# Notable Quotes (Nonreligious) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 21, 2017, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457 "2017-10-21T18:39:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [October 22, 2017, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/21 "2017-10-22T08:04:55Z")
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” (I found it!) but “That’s funny …” — Isaac Asimov There are few situations in life that cannot be resolved promptly, and to the satisfaction of all concerned, by either suicide, a bag of gold, or thrusting a despised antagonist over a precipice on a dark night. — Ernest Bramah (Kai Lung stories) For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. — Richard Feynman ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/22 "2017-10-22T08:21:51Z")
“If you’re running away from something, never ever look behind you, 'cause whatever it is, **it’s catching up!** ” _—Soupy Sales_ ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/23 "2017-10-22T08:35:27Z")
“If you are in a fair fight, you didn’t plan it very well.” “Lost a lotta fights, but I learned how to lose OK” – Billy Joel, “Keepin’ the Faith” Make the truth apparent, and morality will take care of itself. – Julian Barnes (of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) “In a rich man’s house, there is no place to spit but in his face” –Diogenes ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/24 "2017-10-22T09:06:45Z")
“I need a hacksaw.” _—Jack Bauer_ ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/25 "2017-10-22T09:56:10Z")
Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken worlds waits in darkness for the light that is you. (L R Knost) * * * It is ever so beautiful to be strange. To do things differently from others. To see things in a rare light. To me, that is such gold to carry. (C Poindexter) ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/26 "2017-10-22T10:20:29Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > "i"before “e” except after “c” Sadly this is not very useful as there are a lot of exceptions e.g. - ie after c: species, science, sufficient - ei not preceded by c: seize, vein, weird, their, feisty, foreign ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/27 "2017-10-22T10:24:28Z")
“With great power comes great responsibility” - Spider-Man I know it’s much older than that, but nobody who said it before had Spiderman’s powers - so I’m attributing it to Stan Lee! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/28 "2017-10-22T10:26:15Z")
“Nando, don’t be a schnook. It’s not how you feel, it’s how you look.” ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/29 "2017-10-22T10:49:59Z")
Leave this place in better shape than you found it. - Attributed to quite a few people, sometimes as “this world”. …to respect the laws, improving them and never making them worse… - part of the swearing-in vows of the kings of Navarre, but I also find it good as a general philosophy of work and life. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/30 "2017-10-22T11:29:04Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > “You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.” > > _—Alphonse Capone_ A kinder, gentler version: You can get more with a kind word and a 2x4 than you can with just a kind word. –_Marcus Cole, Babylon Five_ ---
**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:** [October 22, 2017, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/31 "2017-10-22T12:30:51Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > A kinder, gentler version: > > You can get more with a kind word and a 2x4 than you can with just a kind word. > –_Marcus Cole, Babylon Five_ You remind me of this quote: > [@](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/32 "2017-10-22T12:36:17Z")
“The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.” - Twain “Patriotism is the belief that one country is superior to all others because you were born in it.” - Wilde ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/33 "2017-10-22T13:09:29Z")
Optimism is the first step toward disappointment. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/34 "2017-10-22T13:25:47Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > “I need a hacksaw.” > > _—Jack Bauer_ My favorite JB quote (and I have to paraphrase because I don’t remember it exactly) is the scene where Kim (aka Dim) is being threatened by the guy for whom she was working and Jack is on the phone with her talking her through the killing process: _JB: OK, Kim. Pull the trigger and shoot him. KB: I did. I shot him. [the guy is lying, presumably dead, on the floor] JB: Ok, good. Now, shoot him again, Kim!_ It’s great to have a dad who can give you advice like that when you need it! ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/35 "2017-10-22T13:36:59Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > There are few situations in life that cannot be resolved promptly, and to the satisfaction of all concerned, by either suicide, a bag of gold, or thrusting a despised antagonist over a precipice on a dark night. — Ernest Bramah (Kai Lung stories) Ugh. Note to self: avoid anything written by Ernest Bramah. I heard this in casual conversation years ago and it has stuck with me: _Everyone wants change, but no one wants to change._ mmm ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/36 "2017-10-22T13:54:26Z")
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you want. ---
**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:** [October 22, 2017, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/37 "2017-10-22T14:07:32Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Ugh. Note to self: avoid anything written by Ernest Bramah. \ To be fair, he \*was \*writing these around the 1900s. Different sensibility then. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/38 "2017-10-22T16:52:14Z")
If you’ve got time to lean, you’ve got time to clean. Ray Kroc ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/39 "2017-10-22T19:38:42Z")
“If your biscuits look pink, maybe you’re cruller blind.” _—Soupy Sales_ Another (paraphrased) quote from Soupy: “When you drink champagne from a woman’s slipper, it tastes like Dr Scholl’s foot powder.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-quotes-nonreligious/799457/40 "2017-10-22T19:41:22Z")
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