Top 3 human utterances all time

[desiresjab]

I have my three, but I want to withhold them for a few posts to see how much consistency there will be in the answers. I suspect there will be quite a lot. And who knows, I might change my mind before I ever post my contenders?

I had better add that I have very short utterances in mind here, epigram length. The entire Declaration of Independence would be too long, for instance.

[Lykren]

I suppose you mean what are the best written passages? If that is what you mean, here are two of my favorites:

Shakespeare:

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
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."

Joyce:

"...O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and the pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes."

[Iain Sparrow]

in no particular order...

Man is the most intelligent of the animals, and the most silly. -Diogenes

This thing called love
It cries like a baby
In a cradle all night
It swings, it jives
It shakes all over like a jelly fish,
I kinda like it...
Crazy little thing called love -Freddie Mercury

I hate when old people poke you at a wedding and say "you're next". So next time I was at a funeral I poked them and said "you're next". -unknown

[desiresjab]

Those are great passages, but I had something considerably shorter in mine. I will have to give mine just to set the parameters.

1 Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. (Confucious and Jesus)

2 I think, therefore I am (lDescartes)

3 ..all men are created equal... (lifted from Jefferson)

About a breath's worth for a Camel smoker is what I had in mind.

Such a fan of Joyce must be familiar with Chamber music. That little book really impressed me. If Joyce had decided to write poetry exclusively, the way his mind worked, he might have been a poet such as we have never seen.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2817/2817-h/2817-h.htm#link2H_4_0037

Check out XXXVI, if you are not familiar with it. But watch out! Fluttering ships is supposed to bes fluttering whips.