Favorite Quotes

[Utopmk]

I love hearing people's favorite quotes, whats yours?

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
--Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"But what ... is it good for?"
--Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
--Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
--Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

--Friedrich Nietzsche

In heaven all the interesting people are missing.
--Friedrich Nietzsche

"Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself."
--Friedrich Nietzsche

[Avengardh]

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds " - Albert Einstein.

[SensEye]

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. "
-George Bernard Shaw

[Birnam]

"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
- Charles Babbage

It is probable that many things should happen contrary to probability.
- Agathon

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'"
- C. S. Lewis

"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
- Albert Einstein

"....I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
- Thomas Edison

"MacDonald has the gift on compressing the largest amount of words into the smallest amount of thoughts."
- Winston Churchill

"The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they're going to be when you kill them."
- William Clayton

"There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: (1) not going all the way; and (2) not starting."
- Buddha

"It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety."
- Issac Asimov

"There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself."
- JS Bach

"Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum" (I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.)
- Ambrose Bierce

For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
- Henry L. Mencken

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
- Albert Einstein

Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible. I think it's in my basement... let me go upstairs and check.
- M.C. Escher

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
- Albert Einstein

[HairlessBluetick]

“Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative
instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man."
-John Steinbeck, East of Eden

[Crazy]

"It is better to be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"

"Some people wonder if they made a difference in this world, Marines don't have that problem" - Ronald Reagan

"Life is about the journey, not the destination"

[Sugaraddict2702]

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intorelable that we have to alter it every six months.
(Oscar Wilde)

Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.
(Aristotle)

The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.
(Nietzsche)

Never discourage anyone...who continually makes progress, no matter how slow
(Plato)

The life which is unexamined is not worth living
(Plato)

Better to get up late and be wide awake than to get up early and be asleep all day
(anonymous)

Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better.
(anonymous)

We are all born mad. Some remain so.
(Samuel Becket, waiting for Godot)

Ellen*

[Johnny]

"I'm ready to tackle my personal problems, but should I attempt a political or a miltary solution?" - Ashley Brilliant

"What I most dislike about reality is that it doesn't try hard enough to meet my expectations." - Ashley Brilliant

[int]

I was going to post some of my favorites from Pascal's "Pensees" but I got lost and astounded, as usual.

edit: No, I need to decide. Please hold...


edit:

People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others. - Blaise Pascal

The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. - Blaise Pascal

The last thing one settles in writing a book is what one should put in first. - Blaise Pascal


Those are just from Section 1 (of 13 useful ones).

[int]

"Computer games don't affect kids. I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music."

Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989



I pulled this from someone else's sig at another forum.

[HairlessBluetick]

"Computer games don't affect kids. I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music."


:rofl: :rofl:

[Claverhouse]

We have a (Swedish) proverb that goes: "det är tanken som räknas". Literally translated to: "it is the thought that matters", and usually for the context where someone has made a gift or favour to another when it really wasn't necessary (for that other person.)

I just love to pull it on occasions (since the distance between thought and action is huge.)

In Britain we say: 'It's the thought that counts' when given a gift that is not quite... Now I'll assume that we got it from your lot when your ancestors ( and of course ours to some extent ) were raiding here and we offered them an old piece of wood when they wanted gold...


Claverhouse :ph34r:

[Melody]

In the philippines, they have the same idea but say it in a way to imply that a favor was done for you, and it would be best for you to return it. I forgot the wording. Anyway, I'm sure very similar things are in every country. In America we also have "It is the thought that counts."

[Birnam]

New favorite funny quote- from Winter's Tale-

"What are you?"
"What am I? What do you mean by that?"
"What the heck are you? Am I dreaming you? You look like Rumpelstiltskin."
"Never heard of him. Does he climb in the Sierra?"


(I hope this makes sense out of context)

[Claverhouse]

I left off posting until I looked up a list I made to a similar thread elsewhere, but I really should include my favourite, used as my default sig ( I have many others... but this is the best ) on email and other places


For with the devils Jurgen got on garrulously. The religion of Hell is patriotism, and the government is an enlightened democracy. This contented the devils, and Jurgen had learned long ago never to fall out with either of these codes, without which, as the devils were fond of observing, Hell would not be what it is.

Excite homepage (http://www.excite.co.uk/today/girl)
Daily change

'He who ignores the Usages must expect to find the Usages ignored'

Kai Lung



Claverhouse :ph34r:

[Jkrs]

In no order whatsoever..


I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by. - Douglas Adams

All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies. - Bokonon

Those who have no interest in Strategy would do well to be aware that Strategy always has an interest in them. - Stalin

The only thing you can't trade for you hearts' desire is your heart. - Miles Naismith Vorkosigan

Everyone has some skills for free, and others that they have to sweat blood to acquire. - Papersky

The real power of reason lies not in the posession of truth, but in the acquisition of truth. - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Ideas do not have to be correct in order to be good; it is only necessary that, if they do fail, they do so in an interesting way. - Robert Rosen

Where there is opportunity, there will be opportunists. - Anon.

Remember, if it's jaded, self-depreciating and cynical, it's no longer pathetic. - Postvixen

Well, when you have that many monkies, anything is possible. - Jan Jansen

I confess that countries are pieces on a chessboard, upon which is being played a great game for the domination of the world. - Lord Curzon (viceroy of India, 1898)

Reality is the other persons' idea of how things should be. - John M. Shanahan

A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not wht ships are for. - John A. Shedd

Men run howling about the graves and fields at night, and will not be persuaded but that they are wolves. - Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

If I could find a souvineer
Just to prove the world was here
And here it is, a red balloon...
- Nena, "99 Red Ballons"

You have the right to remain stupid. Anything you do or say will be laughed at by smarter people in a court of reason. - M. Burns

Hell is other people at breakfast. - Sartre

An idea is something that you have; an ideology is something that has you. - Morris Berman

A Discordian is forbidden to believe anything they read. - Principia Discordia

I'm still in the process of inserting angst into the day. When I'm able to extract nihilism, I shall bottle it and become rich. - Me

Insanity is often the logic of an intelligent mind overtaxed. - Oliver W. Holmes Sr.

Government is just a conspiracy that everyone acknowledges. - Deus Ex

Power grows out of the barrel of a gun. - Mao Tse Tung

'I have done that,' says my memory. 'I could not have done that,' says my pride, and remains inorexable. Finally, my memory yields. - Neitzsche

Medicority knows nothing higher than itself, but talent immediately recognises genius. - Arthur Conan Doyle

The wicked have told me of things that delight them, but not such things as your law has to tell. - St. Augustine, "Confessions"

Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. - Alpha Centauri

Asia is not going to be civilised after the methods of the West. There is too much Asia and she is too old. - Kipling

Consider the daffodil. While you do that, I'll be over here going through your stuff. - Jack Handey

Fools are protected by more capable fools. - Larry Niven, Ringworld

Very few people understand the distinction of giving a gift they want to give and giving a gift the recipient wants to recieve. - Dave Pritchard

If you do not control your credulity, it controls you. - Cate Bramble

Things need not have happened to be true. - Dream (of the Sandman comics by Neil Gaiman)

[Whatever you believe,] someone is out there expressing your beliefs in terms as crazy as a box of frogs. - Andrewwyld

If someone cuts my throat, you'd better be prepared to tie a tourniquet around my neck. - Vlad Taltos

No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulderblades will seriously cramp his style. - House Jhreg motto

The earth is the cradle of the mind, but one cannot stay in the cradle forever. - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, The Father of Rocketry

Scientists have to be optomists at heart, in order to block out the incessant chorus of those who say 'It cannot be done'. - Alpha Centauri

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. - Sigmund Freud

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh. - George Bernard Shaw

Words are wise mens' counters, they do but reckon by them; but they are the money of fools. - Thomas Hobbes

It's not what you are, but what you fail to become that hurts." - Oscar Levant

What I can not create, I can not understand. - Richard Fenyman

If I determine the enemys' disposition of forces while I have no perceptible form, I can concentrate my forces while the enemy is fragmented. The pinnacle of military deployment approaches the formless: if it is formless, then even the deepest spy cannot discern it nor the wise make plans against it. - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

There's no such thing in nature; and you'll draw
A faultless monster which the world ne'er saw.
- Duke Sheffield

The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others. - Nietzsche

The handwriting on the wall may be a forgery. - Ralph Hodgson

Morturi Nolumus Mori - Rincewind ('We who are about to die don't want to.') (Terry Pratchett, The Last Hero)

Here they hang a man first, and try him afterwards. - Molere

A sensible human once said... 'She's the sort of woman who lives for others - you can tell the others by their hunted expression.' - C.S. Lewis

Don't shout so loud, you might start another government agency. - Florence Ambrose (Freefall. (http://freefall.purrsia.com/))

I'm tired of all this nonsens about beauty being only skin deep. That's deep enough. What do you want - an adorable pancreas? - Jean Kerr

Men stumble on the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as though nothing had happened. - Sir Winston Churchill

In the fight between the art and the artist, the art always wins. - Ursula Vernon


Regretting that you looked at this thread yet? :D

[Edit: Forgot one.]

Brought to you by Oxymoron Philosophy - the philosophy with the power of an ox! - Laochbran

[paladinoflunaria]

Some day I'll take the time to compile them. One I like is:

"Progression is being able to look back and say, 'What a fool I was.' Accomplishment is being able to look back and say, 'What a wise person I was.'"
- anonymous

[Rice-Tactics]

Do you know any good ones? I'll start with this one.

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

[Google Monster]

Well if the truth had kept it's pants on it wouldn't have had to lie.

[Rice-Tactics]

Well if the truth had kept it's pants on it wouldn't have had to lie.

Unless the pants where too big.

[LongSilence]

Don't know why the truth doesn't just go naked. Some people might not like it of course...

[Moral Porn]

"Fuck now, suffer later."

[domokun]

"Out of damp and gloomy days, out of solitude, out of loveless words directed at us, conclusions grow up in us like fungus. One morning they are there, we know not how, and they gaze upon us, morose and gray. Woe to the thinker who is not the gardener but only the soil of the plants that grow in him"

[anchorman]

"deja moo - the feeling that you have heard this bull before"

[C.J.Woolf]

"Fuck now, suffer later."
Vidi, veni, VD. (I saw, I came, I cankered.)

[liquidicy]

Post your fav. quote. One per person.

[manza]

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

[Rincon]

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

As long as it's not hammocked.

[liquidicy]

"Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values"

Ayn Rand is the shit

[Nancynobullets]

"Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values"

Ayn Rand is the shit


Uh...what? Im pretty sure some people can be happy while still s***ing all over everybody. And so saying that their happiness is proof of their "moral integrity" seems a bit silly.

Or was it not a serious quote? Im not sure mine is and its a long one.

I am a lover of truth, a worshipper of freedom, a celebrant at the altar of language and purity and tolerance. That is my religion, and every day I am sorely, grossly, heinously and deeply offended, wounded, mortified and injured by a thousand different blasphemies against it. When the fundamental canons of truth, honesty, compassion and decency are hourly assaulted by fatuous bishops, pompous, illiberal and ignorant priests, politicians and prelates, sanctimonious censors, self-appointed moralists and busy-bodies, what recourse of ancient laws have I? None whatever. Nor would I ask for any. For unlike these blistering imbeciles my belief in my religion is strong and I know that lies will always fail and indecency and intolerance will always perish.
"Trefusis Blasphemes" radio broadcast crica 2000

[liquidicy]

Uh...what? Im pretty sure some people can be happy while still s***ing all over everybody. And so saying that their happiness is proof of their "moral integrity" seems a bit silly.

Or was it not a serious quote? Im not sure mine is and its a long one.

I am a lover of truth, a worshipper of freedom, a celebrant at the altar of language and purity and tolerance. That is my religion, and every day I am sorely, grossly, heinously and deeply offended, wounded, mortified and injured by a thousand different blasphemies against it. When the fundamental canons of truth, honesty, compassion and decency are hourly assaulted by fatuous bishops, pompous, illiberal and ignorant priests, politicians and prelates, sanctimonious censors, self-appointed moralists and busy-bodies, what recourse of ancient laws have I? None whatever. Nor would I ask for any. For unlike these blistering imbeciles my belief in my religion is strong and I know that lies will always fail and indecency and intolerance will always perish.
"Trefusis Blasphemes" radio broadcast crica 2000

Morality is subjective

[MacGuffin]

"Merged three threads."

-MacGuffin

[manza]

As long as it's not hammocked.
I don't know; fruit flies might still like it.