# Best Quote ever !!\>\\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 24, 2000, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340 "2000-05-24T00:01:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 2
**Author:**  [@SwimmingRiddles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwimmingRiddles)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2000, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/21 "2000-05-25T13:31:28Z")
matt\_mcl: I think the Vermont/Quebec alliance just got stronger. You quoted Dorothy Parker. You now officially rock. I, too am a collecter of words.
A few Nietzche quotes:
“One must have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star”
“Now I shall long chew their words like good grains, my teeth shall grind them and crush them small till they flow like milk into my soul.”
“When you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.”
“In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.”
Dottie Parker quotes:
“Brevity is the soul of lingerie.”
“Sorrow is tranquility remembered in emotion.”
“Ducking for apples – change one letter and it’s the story of my life.”
“I require three things in a man. He must be handsome, ruthless and stupid.”
And assorted others: “Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think.” Jean de la Bruyere
“What more do you need? A little garden to walk in and immensity to reflect on. A few flowers on earth and all the stars in heaven.” Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
that’s enough for now.
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**Author:**  [@GolfWidow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GolfWidow)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2000, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/22 "2000-05-25T13:56:08Z")
“The minute you start talking about what you’re going to do if you lose, you have lost.” - George P. Shultz
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**Author:**  [@WIGGUM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WIGGUM)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2000, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/23 "2000-05-25T14:14:39Z")
**William Wallace:**
“Every man that lives, dies, but not every man that dies, really lives.”
I doubt that he really said this, but it sounded cool in Braveheart.
**Bobby Knight:**
“When I die, I want to be buried face-down so my critics can kiss my ass”
I hate the sumbitch, but I still think it’s funny.
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**Author:**  [@Fyodor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fyodor)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2000, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/24 "2000-05-25T14:17:19Z")
I love this one because it is short and very wise. It is applicable every day of our lives.
“Appearances are deceptive” - Aesop
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**Author:**  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2000, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/25 "2000-05-25T14:48:02Z")
“I’m not arrogant, I’m just better than you.”
If anyone knows who said the above, please let me know.
And my favorite SDMB quote. “Big noises? I thought you said _pig_ noises.”
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**Author:**  [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2000, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/26 "2000-05-25T15:01:20Z")
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
R.A. Heinlein, through the words of Lazarus Long
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**Author:**  [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2000, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/27 "2000-05-25T15:10:17Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
> If you asked me what I came into this world to do, I will tell you. I came to live out loud.
> ~Emile Zola
> \*\*
Wow. I did not know this one, and I have just found a perfect quote to sum up my life’s meaning! It’s basically the same as saying “Have fun and don’t make things complicated”, but in a much more eloquent way. I love it!
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**Author:**  [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2000, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/28 "2000-05-25T15:32:58Z")
As long as we’re on a Tom Waits kick:
“All the donuts have names that sound like prostitutes.”
– "_Ninth & Hennepin_
“Uncle Vernon, Uncle Vernon, independent as a hog on ice,
He’s a big shot down there at the slaughterhouse,
Plays accordion for Mr. Weiss.”
– _Cemetary Polka_
“Well today is grey skies,
tomorrow is tears,
you’ll have to wait til yesterday is here.”
– _Yesterday Is Here_
This is one of my favorites:
“The women all control their men
With razors and with wrists”
– _In the Colliseum_
And I’ll leave you with the simple truth:
“Nothin’ else matters in this whole wide world,
when you’re in love with a jersey girl”
– _Jersey Girl_
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**Author:**  [@PatrickM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickM)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2000, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/29 "2000-05-25T15:36:05Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
> On a more serious note, I think it was Robert or John Kennedy who said, “Some men see things as they are and ask ‘why?’ I dream of things that never were and ask
> ‘why not?’” (I may not have this verbatim)
> \*\*
This quote actually comes from George Bernard Shaw. Bobby Kennedy used it, with attribution to Shaw, in his 1968 campaign.
My favorite quote comes from Bartlett, who said, “Say, can I use that in my book?”
Attribute this joke either to the comic strip “The Wizard of Id.”
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**Author:**  [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2000, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/30 "2000-05-25T16:25:41Z")
**Cogito ergo sum, sed id dubito.** - Descartes
_translated:_
**I think, therefore I am. But I doubt it.**
Best quote ever. I hate the fact that most people use only the first part of the quote and leave out the last part. Without the uncertainty that the last part contributes, the quote as often used is woefully incomplete. Whenever I hear someone say only the first part, I usually throw in the last part, and 9.9 times out of 10 they’ve never heard of it. Poor, misquoted Descartes is probably rolling in his grave.
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**Author:**  [@rubes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rubes)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2000, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/31 "2000-05-25T18:48:24Z")
I can’t remember which artists said these two (two different artists), and I might be paraphrasing to boot, but:
Art is like a hammer, with which one can shape society.
Art is like a mirror which reflects one society.
I found it interesting that the two quotes are so similar, but diametrically opposed.
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**Author:**  [@Geenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geenius)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2000, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/32 "2000-05-25T20:44:10Z")
Actually, the _Braveheart_ quote was simply, “Every man dies, but not every man really lives.” Personally, I like to corrupt it to, “Every man dies … but not every man’s got a caber under his kilt! WAAAAAUUUUGGGHHH!”
A recent favorite that I forgot to mention: “At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back into the same box.” Italian proverb. Now that’s deep!
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**Author:**  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2000, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/33 "2000-05-25T23:54:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
> The screenplay “The Lion in Winter” is one of my favorite movies, and it’s chock full of catchy lines\*\*
I agree wholeheartedly. But, my fave from that film is (give or take a word or two):
Prince John (Malcolm McDowell): “What about John? No one cares about what happens to John. Why, I bet if I were on fire, no one would even piss on me to put out the flames!”
Prince Richard (Anthony Hopkins): “Let us strike a flint and see.”
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**Author:**  [@Cogitoergosum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cogitoergosum)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2000, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/34 "2000-05-26T00:40:56Z")
Yeah Voltaire, I know what you mean. I hate it when people leave out part of the quote :).
Here’s a good one:
“Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
or how bout
“Exigua pars est vitae quam nos vivimus”
-Ovid
(The part of life which we live is short).
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**Author:**  [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2000, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/35 "2000-05-26T00:56:37Z")
_ **Varium et mutabile semper femina** _
A woman always changes (her mind, attitude) and alters (to adapt a new situation).
Wow, it’s pretty hard transalating that into English. Perhaps someone can have another go at it?
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**Author:**  [@Drew\_Blade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drew_Blade)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2000, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/36 "2000-05-26T01:59:17Z")
Remark made by M. Bosquet on the charge of the Light Brigade (the action, not the poem):
“C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre.”
(It is magnificent, but it is not war.)
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**Author:**  [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2000, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/37 "2000-05-26T02:36:40Z")
As long as we’re speaking Latin, I’d like to contribute:
Ubi incendent libros, ibi incendebant homines. (Where they burn books, they will also burn people.)
-Anon.
Dum vivimus, vivamus. (While we live, let us live.)
-Ovid
And of course:
Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo. (…oh, never mind.)
-Catullus
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**Author:**  [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2000, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/38 "2000-05-26T02:59:09Z")
I just can’t think straight on this. I’m with people all the way on Parker and Voltaire but i still can’t get past Beadalin’s “Is that a LEG ?” and Ashtorath’s “Make big noises”/“Oink!, Oink!, Oink!”. Hilarious - I’m a complete write off.
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**Author:**  [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2000, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/39 "2000-05-26T03:34:34Z")
A PSA banner ad on a NYC subway train (1966);
“I were a high school dropout.”
Written below, in Magic Marker;
“Now I are a millionaire.”
Second runner-up, paraphrased;
“If you never lie, you don’t have to remember anything.”
Mark Twain
Peace,
mangeorge
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**Author:**  [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2000, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/40 "2000-05-26T04:22:03Z")
[Shameless Plug Alert! Shameless Pug Alert!]
For the best quotes the Imperium has ever seen, go see [The Imperium Quote List](http://www.members.tripod.com/jmspoofe/Misc/quotes.htm).
[End Shameless Plug Alert]
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