The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.—Hamlet
In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed–they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and The Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.—Orson Welles as Harry Lime in The Third man
I recall an incident related by Isaac Asimov. He need throat surgery, for his thyroid IIRC. When he got the pre-op meds, they made him high as a kite, singing and generally acting wacky. He mentioned that when the surgeon showed up before they put him out, Asimov grabbed him and sang
"Doctor, Doctor in white coat.
Doctor, Doctor cut my throat.
And when you’re done, why then,
won’t you sew me up again ? "
from X-Men:
Dr. Doom: “Fool! Do you think it so easy to lay hands upon the person of Doom?”
Wolverine: “Easy or hard, Doom, it makes no difference. I’ll keep coming . . . until I get you.”
From an old Dr. Strange comic:
“There is no power greater than that which I possess, for mine is the basic power of imagination, the gossamer thread of which dreams are woven.”
She Hulk to Captain America, while looking at Galactus :
“Say the word, Cap, and I’ll go up there and beat the heck out of his ankle !”
The hero of Ben Bova’s Peacekeepers, after fatally wounding a terrorist leader who has a nuke linked to his heartbeat with a deadman switch. Which will of course kill the hero as well, and the terrorist’s entire base :
“Did you think you were the only one willing to die for your beliefs ?”
"What the hell do you know about surfing? You’re from goddamned New Jersey. "
"There’s mines over there, there’s mines over there, and watch out - those goddamn monkeys bite, I’ll tell ya. "
"Everybody wanted me to do it, him most of all. I felt like he was up there, waiting for me to take the pain away. He just wanted to go out like a soldier, standing up, not like some poor, wasted, rag-assed renegade. Even the jungle wanted him dead, and that’s who he really took his orders from anyway! "
Hey, nobody said they had to be meaningful!
Best quote ever and so very true:
“A man’s gotta know his limitations.” Dirty Harry Callahan
But that Miss Number in the corner
Playing hard to get…
I am sorry I’m not sorry…
Make me chaste, Lord, but not yet.
– Auden – The Love Feast
Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors… and miss. – Heinlein
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards. – Also Heinlein
and my all time favorite: “Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.” H.L. Mencken
“If God had not wanted them to be shorn, he would not have made them sheep.”
(The bandit Calvera, played by Eli Wallach in The Magnificent Seven. He is explaining to Yul Brynner why he and his men plunder defenseless Mexican villages.)
Nature’s first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower,
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day-
Nothing gold can stay.
-Robert Frost
If you want to be a fish stick, you must have very good posture. otherwise you will be a fish clump.
-mitch hedberg
I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to too!
-mitch hedberg
Hopefully none of these have been used:
“I pity your wife.”
“As do I. But I am the man she married.”
The American girl (whose name escapes me) and Commander Horatio Hornblower, in the movie Hornblower: Duty (based on part of the CS Forester novel Hornblower and the Hotspur)
"I met a boy on a bridge one night, contemplating Freedom… I met a boy on a bridge, one night… he said he thinking… about meeting Jesus…
…I said He’s a friend of Mine, met him just last night, it’ll be all right"
Big and Rich, “Live This Life” (I’m sure I botched the lyrics, but that line always gets me)
“And yay though I may walk in the shadow of the valley of death, I shall fear no evil, for I am the meanest bastard in the valley.” – American Bomber Pilot’s Creed, WWII
“Any heros here?”
“NO SIR!”
“Live Forever, Apes.”
Lt. Raczak and his Roughnecks, from the first episode of Roughnecks: The StarShip Trooper Chronicles
“I have found that many who thought they were respected were merely feared. And there is one difference between fear and respect.”
“Oh, and what’s that, Constable?”
“People can overcome their fear.”
Constable Fraser and Don Zucco, Due South
EDIT: One more, and I’m done:
“If you are going to shoot a man, shoot. Don’t talk.” – Tuco, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
A paraphrase from Goethe: If you can do a thing, or think you can, begin it. Beginning has genius, power, & magic in it. (No quotes because it’s a paraphrase).
From the Bible, Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shephard, so I’ll not want. You make me lie down in green pastures; You lead me beside still waters. You restore my soul. You guide me in paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake. Even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod & your staff comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness & love will follow me all the days of my life & I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
Paul in Saudi, 1st Corinthians 13th Chapter is mention-worthy.
One last quote: “I cannot live without books.” Thomas Jefferson
Love, Phil
Yes, the one that ends,
“but these three remain, Faith Hope and Love. But the greatest of these is Love.”
“I’ve seen enough of the world to know, that I’ve got to get it all, to get it all to grow.” - Electric Light Orchestra, “Do Ya.”
“Tell them in Sparta, passerby / that here, obedient to their law, we lie.” - Remembrance of the Spartan dead at Thermopylae.
“Labor to keep alive in your breast that spark of eternal fire known as conscience.” - George Washington.
“This is the sort of thing that will appeal to those who like this sort of thing.” - Abraham Lincoln, when asked to provide a blurb for a book he didn’t care for.
“I couldn’t lose unless they catch me in bed with a dead girl or a live boy.” - Edwin Edwards, governor of Louisiana, on his reelection chances.
Gaudeamus, igitur
Juvenes dum sumus
Post jucundum, juventutem
Post molestam, senectutem
Nos habebit humus.
So much time, so little to do…no, wait…reverse that.
If God had meant for us to walk, he wouldn’t have invented roller skates.
There will come a day at sea when ye smell land when there be none. And on that day, Ahab will go to his grave. But he will rise again, within the hour. Rise, and beckon…and all – all, save one – will follow.
Ah, love, let us be true to one another
For the world which lies before us like a land of dreams
So various, so beautiful, so new
Hath really neither joy, nor certitude, nor peace, nor help from pain
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept by confused alarms of struggle and flight
While ignorant armies clash by night.
Nitpick: It begins “All that is gold does not glitter…”
‘Heaven hath no wrath like love to hatred turned, nor hell fury like woman scorned’
Alexander Pope (could be wrong on that first name)
'There are three types of lies. Lies. Damn Lies. And Statistics.
Samuel Clemens
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made,
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Hark! now I hear them, - Ding-dong, bell.
William Shakespeare, The Tempest.
“The rule is perfect : in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.” - Mark Twain.
“Vorador was right. We are Gods - Dark Gods - and it is our duty, to thin the herd.” - Kain, Blood Omen
“Alas, poor Nupraptor, I knew him well. Well, not really.” - Kain, Blood Omen, upon examining Nupraptor’s severed head.
“As long as a single one of us stands, we are legion.” - Kain again.
“When you lived in caves, we gave you everything you are. And now, we take it back.” - Overheard comment from one of the genocidal Hylden to a human slave who’s begging for mercy.
“Didactically speaking, seminal evidence seems to explicate the fact that your repudiation of of entropy supports my theory of space-time synthesis. Of this, I am irrefutably confident.”
I can probably quote the whole game (Earthbound), but that’s always been my favorite.
Who am I? I’m Susan Ivanova. Commander. Daughter of Andre and Sophie Ivanov. I am the right hand of vengeance and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth, sweetheart. I am death incarnate, and the last living thing that you’re ever going to see. God sent me.
from Babylon 5
Perhaps my favorite quote ever out of any television series.
I can also quote a lot of Biblical passages, couple of creeds, stuff like that. I used to be able to do the entire Gettysburg address, can still do most of it. And I can get about halfway through Paul Revere’s Ride, by Longfellow. My mother can recite it all.