I need quotes!

[ninthcouncil]

To apologize is to lay the foundation for a future offense.
- Ambrose Bierce

You know what the Englishman's idea of compromise is? He says, some people say there is a God. Some people say there is no God. The truth probably lies somewhere between these two statements.
- W.B.Yeats

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.
- Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

An apt and true reply was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride. "What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor."
- St. Augustine

I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them.
- Jane Austen (1775-1817)

If you cry "forward", you must without fail make plain in what direction to go.
- Anton Chekhov

"The dog's kennel is not the place to keep a sausage."
- Danish Proverb

A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs...
- Epicurus (341-270 B.C.)

Kill no more pigeons than you can eat.
- Benjamin Franklin

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.
- Charles de Gaulle

What do you take me for, an idiot?
- Charles de Gaulle, when asked if he was happy

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
- Thomas Jefferson

Do not overestimate the decency of the human race.
- H. L. Mencken

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
- Albert Einstein

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

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
- Niels Bohr

Silence is argument carried out by other means.
- Che Guevara

If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?
- Will Rogers

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing.
- Wernher Von Braun

And finally, a whole bunch from the Confucian Analects:

"Learning without thinking is fruitless; thinking without learning is perplexing."

Duke Ai asked: "What must we do to make the people obedient?"
Master Kong replied: "Promote the upright, place them above the crooked, and the people shall be obedient. Promote the crooked, place them above the upright, and the people shall be disobedient."

"Acting solely in pursuit of profit will incur much resentment."

"Those who err through self-restraint are rare indeed."

"He who loves courage and hates poverty will rebel; he who is inhumane and is hated excessively will also rebel."

"I have never seen anyone who loves virtue as much as he loves beautiful women."

"When the state possesses the Way, speak uprightly and act uprightly; when the state loses the Way, act uprightly, but speak modestly."

"The gentleman rests at ease in adversity; the small man, once reduced to adversity, becomes reckless."

"Be more demanding with yourself and less so with others and you shall keep resentment away."

"If, at forty, a man is still loathed, he is done for."



Enjoy!

 

[Andor of the Blade]

"It matters not how strait the gait,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul."

- William E. Henley

You are beaten to earth? Well, what's that?
Come up with a smiling face.
It's nothing against you to fall down flat,
But to lie there, that's the disgrace.

- Edmund Vance Cooke

 

[Kyramus]

Thanks Shilsen, I didn't know the exact author, but I remember it from the movie.

 

[Rel]

Of all the pithy little bits of advice I've recieved over my life, none has been a greater asset than this snippet which is supposedly an old naval saying:

"Beg forgiveness, not permission."

 

[Richards]

"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed--or numbered!
- Number 6, The Prisoner

 

[shouit]

Are you driving with your eyes open or you using the force?
--Eddie Murphy "Beverly Hills Cop 2"

In the beginning the universe was created, which has been widely regarded as a very bad move.
-- Douglas Adams "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

Fall down eight times, get up nine.
-- Old Japanese Proverb

Also check out www.quotationspage.com

 

[Greatwyrm]

Give a difficult job to a lazy man and he'll find an easier way to do it. -- don't remember who said that

-----

Whether the glass is half-full or half-empty is irrelevant. Some things are better described by what they are, some by what they are not. All that matters is an accurate description. -- Chad Stevens

-----

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war! -- Cassius (?), Shakespear's Julius Caesar

 

[ladyofdragons]

I've got a whole book at home of ones I've collected, but some of my favorites are:

richard bach

"Perspective: Use it or lose it. You are forgetting that what is going on around you is not reality. Think about that."

"Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours."

"The simplest questions are the most profound.

Where were you born?
Where is your home?
Where are you going?
What are you doing?

Think about these once in awhile, and watch your answers change."

"You are never given a wish without being given
the power to make it true.

You may have to work for it, however."

"Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years."

lazarus long (Robert Heinlein)

Don't try to have the last word. You might get it.

Everybody lies about sex.

Sex should be friendly. Otherwise stick to mechanical toys; it's more sanitary.

You live and learn. Or you don't live long.

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.

If you don't like yourself, you can't like other people.

No state has the inherent right to survive through conscript troops and in the long run, no state ever has. Roman matrons used to say to their sons: "Come back with your shield, or on it." Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome.

A brute kills for pleasure. A fool kills from hate.

One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.

Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.

There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is no evidence of any sort against it. Soon enough you will know. So why fret about it?

A zygote is a gamete's way of producing more gametes. The may be the purpose of the universe.

Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something.

Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let's play that over again, too. Who decides?

Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense.
(Hurting yourself is not sinful -- just stupid.)

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. "Supernatural" is a null word.

Never try to outstubborn a cat.

Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again.

Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.

A committee is a life form with six or more legs and no brain.

Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet, you can't win.

A generation which ignores history has no past -- and no future.

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.

Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.

Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous. (He is also a fool.)

and my favorite...
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Well firstly, as a Spurs fan that Hoddle quote has me ROFLMAO...a few others really caught my attention.

There is a whole bunch of very quotable quotes on www.lspace.org, all from the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. One of my favourite Pratchettisms is:

- "There have been...accidents."
- "What kind of accidents?"
- "The kind of accidents you prefer to call...accidents."

from Maskerade...actually once I started looking through the quote file http://www.lspace.org/books/pqf/index.html I quickly found that I liked most of them...take a look guys...

Douglas Adams, as noted above, is good for quotes too.

"Anything that happens, happens.
Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen.
Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again.

It doesn't necessarily do it in chronological order though."

Douglas Adams

How about the classic quote from the Blues Brothers?

"It's 105 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses."
"Let's go."

More if I think of them...

 

[Welverin]

Stupid, stupid rat creatures!
-Fone Bone

There are some gems scattered in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard.

Is this a book? I know there was a movie, but ...