What's everybody's favourite quote?

*

And we have the impression that the hero lived all the details of that night like annunciations, promises, or even that he lived only those that were promises, blind and deaf to everything that did not herald adventure. We forget that the future was not yet there; the fellow was walking in a darkness devoid of portents, a night which offered him its monotonous riches pell-mell, and he made no choice. I wanted the moments of my life to follow one another in an orderly fashion like those of a life remembered. You might as well try to catch time by the tail."

Sartre, from Nausea.

-- anthony kyle monday (akmonda...), January 28th, 2004.

"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues. "
- Abraham Lincoln

- Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 10:34-36)

Flaubert - 'Madame Bovary'

-David Lee Roth

-David Lee Roth

"It would be better to breed horses and live in one of those red villas than to run in and out of the heads of Sophocles and Euripides like a maggot..."

Virgina Woolf in 'the Waves'

--Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

--V.I. Lenin

Spike Milligan

also: "The only thing to fear is fear itself" - Sylvia Plath, but I think she stole it from somewhere else.

My favorite for right now is from Mark Twain: "Actually the works of William Shakespeare were written by another man, also named William Shakespeare."

RICHARD HELL: Legs, listen to me, [Neitzche] said that anything that makes you laugh, anything that's funny indicates an emotion that's died. Every time you laugh that's an emotion, a serious emotion that doesn't exist with you any more...and that's why I think you and everything else is so funny.

LEGS McNEIL: Yeah...but that's not funny.

RICHARD HELL: Thats cause you don't have any emotions! *laughs*

Imperishable monuments and immortal deeds, death itself and love stronger than death, will be as though they had never been. The energies of our system will decay, the glory of the sun will be dimmed and the earth, tideless and inert, will no longer tolerate the race which has for a moment disturbed its solitude. Man will go down into the pit and all his thoughts will perish. The uneasy consciousness, which in this obscure corner has for a brief space broken the contented silence of the universe, will be at rest.

No, not comforting at all. But I think its starkness -- and to my mind, essential truth -- is the contrast to the hope and feeling found in this world and time.

"So typical, a battle of wits, and I've come half-prepared" - Trash Can Sinatras

I've forgotten some others I would like to mention (I'm blaming this early morning thing) so I'll have to stop at that. But I'll name others later.

Having said that, I also like that particular bit from Madame Bovary that Joe mentioned; it was in that Guardian folio incognito thing one week.

Which is parodied by my favourite quote: "Madam, I may be drunk, but bleeeuugggh." - Dave Barry

"You know us, babe. We're the leopard twins and we're back!" -- One of my friends talking about her and another friend, earlier in the evening.

"No one's going to wait for a picture to load up unless it's of a naked body or a dead body." -- paraphrase of a tip given by Vincent Flanders in the book Web Pages That Suck.

Believe it or not, these are quotes I'm living by at the moment.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.”

- Marianne Williamson

No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up. -Lily Tomlin

The comfort of having a friend may be taken away, but not that of having had one. -Seneca

Everyone has the right to fail. You fail and from your failure you go up one more step - if you've got the courage to get yourself up... I happen to believe that there is one cardinal sin and that is mediocrity. -Martha Graham

"So strange, life is. Why people do not go around in a continual state of surprise is beyond me."- William Maxwell

^^ sums up my attitude toward existence very nicely

that's a great one.

Here's mine: "When we have used our thought to its utmost and have thrown into the moving unbalanced balance of things our puny strength, we know that though the universe slay us still we may trust, for our lot is one with whatever is good in existence. We know that such thought and effort is the condition of the coming into the existence of the better. As far as we are concerned it is the only condition, for it alone is in our power." -- John Dewey.

"Work like you live in the early days of a better nation." - Alasdair Gray

"Anything can happen in life, especially nothing." Houellebecq

"People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply by the lives they lead." James Baldwin

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." C.S. Lewis

"The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists -- that is why they invented hell." Bertrand Russell

Where do we see ourselves in ten years time? I see myself dissapointed.

From a song by British band Hood.

"So strange, life is. Why people do not go around in a continual state of surprise is beyond me."- William Maxwell

I do this and it weirdens life even further.

"Love is not minding the smell of someone else's farts." - Kirsty MacColl

This one (in my mind) I extend to anything: book, movie, song, etc:

"A book should be an axe for the frozen sea within." - Franz Kafka

It's lovely, but I also understand HOOS and Abbott, that continually surprised state.

"So strange, life is. Why people do not go around in a continual state of surprise is beyond me."- William Maxwell

I do this and it weirdens life even further.

― a muttering inbred (called) (not named) (Abbott)

Why people do not go around in a constant state of surprise is hardly beyond me. I understand why not perfectly. Even if you believe that the world is full of endless possibilities, and even if you truly believe that your own potential is limitless, and even if you act on that as much as possible, a continual state of surprise is not advantageous to making sense of your own reality. A state of surprise is a state of confusion, at bottom. You have to be able to anticipate what your next day will feel like, even if you do not actively try to make it better than the day before. Not feeling lost is more important than feeling fantastic, or amazed, or in world-shattering awe. A continual state of surprise is a serious impediment to getting your laundry done.

The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.

-Tony Blair

this one's my favorite

To be great is to be misunderstood. -- William Shakespare

That CS Lewis quote is great.

To be great is to be misunderstood. -- William Shakespare

That's Emerson. Come on, man. Does that even SOUND like Shakespeare? Google is your friend.

Also, it's a meaningless bullshit quote. To be great is to be misunderstood. To be average is to be maligned. To be an idiot is to be ignored. To be alive is to be a victim of someone or other. Well, weh. Next time be more constructive in your whining.

hmm always thought it was shakespeare

from king lear

you mean you still haven't looked it up?

how would i look it up?

http://www.google.com/search?q=quote+%22To+be+great+is+to+be+misunderstood.%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

oh, google

well guess my memory is no match for them, huh

my favorites:

"he does not know ecstasy who does not also know bitterness."
- harry partch

"a true patriot is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins."
- frederick douglass

I hate Emerson. What a lazy, privileged wanker he was. Same with Thoreau. Yeah, YOU go live in the woods, motherfucker. We'll be happier without your supercilious, impractical advices back here in the real world.

Uh... well now you know that about me. FWIW.

you sure it wasn't a paraphrase or something from shakespeare? i really could have sworn it was the Bard.

you mean you still haven't looked it up?

― when I think about tacos, I touch myself (kenan), Sunday, August 2, 2009 2:56 AM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

sorry if i don't have the time to google something. sue me, fancypants!

...

Btw, from my admittedly limited knowledge of King Lear, I'm fairly certain that "Awesome people are awesome" is not one of the major themes.

I was reared on Shakespeare, I think you're wrong.

Who is "chip dumstorf" a sock for? Reading back over this, I think I have been taken.

Time is Gods way of stopping everything from happening at once.

can't remember who said it.

xp I do like "reared on Shakespeare" though. It sounds like being buttfucked backstage in the middle of the third hour of Hamlet. If you're playing Osric, you do need to kill some time.

Time is Gods way of stopping everything from happening at once.

can't remember who said it.

Philip K. Dick?

ah, looked it up. it wasn't anyone famous, it was 'anonymous texan graffiti'

The wisdom of the bathroom wall is no small wisdom. Depending on the bathroom, I guess.

in light of that, i'm changing to

"The English are not very spiritual people. So they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity"

(George Bernard Shaw)

kenan:

http://www.google.com/search?q=chip+dumstorf&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

I demand to see a birth certificate.

“Love, Arthur, is a poodle's chance of attaining the infinite, and personally I have my pride.”
Céline

"Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."

--Jackson Pollock