# Favourite quotes **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 22, 2005, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858 "2005-09-22T09:51:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mellivora\_capensis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mellivora\_capensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mellivora_capensis)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/1 "2005-09-22T09:51:27Z")
What’s your favourite quote(s)? {Please remember to quote the author} Recently: “Nature, left entirely alone, manages her own affairs. Lion, leopard, wild dog, jackal and other predatory creatures, great and small, and whether of the earth, air or water, have their full place in nature, just as much as the animals on which they are accustomed to prey, and are entitled to equal respect. Understand this, and nature will transform you. Ignore it and she will return armed with a pitchfork.” _James Stevenson-Hamilton, founder of the Kruger National Park_ (Note to mods: Apologies if in the wrong forum or against board rules on copyright. Feel free to move, lock, slap me about the head, spit on my grave…) ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/2 "2005-09-22T09:59:57Z")
“Truth serves only a world that lives by it,” from the movie “Anastasia." ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/3 "2005-09-22T11:27:39Z")
> [@](#): > > For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. Richard Feynman’s Appendix to the Rogers Commission Report on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident ---
**Author:** ![enigmatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@enigmatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enigmatic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/4 "2005-09-22T12:16:10Z")
My favourite - “Nobody’s creepy from the inside, Hazel. Some of them are sad, and some of them hurt, and some of them think they’re the only real thing in the world. But they’re not creepy.” - Death of the Endless also “Give a man fire and he’s warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he’s warm for the rest of his life.” - Terry Pratchett ---
**Author:** ![Kitchen\_Wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f08c70/32.png) [@Kitchen\_Wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kitchen_Wench)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/5 "2005-09-22T12:41:42Z")
“The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.” Alfred Hitchcock ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/6 "2005-09-22T12:59:01Z")
I’ll screw it up because I couldn’t find it to get it exact, but it’s by **Mark Twain** , and anyone that’s ever raised a teenager can relate. “When I was 14, I thought my father to be the stupidest man on the face of the earth. By the time I reached 21, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned.” ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/7 "2005-09-22T13:03:44Z")
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/8 "2005-09-22T13:11:08Z")
“Everybody wants to go to Heaven but no one wants to die.” I send the following to my former students when they get tenure: “The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable rock or hunk of coral to cling to and make its home for life. For this task it has a rudimentary nervous system. When it finds its spot and takes root, it doesn’t need its brain anymore, so it eats it. (It’s rather like getting tenure.)” - Consciousness Explained by Daniel C. Dennett ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/9 "2005-09-22T13:52:13Z")
“While I may not agree with what you say, i will defend to the daeth your right to say it” ~Voltaire (Probably not the exact words, but close enough) “I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.” ~Babylon 5 (said by Marcus Cole, written by J.Michael Strazinsky) ---
**Author:** ![meow\_meow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@meow\_meow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meow_meow)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/10 "2005-09-22T13:54:12Z")
“Thus do we build castles in air when flushed with wine and conquest.” -The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler and GOB: “Taste the happy” MB: “Tastes like sad” -Arrested Development ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/11 "2005-09-22T13:59:17Z")
“I hope life isn’t just a big joke, because I don’t get it.” - Jack Handy Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![marque\_elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71c47a/32.png) [@marque\_elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marque_elf)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/12 "2005-09-22T14:06:38Z")
The universe maximizes towrds perversity. The quote is from a science fiction writer. Unfortunately, I don’t remember which one (which is perverse in and of itself). ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_First_Time)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/13 "2005-09-22T14:40:58Z")
All these are posted around my office: "When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained. " - Mark Twain, Notebook “There never was yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently.” - William Shakespeare “He that will not apply new remedies must accept new evils; for time is the great innovator.” - Francis Bacon ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/14 "2005-09-22T15:42:44Z")
I love collecting quotes. I have a whole file of them. These are a couple of my favourites: > [@](#): > > You’re about to be told one more time that you’re America’s most valuable natural resource. Have you seen what they do to valuable natural resources in this country?..Don’t let anyone call you a valuable natural resource. They’ll strip mine your soul and clearcut your mind. - Utah Phillips > [@](#): > > When I become the Voice of Reason, you know that Reason is standing outside the building, hailing a cab to the Betty Ford Clinic. - Kim Roper ---
**Author:** ![Mellivora\_capensis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mellivora\_capensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mellivora_capensis)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/15 "2005-09-22T16:17:36Z")
Thanks to everyone for your contributions. “How can one be compelled to accept slavery? I simply refuse to do the master’s bidding. He may torture me, break my bones to atoms and even kill me. He will then have my dead body, not my obedience. Ultimately, therefore, it is I who am the victor and not he, for he has failed in getting me to do what he wanted done.” _Mahatma Gandhi_ ---
**Author:** ![Mellivora\_capensis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mellivora\_capensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mellivora_capensis)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/16 "2005-09-22T16:31:38Z")
I’ve just remembered two older ones which I’ve carried around for some years now: “Be a light, not a judge. Be a model, not a critic. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.” \*Stephen Covey, Seven Habits for Highly Effective People. \* (At least I think so. Either he quoted it from somewhere else, or it was his quote.) “Never take anything personally. Speak with impeccability. Simply do your best. Never make assumptions.” Loosely quoted from _The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz_ ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/17 "2005-09-22T16:49:48Z")
“A bad anaylogy is like a pair of pants.” - i think it may be somebody’s sig… ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/18 "2005-09-22T17:03:25Z")
\*Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. \* - Benjamin Franklin Somehow the Patriot Act made this make a lot of sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![TwoTrouts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@TwoTrouts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoTrouts)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/19 "2005-09-22T17:16:03Z")
“If 50 million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.” - Anatole France - ---
**Author:** ![mojave66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@mojave66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mojave66)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858/20 "2005-09-22T17:21:31Z")
“Being a language, mathematics may be used not only to inform but also, among other things, to seduce.” – Benoit Mandelbrot He’s right. I get more women to swoon while explaining the nature of complex numbers than I do telling them what hotties they are. 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-quotes/322858.md?page=2)