“No man is a hero to his valet.”
“If I had to choose between betraying my friend and betraying my country, I hope that I would have the courage to betray my country.”
“So make like siamese twins and split [pause] then one of you die.”
Peter Griffin, Family Guy, telling somebody to get lost.
With all due respect, I must argue again for the quote I gave. It is such a wonderful example of a rule widely considered compelling, which has yet gone wrong. Please reconsider.
Thanks,
jsh
Pithy and all too apropos these days.
The cost of living keeps going up and the chance of living keeps going down.
Flip Wilson
I can’t remember who said this to me but I found it funny at the time:
“A Freudian slip is where you say one thing and mean your mother”
“The most beautiful sound in the world is that of children playing out of earshot”
Cornelius De Jager
These are all from Terry Pratchett, he’s a wiz!
“The world is my country, science is my religion.”
–Christiaan Huygens
Cliff Claven on Cheers.
“I’m not afraid of dying. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” Woody Allen
Reporter: “What do you think of Western civilization?”
Mohandas Gandhi: “I think it would be a good idea.”
“We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead. nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.” - Thomas Jefferson
“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” - James Madison
“It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.” - James Madison
“A page of history is worth a volume of logic.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
“The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.” - James Russell Lowell
“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” - John F. Kennedy
“No matter how cynical I get, it’s impossible to keep up.” - Lily Tomlin
A lot of Kipling’s prose sticks in my head like a pithy quote, even if it’s just dialogue between characters. This one, by Bagheera to Mowgli, in particular:
“I was born among men, and it was among men that my mother died—in the cages of the king’s palace at Oodeypore. It was because of this that I paid the price for thee at the Council when thou wast a little naked cub. Yes, I too was born among men. I had never seen the jungle. They fed me behind bars from an iron pan till one night I felt that I was Bagheera—the Panther—and no man’s plaything, and I broke the silly lock with one blow of my paw and came away.”
Maybe the reason a piece of writing like this is so memorable is because his prose reads like poetry and has a distinct, brain-lodging rhythm.
Kind of like the Terry Pratchett quote above, but less priggish:
“It is better to copulate than never.”
– Lazarus Long
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
– H.L. Mencken
“A man is never so tall as when he stoops to help a child.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
Wonderful quote and nice example of paradox.
“An ignorant person is one who doesn’t know what you have just found out.”
“The best way out of a difficulty is through it.”
– Will Rogers
IIRC, what Churchill said was, “That is is the sort of arrant pedantry up with which I shall not put.”
“Beware of enterprises that require new clothing” - Henry David Thoreau.
I do, I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, and was in no way fair comment, and was motivated purely by malice, and I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you, or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future.
Archie Leach (John Cleese)
A Fish Called Wanda