The Random Quotes Thread

[TheOtherTed]

A place to share your favorite sayings, quotes, aphorisms, etc.  No expectations that this spaghetti will stick to the wall, but figured I'd throw it anyway.

 

“The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.”
― John Maxwell

[Frostbiter]

"There is no spoon."

- some kid inside the Matrix

 

 

 

 

[InvaderStych]

Excellent idea! I certainly hope song lyrics count. I'll limit myself to two per post, but I could definitely spam this thread if left to my own devices.

 

"The only way we can ever change anything is to look in the mirror and find no enemy." 

Kingslee James McLean Daley a.k.a Akala ... "Find No Enemy."

 

"If a day should break in anger; patience weak and temper strong; put our able hands to labor; we will work through what went wrong."

David Lamb (r.i.p.) a.k.a. Brown Bird ... "Danger and Dread."

 

 

[TheOtherTed]

Good song lyrics are gold for this kind of thing!  At one dark point literally decades ago, the song "One Slip" by Pink Floyd told me what I needed to hear - "Was it love, or was it the idea of being in love?"

[InvaderStych]

16 hours ago, TheOtherTed said:

Good song lyrics are gold for this kind of thing! 

 

David Lamb's writing could fill this thread all on its own. Anyone with an ear for Post-Modern American Folk music - The Devil Makes Three, Poor Man's Poison, and similar stuff - should absolutely explore Brown Bird.

 

Single entry today, gotta get my day started:

 

"He wore his age like a statement that fighting the ravages of time and mortality were beneath his notice."

James S. A. Corey - Caliban's War (The Expanse Book 2)

 

 

 

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Douglas Adams on politics...

"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"

 

See also:

 

 

[Techwright]

2 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

Douglas Adams on politics...

"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"

 

 

 

I am truly surprised they made it past the telephone sanitation stage.

Edited June 19, 2023 by Techwright

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

On 6/15/2023 at 9:41 PM, TheOtherTed said:

“The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.”

 

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.*

*Answer not valid in New Jersey, where what's blowing in the wind smells funny.

--Y. Warner, The Wheel Of Morality

 

Edited June 19, 2023 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Frostbiter]

"You mean you'll put down your rock and I'll put down my sword and we'll try to kill each other like civilized people, is that it?”

 

- The Man in Black from The Princess Bride

 

[InvaderStych]

"They say anger is a gift. I'm Very Gifted, and if `Ignorance is Bliss' then I'm a Sado-Masochist"

 

Paul William Francis, a.k.a. Sage Francis ... "Pressure Cooker."

 

 

 

"You say you don't care, if the atom drops; You say you don't care, if the world is lost ...

They'll never break you if you're strong enough; They'll never change you if you turn your Anger into Hope."

 

Benjamin Kowalewicz, a.k.a. Billy Talent ... "Don't Count on the Wicked."

 

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by InvaderStych
needed better spacing

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

"In its conclusion, the report argued, "The wholesale condemnation of all comics magazines is one of the worst mistakes of some of the critics. The fact is both sides are right. The books are not all bad, as the more extreme critics say; nor are all good, as some of their publishers and defenders content. Like all other creative products, they must be judged individually. And that is what most critics, parents, and public officials have failed to do."

Still, the city council found a third of published comics to be "offensive, objectionable, and undesirable," and, on February 2, 1949, it appointed a board to monitor news dealers' compliance with a blacklist of titles.

 

When the Associated Press picked up the story from local accounts, readers of The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and dozens of other papers around the country learned how, just three years after the Second World War, American citizens were also burning books."

-- David Hadju, The 10¢ Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare

 

"I always wrote the stories for myself. I figured that if I liked this kind of story or that kind of story, there have to be some people out there who would too."

-- Stan Lee

 

 

"When Mick Jagger sings that he can't get no satisfaction after fifty years of being in the Rolling Stones...

...I'm guessing he's either lying, or not all that bright."

-- Henry Rollins

[Oubliette_Red]

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."

 

-- definitely Mark Twain (as interviewed by Rudyard Kipling)

[Techwright]

To listen is an effort; just to hear is no merit.  A duck hears also.  - Igor Stravinsky