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What are your favorite quotes?

Ronald T.

Troubadour
They can be quotes from novels or movies…or from actual individuals, historical or otherwise.

* * *

There are two many to mention, but here are only three of my favorites from Frank Herbert’s fantastic novel, DUNE:

“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.”

“Try looking into that place where you dare not look! You'll find me there, staring out at you!”

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion."

___________________________

And here are some of my favorite quotes from Clive Owen and Naomi Watts’ film, THE INTERNATIONAL, made in 2009:

“There is a difference between truth and fiction: fiction must make sense.”

“Character is easier kept than recovered.”

“Sometimes a man can meet his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.”

____________________________

I have so many other quotes from different sources, and I love them all. But I would love to hear some of yours.

Thanks for your input.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Well...many come to mind. I am not sure what would be my favorite, but three I have been known to repeat are

The unexamined life is not worth living--Plato

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. --Emmerson

You keep using that word, I don't think it means what you think it means --Inigo

Once I dreamed I was a butterfly, but when I woke, I wondered if I was a butterfly dreaming I was a man. --Not sure

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone --Jesus


All of these are things I find I say to my kids at times. They never seem to understand what I am talking about.
 

Insolent Lad

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

Enough small empty boxes thrown into a big empty box fill it full. ~ Carl Sandburg

Anything worth doing is worth doing badly. ~ G.K. Chesterton
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
First thought, a long one from Wizards, the movie.

Max: Fritz! Fritz, get up for God's sake! Get up! They've killed Fritz! They've killed Fritz! Those lousy stinking yellow fairies! Those horrible atrocity-filled vermin! Those despicable animal warmongers! They've killed Fritz! Take that! Take this! Take that, you green slime! You black hearted, short, bow-legged...
Fritz: Max! Max, I'm okay! I'm okay max. Just a scratch. Look I'm all right.
Max: Oh. Oh, damn. There you go again, stepping on my lines, raining on my parade, costing me medals. Oh, damn.
[Accidentally shoots Fritz]
Max: Ohh. Oh, Fritz? Fritz, get up for God's sake! Get up! They've killed Fritz! They've killed Fritz! Those lousy stinking yellow fairies! Those horrible atrocity-filled vermin! Take that! Take that! They killed Fritz!
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
-Life is a long lesson in humility

-A society which emphasizes uniformity is one which creates intolerance and hate.

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one...just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway."
— Earl Nightingale

I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. - Roger Ebert

"If there's no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters -- then all that matters is what we do. 'Cause that's all there is. What we do. Now. Today." - Joss Whedon

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”
Greek proverb.
 
"For though he was master of the world, he was not quite sure what to do next. But he would think of something.” -Arther C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey

" Dr. Ian Malcolm: John, the kind of control you're attempting simply is... it's not possible. If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh... well, there it is.

John Hammond: [sardonically] There it is.

Henry Wu: You're implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will... breed?

Dr. Ian Malcolm: No. I'm, I'm simply saying that life, uh... finds a way." Jurassic Park (film)

I have so many more but that's all that came to my head immediately. I save quotes, espicially while reading, to inspire me when I write.
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
'No, ma'am. We're musicians' Elwood Blues [The Blues Brothers] - Just about all that film is quotable.
'The new Oldsmobiles are in early this year!' Elwood Blues [The Blues Brothers]
Not a quote from a film, game or novel just a quote I really like.
'You must do good, but you must not talk about it. If you talk about it you're taking advantage of others misfortunes' for your own gain.' Gino Bartali
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
We played this game before, but I'll play again.

Some historians do history the way their grandmothers did needlework: to pass the time and justify their title. - Lucien Lefevre [Insert your profession of choice. It works pretty much everywhere]

Harvey wins on quotable lines, imo. Here are a couple of my favorites
Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, "In this world, Elwood, you must be" - she always called me Elwood - "In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.

Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it.
 
Joseph de Maistre (translated from the French):

  • False opinions are like false money, struck first of all by guilty men and thereafter circulated by honest people who perpetuate the crime without knowing what they are doing.
  • Every nation gets the government it deserves.

Mark Twain:

  • We have the best government that money can buy.
  • Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.
  • A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read.
  • Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.
  • Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
  • The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all.
  • Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
  • All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.
  • Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
  • It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
  • If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but deteriorate the cat.

From Cool Hand Luke, later included in a Guns 'N Roses song:

What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it... well, he gets it.

Megadeth:

Lyrics to "Captive Honor"

When you kill a man, you're a murderer.
Kill many, and you're a conqueror.
Kill them all and you're a god.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict?"

"Yes, we have, Your Honor, we find the defendant guilty on all counts for crimes against all humanity."

"By virtue of the jury's decision and the power vested in me by the state, I hereby sentence you to be incarcerated with no possibility of parole for life."

"Life? What do you mean life? I ain't got a life!"

"Boy, your soul better belong to Jesus, 'cause your ass belongs to me!"

Grimes:

Lyrics to "Kill V. Maim"

You gave up being good when you declared a state of war.

Lyrics to "Butterfly"

There is harmony in everything
It’s a butterfly whose wings span the world
So fly away
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
For me, many of the best lines come from song. I culled from a list I keep and got 32 lines. Yeeks. So here are nine.

1. You could listen to a thousand different reasons why you can't go

2. In the thick of the evening when the dealing got rough, she was too pat to open and too cool to bluff.

3. My back to the wall, a victim of laughing chance; this is for me the essence of true romance

4. Did you know, we could go; we are free. Any place you can think of, we can be.

5. From their boats of iron they looked upon the promised land, where surely life was sweet.

6. Tell me why if you think you know why, two people love when there's no tomorrow and still not cry when it's time to go.

7. Well then can I walk beside you? I have come to lose the smog and I feel like I'm a cog in something turning

8. Life was easy when it was boring

9. A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest
 

Gryphos

Auror
There are loads of lines I love, but I'll just drop this gem from William Blake's Auguries of Innocence:

A dog starved at his master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the State.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
There are two many to mention, but here are only three of my favorites from Frank Herbert’s fantastic novel, DUNE:

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion."

Huzzah for quotes from Dune! I'm a huge fan. But I thought you might like to know, this quote above is not from the books. It's only from the David Lynch movie Dune. Still a pretty good quote though. :)

I just reread Dune on my kindle so here's a few that I highlighted (I highlighted way too many passages to include them all):

"Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is only a place." ~Thufir Hawat

"Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad'Dib knew that every experience carried its lesson." ~From "The Humanity of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

"Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a bit to test that it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain." ~a Bene Gesserit Proverb

"Bless the Maker and His water. Bless the coming and going of Him. May His passage cleanse the world. May He keep the world for His people." ~ Liet Kynes

"Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife- chopping off what's incomplete and saying: "Now it's complete because it's ended here." ~Collected sayings of Muad'Dib

"To accept a little death is worse than death itself." ~ Chani
 
"I am human, and I think that nothing of that which is human is alien to me." –Terence

"Oh you Pretty Things
Don't you know you're driving your
Mamas and Papas insane
Let me make it plain
You gotta make way for the Homo Superior" –David Bowie, "Oh! You Pretty Things"

"And I close my eyes and tighten up my brain
For I once read a book in which the lovers were slain
For they knew not the words of the Free States' refrain
It said:
'I believe in the power of good
I believe in the state of love
I will fight for the right to be right
I will kill for the good of the fight for the right to be right'" –David Bowie, "Cygnet Committee"

(I could quote Bowie endlessly.)
 

Addison

Auror
Oh wow, post a hard thread. :p


"There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure,
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it."-- "It Couldn't Be Done" by Edgar Albert Guest
 

Noxius

Dreamer
Hard to decide.

"You mistook stars reflected in a pond at night for those in the sky."
A quote repeated many times in different variations in the witcher-books from Andrzej Sapkowski. I just really like the tone of it, and how perfectly it blends into the story.

Also from the witcher books, from the character Regis, "the movement is everything, the goal is nothing."

"But in the end it's only a passing thing, this shadow; even darkness must pass.
" Tolkien in Lord of the Rings.

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.", George R. R. Martin, in A Dance with Dragons.
 
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