Favorite Quotes

[thesummerqueen]

[5thHorseman]

Christopher Hitchens:
'“Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.” '

'“Exceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.”

“If you gave [Jerry] Falwell an enema he could be buried in a matchbox.”


George Orwell:

'A dirty joke is a sort of mental rebellion.'

'As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents.'

Albert Einstein:

'A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.'

[frankiej]

First, we dine, then copulation.

a quote from the movie "Society"...

[Tiberius]

From Firefly:

Book: What are we up to, sweetheart?
River Tam: Fixing your Bible.
Book: I, um...
[alarmed]
Book: What?
River Tam: Bible's broken. Contradictions, false logistics - doesn't make sense.
[she's marked up the bible, crossed out passages and torn out pages]
Book: No, no. You-you-you can't...
River Tam: So we'll integrate non-progressional evolution theory with God's creation of Eden. Eleven inherent metaphoric parallels already there. Eleven. Important number. Prime number. One goes into the house of eleven eleven times, but always comes out one. Noah's ark is a problem.
Book: Really?
River Tam: We'll have to call it early quantum state phenomenon. Only way to fit 5000 species of mammal on the same boat.
[rips out page]

[ElDinero]

My favourite person to quote is Mark Twain. I could probably set down a hundred brilliant MT quotes, but for the sake of brevity, I'll just go with a couple of my favourites:

'It does look as if Massachusetts were in a fair way to embarrass me with kindnesses this year. In the first place, a Massachusetts judge has just decided in open court that a Boston publisher may sell, not only his own property in a free and unfettered way, but also may as freely sell property which does not belong to him but to me; property which he has not bought and which I have not sold. Under this ruling I am now advertising that judge's homestead for sale, and, if I make as good a sum out of it as I expect, I shall go on and sell out the rest of his property'

'A God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it; who gave his angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body; who mouths justice, and invented hell — mouths mercy, and invented hell — mouths Golden Rules and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people, and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man's acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites his poor abused slave to worship him!'

There's a quote often attributed to him that I enjoy, though it's not confirmed as his: 'Never argue with an idiot. They'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience' which I feel is often apt on these forums.

'I thought I'd begin by reading a poem by Shakespeare. But then I thought 'why should I?'. He never reads any of mine' - Spike Milligan

'Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that, who cares? You're a mile away and you have his shoes' - Anon

[Mister Agenda]

We have to keep our God placated with prayers, and even then we are never sure of him--how much higher and finer is the Indian's God......Our illogical God is all-powerful in name, but impotent in fact; the Great Spirit is not all-powerful, but does the very best he can for his injun and does it free of charge.
- Mark Twain, Marginalia written in copy of Richard Irving Dodge's Our Wild Indians

[Milky Tea]

One of my favourite from Richard Feynman

"In general we look for a new law by the following process. First we guess it. Then we compute the consequences of the guess to see what would be implied if this law that we guessed is right. Then we compare the result of the computation to nature, with experiment or experience, compare it directly with observation, to see if it works. If it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It does not make any difference how beautiful your guess is. It does not make any difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is – if it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. That is all there is to it."

[The Grand Nudger]

"It's a long detour to a faithless friend, though he live by the road; But to a good friend, however distant, there are many shortcuts."-Attributed to Odin.

[Faith No More]

"The chances of finding out what's really going on in the universe are so remote, the only thing to do is hang the sense of it and keep yourself occupied..." - Slartbartfast, Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[JollyForr]

Him not busy being born is busy dying - Bob Dylan

The meaning of life is that it ends - Kafka

Never, never, never give up - Churchill

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all - Wilde

Get busy living or get busy dying - Shawshank Redemption

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one that has opened for us - Bell

We have met the enemy, and he is us - Walt Kelly