# Your Favorite Big Ideas summed up in small quotes... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 31, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418 "2011-10-31T19:52:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/21 "2011-11-01T10:04:59Z")
The speed of light is the same in all reference frames. Gravity is the same thing as acceleration. Light comes in photons. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/22 "2011-11-01T12:59:08Z")
“In the beginning there was nothing…which exploded” (Terry Pratchett) “don’t worry about getting old, it means you aren’t dead” (me) And all of “If” by Kipling but especially \*\*“If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run” \*\* ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/23 "2011-11-01T13:30:12Z")
“Everyone wants to go to Heaven but no one wants to die.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/24 "2011-11-01T13:42:57Z")
I’m not sure if this is what you’re looking for, because it’s not a quote from anywhere, it’s just something I like to say. “You shouldn’t talk if you don’t know how to listen.” ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/25 "2011-11-01T14:33:15Z")
> [@Rala](#): > > “Nothing in life is to be feared, only to be understood.” ~Marie Curie I dunno, look how that turned out for her! ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/26 "2011-11-01T14:37:15Z")
“There are others, and then there is myself.” - The Dead Milkmen Helpful in so many situations. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/27 "2011-11-01T16:29:31Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > 'Don’t sweat the small stuff." > Roddy …Because it’s all small stuff" ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/28 "2011-11-01T16:49:55Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > I’m not sure if this is what you’re looking for, because it’s not a quote from anywhere, it’s just something I like to say. > > “You shouldn’t talk if you don’t know how to listen.” Reminds me of a great Fran Liebowitz line “The opposite of talking is not listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.” ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/29 "2011-11-01T22:27:16Z")
Holding a grudge is giving someone else rent-free space in your head. > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” Or the more amusing variant: “Don’t sweat the petty stuff. And don’t pet the sweaty stuff.” ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/30 "2011-11-02T00:34:07Z")
Incredible claims require incredible evidence. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/31 "2011-11-02T01:03:00Z")
If you do what youi always did, you’ll get what you always got. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/32 "2011-11-02T01:17:53Z")
Always try to be as good a person as your dog thinks you are. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Doctor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/33 "2011-11-02T02:07:48Z")
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” - George Bernard Shaw. One of my all time favorites. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/34 "2011-11-02T02:19:28Z")
All important decisions are made on the basis of insufficient data. AND There is no particular reason why you lose out on some things. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/35 "2011-11-02T02:20:43Z")
“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.” - William Shakespeare ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/36 "2011-11-02T02:22:29Z")
Oh, remembered another: “I am not attached to that physical object.” - Charlie Crews, _Life_ When I moved from Dallas to San Diego four years ago, I could only take what I could fit in my car. Everything else was given to friends, sold in a garage sale, or given to AmVets. I’d been watching a lot of _Clean House_, amazed by the crap people were so adamant on keeping and had the epiphany that the stuff I was agonizing over was probably, to almost everyone else, just random crap. Even then, it was really, really hard until I started reciting that faux-Buddhist line the main character of Life did. Of course, he’d just lost a $100K car, and I was quibbling over paperback novels and costume jewelry, but still. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/37 "2011-11-02T02:31:13Z")
> [@B.Serum](#): > > Incredible claims require incredible evidence. This seems like it ought to be “Incredible claims require _credible_ evidence.” Doesn’t it? If the claim is not believable, then the evidence proving the claim should be. > [@spooje](#): > > If you do what youi always did, you’ll get what you always got. THIS sums up exactly what a beautifully summarized Big Idea means. SO simple, but so inescapably true. > [@Doctor](#): > > “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” - George Bernard Shaw. > > One of my all time favorites. Beautiful!! Never heard it before. Cousin to my Twain sig: “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/38 "2011-11-02T05:09:12Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > It’s such a fantastic way to be ok with the thing we have to learn to do if we don’t want to be miserable: let go, allow. Didn’t get what you want, see what happened instead. It resonates for me because twice in my life, incredibly bad events eventually turned out to have been incredibly good fortune. About ten years later in the first case; three or four years in the second. (Specifics would be very long, and of interest only to me.) I came across the Dalai Lama quote many years afterward. . ---
**Author:** ![Trick\_Rider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Trick\_Rider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trick_Rider)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/39 "2011-11-02T05:33:28Z")
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” This is something I really try to follow. It’s a great, simple sentiment. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418/40 "2011-11-02T08:03:09Z")
> [@phouka](#): > > “Every man thinks he’s righteous.” > > Some actor, I can’t remember who. But, basically, nobody, not even the villain - maybe especially not the villain - thinks they’re the bad guy. Along the same lines I once remarked that people will be like “lol..I’m bad at math” or “I cannot read a map, hawhaw.” or “I don’t know how to cook!” But no one ever EVER will admit to being a bad driver, and yet there are SO many of them? In adherence to the OP, the one that sprung to my mind is “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” - Eleanor Roosevelt [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-big-ideas-summed-up-in-small-quotes/601418.md?page=3)