeleton of the Space Needle leaning at a forty-five degree angle. We'll paint the skyscrapers with huge totem faces and goblin tikis, and every evening what's left of mankind will retreat to empty zoos and lock itself in cages as protection against bears and big cats and wolves that pace and watch us from outside the cage bars at night." - Tyler Durden "The test of our progress is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough to those who have little." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"I've been to places in this country which were deeply human, deeply rooted and meaningful. But most of it is a surface of oil on a puddle, shiny and pretty and ultimately shallow. The lack of real cultural identity leads to the substitution of nationalism for cultural identity." -Xev -American Philosopher
It's better to be uncertain then to be certain of something wrong Qui custodiet ipsos custodes but that's a oldy
From a recent comic strip: The FDA announced the results of a ten-year study yesterday: Laughter really is the best medicine. In a related story, elderly Americans have started flocking to Canada for cheap laughs.
"The wise speak when they have something to say, the foolish speak because they have to say something." "They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel." "We all die, the goal is not to live forever, the goal is to create something that will." "Most of us crucify ourselves between two thieves - regret for the past and fear of the future." "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear." "There are four ways you can handle fear. You can get over it, under it or around it. But if you are ever to put fear behind you, you must walk straight through it. Once you put fear behind you, leave it there."
