Do you have a favorite quotation?
 

One of my hobbies is collecting quotations. I find that quotations are often stimulating and help me think about things in a new manner or highlight how I feel about an issue.

Do you have a favorite quotation, or one that you use as a refrence or life motto?

I think one of my favorite quotes is currently in my signature. I'll go ahead and share more of my favorites.

"What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

"Man is the artificer of his own happiness." (Henry David Thoreau)

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." (Theodore Geisel \ Dr. Seuss)

Hopefully this thread will have enough responses I can get some new material to copy down and perhaps someone will find inspiration in a quote left here.

Okay I got a good one that I like... I have no idea who said it I just picked it up somewhere.

"At least once every week. And by 'once every week', I really mean when I get a chance. And by 'when I get a chance', I really mean never."

This is kind of an anti-inspirational quote but I find it funny so maybe it will make you smile

You've probably heard this one, but it is my favorite.

"There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living." Thoreau

You could always nail a meatball to your knee.

doesnt everyone have their favorite quote in their sig? haha

I had this humongous text file packed with collected quotes, but my hard drive crashed and I lost everything, sadly. (if only I had collected some proverbs in there about back-ups...)

Thankfully, I started a new text file anyway :D
Here's one that I like, even though it doesn't really apply to daily life:
"To win any battle, you must fight as if you were already dead." - Musashi
Well I suppose it kind of does, if you don't take it literally.

and another one:
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."
-Socrates (470 BC - 399 BC)

and one more:
"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just." - Abraham Lincoln

"It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

I like that quote in your sig line willravel

I've always liked this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: "My country is the world, and my religion is to do good."

I'm a simple kind of a guy, so my favorite quotes(in my sig) reflect that.

Two of my other favorites are "Don't argue with an idiot, someone wacthing may not be able to tell the difference"
and
"It's better to sit there quietly and appear stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"

Sorry, I don't know the authors execpt, Simon and Garfunkel.

Thank you! It took me a while to settle on a line that made me laugh.
Excelent quote!

One of my personal favorites, that I've used for years...

"Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels"

i do not regret the things i did, but those i did not do...

fuck the fuckin' fuckers is right up there for me.

"Luck, is when opportunity meets preparation."

I don't know who said it, but I love it.

I put "Popularity is but glory's small change." in my High School Yearbook graduation photo. It's a Victor Hugo quote.

"Work is the curse of the drinking class." --Oscar Wilde

My absolute favorite, though, is an excerpt from a movie, Love Actually:

heh. Oscar Wilde is a brimming fountain of quotes.

I like what is purported to be his last words, spoken from his death bed:

"The wallpaper in here is dreadful. One of us must go..."

"The secret to a succesful marriage?... one hemisphere each." -Willie Rushton.

"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever" -Napoleon Bonaparte (Could you tell I liked this one?)

"The cynics are right nine times out of ten." - Henry Louis Mencken

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

mine is down in my sig. What is really amazing is that this was a letter a letter that Tompson wrote home after being fired for his essay about the Kentucky Durby in the the late 1950s.

Here's a few that I like:

"Adversity introduces a man to himself." - Anonymous

"We cannot learn without pain." - Aristotle

"In doing your work in the great world, it is a safe plan to follow a rule I once heard on the football field: Don't flinch, don't fall; hit the line hard." - Theodore Roosevelt

Now THAT, I like. :thumbsup:


and mine?
True friendship is like china.
Costly, rich and rare.

Once broken, it can be mended
But the crack is always there.

"I got muscles in my ass, so I hump fast."

-Saafir

Don't compromise yourself. You're all you've got. --Janis Joplin

Time you enjoyed wasting, was not wasted. -John Lennon

I also came across this Jimi Hendrix quote the other day that I really liked.

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. --Jimi Hendrix

Better men have died for better things than this. All we can do is the job, and leave the hero-sorting to someone else.

Proper preperation and planning prevents piss-poor performance.

Do you want your grand-kids to talk about you to their friends, or listen to what their friend's grandfather did? Either way, the world keeps going on.

I was going to say something inspirational, but you dumb-asses won't remember it anyway. Just remember your training, and remember that I am right behind you.

--All words spoken by my loving Sergeant, all in times of adversity.

"I never let school interfere with my education" - Mark Twain

"What the *bleep* is the internet!?" Jay, from Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back

"Just tryin' to be myself. Better me than someone else." House of Large Sizes (one of the greatest bands to ever come out of the state of Iowa)

"There's a fine line between clever and stupid." Nigel Tuffnel

"The people love the autocracy and could never function without it." Nicholai Alexandrovich Romanov, Emperor of Russia, c. 1903

"I believe in 2 things: sex and death..... and death won't leave me nauseous." Woody Allen

"I have been addicted to many things in my life, money, drugs, booze, women, fame and gave them up for the most addictive thing I have ever known.... peace of mind."

The only common denominator in all of your failed relationships is you... despair.com

Shared happiness is double happiness, shared sorrow is halfed. (or something like that) Swedish proverb

"They misunderestimated me." Bush, Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000


"I've got just as much baggage as the person in the seat next to me, but mine's mostly carry-on..." me :D

I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered. -George Best.

I used to go missing a lot... Miss Canada, Miss United Kingdom, Miss World. -George Best.

Be careful what you wish for. You may get it.

And

May you live in interesting times.

Probably seen in previous posts, but here goes:

"Behind every successful organization stands at least one person who knows the secret of how to keep the managers away from anything truly important.''

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." ..... Mark Twain

"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, France is accusing the US of arrogance and Germany doesn't want to go to war."

"The probability of one person being right increases in a direct porportion to the intensity with which others try to prove him wrong"

"There are a number of mechanical devices which increase sexual arousal, particularly in women. Chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz 500SL convertible."

"When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains,
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier." [Rudyard Kipling]

"Sometimes - in order to have a good time, you've got to be a good time" - yournamehere has it as their sig, though i'm not sure if that's where I got it from originally.

There are several others I really like but can't recall at the moment. Good thread. :)

You want quotes? Well, here are a "few" :lol: from my own quote database (there are plenty more, believe it or not!). They reveal many things about me, actually. Hope you aren't too bored... :)

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
-Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)

Beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing there's a field:
I'll meet you there.
- Rumi

The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over its government.
-Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (1882-1945)

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.
-Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.
-Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher (1889-1951)

It is the final proof of God's omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us.
-Peter De Vries, novelist (1910-1993)

The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.
-Robert Green Ingersoll, lawyer and orator (1833-1899)

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
-Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931)

Who is content with nothing possesses all things.
-Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, poet (1636-1711)

A nation, like a tree, does not thrive well till it is engrafted with a foreign stock.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
-Nelson Mandela

Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.
-Paulo Freire, educator (1921-1997)

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
-Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931)

It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars.
-Garrison Keillor, radio host and author (1942- )

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.
-Thomas Babington Macaulay, author and statesman (1800-1859)

-----

And, certainly my favorite quote for quite some time, applicable to just about everything in life, including Wal-Mart's "low prices"... :rolleyes:

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
-Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy the yacht right next door.
David Lee Roth.

Insanity is just anger put to good use.

Even if one's head were to be suddenly cut off, he should be able to do one more action with certainty. The last moments of Nitta Yoshisada are proof of this . Had his spirit been weak, he would have fallen the moment his head was severed. Recently, there is the example of Ono Doken. These actions occurred because of simple determination. With martial valor, if one becomes like a revengeful ghost and shows great determination, though his head is cut off, he should not die.

-Hagakure





“People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that's bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they're afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they're wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It's all in how you carry it. That's what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you're letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.”

-Jim Morrison

"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship.”

-Yoda

I'll post more as they come to mind :)

"Dream as if you'll live forever, and live as if you'll die tomorrow."
- James Dean

Plus my unknown signature quote is a classic for me.

'Logic is only the beginning of wisdom." Spock

"Trust in Allah, but count your change." Arab Proverb

"Women want the one man that can give them everything they desire. Men, on the other hand, want every woman who can give them the one thing they desire." Unknown

"The difference between men and women is that, if given the choice between saving the life of an infant or catching a fly ball, a woman will automatically choose to save the infant, without even considering if there's a man on base." - Dave Barry

"Beer is proof that God loves us and want's us to be happy."
"Fart Proudly." Ben Franklin

"Water? Water!? Fish F*uck in water." WC Fields

"I love children, but I don't think I could finish a whole one." - Unknown

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society " Twain

"I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability "- wilde

the one in my sig is by Skanderbeg(I doubt that people know who he is)

“Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless.” - Bertrand Russell

"Just keep on the road, you're the white line"- John Lennon