# Unexpected wisdom in pop culture **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 27, 2003, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604 "2003-03-27T20:36:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/1 "2003-03-27T20:36:55Z")
So I’m reading ‘Heartfire’ by Orson Scott Card and someone (name omitted to prevent spoiling) says: “Hope is the weak sister of ambition. Hope is ambition wanting to be liked.” That’s truth with a capital ‘T’. I’m sure I could think of some other aphorisms and words of wisdom that arrive in unexpected places. So name them! The hokier the reference the better! Who’s with me here? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/2 "2003-03-27T20:43:42Z")
“All things end badly, or else they wouldn’t end.” - Tom Cruise in “Cocktail” ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/3 "2003-03-27T20:44:02Z")
“Be excellant to one another!” from Bill and Ted’s excellant adventure. Talk about hookie… * * * Fagjunk Theology: Not just for sodomite propagandists anymore. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/4 "2003-03-27T21:21:48Z")
“Just Do It” Nike Sounds better if you say “Just Shut Up and Do It.” ---
**Author:** ![li\_l\_Dickie\_Dirtz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@li\_l\_Dickie\_Dirtz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/li_l_Dickie_Dirtz)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/5 "2003-03-27T21:37:49Z")
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” – “Closing Time” by Someone-or-Other. Just heard that one on the radio this morning. Not really all that profound, but . . . ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/6 "2003-03-27T21:43:35Z")
" Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose." Janis Joplin in Me and Bobby McGee ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/7 "2003-03-27T21:49:05Z")
" Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose." Janis Joplin in Me and Bobby McGee ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/8 "2003-03-27T22:14:25Z")
There have been a few good ones from comic books, from what I hear. For instance, Superman saying “In this world, there is good, and there is evil. And it is not hard to tell the difference.” ---
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/9 "2003-03-27T22:14:50Z")
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” – John Lennon, “Beautiful Boy” (and I know it’s not original to him, but it’s a perfect crystalization of the thought) And this one is embarrassing, but here goes: When I was in high school and would (on occasion) watch _He-Man_, I saw an episode that had some big, sentient magic tree that some of the heroes were going to chop down. It was going to save some character’s life, or something like that. Anyway, the tree agrees to be sacrificed, and this magic forest pixie starts crying: “Things won’t be the same without you!” “Then,” declares the tree, “they will be different.” I’ve never, ever forgotten that line. I think of it pretty much any time someone (including me) is griping about how something’s going to change everything. (Like, right now, switching from Quark to InDesign in our office.) I want to tell them the Parable of the Magic Tree, and to quit their bitching. Then I realize that I’d have to explain that that particular pearl of wisdom comes from _He-Man,_ and I shut up. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/10 "2003-03-27T22:21:47Z")
Do or do not. There is no try. With great power comes great responsibility. ---
**Author:** ![Fingolfin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eada6e/32.png) [@Fingolfin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fingolfin)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/11 "2003-03-27T22:28:51Z")
> [@](#): > > Looked dead, didn’t I? Well I wasn’t, but it wasn’t for lack fo trying, I can tell you that. Actually Bill’s last bullet put me in a coma. A coma I was to lie in for five years. When I woke up…I went on what the movie advertisements refer to as a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. I roarded and I rampaged and I got bloody satisfaction. In all, I’ve killed 33 people to get to this point right now. I have only one more. The last one. The one I’M driving to right now. The only one left. And when I arrive at my destination… I’m gonna Kill Bill!! - The Bride from **Kill Bill** , the 4th film by Quentin Tarantino ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/12 "2003-03-27T22:37:00Z")
**Marvin the Dragon:** …So what’s the difference between nice people and cowards? **Herbert the Duck:** Cowards are afraid of questioning their actions and prefer to attack others. _–from **Dungeon** , a comic book by Joann Sfar and Lewis Trondheim_ ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/13 "2003-03-27T22:53:40Z")
From a television ad for the game “Taboo” (in which you must get your team to say a word without using some of the most common things associated with that word): “This is a group of people who do nothing; we pay them to spend our money.” Off-camera chorus: “Congress!” ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/14 "2003-03-27T23:41:49Z")
From the cover of [Zap Comix #1](http://www.crumbmuseum.com/zap4.html): Lady in the Flower Pot Hat: “I wish somebody would tell me what ‘diddy wah diddy’ means…” Mr. Natural: “If you don’t know by now, Lady, don’t mess with it!” ---
**Author:** ![j\_kat\_251](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/71c47a/32.png) [@j\_kat\_251](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_kat_251)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2003, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/15 "2003-03-28T00:00:25Z")
“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find you get what you need”. From The Sum of All Fears: ‘A poet once said, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”’. ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2003, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/16 "2003-03-28T00:06:35Z")
From the first book of the Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny: The only people who steal books are your friends. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2003, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/17 "2003-03-28T00:50:26Z")
“Not all of us drink because we’re poets. Some of a us drink because we aren’t.” _Arthur_. “To forgive is an act of compassion, Buffy. It’s not done because people deserve it, it’s done because they need it.” Giles, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2003, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/18 "2003-03-28T01:04:01Z")
Argue for your limitations and sure enough their yours - Illusions ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2003, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/19 "2003-03-28T01:06:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by j\_kat\_251 \* > \*\* > From The Sum of All Fears: > > ‘A poet once said, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”’. \*\* And that poet was Pete Townshend, in the song “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. ---
**Author:** ![Omorka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Omorka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omorka)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2003, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604/20 "2003-03-28T01:18:56Z")
“You can’t get what you want, 'till you know what you want.” - Joe Jackson, from the song with this title. (Goes very well with the aforementioned Rolling Stones tidbit.) “You don’t have to be a hippie to believe in peace.” - Joe Jackson, “Obvious Song” JJ’s pretty good for these; he gets about one an album . . . I also thought Winston Zeddemore’s famous line from **Ghostbusters** - “When someone asks you if you’re a god, you say yes!” - was pretty good advice, but that may just be me. 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-wisdom-in-pop-culture/164604.md?page=2)