# 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:** 3
**Author:**  [@DRY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DRY)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2000, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/41 "2000-05-26T08:10:51Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > \*\*
> > 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.”
> \*\*
Actually, Prince John was played by Nigel Terry of “Excalibur” fame. You are right in that the exchange you quote is an absolute classic.
Another great moment:
\*\*
King Henry (Peter O’ Toole): “The day those stout hearts band together is the day that pigs get wings!”
Queen Eleanor (Katherine Hepburn): “There’ll be pork in the treetops come morning!”
\*\*
One more:
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Queen Eleanor: “You have a gift…for hating.”
Prince Geoffrey: “You’re the expert—you should know.”
\*\*
The entire movie is made up of one liners and snappy comebacks, it seems. Greatest dialogue I’ve ever heard!
Geenius: My favorite quote from Braveheart is:
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“Bring me Wallace. Alive if possible. Dead…just as good!”
\*\*
So cynically evil!
From the classics of the movie theatre to Cable Schlock; I also enjoyed the line from the made for cable movie “Weapons of Mass Distraction”:
\*\*
Lionel Powers (Gabriel Byrne): “Apparently, HIS rotten spying bastards are a whole lot better than MY rotten spying bastards!”
\*\*
Finally, my favorite dialogue from Shakespeare (thinking of all the LOVELY single female dopers when I utter this):
\*\*
“A good leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; a
black beard will turn white; a curled pate will grow
bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax
hollow: but a good heart…is the sun and the
moon; or, rather, the sun, and not the moon; for it
shines bright and never changes, but keeps his
course truly. If thou would have such a one, take me”
\*\*
Henry V, Act V, Scene 2
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**Author:**  [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2000, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/42 "2000-05-26T12:01:29Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > \*\*
> > 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.”
> \*\*
My all time favorite movie!
How about this one:
Queen Elinor(Kate Hepburn) What do you expect me to do, give in?
King Henry (Peter O’Toole) Give in, give out. How about a little peace?
Queen - A little peace? Why so modest, Henry? How about eternal peace, now there’s a thought.
Wahhhhhh, I really want to watch this movie and I can’t find it anywhere.
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**Author:**  [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2000, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/43 "2000-05-26T12:17:13Z")
**See my sig.** 🙂
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**Author:**  [@Geenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geenius)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2000, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/44 "2000-05-26T18:30:37Z")
My entry in the Latin competition: _Quidvis recte factum quamvis humile praeclarum_ – “Whatever is done right, however humble, is noble.”
And my entry from Shakespeare: “The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction!” Shylock, _The Merchant of Venice._
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**Author:**  [@SwimmingRiddles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwimmingRiddles)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2000, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/45 "2000-05-26T18:42:42Z")
Ok, I have a couple for the Shakespeare category:
He was a man, take him all in all, I shall not look upon his like again. - Hamlet
And from Much Ado. Don Pedro is flirting verbally with Beatrice, and he says something along the lines of “for when you were born, no doubt it was a happy hour.” Beatrice comes back with:
“No, my lord, for sure my mother cried. But, there was a star danced. And under that was I born.” That line feels like me to a T.
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**Author:**  [@Argeable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argeable)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2000, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/46 "2000-05-26T22:38:48Z")
Old lady: Sir, you are drunk drunk drunk drunk drunk drunk!
Churhill: Madam, You are ugly ugly ugly ugly ugly ugly, and in the morning \* I\* will be sober!
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**Author:**  [@DRY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DRY)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2000, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/47 "2000-05-27T11:37:57Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > \*\*
> > 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.”
> \*\*
Thanks, PatrickM. To paraphrase Cecil, if ignorance were cornflakes, I’d be General Mills! ☹
Anyway, two more from Shakespeare:
“This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Hamlet, Act I, Scene iii
“If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh?
if you poison us, do we not die?
and if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge?”
Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene i, and used to perfection by Christopher Plummer in Star Trek VI (or was it VII?)
Finally, lest I get kicked off the boards, one quote from the single author GREATER THAN SHAKESPEARE!
“Eat shit and die, you loser. Sorry, wrong forum, but it IS my message board.” – Cecil Adams 😃
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**Author:**  [@Geenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geenius)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2000, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/48 "2000-05-28T03:25:02Z")
Are we voting on the best Cecil quote? My fave is, “The act of observing disturbs the observed.” I’ve used that in many an article on the wretched effects of polling on political campaigns.
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**Author:**  [@Catrandom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catrandom)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2000, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/49 "2000-05-28T03:56:21Z")
Sunshine, your “it might have been” quote is John Greenleaf Whitter, an American poet of the last century.
“Descartes was one of those who think, therefore they are/Those who don’t think, but are anyhow/Outnumber them by far.” – Ogden Nash
Words to live by.
Catrandom
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**Author:**  [@Palmyra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palmyra)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2000, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/50 "2000-05-28T04:36:05Z")
My absolute favorites:
“But I don’t want to go among the mad people,” Alice remarked. “Oh, you can’t help that,” said the cat: “We’re all mad here…”
Lewis Carroll
“Art is so wonderfully irrational, exuberantly pointless, but necessary all the same. Pointless and yet necessary, that’s hard for a puritan to understand.”
Gunther Grass
“I know I’m famous because a man on the bus just gave me some mashed
potatoes FOR FREE!”
Brak, Space Ghost web site
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**Author:**  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2000, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/51 "2000-05-28T05:45:41Z")
Cartoonist John Kovalic, who draws the comic book “Dork Tower,” has an e-mailing list. His signature file for these e-mailings is:
Soylens viridis homines est.
If you’re not up on your Latin, that translates to:
Soylent Green is made of people.
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**Author:**  [@Geenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geenius)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2000, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/52 "2000-05-28T14:32:54Z")
Bis metire, semel seca
(“Measure twice, cut once”)
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**Author:**  [@\_oo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_oo)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2000, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/53 "2000-05-28T17:27:41Z")
Tyler Durden, Fight Club.
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**Author:**  [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2000, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/54 "2000-05-28T17:49:41Z")
From “Shadowlands”, a biographical movie about the famous Christian apologist and author, C.S. Lewis (portrayed, ironically enough, by Anthony “Hannibal Lechter” Hopkins), an inexact quote (spoken to an English “wit” who thinks he just made a remark that flew over the American divorcee’s head):
> [@](#):
>
> “Are you trying to be rude or are you just stupid?”
> [@](#):
>
> A boy carrying a cat by the tail is learning something he can learn no other way.
> –Mark Twain
I _love_ the mental image that phrase conjures up – of course, I learned that lesson the hard way!
And the last:
> [@](#):
>
> “My mind wanders, but don’t worry.
> It’s weak and can’t get very far.”
> –Steve Allen
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**Author:**  [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2000, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/55 "2000-05-28T21:11:07Z")
“A true idealist does what his heart tells him to do, in a way his head tells him will work”
```
- Richard Nixon
```
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**Author:**  [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2000, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/56 "2000-05-28T21:11:07Z")
“A true idealist does what his heart tells him to do, in a way his head tells him will work”
```
- Richard Nixon
```
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**Author:**  [@Jose\_Aburrido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jose_Aburrido)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2000, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/57 "2000-05-29T17:39:17Z")
good job those are all lovely quotes. But there must be the best one out there somewhere.
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**Author:**  [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2000, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/58 "2000-05-30T06:51:15Z")
Don’t know who first said it, but I’ve always been partial to: “Life is like a shit sandwich. The more bread you have, the less shit you have to eat.”
Dr. J
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**Author:**  [@Gatsby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatsby)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2000, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/59 "2000-05-30T07:08:24Z")
An Irishman is never drunk so long as he can hold on to one blade of grass and not fall off the face of the world…
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**Author:**  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2000, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-quote-ever/20340/60 "2000-05-30T07:35:31Z")
“If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end–I shouldn’t be at all surprised.”
– Dorothy Parker
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