Profound Quotes

[fluteplayer07]

I know there's a few threads on movie quotes that are doing well in the movie forum, but I think a thread for general quotations would also be good.

One of my favorites:

"Every civilization must contend with an unconscious force which can block, betray, or countermand almost any conscious intention of the collectivity."

--Frank Herbert, in Dune: Messiah
American science fiction novelist (1920-86)

This quotation is pertinent in almost every aspect of society. It says that man inherently fears and distrusts fellow man. Any common bonds man may share in a society are constantly undermined by this suspicion; an animalistic and primal force that has the ability, when conscious effort is not devoted to its eradication, to display the most detestable forms of doubt that exist in human nature. Society must focus on correcting this behavior, or else every charitable and humanitarian effort is essentially corrupt.

I hope that this does not border too closely to political commentary; it is not meant to be. The quote is deeply insightful as to one of the major flaws of humanity, and this is a message important to all walks of life.


Does anyone else care to post a favorite quotation that they have read, and possibly an analysis of it? There is so much insight in the world, but it requires effort to sift through and locate what is sincere.

I imagine that this may become a very interesting thread. No political debates, though please. Respect each other's opinions, etc., etc.

Cheers,

 

[Bruce Wayne]

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, & there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political & cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

-Isaac Asimov

“I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.”

-G.K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News 6/3/1922

“The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others rather than his own; and who appears well in any company; a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.”

- John Walter Wayland 1899

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.

-Albert Einstein

Everybody is out to get you. Paranoia is just safe thinking.

Dr. Johnny Fever; WKRP in Cincinnati

 

[JC]

I'm not sure where this one has originated, but my grandpa always says it:

"If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch"

I think it has somewhat of a dual meaning. On one hand, if you're going to complain about things, just shut up and stay out of it. On the other hand, I think it's an honest assessment of self. If you aren't capable of doing something, don't put yourself out there pretending otherwise. It's helped keep me in check, anyways!

 

[Brad Bowers]

"A wise man knows when it's time for the fortune cookie."

- Brad Bowers

 

[Chasseur]

"One wants or does not want. If one dreams, one will dream a long time."
- Raymond Aron

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

"Victory has many fathers but defeat is an orphan."
- Erwin Rommel

I'm sure everybody's had that experience at one time or another. When something goes well everybody takes credit for it, but when it's all pants they're nowhere to be seen.

 

[scooter]

"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad!"

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

"Those who can, do, those who can't, teach, and those who can do neither administrate."

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Live every day as though it were your last -- and someday, you'll be right."
-- Fred Allen

 

[Miss Golightly]

"You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him."

- Audrey Hepburn

 

[Flicka]

"You have enemies? Good. That means you stood up for something, sometime in your life."
-Winston Churchill

"A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to."
- Bob Dylan

"Of course I work hard. Why shouldn't I? Who am I to think I should get things the easy way?"
- Judy Holliday

"We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down."
- Kurt Vonnegut

 

[Edward]

"He not busy being born is busy dying."

"I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."

"The world don't need me, Christ, I'm only five foot ten!"

Bob Dylan

"Those who can, do, those who can't, teach, and those who can do neither administrate."

I wish I knew who originated that one so I could see bloody vengeance exercised upon them. The only reason anyone can is because someone who could taught. And believe me, after thirteen years as a professional academic and nineteen years (five of them at university level) in full time education before that, the one thing I am surest of above all else is that were administration left to anyone other than those who far exceed the capabilities (both organisational and interpersonal) of any of the rest of us, there wouldn't be a university left standing on the globe.

 

[Flicka]

"I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."

Oh, I forgot that! I love that song (though I prefer the Byrd's version to Dylan's).

I wish I knew who originated that one so I could see bloody vengeance exercised upon them. The only reason anyone can is because someone who could taught. And believe me, after thirteen years as a professional academic and nineteen years (five of them at university level) in full time education before that, the one thing I am surest of above all else is that were administration left to anyone other than those who far exceed the capabilities (both organisational and interpersonal) of any of the rest of us, there wouldn't be a university left standing on the globe.

If you track them down, I'll bring the hay forks. And possibly we won't be brought to justice because likely the judicial administration will have broken down because the administrators are too busy 'doing' things.

 

[Edward]

Oh, I forgot that! I love that song (though I prefer the Byrd's version to Dylan's).

I tend to prefer Bob's version of most anything... a notable exception being the Ramones' take on My Back Pages (a rare lead vocal by C-Jay Ramone, Dee Dee's stand in for the latter years).

If you track them down, I'll bring the hay forks. And possibly we won't be brought to justice because likely the judicial administration will have broken down because the administrators are too busy 'doing' things.

Ha! You're on!

 

[LizzieMaine]

"If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to."

--Dorothy Parker

 

[Flicka]

"If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to."

--Dorothy Parker

I use that all the time. It's brilliant!

 

[Chasseur]

If you track them down, I'll bring the hay forks.

I think one is normally attributed to George Bernard Shaw in his "Maxims for Revolutionaries" if memory serves me correctly.

Can I join and bring torches? (teaching and also doing administrative work at the university level for seven years now so I'm doubly useless by that logic)

 

[kaiser]

A good run is sometimes better than a bad stand.

-my Dad

 

[Flicka]

If you track them down, I'll bring the hay forks.

Wait, it's 'pitchforks' in English, isn't it? Jumping between Swedish, English and American English gets too much at times. I'm linguistically confused.

Never mind, I'll bring something pointy and sharp that's fit for a mob anyway.

 

[Justin B]

"Just remember K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid!" - My Dad when I first started working on cars.

I know he didn't come up with it, but he was the first one to tell me those magic words.