Favorite quotes

[UKMikey]

''At the end of their lives,all men look back and think that their youth was arcadia.'' - Goethe

I think it happens quicker than that. Early thirties for me.

 

[VBR]

"The moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible." - Salman Rushdie.

 

[Danoff]

''At the end of their lives,all men look back and think that their youth was arcadia.'' - Goethe

"All men" being people that didn't have something horrible in their youth.

 

[Serge.D]

''Everyone deserves not just to survive,but to live.'' - Steve McQueen

 

[UKMikey]

People, wake up
Figure it out
Religious fanatics
Around and about
The court house, the state house,
The congress, the white house

Criminal saints
With a 'heavenly mission' --
A nation enraptured
By pure superstition

When the lie's so big
And the fog gets so thick
And the facts disappear
The republican trick
Can be played out again
People, please tell me when
We'll be rid of these men!
-- Frank Zappa

 

[UKMikey]

"I have nothing, I owe much, and the rest I leave to the poor."
-- Voltaire's will

"I have said only one prayer in my life: 'O God, make my enemies ridiculous'. And He granted it."
-- also Voltaire

 

[Liquid]

The fight is here - I need ammunition, not a ride.

I don't care if it's apocryphal.

 

[wheelhp]

The mirror is a worthless invention

 

[UKMikey]

The mirror is a worthless invention

Voltaire was really bad at shaving.

 

[UKMikey]

 

[VBR]

"Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech." - Noam Chomsky.

 

[Danoff]

"Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech." - Noam Chomsky.

...like the speech of moderating websites for example.

 

[UKMikey]

I think a lot of people follow the "views you despise" bit up with an internal "...except mine, of course". Criticism isn't wishing it never was. It's making a counterargument.

 

[Michael88]

''Trees cover up a multitude of sins'' - Bob Ross, Season 8

 

[Adamgp]

"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him had better take a much closer look at the American Indian." -Henry Ford

 

[UKMikey]

"Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters." -- Abraham Lincoln

 

[Liquid]

From the political sitcom Yes, Prime Minister.

Bernard: I want a clear conscience.
Sir Humphrey: A 'clear conscience'.
Bernard: Yes.
Sir Humphrey: When did you develop such a taste for luxuries?

 

[W3H5]

“That’s a bingo!” - Hanz Landa.

I use this quote regularly.

I enjoy the naïveté of second language English used so lightly in serious dialogue by an evil character.

 

[UKMikey]

“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.” -- H. L. Mencken, Chicago Daily Tribune, September 19, 1926

Note: Even this quote required dumbing down to "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public" before the average person could understand it.

 

[UKMikey]

"Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid." -- Valery Legasov

 

[Pupik]

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."

- Richard Feynman

(Wait, someone used this already. But it's that good.)

Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. -Richard P. Feynman

 

[UKMikey]

"Pay no attention to what the critics say; no statue has ever been erected to a critic." -- Jean Sibelius

Of course, the following counterargument gets one thumb up:

 

[W3H5]

Is that Gates?

 

[UKMikey]

No.

It's a famous movie critic.

 

[Pupik]

No.

It's a famous movie critic.

I feel that Gene Siskel deserves one too. Or maybe he gave the idea a thumbs down.

 

[UKMikey]

"Anything you dream is fiction, and anything you accomplish is science. The whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction." -- Ray Bradbury

 

[UKMikey]

"Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the Cambridge president is kissing the cox of the Oxford crew''-- BBC sports commentator Harry Carpenter at the 1977 University Boat Race

 

[VBR]

"Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times." - G. Michael Hopf.

 

[UKMikey]

Good times...

"Mussolini may have done many brutal and tyrannical things; he may have destroyed human freedom in Italy; he may have murdered and tortured citizens whose only crime was to oppose Mussolini; but 'one had to admit' one thing about the Dictator: he 'made the trains run on time.'" -- Ashley Montagu and Edward Darling, The Prevalence of Nonsense (1967)

Note: He didn't even do that.

 

[Danoff]

"Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times." - G. Michael Hopf.

Strong and weak are extremely poorly defined here. In everything I have seen, hard times can really harm people mentally. Sometimes whatever doesn't kill you doesn't just fail to make you stronger, it harms you deeply.

In order to mistake this quote for being meaningful or insightful, you have to conflate intellectual, emotional, and physical strength. Each of those are very different kinds of strength, and you don't build "muscle" in each of those in the same way - which is why the quote ends up as nonsense.