# Favorite quotes you know off the top of your head **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 19, 2008, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-quotes-you-know-off-the-top-of-your-head/468591 "2008-10-19T01:40:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Arglefraster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3bc359/32.png) [@Arglefraster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arglefraster)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-quotes-you-know-off-the-top-of-your-head/468591/181 "2008-10-30T16:53:42Z")
Ok, I know won’t get this one exactly right. I was sorely tempted to look it up, but we’re not supposed to do that. “God does not play dice with the world. He plays an ineffible game of His own devising, which can be compared to playing poker in a dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won’t tell you the rules and who \*smiles all the time. \*” - Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett ---
**Author:** ![greatshakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@greatshakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greatshakes)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-quotes-you-know-off-the-top-of-your-head/468591/182 "2008-10-30T17:05:01Z")
“In the house of the hanged man, do not mention rope.” Aaron Burr, in Gore Vidal’s _Burr_. “And Gentlemen in England, now abed, Shall think themselves accursed that they were not here.” Shakespeare, Henry V ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-quotes-you-know-off-the-top-of-your-head/468591/183 "2008-10-30T23:48:54Z")
> [@greatshakes](#): > > “And Gentlemen in England, now abed, > Shall think themselves accursed that they were not here.” > Shakespeare, Henry V Yeah, I got that whole speech too. I have no life. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-quotes-you-know-off-the-top-of-your-head/468591/184 "2008-10-31T02:24:12Z")
“Deserves death? I daresay he [Gollum] does. Many who live deserve death. Many who die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too quick to seek death as judgement. Not even the wise can see all ends.” -Gandalf to Frodo, Bag End, FoTR _I know I’ve mucked this up some. Sorry, it’s the only memory I’ve got. As I recall._ “Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, if deathless you be! For I will smite you, if you touch him!” -Eowyn to the head Nazgul, fields of Pellenor, RoTK //===== “I so dislike argument. It’s so vulgar, and so convincing!” -Oscar Wilde //===== “What a saint! Haven’t you ever, with full confidence, expounded upon God, the world, the hearts of men, and all that reigns therein? And - be honest now - did you really know any more about such things than you do about this fellow Schwerdtlein’s death?” -Goethe (my own free translation) ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2008, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-quotes-you-know-off-the-top-of-your-head/468591/185 "2008-11-01T06:38:12Z")
> [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](#): > > It’s a traditional song sung at university graduation ceremonies. > > [Link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Brevitate_Vitae) Apparently not a tradition at midwestern land grant universities. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-quotes-you-know-off-the-top-of-your-head/468591/186 "2008-11-02T16:04:13Z")
> [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](#): > > It’s a traditional song sung at university graduation ceremonies. > > [Link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Brevitate_Vitae) It’s a Hollywood cliche that if you want to establish a setting as being a university campus, play a few bars of Gaudeamus Igitur on the soundtrack. (Probably ever since Mario Lanza sang it, in the operetta “The Student Prince”.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-quotes-you-know-off-the-top-of-your-head/468591.md?page=9)