Anyone have a favorite quote/favorite quotes?

[Different Drummer]

Here's mine:

[Jrose]

1. This week, I remember JFK, who said at his inauguration...

Ask not what your country can do for you.. ask what you can do for your country

[Stardust Mirror]

2. "Pessimism won't work"

Mike Nelson (of MST3K)

[Different Drummer]

6. Nice to run across a fellow MSTie!

[Stardust Mirror]

3. "The ocean is the ultimate solution"

- Frank Zappa

[rsdsharp]

4. There are other ways. I just touched a hot oven rack.

[calimary]

5. "Everything I like is either immoral, illegal, or fattening."

I forget where I first saw that, but the quote itself has stayed with me since high school. It’s even in our senior yearbook on my page. Everybody else had nice, lyrical, profound, or otherwise-quotable quotes. Somebody had to throw a cream pie, so I figured it might as well be me.

[Different Drummer]

7. I've heard that one, but I'm not sure who said it. n/t

[SeattleVet]

14. Alexander Woollcott

[calimary]

45. Indeed? Good to know!

I don’t remember where or how or when I first heard it, but it sure stuck. And even better, it’s always given me a chuckle!

[Jeebo]

13. Was that Mae West?

Last edited Thu Nov 23, 2023, 04:25 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm guessing, but that sounds like something she might have said.

On edit: I just read through a list of Mae West quotes on IMDB, and I don't think she's the one who said that.

-- Ron

[calimary]

46. But she had some good ones.

Especially while purring!

“…why don’t you come up and see me sometime…”

[multigraincracker]

8. Before you begin a journey of revenge,

First dig two graves.

[brewens]

9. If you are going through Hell, keep going. -Winston Churchill n/t

[Permanut]

10. "If we knew what we were doing, we wouldn't call it research."

- Albert Einstein

[keithbvadu2]

11. If you try, you might fail. If you don't try, you have failed. Might as well try.

Me. But I'm sure others have said it in different ways.

[Jeebo]

12. Oscar Wilde's last words.

"Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."

What a classy way to go!

-- Ron

[PittBlue]

16. Love Oscar Wilde...

You can never be overdressed or overeducated.

[NoRethugFriends]

87. also, work is the curse of the drinking class

[brush]

15. "We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

MLK Jr.

[NoRethugFriends]

88. if it was over one that ain't correct that's it

[brush]

92. That's an opinion. I'll go with MLK's rather than yours.

[NoRethugFriends]

93. Can you please explain in what way you see it is true.

I only see history repeating, and getting even worse consequences of "improvements" in technology

[brush]

94. All I have to say is "long" is the key word.

[NoRethugFriends]

95. OK. I only see worse in the long run so far, don't expect it to change.

Though maybe better for the planet when humans are finally gone.

[brush]

96. You're quite the pessimist. I perfer a little more optimism rather than a constantly depressed outlook.

[NoRethugFriends]

99. I prefer realism.

[brush]

100. And when humans are gone from the planet? Refreshing.

[NoRethugFriends]

101. Why are humans more important than any other element of the planet?

[brush]

105. Hey, if you wanna be gone, be my guest. I think I'll stay a while.

[NoRethugFriends]

108. I didn't say I wanted to be gone.

And do you think humans are more important than anything else on the planet?

[brush]

110. We have to work in balance with nature.

Unfortunately many haven't gotten to that point as greed quite often gets in the way of establishing environmentally positive energy policies

[Mad_Dem_X]

17. My favorite quote is actually song lyrics (does that count?)

"I know I was born, and I know that I'll die...the in-between is mine." (from I Am Mine, by Pearl Jam)

[From The Ashes]

18. my favorite quote:

“Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.”
― Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

[Hekate]

60. Nice to meet another Pratchett fan.

I love him more than words can say.

[cachukis]

19. You should be diggin' it while it's happenin'. Frank Zappa

[JoseBalow]

20. "Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day...

Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
- Terry Pratchett

[Skittles]

21. I think, therefore I am

but I'm pink, therefore I'm SPAM

[calimary]

47. Okay, THIS one's my new favorite!

[Skittles]

56. I think I got if from SPY magazine

[calimary]

73. Oh MAN... I LOVED Spy magazine!

Loved it, loved it, LOVED it!

I still miss it.

[MichMan]

22. From Margery Facklam

We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare, and love we can spare.

In return, dogs give us their all.

It's the best deal man has ever made.

[BOSSHOG]

23. Whether You think You can or you can't You're Right - Henry Ford

When You Tell the Truth it becomes a part of your Past. When You a Lie it becomes a part of your future.

When You Don’t, You can’t fail. Don’t know who said it but I like it.

[lastlib]

24. Arthur C. Clarke--

"Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic."

And from Carl Sagan:
"To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

[ailsagirl]

25. "Choices have consequences"

Not positive who originally said it, but it has more impact in three words than any other quote I can think of.

[Harker]

26. Cogito ergo cogito sum.

With a nod to Descartes, whom I have often put before the horse.

[ailsagirl]

38. 👍👍👍

[justaprogressive]

41. I think you've got something there..

and I'll wait outside while you clean it up!

[Harker]

42. And I have no shovel. n/t

[justaprogressive]

43. Too Bad

Try to be open minded, but not so open minded your brains fall out.

[marked50]

27. "Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"

Delivered by Ernesto Escoto in the movie "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"

[justaprogressive]

44. ...from the novel written by...

B. Traven (German: [ˈbeː ˈtʁaːvn̩]; Bruno Traven in some accounts) was the pen name of a novelist, presumed to be German, whose real name, nationality, date and place of birth and details of biography are all subject to dispute. One certainty about Traven's life is that he lived for years in Mexico, where the majority of his fiction is also set—including The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1927), the film adaptation of which won three Academy Awards in 1949.

[link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._Traven|


The original text reads: "All right," Curtin shouted back. "If you are the police, where are your badges? Let's see them."

"Badges, to god-damned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don't need badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrón and chinga tu madre! Come out there from that shit-hole of yours. I have to speak to you."

[marked50]

49. Much Better-Thx

[Talitha]

28. Here's a real doozie from John Glenn...

"As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder."
- John Glenn

[Hekate]

62. There was a saying among the admin staff at County Public Works: "Low-bid strikes again"

It’s breathtaking that John Glenn of all people would have cause to contemplate that.

[rurallib]

112. Always thought that was Alan Shepard

"It's a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract." Alan Shepard
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/alan-shepard-quotes#

[calimary]

116. That is a G-R-E-A-T quote!

[rurallib]

117. it is - it has stuck with me for decades

[calimary]

118. DEFINITELY a "Quote of the Week"! Just gotta figure out when to use it.

"It's a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract."
- Alan Shepard

[Talitha]

29. And a few zingers from Billy Connolly....

"My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger."

"A well-balanced person has a drink in each hand."

"There's no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes."

"I'm a big fan of the Mars Bar Diet. You don't eat the Mars bar, you stick it up your arse and let a rottweiler chase you home."

[nevergiveup]

30. Abraham Lincoln

"When I do good I feel good.....when I do bad I feel bad......that is my religion"

[dweller]

31. There's 2 kinds of people in the world

Those that think there’s only 2 kinds of people in the world
And those that don’t
🤔



✌🏻

[lastlib]

76. "There are 10 kinds of people in the world--

those who understand binary, and those who don't." --author unknown



"Binary--it's as easy as 1-10-11." --lastlib (I think.......)

[doc03]

32. I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell. Harry Truman

[SOteric]

33. Ralph Waldo Emerson:

In this refulgent summer, it has been a luxury to draw the breath of life.

[DBoon]

34. Two from John Maynard Keynes:

"In the long run we are all dead."

and

"Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

[Marthe48]

35. Aeschylus

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

[ailsagirl]

39. I love that one

Thanks for posting

[doc03]

36. "Get out of Dodge" Matt Dillon

[moniss]

37. Bogart.

I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me.

From the movie "In a Lonely Place" 1950.

[justaprogressive]

40. *Yes.

Last edited Fri Nov 24, 2023, 09:40 AM - Edit history (2)

*see sig

Image: Bumper sticker design from early 70's (had one)
Text: Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg)

[calimary]

48. This just might be my favorite DU thread EVER!

I love every quote that’s in here!

THANK YOU, DU - and DUers!!!

[BigOleDummy]

50. Some outstanding ones for sure!

[BigOleDummy]

51. Dwight David Eisenhower

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
















'

[rurallib]

113. Similarly, Warren Burger took on the 2nd amendment purists:

The Gun Lobby’s interpretation of the Second Amendment is one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word fraud, on the American People by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime. The real purpose of the Second Amendment was to ensure that state armies – the militia – would be maintained for the defense of the state. The very language of the Second Amendment refutes any argument that it was intended to guarantee every citizen an unfettered right to any kind of weapon he or she desires.

[RockRaven]

52. I dunno about favorite, but one I have posted repeatedly on DU in response to

other people lamenting on some media, or politicians, etc. in various circumstances is:

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." -- Upton Sinclair

[chouchou]

54. Don't let one action constitute a Universe.

DO NOT lay on your death bed, regretting that you didn't let yourself be happy.

[Charlie Chapulin]

53. Groucho Marx

I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.

[NoRethugFriends]

89. also

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside a dog it's too dark to read.

[waterwatcher123]

55. Frederick Douglass

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

[Hekate]

63. Something we women need to take to heart since Dobbs made it so explicit...

Of course it applies to all of us, since the same SCOTUS gutted the Voting Rights Act and other Civil Rights legislation — but some so very much more than others.

[enid602]

57. My Grandmother

"Seems like it's always the ones that lead the 'Barbie and Ken' lifestyles that end up shocking you the most.

[disambiguation]

58. This one is 400 years old and still true today

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. Galileo Galilei.

[calimary]

75. That is a good one!

[Hekate]

59. Margaret Mead: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens...

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

[Hekate]

61. "Humans need fantasy to be human" full quote below...

The DEATH of Discworld speaks with his mostly-human granddaughter Susan, who is very angry at him:

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."



REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.



"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"



YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.



"So we can believe the big ones?"



YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.



"They're not the same at all!"



YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.



"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"



MY POINT EXACTLY.

― Sir Terry Pratchett
The Hogfather

~~~Happy Hogswatch Night~~~

[rubbersole]

64. James Taylor

The secret to life is enjoying the passage of time.

[Emile]

65. "It's Colder than a Well Digger's Ass", by my mother-in-law.

[markbark]

66. The late, great Douglas Adams was a veritable gold mine

...for quotes:
1. “A learning experience is one of those things that says, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.’”
2. “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
3. “Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.” (my current sig line - MB )
4. “What I need... is a strong drink and a peer group.” (Sounds like DU, dunnit?)
5. “The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks.”
6. “Beauty doesn't have to be about anything. What's a vase about? What's a sunset or a flower about? What, for that matter, is Mozart's Twenty-third Piano Concerto about?”
7. “Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”
8. “The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem”

....and of course: "Don't Panic"

[calimary]

68. These are terrific!

Every one of the Call to Action emails my Indivisible group issues every week starts with a quote. Because I’m what you might call the “head writer”, I assign myself the task and the pleasure of picking the Quote of the Week.

I’ve found quite a few great ones here in posts from fellow DUers. And here’s some more!

[nocoincidences]

82. Love him!

I was going to offer:
The definition of flying is throwing yourself at the ground and missing.

[markbark]

111. Another favorite:

When describing the Vogon Constructor Fleet approaching Earth:
"Hovering as if the Law of Gravity were merely a local ordinance.
They hung in the air in much the same way that bricks don't"

[berniesandersmittens]

67. When you cant look on the bright side, I will sit with you in the dark

L.C.

[Stuart G]

69. "Here's Looking At You, Kid." from, Casablanca

[Tactical Peek]

70. The modern conservative

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.

John Kenneth Galbraith

[nuxvomica]

71. "Death destroys a man but the idea of death can save him"

E.M. Forster, from Howards End I think. I have pondered that quote for decades.

Also...
"Life is unfair, and most of us are better off for it." Oscar Wilde.

[markbark]

72. Reminds me of a quote from Babylon5

Where the Ranger Marcus Cole is opining on unfairness to his pal Dr. Stephen Franklin:

"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe."

[OldBaldy1701E]

74. Like others, I have a few...

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?&quot Who watches the watchers?) - Juvenal, roman poet

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it." - Mark Twain

"Now, remember: you don't aim a gun at a man unless you intend to shoot him. And, you don't shoot a man unless you intend to kill him." - Jody Pearson (Bill Thornbury) in the movie 'Phantasm'.

I am sure there are others, but none are coming to me right now.

[CrispyQ]

77. No matter how cynical I get, I can't keep up. -Lily Tomlin

[Glorfindel]

78. From "The Red Lily," by Anatole France:

“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal loaves of bread."

[Brother Buzz]

79. If there is no God, who pops up the next Kleenex? - Art Hoppe

[jpak]

80. Never more

[Randomthought]

81. Mary Wollstonecraft

It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world.

[WestMichRad]

83. "I've spent half of my life getting drunk and chasing (women).

… The other half I wasted.”

Said by Nick Nolte’s character in the movie A Walk in the Woods.” Except he used a vulgarity for ‘women’.

[czarjak]

84. Two kinds of Republicans. Rich ones and dumb ones.

[deRien]

85. Wherever you go,

there you are 🙂

[Lunabell]

86. Silence equals death

And this one. It speaks to me like nothing else, especially in the times we are living.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

[Shipwack]

90. "Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from poor judgement"

Attributed to Dr Kerr L White.

I have an ever growing file of quotes. Many in this thread will be added.

[NoRethugFriends]

91. Don't spit in the soup, we've all got to eat

From the book "quotations from chairman LBJ"

[vanlassie]

97. "Would evil men kill to get or keep unlimited money and unlimited power?"

-Bartcop, 2004

[Niagara]

98. I currently have two favorite quotes.

"Don't boo. Vote." Barck Obama


"Will you shut up man?" Joe Biden

[catbyte]

102. ...

They got a lot of use from 2016 - 2021, lol.

[Diamond_Dog]

103. "When you are accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression."

I don’t know the source.

[Shermann]

104. Will Rogers is wrong, you can learn a LOT by watching dumb people

I sometimes make mental notes when somebody FAFO's.

[MontanaMama]

106. Mine is on my sig line...

This has been my parenting mantra:

[Raven123]

107. Xenophanes

If cattle and horses, or lions, had hands, or were able to draw with their feet and produce the works which men do, horses would draw the forms of gods like horses, and cattle like cattle, and they would make the gods' bodies the same shape as their own.

[cloudbase]

109. Butch Hancock:

Life in Lubbock, Texas taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth, and you should save it for someone you love.

[3catwoman3]

114. I have 3.

Attributed to Winston Churchill regarding ending a sentence with a preposition - "This is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put.”

Alan Greenspan ( I wish it were someone else) - “ I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."

And this, attributed to a 6 year old girl who was not happy with her dad's choice of a bedtime story - "Why did you bring that book that I didn't want to be read to out of up for?" Priceless.

I think that 3rd one was from one of the humor sections in a Reader's Digest from decades ago. I found it so amusing that I memorized it.

[SharonClark]

115. Susan Sontag, I think....

I haven’t been everywhere but it’s on my list.