What is your favorite quote? And why?

[cafolini]

We'll all be on a surface no matter where we go. That's complete and good enough. ~ C A Cafolini

[neveragain]

“People hardly ever make use of the freedom which they have, for example, freedom of thought; instead they demand freedom of speech as compensation.”
Søren Kierkegaard, The Living Thoughts Of Kierkegaard

[cafolini]

Wall Street is a laughing stock. They want to play the Dow against the USA Federal Reserve. And the Chinese asking for a new Federal Reserve? Are the Chinese stupid? Of course they are not. I can't help but wonder how much Wall Street paid the Chinese to put on that theater. There will never be another Federal Reserve but the USA. ~ C A Cafolini

[cafolini]

Men of great wisdom like C A Cafolini have always appreciated the calmness of God, exclaiming "I am that I am," in recognition of being absolutely the work of God. Otherwise, they would claim to be imperfect as the work of God. How could that be so? Humbleness before God would be gone. Love of God and the perfection of their teammates would be gone. In God we trust because we are made in the image of God. The Bible tells about this in many appropriate places. ~ C A Cafolini

[cafolini]

Being humble, humus of this earth, might be a good thing, a very wise thing. A tail cannot waggle a dog. But having your thought repressed, a victim of antidemocratic treatment, might rightly demand and arrogant revolutionary. Jefferson and many other founding fathers thought so. ~ C A Cafolini

[cafolini]

Ezra Pound said that clarity was the sole morality of art and, in his utter idiocy, the art of Mussolini was crystal clear to him. ~ C A Cafolini

[cafolini]

If you are interested in knowing who Bergoglio (AKA Francis) is, you could ask Leon Ferrari. Who was behind the ban of Ferrari's exhibit in Argentina? Leon died recently but his story remains in the legacy he left us. Ask this Argentinean expert who Cardinal Bergoglio actually was. ~ C A Cafolini

[cafolini]

If you are interested in knowing who Bergoglio (AKA Francis) is, you could ask Leon Ferrari. Who was behind the ban of Ferrari's exhibit in Argentina? Leon died recently but his story remains in the legacy he left us. Ask this Argentinean expert who Cardinal Bergoglio actually was. ~ C A Cafolini

[cafolini]

As Ronald Reagan left the presidency, he said to Nancy pointing at the Whitehouse: Look dear, there's our little bungalow.

[cafolini]

Once upon a time I posted the following quote from Poe.
The only reason for equality is that the human soul will never accept a rank.
Immediately I received some responses from ignorant people in agreement. In those days I still did not grasp completely who Poe was. The ignorant people could have been Garbo, the spy. Who cares? I always went by what people said, not what could hypothetically be the arbitrary choice of meaning behind the words. Now I now fully that Poe's words couldn't be farther from the truth. The proof comes from the people that gave their lives and respected their rank in protecting democracy and continue to do it to this very day. There were millions of them. There are millions of them today. Thank God.

[cafolini]

I think we all know by now that every human will break under torture and eventually tell what they know. There are tortures that cannot be tolerated by life. Besides, there are many drugs that will make people under interrogation tell what they know. So what is the trend today, that is, what's the solution for CIA Special Activities people? The best seems to me to stop teaching soldiers to resist interrogation and give them specific objectives that do no reveal the entire project, keeping directors that know the whole thing on safe grounds, not in the field with Black OP. I believe this is being done already. This makes very good sense to me. ~ C A Cafolini

[sherlockian]

“Beyond work and love, I would add two other ingredients that give meaning to life. First, to fulfill whatever talents we are born with. However blessed we are by fate with different abilities and strengths, we should try to develop them to the fullest, rather than allow them to atrophy and decay. We all know individuals who did not fulfill the promise they showed in childhood. Many of them became haunted by the image of what they might have become. Instead of blaming fate, I think we should accept ourselves as we are and try to fulfill whatever dreams are within our capability.

Second, we should try to leave the world a better place than when we entered it."

Dr. Michio Kaku - American theoretical physicist

[haydenliu]

I have to say my favorite quote is "Let there be light."

[Pensive]

“They adore you beacause they think you offer up your friendship and ask for nothing in return. But that's not true-' He took a deep breath. 'You do ask for something. You ask that we never expect you to need us.”
- Kamila Shamsie, Kartography

[PeterL]

I have ever hated all nations, professions, and communities, and all my love is toward individuals: for instance, I hate the tribe of lawyers, but I love Counsellor Such-a-one, and Judge Such-a-one: so with physicians—I will not speak of my own trade—soldiers, English, Scotch, French, and the rest. But principally I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth. This is the system upon which I have governed myself many years, but do not tell, and so I shall go on till I have done with them.

from a letter from Jonathan Swift to Alexander Pope September 29, 1725 From The Correspondence Of Jonathan Swift
http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/swift/letters/chap2.htm
bold added by me

[YALASH]

Peace be on all.
" In the terminology of Holy Quran, Allah is the name of that perfect Being Who is The True Deity, Possessor of all perfect attributes, Does not have any weakness, The One Who has no partner and is The Source of all blessings."

--- Ahmadiyya Muslim Promised Messiah Mahdi (on whom be peace), in his grand book Brahin e Ahmadiyya (Translation at alislam.org)

[Free Thinker]

My favorite would have to be...

'To Live would be an awfully big adventure.'
Peter Pan. J.M. Barrie

I think it has a beautiful outlook on life.

[free]

“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”

- Robert A. Heinlein

[Anne Catherick]

“When something is new and hard and bright, there ought to be something a little better for it than just being safe, since the safe things are just the things that folks have been doing so long they have worn the edges off and there's nothing to the doing of them that leaves a man to say, That was not done before and it cannot be done again.”

William Faulkner - As I Lay Dying - this is one of my favourite books anyway, but I think this quote is a great one on being young and setting out into the wordl. I am and am doing both those, therefore I love it. Maybe not so much in twenty years ...

[RobbyA]

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten."

-Neil Gaiman, Coraline.

[Sir Guyon]

"Be noble minded! Our own hearts and not other men's opinions of us forms our true honor."

Friedrich Schiller

[chevalierdelame]

"Young people know less than we do, but they understand more; their perception has not yet been blunted by compromise, fatigue, rationalization, and the mistaking of mere respectability for morality."

"The most worthwhile form of education is the kind that puts the educator inside you, as it were, so that the appetite for learning persists long after the external pressure for grades and degrees has vanished. Otherwise you are not educated; you are merely trained."

Sydney J. Harris

[ddrosdick97]

My favorite quote is “Happiness isn't something that depends on our surroundings...It's something we make inside ourselves.” It reminds me that God is always on my side and that i need to make my happiness on my own, not relying on what others say or do

[Emil Miller]

''One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.''

George W Bush

[free]

“Friendship is born at that moment when one man says to another: "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . ."”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

[Hwo Thumb]

"Humanitarianism is the expression of stupidity and cowardice."
"I do not see why man should not be just as cruel as nature."
"The victor will never be asked if he told the truth."

Hitler had some... interesting... perspectives on things.

You know, we could sit here and exchange quotes from famous people, but the words of the infamous are interesting as well.

[csspest]

Keep you powder dry and your rhubarb bent

[free]

“Remember who you are, what you stand for, and what's most important in your life…”
― James A. Murphy, The Waves of Life Quotes and Daily Meditations

[Sido]

"Know thyself."
--A Delphic maxim--

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
--Winston Churchill--

[Bengt Mettyl]

Not THE favourite, but A favourite, and not philosophical, but evocative (for me, knowing the context):

'Grim beauty in those stilted forms, the taloned padding paws
The lolling tongues, the wicked gape of those flesh-rending jaws'.

['Deep Secrets' from 'Not Since I Grew Legs']

[Quietudity]

"If there was any word of comfort that would be a solace to her in her dying hour, and only I possessed it, I wouldn't part with it for Life itself."


Ironically, I hated David Copperfield.

[free]

“Luck comes and goes; you have to seize it. Bad luck comes and goes; it must be overcome. But I will never, never sit at the side of the road showing my wounds and shouting, 'It's destiny'!”
― Jean Van Hamme, Dutch Connection

[free]

“A good book is an event in my life.”
― Stendhal, The Red and the Black

[free]

I am dressed in wool, but I am not a sheep.

- Bohemian proverb

[IAmYouth]

"I'm youth, I'm joy . . . I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg."

Name that character or author.

[IAmYouth]

oh I love this one!

[YesNo]

Here's a quote attributed to Mother Teresa, but the original version may have been by Kent M. Keith: http://prayerfoundation.org/mother_teresa_do_it_anyway.htm

I saw it in the waiting room of a title company a while ago. Since I can't forget it, I figured I might as well look it up and pass it along:


People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

Why do I like this? Keith's repeated "anyway" ending sounds nice. Mother Teresa's last line makes the whole thing stand out.

[IAmYouth]

My favorite would have to be...

'To Live would be an awfully big adventure.'
Peter Pan. J.M. Barrie

I think it has a beautiful outlook on life.

I agree. Peter Pan has lessons and encouragements.

[NikolaiI]

"I'm youth, I'm joy . . . I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg."

Name that character or author.

I don't recognize the quote, but it reminds me of the first stanza of one of my favourite poems, by Blake, "Infant Joy"

I have no name
I am but two days old.—
What shall I call thee?
I happy am
Joy is my name,—
Sweet joy befall thee!

[russellb]

Two quotes that often occur to me are by the Scottish psychiatrist R D Laing. The first one sounds like it might have been crafted by an emo, the second is the final couplet of a poem
"Life is a sexually transmitted disease with a one hundred percent mortality rate"
"Love cannot help but wish all well/To deny it is the essence of pure hell"

[NewSecret]

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.
Leonardo da Vinci

This one isn't my favorite quote per se, but I found it today and thought it was a real good one.

[NikolaiI]

^^ Reminds me of one of Rumi's - "My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that; and I intend to end up there."

da Vinci's are great. . a few years ago I downloaded some of his writings, along with a lot of others, to shore up some of my knowledge. . . it was extremely worth it! I got them from Gutenberg.org.

[Bryan25]

Poor Shaw. I might be an idiot in his final analysis, since I am so patriotic that I would burn our flag in public if it were to be used by those who never understood freedom.
But those were the blinded days of Foucault, also. He and Shaw farted well as they found it necessary.

[CWolfieVan]

"Happiness is wishing to be what you are." Erasmus.
Because Living Well is the Best Revenge, or because Happiness gets harder as I get older, because my standards get higher. Not sure why.

[Diem My Bui]

“There is so much pain in the world, and most of these people keep theirs secret, rolling through agonizing lives in invisible wheelchairs, dressed in invisible bodycasts.” - Andrew Solomon.
I first know him in a TED Talk and he just got my heart. The way he talk and how he used words was totally awesome.
Most important, I love what he said

[Get_Superman]

"Honour and common sense; in light of the other, both of them are ridiculous." ~ Louis de Bernieres

[bounty]

some years before nike came out with their "just do it" slogan, they had one that has stuck with me since:

"there is no finish line"

I like it because its very true and it also reminds me of an organizing principle I hold dear, "where there is life, there is hope."

[TXTG SUX]

Not really sure if my favorite is my own statement because it has described my "philosophy" for as long as I can remember thinking of such things. The "quote" is -"for every freedom granted one man, another man must assume a responsibility". I would be grateful if anyone could identify the origin of this phrase as I'm pretty sure it's not mine. Really would appreciate any enlightenment on possible origin, web searches have been no help. I always thought it was Nietzsche but can't confirm.

I have two more I like:

When felling stifled, limited, marginalized. - "I hold that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing." - Thomas Jefferson

My final, when feeling overwhelmed but still must carry on, preferably efficiently and without need for whining. - "It's hard to remember that your primary goal was to drain the swamp when you're up to your *** in alligators". Origin unknown, comes from a sign above shift manager's desk in very harried production environment.

[ragtime4ever]

Three of Marlowe's comments in Heart of Darkness have always stayed with me: "We live as we dream -- alone."
"I don't like work -- no man does -- but I like what is in work -- the chance to find yourself."
"Droll thing life is -- that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself -- that comes too late -- a crop of inextinguishable regrets."

In spite of Conrad's cultural/historical limitations (which we all suffer from), he speaks with one of the first existential voices of the twentieth century. One can hear phrases such as these echo in Hemingway, Sartre, and Camus. In the third quote, he also acknowledges with matter-of-fact acceptance that regrets are the foundation for most human lives, for our knowledge and insight, and to try to live without them, is to, in some way, not have lived at all. Furthermore, such contemporary phrases like "No regrets," as a philosophical alternative, would in Conrad's view (quite literally) miss the boat.

[seerseenbyseein]

I will leave two:

1)Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.--William Anderson Scott (some claim this for Euripedes)

2) Those whom the gods would save, they dower with compassion.--I don't know who said this. Does anyone here know?

[free]

“I believe order is better than chaos, creation better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence, forgiveness to vendetta. On the whole I think that knowledge is preferable to ignorance, and I am sure that human sympathy is more valuable than ideology. I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven't changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must try to learn from history.”
― Kenneth Clark, Civilisation

[DCanniff46]

"What,you egg?"-Shakespeare

[wcc-curtis]

I like the following quote by Vladimir Nabokov as a motivator at the beginning of the writing process: The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.

[New Secret]

These Donald Trump quotes:

"Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make."

"My whole life is about winning."

"I like thinking big. If you're going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big."

[mazHur]

"Work to live. Do not live to work"

French belief

[MANICHAEAN]

So why do they have such a short working week and more national holidays than most EU countries?

I include GB at the current juncture.

[EmptySeraph]

We can endure any truth, however destructive, provided it replace everything, provided it affords as much vitality as the hope for which is substitutes.

It sounds even better in original:

On peut supporter n'importe quelle vérité, si destructrice soit-elle, à condition qu'elle tienne lieu de tout, qu'elle compte autant de vitalité que l'espoir auquel elle s'est substituée.

E.M. Cioran, De l'inconvénient d'être né

[mcoya]

Hello everybody,
I want to share with you the first paragraph of one of my favourite novels, The Egyptian by Mika Waltari.
"I, SINUHE, the son of Senmut and of his wife Kipa, write this. I donot write it to the glory of the gods in the land of Kem, for I am weary of gods, nor to the glory of the Pharaohs, for I am weary of their deeds. I write neither from fear nor from any hope of the future but for myself alone. During my life I have seen, known, and lost too much to be theprey of vain dread; and, as for the hope of immortality, I am as weary of that as I am of gods and kings. For my own sake only I write this; andherein I differ from all other writers, past and to come."

[Markj]

"Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools." Bonaparte

[Love Literature]

Never let success get to your head. Never let failure get to your heart.

[Asha Jane]

"The Soul selects her own Society - then - Shuts the door to her divine majority" - Emily Dickinson

It had me write this song : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1v7vWj20ko&feature=share

[yanglish]

"Good teaching is 1/4 preparation and 3/4 theatre." Gail Godwin

[siobankelley]

Favorite quote in what category? I'm rather fond of (this is regarding directing Theatre) "90% of directing, is correcting the mistakes you made in casting." Pablo Neruda from THE CAPTAIN'S VERSES Letter on the Road: ...' and in the midst of life I shall be
always
beside the friend, facing the enemy,
with your name on my mouth
and a kiss that never
broke away from yours. ' ...
And KING LEAR has several:
...' As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods,
They kill us for their sport.' ...

[theycallmemommy]

“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” Robert Louis Stevenson

[profnachos]

"I am not crying," said Miss Pross; "you are."
- A Tale of Two Cities, Book II, Chapter XVIII. Nine Days.

"I'm not crying. You are." is a popular internet meme, but nobody is crediting Dickens for this. It is possible someone thought of this apart from A Tale of Two Cities, but Dickens should still get the credit.

Any other Internet memes from classics?

[Peng Wynne]

The villainy you teach me/ I will execute

From Shylock in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. So many ways to read it, but I tend to go with the way you treat me is how I will treat you. It's helped me get through some fairly hideous stuff.

[svejorange]

Michael Pritchard

"You don't stop laughing because you grow old; you grow old because you stop laughing".

[free]

Veni, vidi. vici.
I came, I saw, I conquered.

[hellsapoppin]

I wish I could tell you boys (slightly drunk) just what the hell this is all gonna mean to us years from now. We're storin' up memories, and that's a fact. They ain't, all right I said ain't even if I am in college, but s__t I'm just plain folks, they ain't a one of you I'll ever forget, that's the goddam Lesbian truth.



from Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead



Over the years people have speculated as to what this expression means and it is actually quite simple:

Several millennia ago each segment of society had its own gods or goddesses just like today when Catholic have their patron saints for, say, bakers or travelers or any other line of work. To the ancients in various cultures, lesbians had their own goddesses. Perhaps by no strange coincidence to various pagan cultures, the goddesses of lesbians were also the goddesses of Truth.

What did this mean to ancient pagans? It needs to be understood that same sex amorous affairs were far more common and more accepted than they are today. In fact there were some that practiced sexual exclusion such as the Amazons and their male counterparts Gargareans. Both tribes practiced homosexuality. There were others historically though very few in number. To the ancients very often the lesbian relationship was viewed as the most honest and most natural form of human relationship. Thus, no surprise that their goddess of Truth were also goddesses of lesbians.

[spikepipsqueak]

“The difference between listening and pretending to listen, I discovered, is enormous. One is fluid, the other is rigid. One is alive, the other is stuffed. Eventually, I found a radical way of thinking about listening. Real listening is a willingness to let the other person change you. When I’m willing to let them change me, something happens between us that’s more interesting than a pair of dueling monologues.”
― Alan Alda, Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: And Other Things I've Learned

[bounty]

not a quote in the strictest sense but I just read this from pushkin's "the moor of peter the great" and thought it worth sharing:

"the delightful attention of women, almost the sole aim of man's exertions..."

[bounty]

call it a divine literary coincidence....I was just looking at a transcript from an old "family guy" episode, the one where they do their version of three Stephen king stories, and I found this (from the "stand by me" story):

"We talked into the night, the kind of talk that seemed important until you discover girls."

as to the "why" of both of those quotes...id says it because they seem fundamentally true and worth being reminded of.