# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![neofishboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/neofishboy/32/444_2.png) [@neofishboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neofishboy)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/61 "2005-04-26T21:39:27Z")
“The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” - Jean Giraudoux ---
**Author:** ![Already\_in\_Use](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Already\_in\_Use](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Already_in_Use)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/62 "2005-04-26T21:44:25Z")
“Take care of the cojones and the frijoles will take care of themselves.” – another one from Robert A. Heinlein ---
**Author:** ![tygerbryght](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/63 "2005-04-26T22:14:54Z")
There’s not just one for me, and I collect quotes which appeal to me, to make things worse. So I debated how I might respond. Then I decided on the poem I memorized in my teens, a year or two after my mother died. I’d encountered the first few lines of Robert Browning’s poem, “Rabbi Ben Ezra,” in Asimov’s book, **Pebble in the Sky** : Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made: Our times are in his hand Who saith, “A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!” Don’t ask me why it seemed so meaningful to me as a 13 or 14 year old; I’ve never understood why. However, I still think it’s good advice, nearly 50 years later. 🙂 One of many places on the Web where the entire poem can be found is [here](http://www.underthesun.cc/Classics/Browning/PoemsOfRobertBrowning/PoemsOfRobertBrowning15.html) ---
**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 27, 2005, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/64 "2005-04-27T02:00:25Z")
> [@MixieArmadillo](#): > > No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother. > -Margaret Sanger > [@Lord Ashtar](#): > > You live by this quote? > [@MixieArmadillo](#): > > I spend all my working hours working towards that end, both in the sense of ensuring safe access, counselling women on _all_ their options (not just abortion), and helping to prevent unwanted pregnancies from happening in the first place, so that abortions should happen as infrequently as is humanly possible. > So, yes, you could say I do 😉 One of the women I most admired and respected worked as a counsellor for women facing the choice of whether to have an abortion or not (in London). Although we didn’t agree on everything (like “abortion on demand”), we hardly ever talked about it. Somehow, with friends, you don’t have to argue and bicker about these things. Question for you, though. Do you think a man should live his life by the following: “No man can call himself free who does not own and control his body”? ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/65 "2005-04-27T02:40:31Z")
**MixieArmadillo** It’s good someone put that off-topic posting in balance. * * * Okay my quote to live by: \*\* “… but even the Emperor himself cannot buy another day.” Chinese Proverb\*\* ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/66 "2005-04-27T03:05:47Z")
“If we don’t push our limits, we’ll never know how truly limitless we are.” (I think several people said something like this.) ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/67 "2005-04-27T03:08:41Z")
“Take it easy, but take it.” -Woody Guthrie ---
**Author:** ![NajaNivea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NajaNivea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NajaNivea)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/68 "2005-04-27T03:12:59Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > Question for you, though. Do you think a man should live his life by the following: “No man can call himself free who does not own and control his body”? I can’t figure out what sort of logical trap you’re trying to lead me into with this deliberately disingenuous question. So, I will answer: of course I do. And leave this discussion at that. ---
**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:** [April 27, 2005, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/69 "2005-04-27T03:19:42Z")
When I get a little money I buy books and if any is left I buy food and clothes. - Erasmus ---
**Author:** ![Thalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f475e1/32.png) [@Thalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thalion)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/70 "2005-04-27T03:24:37Z")
“In the beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and is widely regarded as a bad move.” Douglas Adams ---
**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 27, 2005, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/71 "2005-04-27T03:32:31Z")
> [@MixieArmadillo](#): > > I can’t figure out what sort of logical trap you’re trying to lead me into with this deliberately disingenuous question. So, I will answer: of course I do. And leave this discussion at that. Not a trap, and you answered my question. It’s the issues of rights versus responsibilities/obligations that each statement raises that I find interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/72 "2005-04-27T03:39:55Z")
“This, too, shall pass.” > [@Morgyn](#): > > When I get a little money I buy books and if any is left I buy food and > clothes. - Erasmus I LOVE that one. It’s served me well, too: I may regret splurging on dinner, or on clothes, but I’ve never regretted buying a book. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/73 "2005-04-27T03:58:00Z")
No amount of belief would make something a fact. – No idea who. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/74 "2005-04-27T04:00:41Z")
> [@Idlewild](#): > > Never apologize, never explain. > > - My grandmother, though lord knows where she picked it up. Henry Ford II’s motto was “Never complain, never explain”, so your grandmother might have heard and adapted that quote. It was also often uttered by Jackie Onassis, but dates back to [Benjamin Disraeli](http://www.trustedleader.org/no_ego_g.asp?page=64) (if not to someone who lived even earlier). As for my contribution to the list, I offer one popularized by Jackie O’s first husband: “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.” ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/75 "2005-04-27T04:04:19Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > No amount of belief would make something a fact. > > – No idea who. Abe Lincoln is widely credited with a folksier variant: > [@](#): > > If we call a dog’s tail a leg, how many legs does it have? Four, because calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/76 "2005-04-27T14:32:16Z")
This is one that got me through my early twenties … “We must go through bitter waters before we reach the sweet.” –Abraham Van Helsing 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bike\_Rider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Bike\_Rider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bike_Rider)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/77 "2005-04-27T14:53:57Z")
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” - Calvin Coolidge ---
**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 27, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/78 "2005-04-27T16:15:41Z")
> [@Bike Rider](#): > > “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” - Calvin Coolidge I never knew he said so much in one go. Or is this a compilation of his bon mots over 6 years or so? ---
**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:** [April 27, 2005, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/79 "2005-04-27T16:18:23Z")
> [@Arch Trout](#): > > “Do or do not, there is no try” - Miss Piggy Episode 5 I’ve always credited this to Yoda…it was Miss Piggy? ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113/80 "2005-04-27T16:21:35Z")
> [@mr bus guy](#): > > I’ve always credited this to Yoda…it was Miss Piggy? It was Yoda, but Frank Oz does the voice for both characters, and sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-live-by/301113.md?page=5)