# Share your own quotable quote!  Also critique mine and others (please?).

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 6, 2010, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490 "2010-05-06T07:22:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/1 "2010-05-06T07:22:11Z")

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This is a thread for popularizing all the witty things that we dopers have to say. I’m sure that amongst all us geniuses, surely one or two self-created quotes will stand out. OK, honestly I’m not so sure, but I am confident this thread will stir the pot a bit. That damn pot always needs stirring!

Here is my contribution: “Art makes meaning, and meaning is art. Nothing exists but art.”

I think it makes sense, and it’s certainly pretentious enough. But, do you think it’s actually quotable? Reply and share your own contributuions.

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**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/2 "2010-05-06T10:28:40Z")

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My contribution is my signature (which I am now using for the first time).

Edit: dang, for some reason my signature didn’t show, so here it is:

“If man hadn’t been expelled from Paradise, he wouldn’t have had to invent religion.”

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**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/3 "2010-05-06T10:40:39Z")

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> [@EinsteinsHund](#):
>
> “If man hadn’t been expelled from Paradise, he wouldn’t have had to invent religion.”

I like it! It requires a certain twisting of Weltanschauung, but that’s all the better 😛

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**Author:** ![Rafe\_Hollister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/fbc32d/32.png) [@Rafe\_Hollister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rafe_Hollister)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/4 "2010-05-06T13:16:39Z")

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I sometimes tell the kids, “You’re gonna have fun, whether you like it or not!” If we’re going someplace they don’t really want to go, it helps (a little) to lighten the mood.

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**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/5 "2010-05-06T13:30:16Z")

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Life is growth. Without growth, life looks an awful lot like death.

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**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/6 "2010-05-06T13:41:40Z")

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**Lady Luck only finds moving targets**.

Used when discussing the relative merits of luck .vs. hard work (or the Getting Ahead in Life speech) with my kids.

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**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/7 "2010-05-06T15:03:32Z")

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After all the chips fall, the cream rises to the top of the crop.

Not mine, but I heard a professional basketball player say this exact phrase in a post game interview after a comeback win.

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**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/8 "2010-05-06T15:05:04Z")

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> [@Autolycus](#):
>
> But, do you think it’s actually quotable?

Not really…just not catchy enough. It wasn’t even worth putting in the quote above.

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**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/9 "2010-05-06T15:05:50Z")

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“You can either be ugly or you can be a bitch. You can’t be both.”

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**Author:** ![bearman217](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e4f/32.png) [@bearman217](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bearman217)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/10 "2010-05-06T15:31:03Z")

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> [@RandMcnally](#):
>
> “You can either be ugly or you can be a bitch. You can’t be both.”

I disagree with this. I know many people who are both ugly and bitches. For that matter, if you want to get philosophical here, those who are bitches are ugly on the inside and so they are both.

My quote contribution is: “It’s all luck, and you suck at it.”  
I heard this at a party while we were playing Mario Party on the Wii, and I just love it.

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**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/11 "2010-05-06T15:37:37Z")

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> [@bearman217](#):
>
> I disagree with this. I know many people who are both ugly and bitches. For that matter, if you want to get philosophical here, those who are bitches are ugly on the inside and so they are both.

I’m not saying that it isn’t possible to be both, I’m saying that it isn’t a good idea.

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**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/12 "2010-05-06T16:04:34Z")

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_Life is a balance of finding cool things, and enjoying the cool things you’ve already found._  
I have no idea where you would use this.

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**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/13 "2010-05-06T17:50:58Z")

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> [@Autolycus](#):
>
> “Art makes meaning, and meaning is art. Nothing exists but art.”

Susan Sontag disagrees. (And I agree with her.) Check out her essay “Against Interpretation”.

Meaning can certainly emerge through art, but art can also exist as pure “presence” without ever converging on a fixed interpretation. And, in fact, if the only point of art is to encode a message, then why not just cut to the chase and transmit the message directly instead of hiding it away in a complicated and ambiguous form?

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**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/14 "2010-05-06T17:52:12Z")

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The most quotable quote from the book I’m working on:

**Play is free movement through a system of constraints.**

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**Author:** ![MegaBee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@MegaBee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MegaBee)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/15 "2010-05-06T17:54:48Z")

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Beer before liquor, never sicker.  
Just drink whiskey, it’s all good.

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**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/16 "2010-05-06T19:06:29Z")

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Never mistake compassion for weakness.

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**Author:** ![Creole\_Tomato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@Creole\_Tomato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creole_Tomato)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/17 "2010-05-06T19:16:40Z")

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> [@RandMcnally](#):
>
> I’m not saying that it isn’t possible to be both, I’m saying that it isn’t a good idea.

Yes, you can be both, but I’m sure Marissa Miller can get away with greater bitchiness than Susan Boyle. 😛

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**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/18 "2010-05-06T19:23:28Z")

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> [@Creole\_Tomato](#):
>
> Yes, you can be both, but I’m sure Marissa Miller can get away with greater bitchiness than Susan Boyle. 😛

Exactly.

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**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/19 "2010-05-06T19:56:50Z")

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> [@RandMcnally](#):
>
> Exactly.

RandMcnally, if your quote is going to cause this much confusion (although, I dug your rap from the get-go, daddy) I think you may want to reconsider the wording.

My new quote is going to be “I dug your rap from the get-go, daddy!”

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**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-own-quotable-quote-also-critique-mine-and-others-please/538490/20 "2010-05-06T20:30:31Z")

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I just used this one in the thread about dancing: “If it feels good while you’re doing it then you’re doing it right.”  
I guess this could apply to a lot of things;):D.

I learned this one from some friends who were Florida natives: “Fuck all y’all.”

A friend of ours screwed up this saying when he was drunk but we liked his version much better so we use it all the time: “How’d you like a knucklefish sandwich?”

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