# Quotes/Passages that stick in your mind **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 1, 2006, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460 "2006-12-01T12:58:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/1 "2006-12-01T12:58:09Z")
There are 2 quotes from 1984 that scared me. 1. The obvious, about a boot stamping on a human face…forever. 2. When O’Brien tells Winston Smith that the liquid O’Brien is drinking is called “Wine” This struck me as really chilling. The mere fact that a person would not know what wine was I found to be alarming. So what other quotes/passages have made impacts on you. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/2 "2006-12-01T13:29:49Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] So what other quotes/passages have made impacts on you. [/QUOTE] From _1984_ or from any source? I’m not a huge fan of _Dune_, but I love the line, “Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death.” ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/3 "2006-12-01T13:57:34Z")
From any source ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/4 "2006-12-01T14:08:39Z")
**To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee; For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee.** – _Moby Dick_ ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/5 "2006-12-01T14:16:29Z")
Beware, beware, His flashing eyes, his floating hair, Weave a circle round him thrice And close your eyes with holy dread for he on honeydew hath fed And drunk the milk of paradise –Coleridge, “Xanadu” ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/6 "2006-12-01T14:18:18Z")
“Fuck you. I hate your fucking guts.” Oh…you mean _published_ quotes. Nevermind… ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/7 "2006-12-01T14:25:21Z")
“A walk through the ocean of most souls would scarcely get your feet wet.” - National Lampoon, “Deteriorata” ---
**Author:** ![Carlyjay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Carlyjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carlyjay)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/8 "2006-12-01T14:29:18Z")
I have no idea what it’s from, but when I was about 10, I read a couple of pages of some horror novel that my brother had left lying around, and of course the page I flipped to was a scene where a couple get attacked by zombies, and the girl climbs a tree to get away from them and has bits of her boyfriend flying up and sticking to her as the zombies eat him. To this day, I still think of that and freak out a little. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/9 "2006-12-01T14:37:24Z")
A policeman and a newsman are discussing freedom of the press: Newsman: “I couldn’t tell you even if I knew, because of the freedom of the press”. Officer: “Freedom to pour oil on a flame, d’you mean?” Newsman: “That’s freedom for you. Noone said it was _nice_.” –Terry Pratchett, “Thud” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/10 "2006-12-01T14:43:21Z")
I remember reading somewhere that “Everybody’s life has problems all the time.” I’ve gotten a lot of use out of that thought. From philospher Robert Fulghum: Life is lumpy. And a lump in your oatmeal, a lump in your throat, and a lump in your breast are not the same lump. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/11 "2006-12-01T15:02:57Z")
“I am Ozymandias, King of Kings Look upon my works, ye mighty, and Despair.” – from _Ozymandias_ by Shelley ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/12 "2006-12-01T15:07:34Z")
Another Terry Pratchett quote, “Build a man a fire, you keep him warm for a day. Set a man on fire, you keep him warm for the rest of his life.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/13 "2006-12-01T15:27:58Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] “I am Ozymandias, King of Kings Look upon my works, ye mighty, and Despair.” – from _Ozymandias_ by Shelley [/QUOTE] This is one that came to my mind as well. I also appreciate “No matter where you go, there you are,” from Buckaroo Banzai (and he probably heard it from someone else). ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/14 "2006-12-01T15:28:45Z")
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has widely been regarded as a bad move. –Douglas Adams ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/15 "2006-12-01T16:04:24Z")
From Shakespeare: [QUOTE=Macbeth] To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/16 "2006-12-01T16:08:26Z")
"The older order changeth, giving way to the new, and God fulfills himself in many ways - and soon, I suppose, I shall be swept away by some vulgar little tumour. "My boys, we are at the end of an age. We live in a land of weather forecasts and breakfasts that ‘set in’. Shat on by Tories, shovelled up by Labour. “Now which of you is going to be a splendid fellow and go down to the Rolls for the rest of the wine?” - Uncle Monty, _Withnail and I_ “London is a city coming down from its trip, and there’s going to be a lot of refugees.” - Danny the dealer, _Withnail and I_ “We are at the end of an age. The greatest decade in the history of mankind is nearly over. They’re selling hippy wigs in Woolworths. It is 91 days to the end of the decade and as Presumin’ Ed here has so consistently pointed out, we have failed to paint it black.” - Ibid. (And the rest of the movie, too.) ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/17 "2006-12-01T16:13:25Z")
My personal favorite from _Withnail and I_: “I demand to have some booze!” “I have measured out my life in coffee spoon.” “And in short, I was afraid.” “I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each I do not think that they will sing to me.” - “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock,” T S Eliot ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/18 "2006-12-01T16:19:02Z")
“Why did you decide to hit me on the head with a fish while I was fighting for my life?” -_Drums of Autumn_, Diana Gabaldon “My love died a very good death.” -_Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage_, Madeleine L’Engle “Lying in bed would be a perfect activity if only one had a pencil long enough to reach the ceiling” -_On Lying in Bed and Other Essays_, G. K. Chesterton “The sea has many voices/ Many gods, and many voices.” -_The Dry Salvages_, T. S. Eliot “If I climb up to heaven, Thou art there:/ if I go down to hell, thou art there also. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,/ even there also shall Thy hand lead me,/ and Thy right hand shall hold me” -Psalm 139 ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/19 "2006-12-01T16:24:58Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] “Fuck you. I hate your fucking guts.” Oh…you mean _published_ quotes. Nevermind… [/QUOTE] There’s always one isn’t there? (thus far published many times) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460/20 "2006-12-01T16:37:31Z")
**Giles** , that one’s stuck in my mind, too, but only because I had to memorize it for a Shakespeare class I took. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-passages-that-stick-in-your-mind/382460.md?page=2)