Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack. - George S. Patton
the title is self-explainatory. What are your favorite quotes? Ayn Rand quotes are more than welcome, but come on, variety is nice too!
“Mine is better than ours” - Benjamin Franklin
I love quotes:)
Here’s a few:
“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.” -Henry David Thoreau
“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.”-Henry David Thoreau
“Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” -Voltaire
“Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.” - George S. Patton, 1944
“This above all,–to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” - William Shakespeare, Hamlet, I.iii.78-80
…and also from the Bard:
“What a peice of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!” - Hamlet, II.ii.309-314
This came in a Tuesday Tip from Dr. Zimmerman, but HE didn’t give the original source for the quote, so I can’t.
"I watched them tearing a building down, a gang of men in a busy town.
With a ho-heave-ho and a lusty yell they swung a beam and the sidewall fell.
I asked the foreman, “Are those men skilled, and the men you’d hire if you had to build?”
He gave a laugh, said "No, indeed; just common labor is all I need.
I can easily wreck in a day or two what builders have taken a year to do."
I thought to myself as I went by way, "Which of these roles have I tried to play?
Am I a builder who works with care, measuring life by the rule and square?
Am I shaping my deeds to a well-made plan, patiently doing the best I can?
Or am I a wrecker, who walks the town content with the labor of tearing down?"
“Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us.” (P. J. O’Rourke)
“Destiny. A tyrant’s authority for crime and a fool’s excuse for failure.” (Ambrose Bierce)
“To an ordinary human being, love means nothing if it does not mean loving some people more than others.” (George Orwell)
“If I had the power that the New Testament narrative say that Jesus had, I would not cure one person of blindness, I would make blindness impossible; I would not cure one person of leprosy, I would abolish leprosy.” - Joseph Lewis
". . . my work, which I’ve done for a long time, was not pursued in order to gain the praise I now enjoy, but chiefly from a craving after knowledge, which I notice resides in me more than in most other men. And therewithal, whenever I found out anything remarkable, I have thought it my duty to put down my discovery on paper, so that all ingenious people might be informed thereof. "
Antony van Leeuwenhoek. Letter of June 12, 1716
“If you do not trust man to govern himself, why then trust him to govern others?” --Thomas Jefferson (paraphrased)
( I hope no one minds if I add more. I am an avid quote collector 
)
“If you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.”- Fyodor Dostoevsky
“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.” -Victor Hugo
“That’s the way things come clear. All of a sudden. And then you realize how obvious they’ve been all along.” -Madeleine L’Engle
"One ship driving east, and another drives west
By the self-same gale that blows.
'Tis the set of the sail, and not the gale,
That determines the way she goes."
–Ella Wheeler Wilcox
I found this in Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary in reference to priests who get rich by taking advantage of those who have faith in them:
“Tremble, lest the day of reason arrive.”-Voltaire
I think now it has a greater application to the welfare state and all it’s dependants, or maybe I just like thinking it about irrational people in general.
I’m in college, and my family has high expectations of me, so I may find this a lot funnier than most of you.
"just in case we forget that
weareheretogetagoodfoundationsowecangotocollegeliveuptoourpotentialgetagoodjoblivehappilyeverafteran
dgotoDisneyWorld we have Job Day." -(Speak)
But this is my personal favourite:
"First person: I’m getting a degree from a university.
Second person: Oh! and what are you going to do with that?
First person: I’m going to teach it tricks and make it jump through little hoops of fire." -anonymous
~Aurelia :nuke:
Edit:I can’t get the “& #39;” to delete, I don’t know what it is, just ignore it.
[Edit by CF: Fixed it.]
“You live for the fight when that’s all that you’ve got.”
— J. Bongiovi
In Robert A. Heilein’s book “Time Enough For Love,” he has a couple of sections that are nothing but quotes… Of him, of course. Here are a few of my favorites:
"Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proven innocent.
…
"Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.
…
"One man’s theology is another man’s belly laugh.
…
"Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded—here and there, now and then—are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as “bad luck.”
…
"You live and learn. Or you don’t live long.
…
"Does history record any case where the majority was right?
…
"The greatest productive force is human selfishness.
…
“A committee is a life form with six or more legs and no brain.”
There were a lot more, but these are my favorites. It was a good book.
In Robert A. Heilein’s book “Time Enough For Love,” he has a couple of sections that are nothing but quotes… Of him, of course.
Really, Heinlein! Is this the same guy who writes all the sci. fi. novels? If so, I had only given him a cursoury look. Hmph, I should look again. Thanks!
~Amanda :lol:
That’s him! Heinlein is widely recognized as the greates science-fiction writer of all time. He won the Hugo Award for the best science-fiction novel of the year four times, which remains an unmatched achievement.
“Time Enough for Love” was considered to be his greatest and most ambitious work, although my personal favorite is “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,” which tells the story of a Libertarian uprising on a lunar colony against the fully globalized federation on Earth. It was here that he coined the slogan: “TANSTAAFL!” or “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch!”
I have not read it, but he also wrote “Starship Troopers,” which was made into a movie (not very good) a few years back starring the oh-so-sexy Denise Richards.
“Glory to man in the highest, for man is the master of things!”
Swinburne
“There Is no God, O Man, if thou art none.” Swinburne
"Stand stranger, O Love, stand straighter,
Show proudly the lust of thine eyes;
The praise of the sun pours upon us—
We, the gift of the earth to the skies!" Mine
It’s easy to be a starter,
But are you a sticker too?
It’s easy enough to begin a job;
It’s harder to see it through.
–Alfred Roberts, Margaret Thatcher’s father
"Lose your way eleven times,
Find your way for twenty;
Profit’s nine, very fine,
You’ve a horn of plenty!" Me
"Don’t complain of the rain
And, when in pain,
Don’t complain again." Me
"Love yourself your whole life through
And lovely things will come to you." Me