Favorite Quotations

[Tairis]

Of that list I could probably change a diaper, I know I can write a sonnet (albeit a mediocre one) and balance accounts, I've built a wall, I can take and give orders, cooperate or act alone, solve (relatively simple) equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer (if BASIC and HTML count), cook a tasty meal... and I could probably die gallantly. Maybe. Depending on one's definition of "gallantly." But conning a ship, butchering a hog, designing a building, fighting efficiently and planning an invasion all seem like justifiably specialized skills? (I could only do the last one in Rome: Total War, which I'm pretty sure doesn't count, and I'm reasonably sure that people go through extensive training for things like conning ships and designing buildings...)

I suspect he probably could have accomplished most of those as he has often been described as one of the last 'renaissance men'. Most of those aren't specialized skills but rather abilities that someone possessed of enough basic intelligence, common sense, and self awareness should be able to manage in a pinch. I think our modern thinking makes us only think of extremes in this case. I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to design a 3 story building or a skyscraper but any competent human being should have enough awareness of physics to build a simple '4 walls and a roof' without making it a death trap.

(Conning a ship in the case of the quote is simply referring to being the one directing it).

[Krisje]

Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them
- Albert Einstein-

The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all
- The emperor in Mulan -

I think I know, I don't think I know, I don't think I know that I know, I think I know even though I don't think I know, now I don't think I think.
-Can't remember from where but always stuck with me-

I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're goin', and hook up with them later.
-Mitch Hedberg-

Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week
-Spanish proverb-

[gaggedLouise]

From an interview with Bob Dylan in Paris during the famous '66 world tour (shown again in the No Direction Home film) - several journalists are milling around him and one of them asks, as if he was uttering an important secret, and with sultry French accent and 'z's: "Is there a special message you want to bring out when you sing?"

Dylan replies, his voice very dark and tired, in one word: "No." He had heard that kind of question literally thousands of times over the last two years.  :D

[didoanna]

From Dr. Strangelove......

General Jack D. Ripper: Mandrake, do you recall what Clemenceau once said about war?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: No, I don't think I do, sir, no.

General Jack D. Ripper: He said war was too important to be left to the generals. When he said that, 50 years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought....."



From A Few Good Men

Col. Jessup: You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know, that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives.

And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives!

You don't want the truth, because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. We use words like "honor", "code", "loyalty". We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it! I would rather you just said "thank you", and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post.

Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to!"



From Magnum Force:

Harry Callahan: "A good man always knows his limitations..."



From Bladerunner:

Roy Batty: I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain...

Umm....can't think of any more at the moment *keeps rummaging through assorted shared DVD collection*

[vtboy]

“There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
"'That’s some catch, that Catch-22,' he observed.
“'It’s the best there is,' Doc Daneeka agreed.”

- Catch-22, Joseph Heller


"It's a crazy old world, a man's lucky to get out of it alive."

- W. C. Fields

[meikle]

Regina Spektor sings, "People are just people.  They shouldn't make you nervous."

Emile Cioran wrote, "All nihilists have wrestled with God."

[vtboy]

I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice, and that by religious men, who are equally certain that they represent the Divine will. I hope it will not be irreverent for me to say that if it is probable that God would reveal His will to others, on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed that He would reveal it directly to me.

- Abraham Lincoln

[CaughtByMoonlight]

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

Thomas Jefferson


Because JEFFERSON. :) 

There are perhaps less controversial figures in our history, but few so prescient as to have said the above. We struggle with this problem now.