Famous quotes thread

[Dragon Cat]

After seeing a couple of famous quotes in the navy thread I thought why no share some here

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

Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Longer version from the place I first heard it the film Coach Carter

[ANS Kamas P81]

My personal favorite from the Spartans, and easily the top contender for shortest famous quote: "If."

[worktroll]

"All right," said Susan, "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need ... fantasies to make life bearable."

NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers?"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. DUTY. MERCY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

REALLY? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET YOU ACT, LIKE THERE WAS SOME SORT OF RIGHTNESS TO THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes. But people have got to believe that or what's the point?"

MY POINT EXACTLY.


-- Terry Pratchett, Hogfather.

Yes, he could be preachy on occasions, but some times he got it absolutely right.

[The Eagle]

"Be polite.  Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet." -General Mattis, USMC

[Acolyte]

"This book fills a much needed gap."

-Moses Hadas


   - Shane

[Feenix74]

This is my kind of thread, I love a good quotation  >:D

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams

[Feenix74]

"There's a passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon you." Now... I been sayin' that shit for years. And if you ever heard it, that meant your ass. You'd be dead right now. I never gave much thought to what it meant. I just thought it was a cold-blooded thing to say to a ****** before I popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some shit this mornin' made me think twice. See, now I'm thinking: maybe it means you're the evil man. And I'm the righteous man. And Mr. 9mm here... he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or it could mean you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish. And I'd like that. But that shit ain't the truth. The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd."  - Jules Winnfield

[marauder648]

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance.."

Last words of US Civil War General John Sedgwick

Lady Astor: "Mr. Churchill, you're drunk!"
Winston Churchill: "Yes, and you, Madam, are ugly. But tomorrow, I shall be sober."

And a barrage of quotes from my favorite Admiral, Sir 'Jacky' Fisher

"Put on the impenetrable armour of contempt and fortitude."
" Tact" is insulting a man without his knowing it.
The 3 Requisites for Success – Ruthless, Relentless, Remorseless (The 3 R's)
Hit first ! Hit hard ! Keep on hitting ! ! (The 3 H's)

[ClarkeMarek]

"We all change, when you think about it, we're all different people; all through our lives, and that's okay, that's good, you've gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be. I will not forget one line of this, not one day, I swear. I will always remember when The Doctor was me." Doctor #11

"KIDNEYS!!!!  I'VE GOT NEW KIDNEYS!!!!  I don't like the colour!"  Doctor #12

[Dragon Cat]

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
― Albert Einstein

There's quite a range of conflict where warships are more useful than nuclear weapons, and they continue to be useful even when one side decides to use nuclear weapons.  Historically, navies have served many more purposes than armies.  Fewer ships means fewer options short of employing the latter (i.e., war).  Theodore Roosevelt said it better:
"A good Navy is not a provocation to war.  It is the surest guaranty of peace."

Two quotes that inspired this thread

"Money is not an issue... as long as I have plenty"

An old friend of mine

[Sharpnel]

"Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing." - Vince Lombardi

[Feenix74]

I have always found this one to be helpful when things are weighing me down:

"If sometimes you feel yourself little, useless, offended and depressed, always remember that you were once the fastest and most victorious sperm out of hundreds of millions."



Useful to remember when you are about to board an aircraft:

"Structural Engineering is the art of moulding materials we do not wholly understand into shapes we cannot precisely analyse, as to withstand forces we cannot really assess, in such a way that the public at large has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance."



Albert Einstein has some great quotes attributed to him:

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein

[ANS Kamas P81]

Useful to remember when you are about to board an aircraft:

"Structural Engineering is the art of moulding materials we do not wholly understand into shapes we cannot precisely analyse, as to withstand forces we cannot really assess, in such a way that the public at large has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance."

"with the barest minimum of financial and material investment" should be in there somewhere.  I have never seen an entire room full of death-glares as the time I vocally reminded a friend, as we just began the 600 foot nonstop descent in the elevators at Hoover Dam...that we were standing in a box built by the lowest bidder.  That's nearly a two minute ride, and oh god the hate was glorious.

[Feenix74]

That is where this one comes into play:

"To the optimist the glass is half full. To the pessimist the glass is half empty. To the engineer the glass is twice as big as it needs to be."

Well done on the Hoover dam elevator moment. I had a similar one on an Airbus A320, when I reminded a friend of mine (who had insisted on booking the cheapest airline ticket by $5) that if we had gone with the airline that I had suggested, they only flew Boeing 737, the safest aircraft in the world per a passenger mile flown. Whereas the A320 does not have a similar safety record. The lady sitting in the row in front of us, spent the rest of the flight wishing she had not eavesdropped on our conversation.

[Arkansas Warrior]

Every quote in this thread is, of course, misattributed.  They all originate with the Blessed Blake.   :)

[Peter Smith]

Well done on the Hoover dam elevator moment. I had a similar one on an Airbus A320, when I reminded a friend of mine (who had insisted on booking the cheapest airline ticket by $5) that if we had gone with the airline that I had suggested, they only flew Boeing 737, the safest aircraft in the world per a passenger mile flown. Whereas the A320 does not have a similar safety record. The lady sitting in the row in front of us, spent the rest of the flight wishing she had not eavesdropped on our conversation.

I had a conversation with a friend about all the ways a plane can go down.
Sitting with somebody we knew was terrified of flying.
On a 757.
On a flight rescheduled due to bad weather.

[glitterboy2098]

“There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities; it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain"
-Gkar, babylon 5

"f I take a lamp and shine it toward the wall, a bright spot will appear on the wall. The lamp is our search for truth, for understanding. Too often, we assume that the light on the wall is God, but the light is not the goal of the search, it is the result of the search. The more intense the search, the brighter the light on the wall. The brighter the light on the wall, the greater the sense of revelation upon seeing it. Similarly, someone who does not search – who does not bring a lantern – sees nothing. What we perceive as God is the by-product of our search for God. It may simply be an appreciation of the light… pure and unblemished… not understanding that it comes from us. Sometimes we stand in front of the light and assume that we are the center of the universe – God looks astonishingly like we do – or we turn to look at our shadow and assume that all is darkness. If we allow ourselves to get in the way, we defeat the purpose, which is to use the light of our search to illuminate the wall in all its beauty and in all its flaws; and in so doing, better understand the world around us."
- (same)

[Dragon Cat]

By a long way he had some of the best lines of that show

[sadlerbw]

A couple of Mark Twain quotes I've always enjoyed:

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

Never try to teach a pig to sing. You waste your time and annoy the pig.

[Drop Bear]

"Any technology, no matter how primitive, is Magic to those who don't understand it" - Florence Ambrose

[worktroll]

Cehm's corollary: "Any technology which can be distinguished from magic is insufficiently advanced."

[mike19k]

I do not know who said it, but my dad had a needle point saying "To err is human, to really foul things up takes a computer"

[Drop Bear]

Cehm's corollary: "Any technology which can be distinguished from magic is insufficiently advanced."

Aha! Barry Cehm

http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff300/fv00255.htm

[Feenix74]

I do not know who said it, but my dad had a needle point saying "To err is human, to really foul things up takes a computer"

I first saw that on a t-shirt back in the late-80s . . .

"If you put tomfoolery into a computer, nothing comes out but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled and no one dares criticise it." - Pierre Gallois

"Computers have enabled people to make more mistakes faster than almost any invention in history, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns." - Mitch Ratcliffe

[ClarkeMarek]

As I was always fond of saying, "Good looks never won a war."

But then there's my favorite motivational speech, as utter by Neko Bijin:  "Blah Blah Blah Blah honor blah blah blah duty blah blah blah sacrifice blah blah blah here's your sword, son, go kill!" :)

[glitterboy2098]

A couple of Mark Twain quotes I've always enjoyed:

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

Never try to teach a pig to sing. You waste your time and annoy the pig.

sadly my favorite Twain quotes would get me in trouble for violating rule #4..

instead i'll quote Pratchett..

"we are trying to unravel the Mighty Infinite using a language which was designed to tell one another where the fresh fruit was."

"I don't like the place at all. It's all wrong. An imposition on the Landscape. I reckon that Stonehenge was build by the contemporary equivalent of Microsoft, whereas Avebury was definitely an Apple circle."
        On Stonehenge, at alt.fan.pratchett (8 June 1997)

"Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combatting the forces of evil... prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon..."
    alt.fan.pratchett (30 May 1998)

and Discworld:

It looked like the sort of book described in library catalogues as "slightly foxed", although it would be more honest to admit that it looked as though it had beed badgered, wolved and possibly beared as well.
    -- (Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic)

"While I'm still confused and uncertain, it's on a much higher plane, d'you see, and at least I know I'm bewildered about the really fundamental and important facts of the universe." Treatle nodded. "I hadn't looked at it like that," he said, "But you're absolutely right. He's really pushed back the boundaries of ignorance."
    -- Discworld scientists at work (Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites)

"Ibid you already know."
    -- More Discworld philosophers (Terry Pratchett, Pyramids)

“A book has been taken. A book has been taken? You summoned the watch,” Carrot drew himself up proudly, “because someone’s taken a book? You think that’s worse than murder?”
The Librarian gave him the kind of look other people would reserve for people who said things like “What’s so bad about genocide?”
    -- (Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!)

Any wizard bright enough to survive for five minutes was also bright enough to realize that if there was any power in demonology, then it lay with the demons. Using it for your own purposes would be like trying to beat mice to death with a rattlesnake.
    -- Why summoning demons is a Bad Idea (Terry Pratchett, Eric)

"That's why it's always worth having a few philosophers around the place. One minute it's all Is Truth Beauty and Is Beauty Truth, and Does A Falling Tree in the Forest Make A Sound if There's No one There to Hear It, and then just when you think they're going to start dribbling one of 'em says, Incidentally, putting a thirty-foot parabolic reflector on a high place to shoot the rays of the sun at an enemy's ships would be a very interesting demonstration of optical principles."
    -- The many and varied advantages of philosophy (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

[Dragon Cat]

Find out who your allies and fellow soldiers are, Assemble and organise your forces, then: Evaluate
If your forces are superior, fight;
If inferior, run and preserve your force;
If equal stay on the move and harass the enemy;
- Sun-Tzu, Art of War, Basic Tactical Doctrine -

[ClarkeMarek]

"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering."  Fourth Doctor

"Courage isn't just a matter of not being frightened, you know. It's being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway."  Third Doctor

[Feenix74]

Good to read that there are a few fellow Terry Pratchett fans here. My favourite, if a bit obscure Terry Pratchett quote:

"After all, you couldn't plan for every eventuality, because that involves knowing what is going to happen, and if you knew what is going to happen, you would probably see to it that it didn't, or at least happened to somebody else. So the Patrician never planned. Plans often got in the way." - Terry Pratchett

[Lazarus Jaguar]

"Millions of people who have never died before will be killed"
Captain James Kirk