# Favourite Quotes



## Dragonscales

O.k. Thought this looked about the right section for this so yea, here it is.
I am interested in what are your favourite quotes by anybody, writer or otherwise. I have pretty strong interests in quotes and want to know what you all think about them too. I'll put a smallish list of some of my favourites, feel free to do the same 


Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. 
Mark Twain

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. 
Mark Twain

Biography lends to death a new terror. 
Oscar Wilde

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. 
Oscar Wilde

"I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and I can write faster than anybody who can write better." 
- A. J. Liebling (1904-1963)

"Don't be so humble - you are not that great." 
- Golda Meir (1898-1978) to a visiting diplomat

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." 
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"Talent does what it can; genius does what it must." 
- Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873)

"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters." 
- Frank Lloyd Wright (1868-1959)

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." 
- Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)

"We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time." 
- Vince Lombardi

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this is true." 
- James Branch Cabell

"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher." 
- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome." 
- Isaac Asimov

"To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance" 
- Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die." 
- Mel Brooks

"My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher." 
- Socrates (470-399 B.C.)

"A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines." 
- Frank Lloyd Wright (1868-1959)

"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his." 
- General George Patton (1885-1945)

"Few things are harder to put up with than a good example." 
- Mark Twain (1835-1910) 

"The difference between pornography and erotica is lighting." 
- Gloria Leonard

"Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies." 
- Voltaire (1694-1778) on his deathbed in response to a priest asking that he renounce Satan.

"We are not retreating - we are advancing in another Direction." 
- General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964)


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## Csira

If I can remember my favorite quotes, hmn. But I think I'll add on some later on if I remember? 

"Hope 
is the thing with feathers 
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune with-out words
And stops at all."

~Emily Dickinson

"Every time we laugh, it signifies an emotion that has died." 
~Nietzsche

Those are the only two I can come up with right now. I'm sure there are others, just can't think of them. ^^;;

EDIT: "All human wisdom is summed up in these two words,--'Wait and hope.'" ~ _Count of Monte Cristo_, Alexander Dumas

Shouldn't this be in the Lounge section though? 

~Csira


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## Kermie04

Two of my *all* time favorite quotes are from the play Rent.  They are:



> "Forget, regret, or life is yours to miss".



and 



> "No day but today!"


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## Dragonscales

Csira said:
			
		

> Shouldn't this be in the Lounge section though?
> 
> ~Csira



lmao I dunno, I just thought non fiction would be a good place as they are all real quotes  :shock: 

If it belongs somewhere else though, feel free to move it


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## Csira

Ah, unfortunately, I don't have that power. =P 

Oh well, hehe, it's quite alright. Quotes can be categorized under nonfiction, at least a book of quotes would. 

~Csira


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## Airborneguy

I shall return
   - Douglas Macarthur

I'll be back
  - Arnold


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## LoonyLovegood

It is not our abilities that show what we truly are, it is our choices. 

-Prof. Dumbledore


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## Csira

LoonyLovegood said:
			
		

> It is not our abilities that show what we truly are, it is our choices.
> 
> -Prof. Dumbledore



Hehe, that is a good quote also. You should visit the "Introduce Yourself" forum so we can properly welcome you. =)


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## thamior

"It is not the world to play my part but for me, my own destiny is chosen ans whether the world likes it or not"

"Never lose site of the things that you want to acheive because sometimes they can be easy to look out for and sometimes it may be very hard"


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## Greyhound

"I read that smoking, drinking and sex were bad for you, so that left me no choice...I gave up reading" -- UNKNOWN


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## Dragonscales

heh some good ones there guys, keep em comin


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## Dragonscales

"Literature is the most noble of professions. In fact, it is about the only one fit for a man. For my own part, there is no seducing me from the path"
-Edgar Allan Poe


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## Creative_Insanity

Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come, we are not. -- Epicurus (341 BC - 270 BC)

And a looong passage from Orson Scott Card's book Xenocide that I LOVE:

"Free will doesn’t exist. Only the illusion of free will, because the causes of our behavior are so complex that we can’t trace them back. If you’ve got one line of dominoes knocking each other down one by one, then you can always say, Look, this domino fell because that one pushed it. But when you have an infinite number of directions, you can never find where the casual chain begins. So you think, That domino fell because it wanted to. 
     Even if there is no such thing as free will, we have to treat each other as if there were free will in order to live together in society. Because otherwise, every time somebody does something terrible, you can’t punish him, because he can’t help it, because his genes or his environment or God made him do it, and every time somebody does something good, you can’t honor him, because he was a puppet, too. If you think that everybody around you is a puppet, why bother talking to them at all? Why even try to plan anything or create anything, since everything you plan or create or desire or dream of is just acting out the script your puppeteer built into you. 
So we conceive of ourselves and everyone around us as volitional beings. We treat everyone as if they did things with a purpose in mind, instead of because they’re being pushed from behind. We punish criminals. We reward altruists. We plan things and build things together. We make promises and expect each other to keep them. It’s all a made-up story, but when everybody believes that everybody’s actions are the result of free choice, and takes and gives responsibility accordingly, the result is civilization."

Hmm, what else. . . 

"Nature has a funny way of breaking what does not bend." -- Albert Camus

"I don't flirt," Achilles said. 
"I forgot," said Petra. "You shoot first and then flirting isn't necessary." -- from the book Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card

"This emotion I'm feeling now, this is love, right?" 
"I don't know. Is it a longing? Is it a giddy stupid happiness just because you're with me?" "Yes," she said. 
"That's influenza," said Miro. "Watch for nausea or diarrhea within a few hours." -- from the book Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card

I can't think of any more quotes off the top of my head. . . oh, but read my signature, too. . . it's a good one. 

As you can see I like Orson Scott Card. . . his books are full of nice quotes.


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## sully474

They misunderestimated me.
- George W. Bush


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## Ralizah

"I did a bad thing." - Bill Clinton


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## Dragonscales

lol don't you just love politician quotes? I've got a few funny ones lying around here somewhere. I'll post them when I find them up


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## Gordash

which reminds me

"Trees cause 98% of the world's pollution." Ronald Reagan


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## Cunning Linguist

There are so many great quotes in the world. Among my favourites is this peculiar gem:

"If every day were a holiday, cities would be more mysterious" - Jean Baudrillard. 

....@>


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## John Bradbury

"money doesn't buy you happiness but it upgrades despair beautifully"

"a rich man is nothing but a poor man with money"


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## Aeryn

Just a few I like: 


"After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one." 

"Music Is The Universal Language Of Mankind." 

"The Real Character Of A Person Is Found Out By Their Amusements." 

"Give A Man A Mask And Find Out What He's Made Of." 

"The Only Way To Amuse Some People Is To Slip And Fall On An Icy Pavement."


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## die_daily

_"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."_


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## eleutheromaniac

"Do you think I can learn to perceive the diamonds of good amongst all the shit?"

"It's all diamond."

From _Beautiful Losers_ by Leonard Cohen.
_________________________

"Yes, that is true, Prince. In our days," continued Vera- mentioning "our days" as people of limited intelligence are fond of doing, imagining that they have discovered and appraised the peculiarities of "our days" and that human characteristics change with the times- "in our days a girl has so much freedom that the pleasure of being courted often stifles real feeling in her. And it must be confessed that Natalie is very susceptible." 



Now he remembered .... the hospital, with arms and legs torn off and its dirt and disease. So vividly did he recall that hospital stench of dead flesh that he looked round to see where the smell came from. Next he thought of that self-satisfied Bonaparte, with his small white hand, who was now an Emperor, liked and respected by Alexander. Then why those severed arms and legs and those dead men?... He caught himself harboring such strange thoughts that he was frightened.

The officers, his comrades, like most of the army, were dissatisfied with the peace concluded after the battle of Friedland. They said that had we held out a little longer Napoleon would have been done for, as his troops had neither provisions nor ammunition. Nicholas ate and drank (chiefly the latter) in silence. He finished a couple of bottles of wine by himself. The process in his mind went on tormenting him without reaching a conclusion. He feared to give way to his thoughts, yet could not get rid of them. Suddenly, on one of the officers' saying that it was humiliating to look at the French, Rostov began shouting with uncalled-for wrath, and therefore much to the surprise of the officers:

"How can you judge what's best?" he cried, the blood suddenly rushing to his face. "How can you judge the Emperor's actions? What right have we to argue? We cannot comprehend either the Emperor's or his actions!"

"But I never said a word about the Emperor!" said the officer, justifying himself, and unable to understand Rostov's outburst, except on the supposition that he was drunk.

But Rostov did not listen to him.

"We are not diplomatic officials, we are soldiers and nothing more," he went on. "If we are ordered to die, we must die. If we're punished, it means that we have deserved it, it's not for us to judge. If the Emperor pleases to recognize Bonaparte as Emperor and to conclude an alliance with him, it means that that is the right thing to do. If once we begin judging and arguing about everything, nothing sacred will be left! That way we shall be saying there is no God- nothing!" shouted Nicholas, banging the table- very little to the point as it seemed to his listeners, but quite relevantly to the course of his own thoughts.

"Our business is to do our duty, to fight and not to think! That's all...." said he.

"And to drink," said one of the officers, not wishing to quarrel.

"Yes, and to drink," assented Nicholas. "Hullo there! Another bottle!" he shouted.


From _War and Peace_ by Leo Tolstoy


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## bobothegoat

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
-Douglas Adams

also the one I have in my sig:

A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

and 

“Many that live deserve death.  And some that die deserve life.  Can you give it to them?"
Gandalf to Frodo
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien


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## Dragonscales

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
George W. Bush, 5th August 2004


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## rainbow

these are some of my faves:

"little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune, but great minds rise above it" ~Washington Irving

"Probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery" ~Samuel Smiles

"The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory" ~Cicero

there are more, but i can't think of them...i like most of yours though everyone, especially:
"The Only Way To Amuse Some People Is To Slip And Fall On An Icy Pavement." heh eh


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## NoWorries

8) 

When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck before you crush him. 
--Franklin D. Roosevelt


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## pharseer

"All the things that are, are ours. But we must care.  For if we do not care then there is only blind oblivion.  And even oblivion must end someday...for the sake of prisoners and the flight of birds.  Lord, what has the harvest to hope for, if not the care of the Reaper Man?" - Terry Pratchett

"Here and Now, You Are Alive" - Terry Pratchett

And of course, my own signature line by Octavia Butler....


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## bobothegoat

I forgot one from George W Bush:

"Rarely is the question asked: 'Is our children learing?'"


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## Dragonscales

lmao he's got alot of good ones huh bobo? Heck, the entire thread could be filled with nothing more than the idiotic things that man utters.


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## eleutheromaniac

"Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player 
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale 
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

~Take a wild guess



Speaking of Bushisms

Top ten

Bush on... includes a list of things he didn't say, but very easily could have.  Hmmm.... that could be a fun game.


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## thunder

I have too many favorite quotes to be normal, but the one that I actually _remember_ is this...

"Aim for the sun, and you may not reach, but your arrow will fly far higher than if you had aimed at an object level with yourself."

There are so many more, I have a whole book of them.  I'll be back when I work up the motivation to bring it downstairs..


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## Dragonscales

we should make a post in writing challenge or word games called "bush on" eleuth. I think it'd be a great challenge/word game.

People could try and make ones that people would read and not even bat an eyelid in regards to if he really said it or not. And perhaps throw a few real ones he has said into the mix and people have to guess which are real and which are fakes.


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## eleutheromaniac

I set up a thread called 'Bushisms' in the word games, but no one was playing so I deleted it after a couple of days.  I'll post it again.


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## Dragonscales

I haven't looked in word games for a while so guess I missed it. I'll defenantly have a crack at it when I find it up


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## rainbow

look at my signature...


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## Kitsune Xeya

"The tyrant and the murderer are temporarily insane in their denial of the right to live" -Unknown.


"The rule for waging war is to avoid strengths and strike at weaknesses" -Sun Tzu.


"If I had a heart it would bleed for you"-Unknown.


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## eleutheromaniac

Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, through the character Sherlock Holmes.


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## moonty

"Gravitation can not be held responsible for people falling in love. "
Albert Einstein


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## Pendulum

Dragonscales said:
			
		

> "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
> George W. Bush, 5th August 2004


 That was on my birthday! My my, I'm so proud! My fave quote is in my sig. Them crazy americans. And also this one, not really a quote but it's rather funny all the same:

Beebo- THe cat what has facial hair


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## eleutheromaniac

Those who can make you believe absurdities
can make you commit atrocities.
—Voltaire


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## moonty

It's rather like a puddle waking up one morning— I know they don't normally do this, but allow me, I'm a science fiction writer— A puddle wakes up one morning and thinks: "This is a very interesting world I find myself in. It fits me very neatly. In fact it fits me so neatly... I mean really precise isn't it?... It must have been made to have me in it." And the sun rises, and it's continuing to narrate this story about how this hole must have been made to have him in it. And as the sun rises, and gradually the puddle is shrinking and shrinking and shrinking— and by the time the puddle ceases to exist, it's still thinking— it's still trapped in this idea that— that the hole was there for it. And if we think that the world is here for us we will continue to destroy it in the way that we have been destroying it, because we think that we can do no harm.
Douglas Adams


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## Dragonscales

wow, I love that quote moonty, very thought provoking and moving. Great job


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## LoneWolf

"I am not a crook."--you know who!!! lol

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."-->I live by this one.

"What is today but yesturday's tomorrow?"

Arghh I can't remember the rest! Uh...I'll get back to you...


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## NoWorries

A child of five could understand this. Fetch me a child of five! -- Groucho Marx


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## pharseer

_"When the last of a thousand candles burn out, the darkness will always return. Though a thousand voices sing all the hymns of live, silence only waits on the inevitable failing of their breath."

"Entropy always wins."
_


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## barbie_57

I have loads of quotes among my fav.

Here are few-

it doesn't take a lot of strength to hang on; it takes a lot of strength to let go
~ j.c. watts

beauty intoxicates both the holder and the beholder
~ zimmerman

the tragedy of war is that it uses man's best to do man's worst
~ harry fosdick

accept that some days you are the pigeon and some days the statue
~ anonymous


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## LoneWolf

I recently bought a notebook for my poems and on the cover it has this quote which describes mey views perfectly:

"Life is too important to be taken seriously."--Oscar Wilde


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## Welshscouser

I cant believe I lost my f**king ear.  Bang Bang.
~ Mick Foley

For me thats the greatest opening line to a book I've ever read

My favourite quotes are in my sig.  I know there's more but I cant remember right now.


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## _underscore

"Small people are like little pancakes. They taste just as good as regular sized pancaces, but you  can eat more of them"

"Futility is asking the dead to shut up....nicely"

"From the holes we fall in come the hills we conquer"

I like those, I cant wait to use them in a poem or writing of some sort.


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## Strathen

"Eagles soar, but a weasel never gets sucked into a jet engine."  - Unknown


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## daniela

"We find comfort among those who agree with us - growth among those who don't." - Frank A. Clark

"Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots." - Frank A. Clark

--DM--


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## Welshscouser

Intelligence is no substitute for Imagination - Albert Einstien

To Alchohol.  The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson


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## Ruiner999

"Man is the only animal that is cruel. It kills just for the sake of it."
Mark Twain


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## k3ng

'Dont dig your nose in public. It isnt just impolite, if you hurt yourself, you're only showing the world that you can't dig your nose properly.' - original quote from Chairman Mao Tze Tung


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## bobothegoat

One that I saw on www.despair.com was:

Individuality:
Always remember that you are unique.   Just like everyone else.


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## TeachingInAlaska

"Until we get what we want, we're unhappy.
Once we get it, we're bored."
--Arthur Schopenhauer


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## Penelope

"It isn't the rebels who cause the troubles of the world, it's the troubles that cause the rebels." 

Carl Oglesby - Students for a Democratic Society President

"If it tastes good, spit it out!" - Audrey Hepburn on dieting.


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## lisajane

'There's just one thing. I was under the impression you used a ferrous substance.'
'I do, metal on plastic.'
'Is it an alloy?'
'_I_ use cobalt, chrome and ployethylene.'
'Is there a coating over the metal?'
'No.'
'It's a ball and socket joint?'
'Yes.'
'It really works without a coating?'
'YES.'
'It really will fit me nicely? The knee isn't a simple structure to mess around with you know?'
'I KNOW!'
'Is our interview terminated now?'
'YES! IT IS! Good-bye!'
'One has to be certain about these things. Good-bye.'
'JESUS CHRIST!'

- a patient and a knee surgeon, Polly Toynbee's _Hospital_


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## silentbeauty

Here are a few of my favorite quotes.


No smile is as beautiful as the one that struggles through tears


I saw a star, I reached for it, I missed. So I accepted the sky. 


These tears quench more than your fire. They hold me above it.



silentbeauty


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## Hell's Angel

"My eyes are prettier."

"Q-U-A-R-A-N-T-I-N-E -- quarantine."
Those were at the top of my head, so...

Oh yeah, I like my sig too.


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## LensmanZ313

"I aim to misbehave." -- Captain Malcolm Reynolds, _Serenity_.


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## 17804

the 2 quotes in my signature


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## Achilles

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open youur mouth and remove all doubt."
-Attributed to Mark Twain

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."
-Mark Twain

"Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
-Albert Einstein


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## EmuJenkins

I keep a book of quotes while I read. My favourites:

"We spend our youth attaining wealth and our wealth attaining youth."
-Douglas Coupland, Generation X

"Just imagine how surprised fish would be if they knew about all the action going on just on the other side of the water."
-Douglas Coupland, Life After God

"How can I feel nostalgia for a time I never knew?"
-The Motorcycle Diaries

"What was the calculus that finally enabled youth to pass, for good, out of youth? This generation never seemed to leave home. They grew up to a certain point and them spent the next decade trying to recapture the novelty of adolescense, that pulse of youth that seems in it's fullest bloom, permanant."
-Rick Moody, Garden State


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## sammisan

"My daddy says people can do anything the put their minds to so long as they believe they can."
-The War

"There is a peace that's only to be found on the other side of war, and if that war comes, I will fight it!"
-First Knight

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
-Edmund Burke

"If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it.  It's the hard that makes it great."
-A League of Their Own

"I feel the need, the need for speed"
-Top Gun (Hey, I come from a family of fighter pilots, two of which were top guns, and am a pilot myself)


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## lonelyfox

我想把诗意写进生活 
生活却告诉了我什么是真实……


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