# Thread for Favorite Quotes



## Huilunsoittaja

*Just post quotes you like, no personal interpretations or anything. Could be insightful, humorous, or anything you deem would help another person or yourself.*

One of my favorite quotes:

"If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world." C.S. Lewis


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## cwarchc

Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.
Salvador Dali


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## emiellucifuge

*"Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills."*

- Arthur Schopenhauer


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## Jeremy Marchant

*Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.*

Viktor Frankl, _Man's search for meaning_

Frankl was writing immediately after the second world war, having survived incarceration in Nazi concentration camps. His book is powerful - an essential read. One of his interests was why some of his fellow prisoners survived whilst others (many others) did not. He observed that one characteristic of the survivors was their belief that they were able to choose how they would respond to the situation they found themselves in, and they consciously chose to adopt an approach which was the most likely to result in their survival. Many others did not.


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## EricABQ

"Hard work is damn near as overrated as monagomy."

Huey P. Long


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## Krisena

See my signature.


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## cwarchc

Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it’s dark


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## hawk

"There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My mind and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness."

Dalai Lama


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## Huilunsoittaja

Criticism is prejudice made plausible. - H.L. Mencken


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## Manxfeeder

Never write when you can talk. Never talk when you can nod. And never put anything in an email. (Eliot Spitzer)


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## Manxfeeder

Let music speak for me the last kind words forgotten in the haste of living. (Vaclav Nelhybel)


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## regressivetransphobe

"Empty your mind...Be formless, shapeless, like water. Now you put water into a cup it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle, you put water into a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash; be water my friend."
- Al Gore


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## Krisena

regressivetransphobe said:


> "Empty your mind...Be formless, shapeless, like water. Now you put water into a cup it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle, you put water into a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash; be water my friend."
> - Al Gore


Al Gore!? More like Bruce Lee, dude. Know your sources.


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## Chi_townPhilly

linky-link


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## Crudblud

Krisena said:


> Al Gore!? More like Bruce Lee, dude. Know your sources.


Know your humorous misattributions.


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## BurningDesire

_"The modern-day composer REFUSES to DIE!"_
- Edgard Varese


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## Wandering

"A man of means by no means." - Roger Miller/King of the Road

"You cried for night. It falls. Now cry in darkness." - Samuel Beckett/Endgame

"First off, let me start by saying that I forgive no one. That I wish you all the fire and ice of hell." - Samuel Beckett/Malone Dies


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## jani

" Is life about striving? Of course it should be, because once you give up you are just waiting to die"
Gene Simmons 

I will add more soon as i remember them.


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## Manxfeeder

Truth has something unique in its being obvious and surprising at the same time - Immanuel Kant


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## cwarchc

What you do today is important, because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.


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## Huilunsoittaja

All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. - Leo Tolstoy


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## Guest

‎"Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music." --Jimi Hendrix

"May my back-breaking hatred be your legacy." Oedipus (to Creon)


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## Manxfeeder

One hopes to worship God with a little art if one has any, and if one hasn't and cannot recognize it in others, then one can at least burn a little incense - Igor Stravinsky


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## regressivetransphobe

"I can't read it! There's no... there's no words on it! To play us out? What does that mean? To play us out?"
- Bill O'Reilly


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## Fsharpmajor

"You can only claim that air does not exist before the wind starts to blow."


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## Klavierspieler

See signature.


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## Xaltotun

"That we may be altogether of the same mind and in conformity with the Church herself, if she shall have defined anything to be black which appears to our eyes to be white, we ought in like manner to pronounce it to be black." -Ignatius de Loyola

"It [the bourgeoisie] has drowned out the most heavenly ecstacies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation." -Marx & Engels


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## emiellucifuge

Ive changed my signature to include a bit of this, but here is the full quote:


"The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said "This is mine," and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, _Discourse on Inequality_, 1754​ 


 ​


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## Lunasong

_Every person you meet knows something you don't; learn from them._
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.


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## Jeremy Marchant

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. We ask ourselves 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be?... Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's 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's in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we give other people permission to do the same

Marianne Williamson, _A return to love_ (often misattributed to Nelson Mandela - he was merely quoting her)


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## Lunasong

^^Good book.


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## Xaltotun

Here's my LEAST favourite quote of all time:

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those ... moments will be lost in time, like tears...in rain. Time to die."

I hate it with a passion!


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## Manxfeeder

Art is that which continues to repay attention. Christopher Ricks


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## cwarchc

What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.

From one of my favourite authors?
Have another one. Just ponder on this one

“What better way for a ruling class to claim and hold power than to pose as the defenders of the nation.”


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## Huilunsoittaja

You won't find me quoting Marx a lot, but one thing that he said/wrote really struck me the first time I read it. It sent a mental chill down my spine.

"A people without a heritage are easily persuaded." Karl Marx


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## Jeremy Marchant

cwarchc said:


> What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.
> 
> From one of my favourite authors?


Christopher Hitchens, according to Wikiquote. I think it must be true though, of course, it falls into the class of assertions that are made without proof so therefore can be dismissed without the need for proof.


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## cwarchc

Jeremy Marchant said:


> Christopher Hitchens, according to Wikiquote. I think it must be true though, of course, it falls into the class of assertions that are made without proof so therefore can be dismissed without the need for proof.


I wont get into a theological discussion, however show me a religion this doesn't apply too?

End of my discussion on this


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## Huilunsoittaja

cwarchc said:


> I wont get into a theological discussion, however show me a religion this doesn't apply too?
> 
> End of my discussion on this


Yes, I wanted this thread to be like a bulletin board, with people simply posting quotes, and as few comments/reactions as possible.

To continue...

"How awful that the artist has become nothing but the after-dinner mint of society." Samuel Barber


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## Manxfeeder

Huilunsoittaja said:


> You won't find me quoting Marx a lot, but one thing that he said/wrote really struck me the first time I read it. It sent a mental chill down my spine.
> 
> "A people without a heritage are easily persuaded." Karl Marx


I'm writing that one down.


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## violadude

"Tide goes in, tide goes out, not a single miscommunication. You can't explain that!" 
Bill O

:lol:


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## jani

"Coffee is a beverage made by gods"
Jani.H


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## cwarchc

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it.


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## emiellucifuge

*It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.

*Thoreau in Walden


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## cwarchc

Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear

By one of the world's great men


What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.


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## Ramako

Musical one that I like:

Haydn on his first trip to London - 'they reminded him of his age (sixty years), of the discomforts of a long journey, and of many other things to shake his resolve. But in vain! Mozart especially took pains to say, "Papa!" as he usually called him, "you have had no training for the great world, and you speak too few languages."
"*Oh,*" replied Haydn, "*my language is understood all over the world!*"...'

"When the gentlemen can think of nothing new, and can go no further, they quickly call in a diminished seventh chord to help them out of the predicament." - L. V. Beethoven

Oh so many non-musical ones. I tried to make these varied.

"No one can harm the man who does not injure himself"

"Without God and immortality, all things are permitted."

"I like work. I can sit staring at it for hours."

"Only twice in his life," said Dumas, "had he who writes these lines seen Napoleon. The first time on the way to Ligny; the second, when he returned from Waterloo. The first time in the light of a lamp; the first time amid the acclamations of the multitude; the second, amid the silence of a populace. Each time Napoleon was seated in the same carriage, in the same seat, dressed in the same attire; each time, it was the same look, lost and vague; each time, the same head, calm and impassible, only his brow was a little more bent over his breast in returning than in going. Was it from weariness that he could not sleep, or from grief to have lost the world?"


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## Huilunsoittaja

Ramako said:


> "When the gentlemen can think of nothing new, and can go no further, they quickly call in a diminished seventh chord to help them out of the predicament." - L. V. Beethoven


What?? He really said that? Pffff!

Today in Music Theory class, we analyzed a mvmt. of one of his early piano sonatas, and it was all about the diminished 7th chord. It was probably used 40 times in the whole mvmt. So... I guess he's talking about himself, eh? :tiphat:

:devil:


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## Huilunsoittaja

Ramako said:


> "Without God and immortality, all things are permitted."


Ivan Karamazov (Dostoevsky) I presume? Just finished that book.


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## Ramako

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Ivan Karamazov (Dostoevsky) I presume? Just finished that book.


Yeah it is: I love Karamazov, I re-read the first half recently and just realised that Alyosha is a whole lot more complex than I at first thought.

Anyway, since discussion is supposed to be minimal, here's another one by Beethoven, which is somewhat different. Go figure.

"My dear boy, the startling effects which many credit to the natural genius of the composer, are often achieved with the greatest ease by the use and resolution of the diminished seventh chords."


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## superhorn

Excuse me for being egotistical and presumptious, but this is my own : 

"The only mental exercize most people get is jumping to conclusions ". 









:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## Turangalîla

Huilunsoittaja said:


> *Just post quotes you like, no personal interpretations or anything. Could be insightful, humorous, or anything you deem would help another person or yourself.*
> 
> One of my favorite quotes:
> 
> "If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world." C.S. Lewis


Thank you for that. C.S. Lewis has always been one of my greatest inspirations. If anyone would like to Google some more of his quotes, you will be very enlightened.

"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important."


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## Xaltotun

“'History,' Stephen said, 'is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake”
-from Joyce's "Ulysses"


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## Sonata

1) First do no harm. <---Hippocratic Oath

2) Before you were conceived, I wanted you. Before you were born, I loved you. Before you were here an hour, I would die for you. This is the miracle of love. <---Maureen Hawkins


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## zeszut

"Reality, with the depths of night, has no more substance than the lucid dream."
― Lady Murasaki

“Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.”
― Groucho Marx


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## Wandering

“Like all dreamers I confuse disenchantment with truth.” - Jean-Paul Sartre 

“We are our choices.” - Jean-Paul Sartre


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## Guest

"Inscribe these words in your heart - Nothing is Real but God, nothing matters but love for God." - Avatar Meher Baba


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## Wandering

'..a "horribly soft" male voice "whispering" a whole string of "nasty things" to her, wicked things, and the worst of it was that the fellow had said he lived in the same building and why, if she was so keen on intamacies, did she look for them so far away, he was willing and able to offer her every conceivable variety of intimacy...' - Heinrich Böll/The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum


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## jani

Sonata said:


> 1) First do no harm. <---Hippocratic Oath
> 
> 2) Before you were conceived, I wanted you. Before you were born, I loved you. Before you were here an hour, I would die for you. This is the miracle of love. <---Maureen Hawkins


Are you a doctor or nurse or something?


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## Vaneyes

Man who eats many prunes get good run for money.
 - Confucius


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## Wandering

'The children of this world are not only smarter, they are also more humane and more generous than the children of light.' - Heinrich Böll/The Clown

'There is no better hiding place for a professional than among amateurs.' - Heinrich Böll/The Clown


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## mwd

Here's one, perhaps more for British readers.

The diminished seventh provides access to any one of the four major or four minor keys: Samuel Butler called it the 'Clapham Junction' of the keyboard - Anthony Burgess(1917 - 1993) English novelist, composer, 
This man and Music (1983)
MWD.


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## cwarchc

“Love only grows by sharing. You can only have more for yourself by giving it away to others.”


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## sospiro

Good friends are like stars.... You don't always see them, but you know they are always there.


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## violadude

"How can you think democracy is the best form of government if you think the universe is a monarchy?" - Alan Watts


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## starthrower

"There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can't remember what the second one is?"

-Mark Hanna, 19th century business mogul, US Senator, and political strategist.


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## Wandering

'An instant of silence, as when the conductor taps on his stand, raises his arms, before the unanswerable clamour. Smoke, sticks, flesh, hair, at evening, afar, flung about the craving for a fellow. I know how to summon these rags to cover my shame. I wonder what that means.' - Beckett/Molloy


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## Huilunsoittaja

starthrower said:


> "There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can't remember what the second one is?"
> 
> -Mark Hanna, 19th century business mogul, US Senator, and political strategist.


Too bad he couldn't remember, the 2nd is honesty that you only know money.


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## Sid James

Some by Dr. Fred Hollows (1929-93) - opthalmologist, Australian of the Year 1990

"I believe that the basic attribute of mankind is to look after each other. "

"When I've seen an opportunity I haven't sat down and called a committee meeting, We've gone and done it."

"Every eye is an eye. When you are doing the surgery there [in a poor community], that is just as important as if you were doing eye surgery on The Prime Minister or King. "


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## sospiro

“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.” Plato


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## Wandering

'He can neither read nor write and in him already there broods a taste for mindless violence.'

McCarthy/Blood Meridian


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## EricABQ

Chazz Michael Michaels: The night is a very dark time for me.

Jimmy McElroy: It's dark for everybody you moron.

Chazz: Not for Alaskans or dudes with night vision goggles!


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## Crudblud

Clovis said:


> 'He can neither read nor write and in him already there broods a taste for mindless violence.'
> 
> McCarthy/Blood Meridian


If he wasn't using singular pronouns I would think he was talking about the majority of people at my old school.


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## kv466

"Keep Looking Up!" - Jack Horkheimer


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## googlebordello

“Its my ambition to be the holiest, wisest, most beneficial man alive today. Now this may sound megalomaniac, but I don’t see why. I don’t see why every person who lives in the world shouldn’t have that ambition.” -Tim Leary


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## Crudblud

"Certification from one source or another seems to be the most important thing to people all over the world. A piece of paper from a school that says you’re smart, a pat on the head from your parents that says you’re good or some reinforcement from your peers that makes you think what you’re doing is worthwhile. People are just waiting around to get certified." - Frank Zappa

Inspirational, if only I could find it within myself to follow that example.


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## googlebordello

Crudblud said:


> "Certification from one source or another seems to be the most important thing to people all over the world. A piece of paper from a school that says you're smart, a pat on the head from your parents that says you're good or some reinforcement from your peers that makes you think what you're doing is worthwhile. People are just waiting around to get certified." - Frank Zappa
> 
> Inspirational, if only I could find it within myself to follow that example.


Being alive is so weird.


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## presto

No Pain, No gain!


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## drpraetorus

"Reason not the need"
"Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise"
Both King Lear.


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## hammeredklavier




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## WNvXXT

_Steve can I find a safe home for this?

What's that. A porcupine?

Porcupine? Are you serious? It's a hedgehog.

I thought hedgehogs were flat.

The squashed dead ones are flat. The live ones are spherical.

Alright Richard Attenborough.

It's David.

Oh, I'm sorry. Been calling you Andy._

detectorists s3 e5


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## Varick

Don't we have a much longer thread about this below somewhere?

V


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## Varick

Wise sayings (and meanings) wanted!

V


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## Pat Fairlea

"Never take sides in someone else's marriage"
My mother.


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## Ingélou

'Pray, hope and don't worry.'
Padre Pio


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## Strange Magic

One of the shortest Great Quotes is from Mowgli's closest friend, the rock python Kaa. It is: "All One." Here, Kaa compresses almost the entirety of earliest Greek philosophy into two words. Much Eastern thought as well. Very Taoist.


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## SanAntone

COLE PORTER - "Anything Goes"

_Times have changed
And we've often rewound the clock
Since the Puritans got a shock
When they landed on Plymouth Rock.

If today 
Any shock they should try to stem
'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock,
Plymouth Rock would land on them._

"We did not land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us." - Malcolm X

Who knew he was a Cole Porter fan?


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## HenryPenfold

_"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

Bill Shankly_


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## Kiki

HenryPenfold said:


> _"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."
> 
> Bill Shankly_


Shank was always right.


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## Ariasexta

It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day`s toil of any human being.
--John Stuart Mill


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## Guest

"Barkis is willing" (David Copperfield).


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## Ingélou

Why don't I send you my poetry, Pontilianus?
Because I'm afraid that you might send me yours, Pontilianus.

Martial


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## Ingélou

Orthodoxy is my doxy. Heterodoxy is another man's doxy.
William Warburton


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## geralmar

"Spaghetti can be eaten most successfully if you inhale it like a vacuum cleaner".

-- Sophia Loren


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