Finding Solace in Favourite Quotes: Escaping Despair with Words of Wisdom

[lisab]

- Mrs. DaveC426913, June 17, 2009

She'd be a great PF sister!

 

[baywax]

"I had a lot of dates but I decided to
stay home and dye my eyebrows".

Andy Warhol

 

[Ivan Seeking]

In regards to the accusation that Obama is in bed with the press...

“A few nights ago, I was up tossing and turning trying to figure exactly what to say. Finally, when I couldn’t get back to sleep, I rolled over and asked (NBC News anchor) Brian Williams what he thought,”

- Barack Obama

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Another Obamaism. What can I say? The guy is funny.

From a While House press conference.

Q Then I have a two-part question. (Laughter.) Is the public plan non-negotiable? And while I appreciate your Spock-like language about the logic of the health care plan... [half a paragraph follows]

THE PRESIDENT: I got you. You're pitching, I'm catching. I got the question. First of all, was the reference to Spock -- is that a crack on my ears? (Laughter.) All right, I just want to make sure. No?

Q I would never make fun of your ears, sir. (Laughter.)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Press-Conference-by-the-President-6-23-09/

 

[qntty]

"A witty saying proves nothing."
--Voltaire

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I aim for the stars, but sometimes I hit London

- Mort Sahl's name for the movie about Wernher von Braun, I Aim For The Stars.
http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/news/cmcmagazine/2008winter/mort_sahl.pdf

 

[Astronuc]

That’s the art of it, creating these beautiful little poems of thought, these sonnets of pure reason.

Mathematician and math teacher Paul Lockhart on the art of mathematics.

 

[OmCheeto]

Another Obamaism. What can I say? The guy is funny.

That was the first news conference I've ever read.

I thought it was funny that it was mentioned that the reporters ask him about his smoking at least once a month.

The topic came up at our local smoking hot spot at work about a month after he was elected. One of the Russian emigre's made a comment about the topic:

I think it would be very very bad to tell the man with the biggest red button on the planet that he cannot have a cigarette when he is having a, how do you say it, a bad moment. I mean, it would be very very stupid.

 

[DaveC426913]

I think it would be very very bad to tell the man with the biggest red button on the planet that he cannot have a cigarette when he is having a, how do you say it, a bad moment. I mean, it would be very very stupid.

Does that Red button say 'EASY' on it?

 

[OmCheeto]

Does that Red button say 'EASY' on it?

Nyet!

It says "Matra of all Tzar bombas, ne ja jeba Kim Jung..."

Ooops! Now I'm trying to quote mommy dearest in the worst broken Russo-Serbian I've ever uttered:

Don't foop with me fella's!

 

[Sorry!]

'life isn't fair, its just fairer than death.'

love this quote :D I forget who it was though

 

[bucher]

Dr. Seuss ones are my favorite:

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own.
And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go.”

“And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed!”

“Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them.”

“If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good”

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.”

"I'm afraid sometimes you'll play lonely games too, games you can't win because you'll play against you"

I'm sure there's more.

 

[jobyts]

“Flags are bits of coloured cloth that governments use to first, shrink wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury” - Arundhati Roy

 

[Borek]

"You can pretend to be serious; you can't pretend to be witty." - Sacha Guitry

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Semper ubi sub ubi

 

[DaveC426913]

Semper ubi sub ubi

This is the only thing Mrs. DB uses from her Latin class days!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Parents are the bones upon which children sharpen their teeth.

- Peter Ustinov

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I want a genetically engineered cow that can... [poop] Happy Meals

- Jon Stewart

 

[baywax]

"erm"

someone on PF

 

[baywax]

"Wish you were beer"

One of Bart Simpson's T-shirts

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The Hindenburg had a smoking room. There were little cups filled with water for the ashes. A crew member was assigned to be sure that not one ash fell on the floor

- Antiques Roadshow

 

[Ivan Seeking]

If you go to a bar filled with archeologists, you might see a knock-down drag-out fight about whether one should us a triangular trowel, or a square trowel, at acheological dig sites.

- The Time Team

 

[jobyts]

They’re talking about banning cigarette smoking now in any place that’s used by ten or more people in a week, which, I guess, means that Madonna can’t even smoke in bed.
- Bill Maher

 

[colonelcrayon]

10^50 is a long way from infinity.
- Daniel Shanks

Let's be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven't got the power to destroy the planet - or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves.
- Ian Malcolm (Jurassic Park)

Easy things should be easy, and hard things should be possible.
- Larry Wall

Now if you had a milkshake and I had a milkshake and I had a straw, you see watch it. My straw reaches across the room and starts to drink your milkshake. I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE! I DRINK IT UP!
- Daniel Plainview (There Will Be Blood)

What I cannot create, I do not understand.
- Richard Feynman

Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possesses ourselves.
- Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings)

But I make a profit of three and a quarter cents an egg by selling them for four and a quarter cents an egg to the people in Malta I buy them from for seven cents an egg. Of course, I don't make the profit. The syndicate makes the profit. And everybody has a share.
- Milo Minderbinder (Catch-22)

Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three.
- Catch-22

I will tell you what I am talking about," he said. "Most kinds of power require a substantial sacrifice by whoever wants the power. There is an apprenticeship, a discipline lasting many years. Whatever kind of power you want. President of the company. Black belt in karate. Spiritual guru. Whatever it is you seek, you have to put in the time, the practice, the effort. You must give up a lot to get it. It has to be very important to you. And once you have attained it, it's your power. It can't be given away: it resides in you. It is literally the result of your discipline.
Now what is interesting about this process is that, by the time someone has acquired the ability to kill with his bare hands, he has also matured to the point where he won't use it unwisely. So that kind of power has a built-in control. The discipline of getting the you so that you won't abuse it.
- Ian Malcolm (Jurassic Park)

You cannot see the future with tears in your eyes.
- Najavo proverb

And I said, I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were married, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire...
- Milton (Office Space)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Why don't they make Band-Aids for black people?

- Colbert

It never even occurred to me before! He also pointed out that "flesh" colored crayons are really "caucasion" colored.

 

[turbo]

I have seen lots of flesh (as opposed to skin). Surprisingly, there is no discernible difference across races and species.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Whoops! Good point. But the color of the crayon was still that of "typical" caucasian skin.

 

[turbo]

I must confess that I have never butchered a human (It's true!), but once you get past the obvious gross differences, most mammals are pretty easy to figure out as you take them apart, and muscle tissue fed oxidants via hemoglobin looks pretty darned similar on fine scales, no matter where it came from.








(tastes like chicken)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I must confess that I have never butchered a human (It's true!)

That is nothing to be ashamed of...

(tastes like chicken)

On the Marquesas Islands it was called long-pig.

Um, hey, are you going to eat that?

- Jeffrey Dahmer to Lorena Bobbit

 

[turbo]

That is nothing to be ashamed of...



On the Marquesas Islands it was called long-pig.


- Jeffrey Dahmer to Lorena Bobbit

Ooh! that last one was a zinger.

 

[DaveC426913]

On the Marquesas Islands it was called long-pig.

Also: the other other white meat.

 

[GeorginaS]

Um, hey, are you going to eat that?

- Jeffrey Dahmer to Lorena Bobbit

I can't believe you said/wrote that.

 

[Borek]

I had to check Dehmer on wikipedia. Bobbit case was heard about even here.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The manuscript for the first Harry Potter novel was rejected by eight publishers before finally being accepted. Only 1000 copies were printed on the first run with 500 copies destined for libraries. Each of those copies is now worth upwards of $50,000.

- Biography; The Harry Potter Kids

 

[Santa1]

You spend way too much time at the computer.

- Everyone around me.

 

[ideasrule]

"A hundred failures would not matter, when a single success could change the destiny of the world" -- Arthur C. Clarke

This nicely captures the spirit of scientific research.

 

[Redbelly98]

Here are a couple of fake quotes:

I'm not a knowledgeable person, but I play one on TV.

-- Alex Trabek

That's too bad. And how did I do?

-- Dan Quayle, election night 1992

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Imagine Jesus on Twitter

Today we will read the Tweet according to Luke.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Economic forecasting makes weather forecasting look like physics

- Ben Bernanke

 

[baywax]

There are no experts on China.

Dr. Romie F. Littrell

 

[Ivan Seeking]

A truly free and independent press is the red beating heart of democracy and freedom

- Dan Rather

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The best [most effective] way to reduce your carbon footprint is to not reproduce

- the latest study released by the EPA [~today]

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Journalist Cokie Roberts, on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, commenting on the people who are intentionally disrupting town hall meetings with lies and false accusations about health care reform:

Roberts: We need more nuns.

Stephanopoulos: Why nuns?

Roberts: No one raised by nuns would act like that.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Shhhhhhhhhh. Don't tell Obama what comes after "trillions"

- a buddy

 

[jobyts]

Ted Kennedy's last words - "I killed Mary Jo."

someone's comment on cnn news.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/04/book-ted-kennedys-last-words/#comments

 

[Astronuc]

A week before he was killed during a commando raid that freed his colleague, New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell, from Taliban captors, the Afghan journalist Sultan Munadi wrote a post for the Times’s “At War” blog. His conclusion:

Being a journalist is not enough; it will not solve the problems of Afghanistan. I want to work for the education of the country, because the majority of people are illiterate. That is the main problem facing many Afghans. I am really committed to come back and work for my country.

Ref: http://www.cjr.org/the_kicker/sultan_munadi_rip.php

https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=2341757

 

[drizzle]

speaking of learning a new language,

an inability to handle language is not the same thing as stupidity.

- David Hare

I like it

 

[baywax]

"History doesn't repeat itself, it rhymes".

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)

 

[Astronuc]

I believe every educated person should study physics. Why? Because it is interesting – the natural world is a remarkable and fascinating place; because it is liberating – the universe is not arbitrary, but rational and comprehensible; and because physics is unequivocally the most powerful and profound system of thought ever devised. Perhaps, after all, I do agree with my parents. My purpose is to teach students how to think, by exposing them to the most brilliant and successful example of human thought: physics.

David Griffiths in Illuminating physics for students, PhysicWorld, Sept 2, 2009
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/40214

 

[CFDFEAGURU]

"You'd think I could predict the future" - my father.

and

"It ain't wrong but this will make it right" - not sure.

and from Point Break

"This the guy? Yeah. Ohh so this is where you tell me how locals rule and yuppie insects like me shouldn't be surfing the break and all that. Nope. That would be a waste of time. Were just going to f*** you up. Ohh."


Thanks
Matt