# Lines You Live By **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 26, 2005, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113 "2005-04-26T02:02:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/1 "2005-04-26T02:02:41Z")
What is your favourite quotation, not for its wit or perspicacity, but for its message? A line that, though you might fail to live up to its message, you \*want \* to live up to. Just one per person, please, so we can get a truly mixed bag. “Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.” (C.S. Lewis) ---
**Author:** ![Rhubarb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/59ef9b/32.png) [@Rhubarb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhubarb)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/2 "2005-04-26T02:13:09Z")
Mine is; “It’s not so much what we don’t know that gets us in trouble. It’s all them things we know that ain’t so.” ~~Josh Billings [sub]You know, fighting ignorance and all.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/3 "2005-04-26T02:20:34Z")
“Stop trying to control everything, and just. let. go.” -Tyler Durden (to himself), _Fight Club_ ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/4 "2005-04-26T02:39:10Z")
“It needs doing.” – Pete Wisdom, _Excalibur_ ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/5 "2005-04-26T02:41:54Z")
Don’t take life too seriously–you’ll never get out of it alive. ---
**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:** [April 26, 2005, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/6 "2005-04-26T03:07:15Z")
“Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.” I have no idea where it comes from, or if that’s the correct wording. I saw it a few years ago, and it’s stuck with me. ---
**Author:** ![Arch\_Trout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9f8e36/32.png) [@Arch\_Trout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arch_Trout)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/7 "2005-04-26T03:10:08Z")
“Do or do not, there is no try” - Miss Piggy Episode 5 ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/8 "2005-04-26T03:11:59Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > Don’t take life too seriously–you’ll never get out of it alive. Something a fetus would know about better than most… ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/9 "2005-04-26T03:25:22Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > Something a fetus would know about better than most… What’s that about? My best guess is you hijacked your own thread with anti-abortion propaganda. I hope I’m interpreting that wrong. Anyway, I’m put in mind of: “Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile.” – Kurt Vonnegut ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/10 "2005-04-26T03:41:16Z")
When in doubt, turn left. ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/11 "2005-04-26T03:41:45Z")
“Everything in moderation. Including moderation.” - my great-grandmother, who firmly believed that a little excess was necessary from time to time, as long as one didn’t make a habit of it. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/12 "2005-04-26T04:09:09Z")
“The secret to life is enjoying the passage of time, there ain’t nothing to it, any fool can do it.” James Taylor ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/13 "2005-04-26T04:12:57Z")
“\Never\ sprint into a doorframe.” –Woody, one of my groomsman and a high-school roommate. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/14 "2005-04-26T04:19:13Z")
Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving. ~ Auntie Mame. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/15 "2005-04-26T04:24:20Z")
“Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.” D.H. Lawrence ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/16 "2005-04-26T04:25:39Z")
Never apologize, never explain. - My grandmother, though lord knows where she picked it up. ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/17 "2005-04-26T04:26:50Z")
“If what you’re doing doesn’t work, stop doing it and try something else.”–My ex, my mother, and three or four other people ---
**Author:** ![Atheist\_Princess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@Atheist\_Princess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atheist_Princess)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/18 "2005-04-26T04:54:54Z")
If all else fails. Panic. - My wonderful father :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/19 "2005-04-26T05:33:04Z")
> [@Greg Charles](#): > > What’s that about? My best guess is you hijacked your own thread with anti-abortion propaganda. I hope I’m interpreting that wrong. In the interests of balance, feel free to come back with a nugget of pro-abortion propaganda of your own. ---
**Author:** ![Atheist\_Princess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@Atheist\_Princess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atheist_Princess)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/20 "2005-04-26T05:37:35Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > In the interests of balance, feel free to come back with a nugget of pro-abortion propaganda of your own. How about we keep ANY abortion propaganda out of here and in The Pit where it belongs. And get back to the original issue… ps. I sit on the fence where abortion is concerned 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113.md?page=2)