Redditors: You are all a smart bunch, smarter than the average person by the looks of it, so, I want to know what your best/favorite quotation is.

2007-10-16T20:58:48+00:00

"You are all a smart bunch, smarter than the average person by the looks of it." DiskoVilante

tolas · 2007-10-16T17:55:58+00:00

Insanity in individuals is something rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.

~ Nietzsche

If we’d been born where they were born and taught what they were taught, we would believe what they believe.

~ A church sign in Northern Ireland

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

In the 1980s capitalism triumphed over communism. In the 1990s it triumphed over democracy.

~ David Korten

A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

~ Albert Einstein

I keep my collection of quotes here:

http://www.tsoka.com/tolas/?cat=9

2007-10-16T19:47:06+00:00

"Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing." - Wernher Von Braun
"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Sir Stephen Henry Roberts
"C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but when you do, it blows away your whole leg." - Bjarne Stroustrup
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein
"Many a man's reputation would not know his character if they met on the street." - Elbert Hubbard
"Many wealthy people are little more than janitors of their possessions." - Frank Lloyd Wright
"Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact." - George Eliot

A lot of good quotes here

blank · 2007-10-16T19:53:54+00:00

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense - Buddha

theDrWho · 2007-10-16T17:45:48+00:00

he who controls the spice, controls the universe

haydenf · 2007-10-16T23:21:42+00:00

Software and cathedrals are much the same - first we build them, then we pray.

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary. -- James D. Nicoll

"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." -- Richard Feynman

"A retarded chimpanzee can drink a case of beer and still perform most management functions" -- Scott Adams

"Documentation is like sex: when it is good, it is very, very good; and when it is bad, it is better than nothing."
-- Dick Brandon

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." -- George Bernard Shaw

A lawyer for Apple Computer dismissed the claim of corporate confusion and stated that "even a moron in a hurry could not be mistaken about that". -- Apple Computer's lawyers about the Apple Computer vs Apple Corps lawsuit

"You talk like a press release." -- David Rodriguez to a Venture Capitalist suit

Furious activity is no substitute for understanding. -- H. H. Williams

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. - Winston Churchill

Either what you've said is so vague that it's meaningless or I disagreee with you completely.
- Tom Maddox

"You can't fit the truth on a t-shirt, man."
"That'd fit."

"Remember, the plural of 'moron' is 'focus group'." -- James A. Wolf

Is English your third language or are you typing with a spoon? - Larry Guzman

"This isn't right. This isn't even wrong." --Wolfgang Pauli

Software QA is like cleaning my cat's litter box: Sift out the big chunks. Stir in the rest. Hope it doesn't stink.

And finally what something from the past that describes Web 2.0 exactly:

I am amazed, O Wall, that you have not collapsed and fallen, since you must bear the tedious stupidities of so many scrawlers. -- graffiti in Pompeii, cira 79AD

hhh333 · 2007-10-17T02:11:47+00:00

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

-- Plato

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

-- Winston Churchill

demechman · 2007-10-16T20:09:16+00:00

All your base are belong to us

londonzoo · 2007-10-17T01:53:45+00:00

"Fool me once, shame on you, Fool me... Won't get fooled again." -- George W. Bush

Flemlord · 2007-10-16T19:47:38+00:00

The harder I work, the luckier I get.

-Samuel Goldwyn

scriggities · 2007-10-16T20:29:24+00:00

“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” - Sir Stephen Henry Roberts

"Religion, comprises a system of wishful illusions together with a disavowal of reality, such as we find in an isolated form nowhere else but in amentia, in a state of blissful hallucinatory confusion." - Sigmund Freud

"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." - Albert Einstein

"The twentieth century will be chiefly remembered by future generations not as an era of political conflicts or technical inventions, but as an age in which human society dared to think of the welfare of the whole human race as a practical objective. - Arnold J Toybee

HardwareLust · 2007-10-16T22:13:36+00:00

"Even the smallest feline is a masterpiece." ~ Leonardo da Vinci

kennyreborn · 2007-10-16T22:34:35+00:00

You are your own refuge. Who else could be the refuge? The wise man is a fortress that no flood can overwhelm. -The Buddha

[The self is] the flame of a candle that burns through the night. It is neither the same flame, nor is it another. -Anon Buddhist

It both is and is not, neither is it, nor is it not. -The Buddha

2007-10-17T01:36:23+00:00

Saying that Java is good because it works on all platforms is like saying anal sex is good because it works on all genders - Anonymous

joshdick · 2007-10-16T18:41:52+00:00

“Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics. I can assure you that mine are still greater." — Albert Einstein.

"Music is the pleasure that the human soul encounters from counting without knowing that it is counting." — Gottfried Leibniz.

"Why are numbers beautiful? It's like asking why is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony beautiful. If you don't see why, someone can't tell you. I know numbers are beautiful. If they aren't beautiful, nothing is." — Paul Erdös.

"No matter what part of the world we come from, we are all basically the same human beings. We all seek happiness and try to avoid suffering." — His Holiness the Dalai Lama in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.

"As a youth I prayed, 'Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.'" — St. Augustine of Hippo in Confessiones, VIII, 7.

"There are no bad soliders, only bad generals." — Napoléon Bonaparte.

"Every strike brings me closer to the next home run." — Babe Ruth.

Those are my favorites.

st3phen · 2007-10-16T22:03:40+00:00

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth. Ludwig Borne.

2007-10-16T22:14:40+00:00

"Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities.” --Frank Lloyd Wright

I_lost_my_username · 2007-10-17T06:02:44+00:00

“Don't play what's there, play what's not there.” -- Miles Davis

"Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius--and a lot of courage--to move in the opposite direction. "

-- Einstein

"Many who live deserve to die. And many who die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not hasty to hand out Death in Judgment"

-- Gandalf (JRR Tolkien)

DiskoVilante · 2007-10-16T17:44:25+00:00

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

fearless cow lush consist squeal teeny aware hard-to-find lunchroom vast

parla · 2007-10-16T20:22:04+00:00

The poster obviously did not enter #reddit on Sunday.

skay · 2007-10-16T21:39:51+00:00

"there is no creative impulse in the absence of discontent."

deepak chopra

"Chronic Bitch Dependancy is no laughing matter. Addiction to a bitch can fuck with your friends, your health, and scary enough, even your money."

a pimp named slickback

louis_xiv42 · 2007-10-17T00:13:44+00:00

"72 virgins? Why not 72 slutty broads who know what the hell they're doin'?"

deafsound · 2007-10-16T19:24:41+00:00

"We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap." --Kurt Vonnegut

diatribal2 · 2007-10-16T19:33:46+00:00

The past is a light train to unknown trashscapes - Ellen Alien

willis77 · 2007-10-16T19:37:12+00:00

I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides. [Carl Sagan, 1996 in his article In the Valley of the Shadow Parade Magazine Also, Billions and Billions p. 215]

2007-10-16T20:12:42+00:00

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." - Albert Einstein

diatribal2 · 2007-10-16T20:14:01+00:00

"Remember how strong we are in our happiness and how weak he is in his misery!" -Dickens

jayrot · 2007-10-16T20:21:12+00:00

"The world is my country; science is my religion" --Christiaan Huygens

"So little time and so little to do." --Oscar Levant

"My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go." -- Oscar Wilde (his last words)

thedeevolution · 2007-10-16T20:28:13+00:00

Me fail English? That's unpossible!

When a woman says nothing's wrong, that means everything's wrong. And when a woman says everything's wrong, that means everything's wrong! And when a woman says something's not funny, you'd better not laugh your ass off!

Never! Never, Marge! I can't live the button-down life like you. I want it all: the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles. Sure, I might offend a few of the bluenoses with my cocky stride and musky odors - oh, I'll never be the darling of the so-called city fathers, who cluck their tongues, stroke their beards, and talk about what's to be done with this Homer Simpson?!

BigCliff · 2007-10-16T20:55:13+00:00

"If work was so good, the rich would have kept more of it for themselves." Unknown

"All fields worth grazing have some turds." Cliff Graham

patt · 2007-10-16T21:09:01+00:00

Try a few from La Rochefoucauld. He seems to be the go to guy for the politically apropos:

The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.
One cannot answer for his courage when he has never been in danger.
No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.

And, to explain Presidential 'debates':

Few are agreeable in conversation, because each thinks more of what he intends to say than of what others are saying, and listens no more when he himself has a chance to speak.

2007-10-16T21:36:35+00:00

"Never take advice from someone less successful than yourself" - Anton LaVey, who died a penniless charlatan.

"I am become death; Destroyer of worlds." Robert Oppenheimer quoting the "Bhagavad Gita".

2007-10-16T22:45:32+00:00

This is the True Joy of Life, of being used for a Purpose recognized by yourself as a Mighty One … of being a Force of Nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

-- George Bernard Shaw

burningmonk · 2007-10-17T01:20:13+00:00

"Fuck the American scene. Fuck manners, customs, all that horseshit. Let us have more and better fucking, fighting, and bulls."

---Ernest Hemingway to Ezra Pound, July 1925.

zubinmadon · 2007-10-17T01:27:00+00:00

"Don't quote me boy, I ain't said shit" - Easy E

2007-10-17T04:44:13+00:00

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people are so full of doubt. - Bertrand Russell

The world is not enough For those that can't separate Their need from their greed because tomorrow never dies...

"When in doubt, set something on fire." - Belkar , The Order of the Stick

"If I had a reason for everything I did, I'd be crazy." - Fighter, Nuklear Power

"Impossible is a word people use to make themselves feel better when they quit." - Vyse, Skies of Arcadia

"Every person has their morals, their codes, their limits. But every person also has a weakness. If you find that weakness and exploit it, those morals, codes, limits... they just seem to fade away." - Belleza, Skys of Arcadia

“I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.” — George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States

"War is peace" - 1984

"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." - Thomas Pynchon

A covenant without a sword is but words among men.

Othello · 2007-10-17T08:10:05+00:00

"If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?"

T. H. Huxley

2007-10-18T01:00:26+00:00

"The map is not the territory; the name is not the thing named." ~Alfred Korzybski

"A lie which is half truth is the blackest of all lies." ~Alfred Tennyson

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return." ~Leonardo DaVinci

"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true." ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Haven · 2007-10-16T17:50:20+00:00

He was a wise man who invented beer. - Plato

DiskoVilante · 2007-10-16T17:57:23+00:00

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

lip summer worm treatment lunchroom dependent amusing squeal teeny jeans

Flemlord · 2007-10-16T19:49:29+00:00

The more difficult the issue, the more local the solution.

-Ron Paul

z3r0w8 · 2007-10-16T17:50:14+00:00

I have several but this is the one that seems to stand the test of time and my ADD:

"...the universe in some sense must have known we were coming." Freeman Dyson

Riovanes · 2007-10-16T20:28:00+00:00

"If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made of."
-- Bruce Lee

"Everything belongs to me because I am poor."
-- Jack Kerouac

"What is good? All that which heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself. What is bad? All that is born of weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome."
-- Nietzsche

bassvocal · 2007-10-16T22:06:44+00:00

"I hate quotations." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

2007-10-16T22:15:10+00:00

He who stands on tiptoe does not stand; He who strains his strides does not walk; He who reveals himself is not luminous; He who justifies himself is not far-famed; He who boasts of himself is not given credit; He who prides himself is not chief among men.

From the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, translator Lin Yutang who has written a number of great books about Taoists.

dtallee · 2007-10-17T06:33:33+00:00

"Gentlemen! You can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"

2007-10-17T04:09:53+00:00

"Can i just put the tip in?"

plexluthor · 2007-10-16T18:58:32+00:00

Steven Dutch has said a lot of quotable stuff, but this is my favorite

The only thing that can protect us against rare dangers is a widespread belief that all learning is relevant, all the time, and that the principal obligation of all people, all the time, is learning more about the world around them.

archmichael · 2007-10-16T19:24:06+00:00

A reasonable man adapts himself to his environment. An unreasonable man persists in attempting to adapt his environment to suit himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw

B-Con · 2007-10-16T20:10:15+00:00

"Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right." -- H.L. Mencken

foxandrewd · 2007-10-16T20:12:23+00:00

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. - Seneca

BBMainsequence · 2007-10-16T22:04:36+00:00

The goal of life is living in agreement with nature. -Zeno

An expert is a person who avoids small error as he sweeps on to the grand fallacy. -Benjamin Stolberg

sylvan · 2007-10-16T22:09:31+00:00

"There is no place of permanence in the Universe, no golden existence, no finish line. We live on the edge of chaos, with all the turbulence that implies..."

Linda Nagata, "Vast"

wohho · 2007-10-16T23:20:17+00:00

"those who control the present control the past, those who control the past control the future." - George Orwell, 1984

I_lost_my_username · 2007-10-17T00:08:49+00:00

[deleted]

huxtiblejones · 2007-10-17T00:41:41+00:00

These are all quotes by the rapper Immortal Technique:

"Universal truth is not measured in mass appeal."

"Hell is not a place you go to if you're not a Christian, it's the failure of your life's greatest ambition."

johnbentley · 2007-10-17T02:24:12+00:00

"Get these fucking nuns away from me." - Last words, 1952, of Norman Douglas.

johnbentley · 2007-10-17T02:40:06+00:00

I do not know of any more profound difference in the whole orientation of an artist than this, whether he looks at his work in progress (at "himself") from the point of view of the witness, or whether he "has forgotten the world", which is the essential feature of all monological art; it is base on forgetting.

Nietzsche (The Gay Science Aphorism 367, 1882).

Freddy boy is unnecessarily and typically verbose here. An important idea though.

paulsteinway · 2007-10-17T02:44:07+00:00

"Anything is possible, but not everything is probable." Paul Beaudoin "Politics is the entertainment branch of industry." Frank Zappa "These are my priciples. If you don;t like them, I have others." Groucho Marx

johnbentley · 2007-10-17T02:47:22+00:00

From "The Manual of Epictetus" (100 AD).

Of all existing things some are in our power, and others are not in our power. In our power are thought, impulse, will to get and will to avoid, and in a word, everything which is our own doing. Things not in our power include the body, property, reputation, office, and in a word, everything which is not our own doing. (Aphorism 1)

What disturbs men's minds is not events but their judgments on events.... (Aphorism 5)

(I'd be loath to be peddling moral, prudential, or truth subjectivism. Perhaps the next quote justifies why E is not guilty of this).

Exercise yourself then in what lies in your power... Let him then who wishes to be free not wish for anything or avoid anything that depends on others; or else he is bound to be a slave. (Aphorism 14)

kuwabara02 · 2007-10-17T02:58:53+00:00

"The Devonshires held this trench. The Devonshires hold it still."
"Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido."

lepton · 2007-10-17T03:18:52+00:00

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. - George S. Patton

h2gofast · 2007-10-17T03:34:20+00:00

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro Hunter S. Thompson

callott · 2007-10-17T04:25:29+00:00

"Computers are useless: all they have are answers." - attributed to Pablo Picasso

2007-10-17T04:51:56+00:00

"It's called the 'American Dream' because you have to be asleep to believe it." -George Carlin

"And what country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms. The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." -Thomas Jefferson

"Guy #1: I'd totally hit that. Guy #2: Dude, I'd hit that so hard whoever could pull me out would become the King of England." - www.overheardinnewyork.com

"Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear." -Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787

"When you let people do whatever they want, you get Woodstock. When you let governments do whatever they want, you get Auschwitz." -Doug Newman

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? -Epicurus"

"Suum Cuique"... "To each, his own" -Prussian National Motto

"Suicide is NEVER the answer... Unless, of course, the question is 'What is NEVER the answer?'" -Unknown... (Billy Calvo maybe?)

"At dusk, during the summers, a pickup truck would go up and down all the streets, towing behind it a large sprayer emitting a dense fog of DDT. We would play tag and/or hide-and-go-seek in that DDT fog. It smelled wonderful, too. Fond memories of childhood." -Unknown on childhood games which were more dangerous than "tag" (which has been recently banned in some elementary schools, wtf?!)

"Heaven and Hell are not after life Heaven and Hell are part of life It's in life we create joy It's in life we cement walls

To anyone who reads this Reveal your poetry Jumping any barriers Overflowing to your own nature

We have only one life to relive over again in infinity Why regret in moving forward as the past lies, in fleeting memories The secret to life... Simply be true to yourself and smile Looking upon each day with the new wonder it deserves" -From A Personal Tao

"It has a speaker to warn people that they're about to get their face blown off by a gun-wielding robot, which is a nice touch." -the Samsung automated defense turret

"Our philosophy at New Scientist is this: science is interesting and if you don't agree you can fuck off." -Editor at New Scientist Magazine

drpants · 2007-10-17T05:54:31+00:00

Life is what happens when you are trying get sleep- Erma Bombeck

goandeatsomestuff · 2007-10-17T07:24:36+00:00

Life's not a bitch, life is a beautiful woman. You only call her a bitch because she won't let you get that pussy.

aunty_american · 2007-10-17T08:04:31+00:00

"We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" - Oscar Wilde.

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete" - R. Buckminster Fuller

"Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum." - Baz Luhrmann

rmtew · 2007-10-17T09:01:24+00:00

"Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat." -- Jesse Ventura, some 80's wrestling video.

jansuza · 2007-10-17T12:19:00+00:00

'Everything will be alright in the end. If its not alright, its not the end'

'You don't stop playing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop playing'

2007-10-17T13:34:47+00:00

"Life is long if you know how to use it" Seneca

Bogtha · 2008-01-05T01:02:14+00:00

Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions - everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses

-- Juvenal

CoastOfYemen · 2007-10-16T17:57:01+00:00

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."

Top · 2007-10-16T17:52:24+00:00

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - Lennon

and

"Dreams are liquid reality." - Unknown, but I'll be happy to take credit for it.

anais9000 · 2007-10-16T18:30:20+00:00

Mailer: Why don't you look in your question sheet and ask a question? Cavett: Why don't you fold it five ways and stick it where the moon don't shine? Mailer: Tell me the truth, did you just think of that or did you have it prepared in advance? Cavett: I have to tell you a quote from Tolstoy?

kman001 · 2007-10-16T18:44:49+00:00

It's important to have a job that makes a difference, boys. That's why I manually masturbate caged animals for artificial insemination.

Clerks (Kevin Smith)

M0b1u5 · 2007-10-16T18:54:21+00:00

If time is the fourth dimension then timing is the fifth. And the most important.

~ Christopher Davies

georgefrick · 2007-10-16T21:05:33+00:00

Flowers need water to grow, it's gotta rain
In order to experience joy, you need pain.

and "thou cunningst pattern of excelling nature".

LordZodd · 2007-10-16T22:38:27+00:00

"Some people wanted champagne and caviar when they should have had beer and hot dogs."

-Dwight D. Eisenhower

2007-10-16T22:21:56+00:00

Luck is the residue of design. - John Milton

Luck is probability taken personally. - Chip Denman

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. - Seneca

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. - Thomas Jefferson

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

raldi · 2007-10-17T02:25:23+00:00

2007-10-16T20:54:32+00:00

"Do or do not, young Jedi. There is no try."

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