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

[Ivan Seeking]

"Nothing is got for nothing. The price of love increases with ageing because more of those you loved are now among the dead than among the living."

"The hardest part about getting old is watching all of your friends die"

- from my best lifelong friend, who is no longer with us.

 

[dydxforsn]

"Freedom isn't free. It shouldn't be a bragging point that 'Oh, I don't get involved in politics,' as if that makes someone cleaner. No, that makes you derelict of duty in a republic. Liars and panderers in government would have a much harder time of it if so many people didn't insist on their right to remain ignorant and blindly agreeable." - Bill Maher

 

[Kholdstare]

@dydxforsn +1

 

[dydxforsn]

Thanks, heh, it was a good one. Also, everyone should check out or remind themselves of the great Howard Zinn today: http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1899.Howard_Zinn

 

[pongo38]

"The people who really annoy me are people who get really annoyed"

 

[FreeMitya]

"The hardest part about getting old is watching all of your friends die"

- from my best lifelong friend, who is no longer with us.

I'm really sorry to hear about your friend. If you're interested, that quote was from one of my heroes, Harold Bloom.

 

[phion]

"Never confuse kindness with weakness."

-Anonymous friend

 

[OmCheeto]

You know Om, it kinda sucks getting old. You end up knowing more dead people then live ones.

--------------------------------
Art was a very good friend who I first met when he was around 75.
He learned to play beach volleyball that year.
He claimed to have been a world class ping pong player in his younger years.
But even in his 70's and 80's, he was a number 1 draft pick for most volleyball teams, including the two man teams.
He had the arm span of an Albatross, which made him a natural, for both games.
He reminded me a bit of Jimmy Stewart.
His son is a couple of years younger than I am, and I run into him about once a year at work.
He works in the building across the street.
Art was around 85 when he passed away.
He would be around 100 by now, and a whole lot wrinklier, as he was very wrinkly, to end with. (Too much sun, I'd imagine)

 

[dx]

Subtle is the Lord, but malicious He is not.

-Albert Einstein

 

[Astronuc]

"Aus Stellung und Besitz entspringende Vorrechte sind mir immer ungerecht und verderblich erschienen, ebenso ein übertriebener Personenkultus. Ich bekenne mich zum Ideal der Demokratie, trotzdem mir die Nachteile demokratischer Staatsform wohlbekannt sind. Sozialer Ausgleich und wirtschaftlicher Schutz des Individuums erschienen mir stets als wichtige Ziele der staatlichen Gemeinschaft.

Ich bin zwar I am täglichen Leben ein typischer Einspänner, aber das Bewusstsein, der unsichtbaren Gemeinschaft derjenigen anzugehören, die nach Wahrheit, Schönheit und Gerechtigkeit streben, hat das Gefühl der Vereinsamung nicht aufkommen lassen."

Translation:

"Privileges based on position and property have always seemed to me unjust and pernicious, as does any exaggerated personality cult. I am an adherent of the ideal of democracy, although I know well the weaknesses of the democratic form of government. Social equality and economic protection of the individual have always seemed to me the important communal aims of the state.

Although I am a typical loner in daily life, my consciousness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice keeps me from feeling isolated."

Albert Einstein, Mein Glaubensbekenntnis/ My Credo, August 1932
http://www.einstein-website.de/z_biography/credo.html

 

[Vorde]

"Id quod fuimus aut sumus, non cras erimus."

- Ovid

My translation: That which we were or we are is not what we will be tomorrow.

 

[SW VandeCarr]

- Ovid

My translation: That which we were or we are is not what we will be tomorrow.

My translation: Mañana is good enough for me.

 

[ImaLooser]

To err is human, to blame it on somebody else is even more human.

That's great.

 

[Lisa!]

"The word lie sits right in the middle of the word believe!"

 

[1977ub]

If I read this entire thread, perhaps I'd find this posted already:

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick

 

[DiracPool]

"Wherever you go, there you are" --Anonymous

 

[DiracPool]

Subtle is the Lord, but malicious He is not.

-Albert Einstein

Yeah, but later on he was quoted as saying that perhaps the lord is malicious when he couldn't get his field theory to work (source = "Einsteins Mistakes" by Ohanian)

 

[DiracPool]

Here's a good one...

"Before Elvis, there was nothing." --John Lennon

 

[jobyts]

"Religion is based primarily upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly as the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things. In this world we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to master them by help of science, which has forced its way step by step against the opposition of all the old precepts. Science can help us to get over this craven fear in which mankind has lived for so many generations. Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in, instead of the place that the churches in all these centuries have made it."

― Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian

 

[ChiralWaltz]

"If I were again beginning my studies, I would follow the advice of Plato and start with mathematics."
-Galileo Galilei

 

[DiracPool]

"If I were again beginning my studies, I would follow the advice of Plato and start with mathematics."
-Galileo Galilei

I like that one, good find

 

[Borek]

And it’s odd that the word atheist even exists. I don’t play golf. Is there a word for non-golf players?

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Thanks Om for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[Bacle2]

Neil deGrasse Tyson And it's odd thatthe word atheist even exists. I don't play golf . Is there a word for non-golf players?

Thanks Om for pointing me in the right direction.

Well, I think religion plays an important role in society --like it or not-- and golf does not (EDIT: Maybe I'm ruining your joke, sorry if this is so) .
I like a lot of Neil "deGrasse is not Greener" Tyson's ideas ; I liked his recent C-Span show on the prospects of space exploration.

And, in case no one else has used this one, I like:

" Nostalgia is not what it used to be" , by , I think, S.Signoret, and a (darkly) funny one that Hallmark somehow rejected for its cards:

" Life is a **** sandwich and every day you take another bite"

 

[1977ub]

Since the writings of Sartre and Camus, our comfortable assumptions about "safe" and "out" have become untenable.
- Garrison Keillor, "The New Baseball", (1971)

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1971/05/15/1971_05_15_035_TNY_CARDS_000300310

 

[AlephZero]

I don’t play golf. Is there a word for non-golf players?

No, but if the ancient greeks had been stupid enough to invent golf, there would be.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

No, but if the ancient greeks had been stupid enough to invent golf, there would be.

LLOL!

 

[George Jones]

"Indeed, the joy of insight is very important. I myself must say, if I look back at my life as a scientist and a teacher, I think the most important and beautiful moments were when I say 'ah-hah, now I see it a little better,' and it is not necessarily when I myself have done something. When I hear a seminar or when I hear a good speaker, then I say 'ah, now I see,' this is the joy of insight which pays for all the trouble one has had in this career."

Victor Weisskopf

 

[sankalpmittal]

I continue this thread :

Here is one quote regarding "Act Now":

Trust no future howe'er pleasant,
Let the dead past bury its dead,
Act act in a living present,
Heart Within and God o'erheard !

By H.W. Longfellow.

 

[jobyts]

“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

― Warren Buffett

 

[Whovian]

Let me tell you the most beautiful story I know.
A man was given a dog, which he loved very much.
the dog went with him everywhere,
but the man could not teach it to do anything useful.
The dog would not fetch or point,
it would not race or protect or stand watch.
Instead the dog sat near him and regarded him,
always with the same inscrutable expression.
"That is not a dog, it's a wolf," said the man's wife.
"He alone is faithful to me," said the man,
and his wife never discussed it with him again.
One day the man took his dog with him into his private airplane
and as they flew over high winter mountains,
the engines failed
and the airplane was torn to shreds among the trees.
The man lay bleeding,
his belly torn open by blades of sheared metal,
steam rising from his organs in the cold air,
but all he could think of was his faithful dog.
Imagine his relief when the dog came padding up
and regarded him with that same steady gaze.
After an hour the dog nosed the man's gaping abdomen,
then began pulling out intestines and spleen and liver
and gnawing on them,
all the while studying the man's face.
"Thank God," said the man.
"At least one of us will not starve."

- Orson Scott Card

First really good laugh I've had in a while.

 

[1977ub]

"At least one of us will not starve."

And then the dog said: "And I thought they smelled bad on the OUTSIDE!"

 

[2sin54]

"Never trust quotes on the internet" - Abraham Lincoln.

 

[Just Steve]

My Favorite Quotes

"Everyday it's the same thing - Variety" (from a Bugs Bunny episode)

"East Is East, And West is West - But a Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss...Boulder's Rule"

 

[HeLiXe]

"Ain't nobody got time for that." -Sweet Brown

 

[DiracPool]

"I wouldn't join a club that would have me as a member"

--Woody Allen

 

[Light Bearer]

"Do or do not - there is no try."

 

[micromass]

"Do or do not - there is no try."

"Only a Sith deals in absolutes"

This proves that Yoda is a Sith Lord.

 

[Light Bearer]

"Only a Sith deals in absolutes"

This proves that Yoda is a Sith Lord.

I don't know what is real anymore...

 

[Evo]

What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.

Albert Pike

 

[Buckleymanor]

I find television very educating.
Every time somebody turns on the set,
I go into the other room and read a book.Groucho Marx

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.attributed to Groucho Marx

I sent the club a wire stating,
PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION.
I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB
THAT WILL ACCEPT ME AS A MEMBER.Groucho Marx

We must remember that art is art.
Well, on the other hand water is water isn't it?
And east is east and west is west.
And if you take cranberries and stew them like applesause
they taste much more like prunes than rubarb does.
Now uh...now you tell me what you know.Groucho in Animal Crackers (movie)

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.Groucho Marx

Why a four year old child could understand this.
Run out and get me a four year old child,
I can't make head or tail out of it.Groucho in Duck Soup (movie)

 

[L4xord]

"quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patentia nostra."

The opening line of Cicero's In Catilinam I speech against Catilina. In my opinion, this is probably the coolest quote due to the fact it shows off Cicero's awesome oratory and rhetoric skills which may have singlehandely saved Rome from a conspiracy that could have destroyed it.

Oh here's a crappy translation from somewhere: How long, O Catiline, will you abuse our patience? This translation certainly doesn't quite show the power in Cicero's words but it's alright.

 

[Bacle2]

" A specialist is someone who knows more and more about less and less, until s/he knows

everything about nothing"

Don't know by who.

" In Harvard, even the owls are so educated that they say whom, instead of who"

 

[consciousness]

You can take control of my mind and my body, but there is one thing a Saiyan always keeps... his PRIDE!

Vegeta (Dragon Ball Z)

And of course

Nappa: Vegeta, what does the scouter say about his power level?
Vegeta: It's over NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAND!

 

[jobyts]

"I knew something was wrong when a pretty little white girl ran to a black mans arms" - Charles Ramsey

 

[Trollegionaire]

"I'm the best."

- Will Farrell.

 

[ImATrackMan]

In God we trust. All others must bring data.

And have their findings peer-reviewed.


Edit: "It takes many nails to build a crib, but only one screw to fill it"
-I don't know who

 

[jobyts]

"When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." - Dom Helder Camara, Archbishop of Recife, Brazi]

 

[Bacle2]

" Parents work hard to give their children a better life than they had, only to then complain that
their children have it too easy." Unknown.

 

[brennan97]

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are devil but because of the people who don't do anything about it." - Albert Einstein -

 

[sankalpmittal]

"I am the Shade.
Through the dolent city, I flee.
Through the eternal woe, I take flight."

:- Dan Brown, in his latest novel "Inferno".

Other two quotes are in my signature...