Search

[sharamik]

A few little quotables from my classical studies:

Cicero-
"There is nothing so ridiculous that a philosopher at some point has not said it."
"Not to learn history is to be forever a child"
"Not to enter politics is to be forever ruled by your inferiors."

Epicurus-
"Against other things it is possible to gain some security, but when it comes to death, we all live in an unwalled city."
"There is nothing fearful in life for the one who understands that there is nothing fearful in death."

Homer-
"Do not gloss over death to me, I would rather be above ground still, working for some poor penniless man than be king over all the lifeless dead"

"Men come and go as leaves year by year upon the trees.
Those of autumn the wind sheds upon the ground, but when spring
returns the forest buds forth with fresh vines. Even so is it with the
generations of mankind, the new spring up as the old are passing away"

Callinus-
"Throw your last spear even as you die, for proud it is and precious for a man to fight defending country children and wedded wife against the foes."

Horace-
"God has dictated a bad time for all tee-totalers

Herodotus-
"God is envious of human acheivements and likes to trouble us. Happiness never resides in the same place for long: God gives a man a glimpse of happiness then ruins him"

"four thousand here from Pelops' land, against three million once did stand, go tell the Spartans, you who read: we took our orders and here lie dead."- epitaph on the Greek mass grave- 4000 of them fought to the death against a Persian force a thousand times their number.

"You should thank the Persians for their many arrows- now we may fight in the shade."

Some quotes from past Radiohead websites (mirrored here). Most of these would be written by either Thom Yorke, or Stanley Donwood.

***

If you have been rejected many times in your life, then one more
rejection isn't going to make much difference. If you're
rejected, don't automatically assume it's your fault. The other
person may have several reasons for not doing what you are asking
her to do: one of it may have anything to do with you. Perhaps
the person is busy or not feeling well or genuinely not
interested in spending time with you. Rejections ar part of
everyday life. Don't let them bother you. Keep reaching out to
others. Keep reaching out to others. When you begin to receive
positive responses, then you are on the right track. It's all a
matter of numbers. Count the positive responses and forget about
the rejections.

***

the most essential thing in life is to establish a
heartfelt communication with others.

***

antidotes for loneliness in a goldfish bowl.

be easy to get to.
appear assured at all times.
see no-one as a rival.
compliment those who deserve it.
cooperate.
give yourself to someone each day.
develop that occupies your hands as well as
your head.
make a point with being happy with people.
never cry over spilt milk. what’s done is done.
up there in your goldfish bowl turn to God
and you will find that you were
never alone in the first place.

***

speak until the tape runs out
play back the tape
until the story is finished

***

think of how humbling it is to realize
that the world wouldn't be the same
if one person did not exist.

***

it’s one of our strengths and also one of our great
weaknesses. emotional honesty.

***

[Man With Beard]

"The first ten thousand years were the worst. The second ten thousand years, they were the worst too. The third ten thousand years I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline."
- Marvin the Paranoid Android

"A movie is not about what it is about; it is about how it is about it."
- Roger Ebert

"And I asked myself about the present: How deep it was, how wide it was, how much was mine to keep."
- Kurt Vonnegut, in the introduction to Slaughterhouse Five

[pukearrhea]

Now Let me get all nationalistic on you.


Canada is the linchpin of the English-speaking world.
- Sir Winston Churchill

In a world darkened by ethnic conflicts that tear nations apart, Canada stands as a model of how people of different cultures can live and work together in peace, prosperity, and mutual respect.
- Bill Clinton

We'll explain the appeal of curling to you if you explain the appeal of the National Rifle Association to us.
- Andy Barrie

When I'm in Canada, I feel this is what the world should be like.
- Jane Fonda

I don't even know what street Canada is on.
- Al Capone

[David Wong]

You want the truth?

You can't handle the truth.  

Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg?

I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines.  You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives.  And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.  

You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.

We use words like honor, code, loyalty.  We use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it.  I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way.  Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to.

-A Few Good Men

[David Wong]

"You're wasting your time," Doc Daneeka was forced to tell him.

"Can't you ground someone who's crazy?"

"Oh, sure. I have to. There's a rule saying I have to ground anyone who's crazy."

"Then why don't you ground me? I'm crazy. Ask Clevinger."

"Clevinger? Where is Clevinger? You find Clevinger and I'll ask him."

"Then ask any of the others. They'll tell you how crazy I am."

"They're crazy."

"Then why don't you ground them?"

"Why don't they ask me to ground them?"

"Because they're crazy, that's why."

"Of course they're crazy," Doc Daneeka replied. "I just told you they're crazy, didn't I? And you can't let crazy people decide whether you're crazy or not, can you?"

Yossarian looked at him soberly and tried another approach. "Is Orr crazy?"

"He sure is," Doc Daneeka said.

"Can you ground him?"

"I sure can. But first he has to ask me to. That's part of the rule."

"Then why doesn't he ask you to?"

"Because he's crazy," Doc Daneeka said. "He has to be crazy to keep flying combat missions after all the close call's he's had. Sure, I can ground Orr. But first he has to ask me to."

"That's all he has to do to be grounded?"

"That's all. Let him ask me."

"And then you can ground him?" Yossarian asked.

"No. Then I can't ground him."

"You mean there's a catch?"

"Sure there's a catch," Doc Daneeka replied. "Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy."

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.

"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.



------------------------------------

-Joseph Heller, coining the term "Catch-22"

[Sir Geld]

"But why does Nietzsche think the night has no stars, nothing but bats and owls and the insane moon?"

W B Yeats

"MacBeth's self-justifications were feeble-and his conscience devoured him.  Yes, even Iago was a little lamb too.  The imagination and the spiritual strength of Shakespheare's evildoers stopped short of a dozen corpses.  Because they had no ideology."

Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

"He wasn't going to let the pain blot out the humour anymore than he was going to let the humour blot out the pain."

Ken Kesey-One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

[David Wong]

"If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth, only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair."

-------------------

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

-------------------

"I believe in God like I believe in the sun rise. Not because I can see it, but because I can see all that it touches. "

-------------------

"Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable."

--------------------

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell."

-------------------

-all by C.S. Lewis

[The Bombastic Sophist]

(All by Churchill)

“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
Referring to final Allied success in the North African campaign at the Battle of El Alamein.
Speech at Mansion House, London.

“This was their finest hour.”
Referring to the Dunkirk evacuation

The price of greatness is responsibility.

Never abandon life. There is a way out of everything except death.

An iron curtain has descended across the Continent.

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity; in peace, goodwill.

“You may take the most gallant sailor, the most intrepid airman, or the most audacious soldier, put them at a table together-what do you get? The sum of their fears.”
Talking about the Chiefs of Staffs system.

And you, madam, are ugly. But I shall be sober in the morning.

Attributed to: Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British prime minister and writer.
Replying to the Member of Parliament Bessie Braddock, who told him he was drunk.

If you were my wife, I'd drink it.

Attributed to: Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British prime minister and writer.
Replying to Lady Astor who had said, "If you were my husband, I'd put poison in your coffee."

I'm so bored with it all.

Attributed to: Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British prime minister and writer, 1965.
Said to be his last words.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British prime minister and writer.
My Early Life

[Jalaam]

"I don't think there's anything to be afraid of. Failure brings great rewards -- in the life of an artist."


-- Quentin Tarantino,

[Shore Dude]

I can't find this on the net, so I am going to do it from memory in the vernacular... one of my favorites!

Morgan Freeman in Glory

And what a you? So full a hate, you just wanna go out there and fight ev'ybody.  Cuz you been whipped and chased by hounds.  Well that may not be livin', but it sho as hell ain't dyin'.  And dyin's what these white boy been doin', goin' on three years now, dyin' by the thousands, dyin' for you, foo!  I know, cuz I dug their gaves.  And all the time I'm diggin' I'm askin' myself when, o' when Lord, is it gonna be our time.  Well our time's comin', and we're gonna have to anty up and kick in like men... LIKE MEN!  You watch who you call a nigga.  If der any niggas around here, it's you.  Stupid ass, smart mouth, swamp runnin' nigga.  And if you ain't careful, that's all you eva gonna be.

[henr3443]

Some Nietzsche Quotes:

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."

"Love is like racing across the frozen tundra on a snowmobile which flips over, trapping you underneath. At night, the ice-weasels come"

"Woman was God's second mistake."

"A woman may very well form a friendship with a man, but for this to endure, it must be assisted by a little physical antipathy."

"If a woman seeks education it is probably because her sexual apparatus is malfunctioning."

"If you go to see the woman, do not forget the whip. "

[CCJames]

"In heaven all the interesting people are missing" - Nietzsche

---

"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently" - Nietzsche

---

'Does Big Brother exist?'

'Of course he exists. The Party exists. Big Brother is the embodiment of the Party.'

'Does he exist in the same way as I exist?'

'You do not exist,' said O'Brien.

Once again the sense of helplessness assailed him. He knew, or he could imagine, the arguments which proved his own nonexistence; but they were nonsense, they were only a play on words. Did not the statement, 'You do not exist', contain a logical absurdity? But what use was it to say so? His mind shrivelled as he thought of the unanswerable, mad arguments with which O'Brien would demolish him.

'I think I exist,' he said wearily. 'I am conscious of my own identity. I was born and I shall die. I have arms and legs. I occupy a particular point in space. No other solid object can occupy the same point simultaneously. In that sense, does Big Brother exist?'

'It is of no importance. He exists.'

'Will Big Brother ever die?'

'Of course not. How could he die? Next question.'

- Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell

---

[David Wong]

Sameness is to be found most among the most "natural" men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.

-C.S. Lewis

-------------------------------

Aye.  Fight, and you may die.  Run, and you'll live. At least a while.

And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom.

-Braveheart

[David Wong]

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.
It has been found difficult; and left untried."

-G. K. Chesterton

------------------------------------

"Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.

Genius will not; unrewarded genius is a proverb.

Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

-Calvin Coolidge  

----------------------------------

[Tlogmer]

The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat.
- Albert Einstein

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.
- Frank Zappa

Form follows form.
- Nowicki

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
- Bertrand Russell

T-shirts with expensive words on them are now the insignia of the upper class. T-shirts with cheap words, or no words at all, are for the commoners.
- Neal Stephenson

Wisest is he who knows he does not know.
- Socrates

When I clone a human being, it will be a member of my band.
- Freezepop

[finduilas]

Martin Luther King, Jr.:

…I say to you today my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustration of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of it’s creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governors lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be made exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will; be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall be together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the south. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be that day when all of god’s children will be able to sing with new meaning “my country ‘tis of three, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

And if America is to be a great nation, this must be come true. So let freedom ring form the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring form the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peak of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring form every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of god’s children, black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual “free at last! Free at last! Thank god almighty we are free at last!”

[Man With Beard]

The rich are different from you and me: they have more money.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!
- Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (spoken by Mark Antony apologizing to Caesar's corpse)

I've posted this before, but:
"Hi, my name's Dave Foley, and, uh, something you might not know about me is that .. I have a good attitude towards menstruation. That's right, I'm the guy! The guy with a good attitude towards menstruation!
Oh, I know a lot of men are made uncomfortable by this monthly miracle. But not me. No, I embrace it. Embrace it the way the way some men embrace the weekend! Why I anticipate it the way a child anticipates Christmas!

Did you know that, uh, in a lot of native Indian cultures, menstruating woman were forced to leave the village, lest their *powerful* magic should overwhelm the Shaman? If I were Shaman, I wouldn't be so competitive. I'd be more open and giving. I'd be a shaman with... a good attitude towards menstruation!

'Cause after all, what is it? a cluster of blood vessels, awaiting a fertilized egg. Providing a safe warm place for that egg to grow. And if a life does not occur, the whole thing is flushed away, and the cycle begins again. Now is that anything to be ashamed of or disgusted by? No, this is the nesting stuff of humanity!

That's why the woman I shall love will be able to menstruate as fully and freely as she desires. Even if her monthly flow should build in intensity to a raging rust colored torrent! An unbridled river of life giving blood flowing from between her legs! An awesome cataract plunging off the edge of our couch. I wouldn't be fazed! No, no, even if coureur de bois would come up stream, battling the rapids, and singing a 'jaunty song'! I would take no offense, rather I would ford across that mighty womanly river, and fetch herbal tea and Pamprin. And then I would mop her brow and admire her fecundity. For I...Have A Good Attitude....Towards MENSTRUATION!"

[sephira]

"It seems, then, we are forced to believe in a real Right and Wrong. People may be sometimes mistaken about them, just as people sometimes get their sums wrong; but they are not a matter of mere taste and opinion any more than the multiplication table."

- CS Lewis

"If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility."

- some guy named after Dr Oxford's penis

[CCJames]

"The biggest cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid people are so sure about things and the intelligent folks are so full of doubts." - Betrand Russell

"One man's religion is another man's belly laugh." - Robert A. Heinlein

"If God made us in His image we have certainly returned the compliment." - Voltaire

"No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says; he is always convinced that it says what he means." - George Bernard Shaw

"It is raining DNA outside. On the bank of the Oxford canal at the bottom of my garden is a large willow tree, and it is pumping downy seeds into the air...The whole performance, cotton wool, catkins, tree and all, is in aid of one thing and one thing only, the spreading of DNA around the countryside. Not just any DNA, but DNA whose coded characters spell out specific instructions for building willow trees that will shed a new generation of downy seeds. Those fluffy specks are, literally, spreading instructions for making themselves. They are there because their ancestors succeeded in doing the same. It is raining instructions out there; it's raining programs; it's raining tree-growing, fluff-spreading, algorithms. That is not a metaphor, it is the plain truth. It couldn't be any plainer if it were raining floppy discs."

- The Blind Watchmaker, by Richard Dawkins