Finest quote thread

[MichaelMcGuire]

"First they ignore you, then they
ridicule you, then they fight you, then
you win.&quot Mahatma Gandhi)

[cyberswede]

1. Great minds...

"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people."
- Eleanor Roosevelt

[Crankie Avalon]

2. "Never tell anyone to go to hell...

...unless you can make them go there." - Bill Clinton

[Canuckistanian]

3. Change

One cannot alter a condition with the same mind set that created it in the first place.
-Einstein

[MichaelMcGuire]

13. Favourite of mine from Frank Zappa

"never discuss philosophy or politics in a disco environment."

Your picture reminded me of it.

[hlthe2b]

4. Per my own sigline... Philosopher George Santayana

[barbtries]

6. i'll go with that

my sig line, by King Solomon

[hlthe2b]

35. Also a good one...

[dipsydoodle]

5. See my sig line

courtesy of Tom Waits.

[Frustratedlady]

11. Love that one. eom

[Snotcicles]

7. It ain't what you don't know that makes you look stupid.

It's what you do know, but ain't so.

I don't who said this. Sounds like something Mark Twain would say.

[csziggy]

14. Or maybe Will Rogers?

He did say, "It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so."

He also said:
A fool and his money are soon elected.

Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.

The more you observe politics, the more you've got to admit that each party is worse than the other.

We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others.

Why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth.

[RC]

16. Mark Twain

“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.”
Mark Twain

ThinkExist.com
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/it_ain-t_what_you_don-t_know_that_gets_you_into/215214.html

[trof]

20. Apocryphal, but attributed to Twain. One of my journalism profs used it in class.

He attributed it to his black maid.
This was back in the late 50s at the University of Alabama.
Of course he was hammering home that journalists needed to make damn sure they had the facts, and not just hearsay.

"Our old colored maid was a wise woman. One time she told me "It ain't what you KNOW that gets you in trouble, It's what you DO KNOW that ain't so."
Remember that. Go to the source and check your facts."

It does sound a lot like Twain.
Who knows?
But still good words to live by.

[Snotcicles]

38. Ok you wizards, who said this?

" he ain't what he could be and he ain't what he should be but thank God he ain't what he was"

[pintobean]

61. My mom.

[jorno67]

8. My sig line from the movie "This is Spinal Tap"

[Scuba]

19. There's a fine line between fishing and just sitting in the boat.

[raouldukelives]

9. Only after the last tree has been cut down

only after the last river has been poisoned, only after the last fish has been caught, only then will you find money cannot be eaten. - Cree Prophecy

[MichaelMcGuire]

10. George Carlin

“I think I am, therefore, I am...I think. ”

[JBoy]

22. Another George Carlin:

I have as much authority as the Pope. I just don't have as many people who believe it.

[11 Bravo]

24. George Carlin: How come you can prick your finger, but you can't finger your prick?

[MichaelMcGuire]

66. LOL

[MichaelMcGuire]

65. Can ever have enough of Mr Carlin

Probably one of the best

[gateley]

12. A journey of a thousand miles began with a single step. ~ Attributed to Lao-tzu ~

[freshwest]

15. All beings tremble before violence. All fear death. All love life. - Buddha

Last edited Fri Jan 13, 2012, 08:06 PM - Edit history (1)

[a la izquierda]

64. I love that quote

[sad sally]

17. Once the Earth turns tens of thousands of times, all of this - all of today -

just gets wiped away. Like cleaning a blackboard.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

18. From Butch Hancock, musician with The Flatlanders

"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."

[kentuck]

21. Here are a couple:

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much higher consideration. Abraham Lincoln, 1861

""The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little." FDR

"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." Samuel Adams, (1722-1803)

"The cause of all wars, riots and injustices is the existence of property."
(St. Augustine)

"When given the choice between a Republican, and a Democrat who acts like a Republican, the voters will choose the Republican every time." Harry Truman

"Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrinkwrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead." Arundhati Roy

[William769]

23. "Fuck Ron Paul"

EarlG

[joshcryer]

43. heh

[etherealtruth]

25. I am partial to my signature line

[Sherman A1]

28. Excellent

I will simply go with mine......

[etherealtruth]

29. Very good

I may "steal" it for my email .... I've been signing with: “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”--the Dalai Lama

It may be time for a change

[Sherman A1]

34. Feel Free

It was stolen with pride from the original author (although that part is in some dispute).

[barbtries]

63. that is so appropriate at this time nt

[Scuba]

26. Here's two...

"Democrats moving to the middle is a double disaster that alienates the party's progressive base while simultaneously sending a message to swing voters that the other side is where the good ideas are. It unconsciously locks in the notion that the other side's positions are worth moving toward, while your side's positions are the ones to move away from. Plus every time you move to the center, the right just moves further to the right." ---George Lakoff


and one I just learned yesterday...


"There are two kinds of people I cannot abide: bigots and any well-organized ethnic group." -- Edward Abbey

[backwoodsbob]

27. hmm

*violence is the last refuge of the incompetent*

Hari Seldon

[Solly Mack]

30. Frederick Douglass

"... Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them..."

[Fuzz]

31. Here I sit, so broken hearted . . .

[Wind Dancer]

32. Cool thread.

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

John Lennon, "Beautiful Boy"

[countryjake]

33. "Aim above morality."

"Be not simply good -- be good for something." - Henry David Thoreau

[grasswire]

36. Nietzsche: "Without music, life would be a mistake."

Thomas Waller: "One never knows, do one?"

[WillowTree]

37. One size fits all of what?....... Erma Bombeck

[eridani]

69. Another Bombeck favorte on camping

"Forget Disney. Not all bears have their own television shows. Some are unemployed wild animals."

[Snotcicles]

39. You are a puppet

You are a puppet, but in the hands of the infinite, which may be your own.
- Antonio Porchia

[limpyhobbler]

40. "Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric"

Last edited Sat Jan 14, 2012, 01:53 PM - Edit history (1)

- Bertrand Russell

[seabeyond]

41. the truth will set you free.

my favorite.

[eridani]

70. But first it will piss you off n/t

[seabeyond]

71. lol. possibly. that is good. i like it. nt

[joshcryer]

42. Dream as you'll live forever, live as you'll die today. - James Dean

[joshcryer]

51. All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

[Zorra]

44. "Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’ve got the answer.

Because that’s bullshit. The trick is living without an answer.

I think."

— Keanu Reeves (as Dr. Perry Lyman), Thumbsucker

[Change has come]

45. No man is an Island...

entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee. (John Donne)

[scarletwoman]

46. If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal. Emma Goldman

[white_wolf]

47. Here's one of my favorites.

Its a long quote so bear with me and it has been posted a few times on this forum and around the internet in various forms, but here is the actual quote from the Kalma Sutra:

. "Therefore, did we say, Kalamas, what was said thus, 'Come Kalamas.
Do not go upon what has been acquired
by repeated hearing;
nor upon tradition;
nor upon rumour;
nor upon what is in a scripture;
nor upon surmise;
nor upon an axiom;
nor upon specious reasoning;
nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over;
nor upon another's seeming ability;
nor upon the consideration, "The monk is our teacher."
Kalamas, when you yourselves know: "These things are bad; these things are blameable; these things are censured by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill," abandon them.'



"Therefore, did we say, Kalamas, what was said thus, 'Come Kalamas. Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing; nor upon tradition; nor upon rumour; nor upon what is in a scripture; nor upon surmise; nor upon an axiom; nor upon specious reasoning; nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over; nor upon another's seeming ability; nor upon the consideration, "The monk is our teacher." Kalamas, when you yourselves know: "These things are good; these things are not blameable; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness," enter on and abide in them.'"

You can read the full Sutra here: http://viewonbuddhism.org/resources/kalama_sutra.html

[Motown_Johnny]

48. a video version

not that it is his finest but I like it

[grantcart]

49. Hubris goes before defeat, humility goes before victory

Anyone, anyone, Buhler? anyone?

[JFN1]

50. Two current favorites:

"Become the change you want to see." -- Mahatma Ghandi

"HATE! In it's mightiest roar, will never accomplish what does LOVE, in it's smallest whisper." -- D.J. Dupree

[MACARD]

52. quotes...

I may be christian but that doesn't mean i am intolerant

"do onto others as you would have them do onto you" Jesus

"Thou shalt Love thy neighbor" Jesus

i believe the first coming of Jesus he came not just as our savior he came as a teacher, too many only see him for the savior and not for the teacher.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Jefferson

[grantcart]

53. the idea of the golden rule predates Jesus and is a universal expression of human asperations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Rule

[onestepforward]

54. Robert F. Kennedy

"Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

~ Robert F. Kennedy



(added for a chuckle)

"I hope some animal never bores a hole in my head and lays its eggs in my brain, because later you might think you're having a good idea but it's just eggs hatching."

~ Jack Handey (Deep Thoughts)

[BrendaBrick]

59. Jack Handey (Deep Thoughts)

I forgot all about that one until now.......

[Tx4obama]

55. Two favorites

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." -Eleanor Roosevelt,

"I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse." -Charles V

[Wind Dancer]

73. Love..

... that Eleanor Roosevelt quote. I had forgotten about that one.

[pinboy3niner]

56. "You're doomed if you do and doomed if you don't"

Actual (mis)quote from someone I know.

[ellisonz]

58. A Couple...

Il faut cultiver notre jardin. "Let us cultivate our garden."
-Voltaire, Candide, ch. xxx

-------

"I never gave anybody hell. I just told the truth and they think it's hell."

-Harry S Truman

[LadyHawkAZ]

60. "The wages of sin is death

but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays"-Terry Pratchett

(what were you thinking? )

[REP]

62. Helen Keller, on learning her grandfather was dead:

"Did father shoot him? I will eat grandfather for dinner."

[a la izquierda]

67. A few of my favorites

“So I be written in the Book of Love. I do not care about that Book Above. Erase my name, or write it as you will. So I be written in the Book of Love.” Omar Khayyam

What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists, is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.
Robert Kennedy (He would be mortified, I think, in today's world)

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?
Buddha

[G_j]

68. If you want magic to happen

you have to set a place at the table for it. -Micky Hart

[eridani]

72. MLK Jr Day coming right up

"Love is not the answer. It is the assignment."

[Major Hogwash]

74. "Mom always liked you best." --- Tom Smothers.

Last month, a couple of days after Christmas, I was listening to the radio.
And this station was doing a Top 10 "Best Interviews of the Year" rerun program.
I heard the repeat of an interview that Dick Smothers had given earlier in the year about how that line came to be, and it was hilarious.

Dick and Tom had already been performing standup comedy for a few years working in various clubs, repeating many of the same jokes over and over again.
So, Dick knew what was coming beforehand, and so he didn't laugh at many of their punchlines anymore.
As he told it, their comedy act was beginning to become somewhat of a drag to him, and he wasn't really having all that good of a time performing on stage anymore.

Then one night, right in the middle of their routine where they were arguing with each other, which was their trademark, Tom came out with that line.
As he stood to the side of Dick, with his mouth wide open, incredulous at the gall of Dick to disagree with him, right after he said it just as sincere as it could be said, as if he really meant it, it cracked Dick up.
In fact, Dick said it cracked him up almost every time Tom said it for years, because they were such close brothers, and it was such a ridiculous thing for him to say.
Dick said that was the line that they eventually became famous for, and it lead to much of their success and even getting them their own tv program on CBS.

[Kellerfeller]

75. If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

Neal Peart (Rush)