post your favourite quote

[dudeness]

I find quotations have a direct relevance to modern society and modern events, no matter what period of time they were scribed..I would be interested to read your favourite..

[mbee]

1. "Small minds discuss people, average minds discuss events

great minds discuss ideas is my favorite." Another one which is relevant to these times "What good fortune for those in power that the people do not think" (Hitler?)

[Hamlette]

3. I thought the quote was...

small minds discuss things, mediocre minds discuss people, great minds discuss ideas. (On the theory "people" are more interesting than things or events. I think.)

either way, its a good quote.

I also like:
I am an old man and I have known a great many troubles but most of them never happened. Mark Twain.

[sistersofmercy]

2. My Life When Written Shall Read Better Than It Was Lived!

Lion in the winter.

[abbyhoffman]

4. "Always remember,

others may hate you. Those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself."
Nixon

[Blue_State_Elitist]

5. hmmmm

I shot an arrow into the air,
and it landed I don't know where.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

6. "You never know for sure

what anybody is thinking, so wake with a smile,
be ready to crush anything that gets in your way,
and have enviable buttocks muscles."
--Plato

[RichM]

7. "You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But

in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths. You reproach us, therefore, with intending to do away with a form of property, the necessary condition for whose existence is the non-existence of any property for the immense majority of society.

In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend."

(I am also quite fond of the following -- it has that 'je ne sais quoi' )

"The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.

Workers of All Countries, Unite!"

[grasswire]

8. it is....

..."Without music, life would be a mistake." (Nietzsche)



Or....."One never knows, do one?" (Thomas Waller)

[Exultant Democracy]

9. first half of my sig line. The second ain't half bad either n/t

[danbee46]

12. It's a Tie

"When I need a little advice about Saddam Hussein, I turn to country music." —George Bush Sr., in 1991

"We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile.'' —George W. Bush, in Aug. 2000

[Room101]

13. As of this post, my favorite quote is....

"civil disobedience. . . is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem."

Howard Zinn, "Failure to Quit"

Is that too long to be a quote? NO
Don't forget my sign line at the bottom.
My favorite quote changes with the wind.....

[dudeness]

14. two great men..

:)

[laura888]

25. great! I love Howard Zinn! n/t

n/t

[laissez_unfaire]

10. PKD

"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."
--Philip K. Dick,
("How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later" (1986))

[dudeness]

11. welcome to DU L.Unfaire

I have only started re-reading "do androids dream of electric sheep"..as a change to chomsky..etc..

[jafap]

15. In honor of Arnold

"That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity. Or remorse. Or fear. And it absolutely will not stop - ever! - until you are dead."

The terminator, of course, like the Borg, is symbolic of the corporate-techno-military society. Or this one:
"The problem is not just how much money Bush wants to give to the extremely wealthy at the expense of the rest of us. Rather, it is that the Republican Party, at this moment in history, is politically and ideologically dedicated to the destruction of the very foundations of social solidarity in this country." Eric Alterman Sep 2000

[rman]

16. "pay the cost of your own slavery"

"Banking was conceived in iniquity, and was born in sin. The Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits and with the flick of the pen, they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But if you wish to remain the slaves of Bankers, and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create deposits."
- Sir Josiah Stamp President of The Bank of England, 1920

"Deficit spending is simply a scheme for Confiscation of wealth."
- Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, 1966

[shatoga]

17. there is a gov't within the gov't & I am not in charge/ Clinton

At a DNC fundraiser in NYC (1996)

A guest was upbraiding President Clinton for not doing enough.
(using his power to fix things)

"There is a government within the government, and I am not in charge." -President Bill Clinton

[OneBlueSky]

18. here's a few favorites . . .

"Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it." Andre Gide

"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers." Pablo Picasso

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." Bertrand Russell

"Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious." Brendan Gill

"What do people want? They want to be themselves, to reach their own potential. Some of them want men, some of them want women, some of them want neither, some of them want a pet turtle. The bottom line is self-expression." Paul Krassner

"Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more, know what I mean?" Eric Idle

"You can’t change the music of your soul." Katherine Hepburn

"Free you mind and your ass will follow." George Clinton

"Dare to be naive." R. Buckminster Fuller

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." Albert Einstein

"Hey, don’t knock masturbation. It’s sex with someone I love." Woody Allen

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." Albert Einstein

"There’s some folks, if they don’t know, you can’t tell ‘em." Louis Armstrong

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former." Albert Einstein

"The cardinal rule of politics -- never get caught in bed with a live man or a dead woman." J.R. Ewing

"There is more to life than increasing its speed." Gandhi

"God gave us a penis and a brain, but only enough blood to use one of them at a time." Robin Williams

"Every person -- man, woman, or child -- is a beauty waiting to be discovered, uncovered, revealed." Matthew Fox

"If the only prayer you say in your whole life is “Thank you,” that would suffice." Meister Eckhardt

"This we know. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know." Chief Seattle

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." John Muir

“Human beings seem to have an almost unlimited capacity to deceive themselves into taking their own lies for the truth. One’s only task is to realize oneself.” R.D. Laing

“Imagination is a quality given a man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is.” Oscar Wilde

“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” B.F. Sklinner

“I hate quotations.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

[imax2268]

19. ok...

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. (1900 - 1965), Speech in Detroit, 7 Oct. 1952

[Dookus]

20. Paul Lynde....

to the mother of a girl running up and down the aisle of a plane:


"shut that little girl up or I'll fuck her."

[Dookus]

21. also....

Fran Liebowitz:

"The opposite of speaking is not listening. The opposite of speaking is waiting to speak."

[DemocratSinceBirth]

22. Can I Have Two

"Some ideas are so bizzare only an intellectual could could believe them"

-George Orwell


"Men of intemperate minds can never be free"

-Edmund Burke

[AbbieLives]

23. Kurt Vonnegut

"'All people are insane', he said. 'They will do anything at anytime, and God help anybody who looks for reasons'."

"'There are plenty of good reasons for fighting,' I said, 'but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too. Where's evil? It's that large part of every man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with God on its side. It's that part of every man that finds all kinds of ugliness so attractive.
'It's that part of an imbecile,' I said, 'that punishes and vilifies and makes war gladly.'"

Both from Mother Night.

[stevebreeze]

24. a couple

"I knew a blond once, she drove me to drink. It's the one thing to which I am in debted to her" W,C. Fields

"When I was 14 I thought my old man was the stupidest person on the face of the planet. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much he had learned in 7 short years" Mark Twain

[Liberal_Andy]

26. "Politics is the gentle art of...

getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other."

Oscar Americus

[GumboYaYa]

27. "Ipsa scientia potestas est" Ovid

Knowledge, itself is power.

[Mikimouse]

28. My Favorite...

The true greatness of a nation is inversely proportional to the frequency with which it proclaims itself so.

[Ekaterina]

29. from Zappa

"We are a nation of laws; poorly written and randomly enforced"

[JHB]

30. Wisdom from the Yogi...

...(particularly relevant to Democrats):

"It ain't over 'till it's over!"

"It's like deja vu all over again!"

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

31. "On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia"

Words on W.C. Fields gravestone.

"A government of the people, by the people, for the people." - A. Lincoln

"No one ever went broke overestimating the stupidity of the American people." - H.L. Mencken

"Mejor morir a pie que vivir en rodillas." - Dolores Iburruri ("Better to die on one's feet than live on one's knees.")

"It is difficult to believe in a religion that places such a high premium on chastity and virginity." - Madonna

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich." - Napoleon Bonaparte

"Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves
you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love." - Butch Hancock


also my tag line, and many more.

[greekspeak]

32. gnothi seauton

"know yourself"

[chefgirl]

33. A few of my favorites....

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. -- Gandhi


In our sleep, pain which we cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom, through the awful grace of God.
–Æschylus

My religion is simple. My religion is kindness. It is in our interest to create a world of love,justice, and equality, for without a sense of universal responsibiity based on morality, our existence and survival is at a perilous precipice. -- His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.


-chef-

[Born_a_Democrat]

34. Of all the things I've lost...I miss my mind the most

hehe...got that from the movie "Hackers"..it is supposed to be by Ozzy Osbourne

I will never again admit that I saw that movie so someone keep this post in case I ever run for office you can kill my campaign with just that one statement...hehehe

[skypilot]

35. "It is ridiculous to divide people...

...into good and evil. People are either charming or tedious."
---Oscar Wilde

[sybylla]

36. "As the government is not, in any sense,...

founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen ...it is declared...that no pretext arising from religious opiniion shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

US Treaty with Tripoly, 1797
Original language by Joel Barlow, U.S. Consul.
Signed by President John Adams

[BigMcLargehuge]

37. R.A. Heinlein, "From Politics I have come to believe the following...

(1) Most people are basically honest, kind and decent.

(2) The American people are wise enough to run their own affairs. The do not need Fuehrers, Strong Men, Technocrats, Commissars, Silver Shirts, Theocrats, or any other sort of dictator.

(3) Americans have a compatible community of ambitions. Most of them don't want to be rich but do want enough economic security to permit them to raise families in decent comfort without fear of the future. They want the least government necessary to this purpose and don't greatly mind what the other fellow does as long as it does not interfere with them living their own lives. As a people we are neither money mad nor prying. We are easy-going and anarchistic. We may want to keep up with the Joneses -- but not with the Vanderbilts. We don't like cops.

(4) Democracy is not an automatic condition resulting from laws and constitutions. It is a living, dynamic process which must be worked at by you yourself -- or it ceases to be democracy, even if the shell and form remains.

(5) One way or another, any government which remains in power is a representative government. If your city government is a crooked machine, then it is because you and your neighbors prefer it that way -- prefer it to the effort of running your own affairs. Hitler's government was a popular government; the vast majority of Germans preferred the rule of gangsters to the effort of thinking and doing for themselves. They abdicated their franchise.

(6) Democracy is the most efficient form of government ever invented by the human race. On the record, it has worked better in peace and in war than fascism, communism, or any other form of dictatorship. As for the mythical yardstick of 'benevolent' monarchy or dictatorship -- there ain't no such animal!

(7) A single citizen, with no political connections and no money, can be extremely effective in politics."


I disagree for the most part with 3, but the rest of them always give me a little to reflect on when I am at my political lowest.

[Brian Sweat]

38. "Facts are stupid things" - Ronald Wilson Reagan

"A republic, if you can keep it" - Benjamin Franklin

[Mixxster]

39. I guess I got carried away

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. -George Orwell

A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood of ideas in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. -John Fitzgerald Kennedy

The test of compassion is action. -Al Gore

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change you're the one who has got to change. -Katharine Hepburn

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free. -Clarence Darrow

He is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins. -Frederick Douglass

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost. -Aristotle

In a free society, diversity is not disorder. Debate is not strife. And dissent is not revolution. -George W. Bush

It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government. -Thomas Paine

I say hugging a flag is simple. Hugging what it stands for is harder. -Mitch Albom

It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error. –U. S. Supreme Court

The best way to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence. -Charles Austin Beard

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. -Edward R. Morrow

Too many people desire to suppress criticism simply because they think it will give some comfort to the enemy... . If that comfort makes the enemy feel better for a few moments, they are welcome to it ... because the maintenance of the right to criticism in the long run will do the country maintaining it a great deal more good than it will do the enemy. -Sen. Robert A. Taft

It occurs to me that my patriotic duty is to recapture my flag from the men now waving it in the name of jingoism and censorship.
-Barbara Kingsolver

If a politician murders his mother, the first response of the press or of his opponents will likely be not that it was a terrible thing to do, but rather that in a statement made six years before he had gone on record as being opposed to matricide. -Meg Greenfield

[roguevalley]

40. I would rather die on my feet a free man

than live on my knees as a slave. --Emeliano Zappata

The Beatitudes.

29th sonnet <any part> Shakespeare

No one can make you inferior without your consent.-E. Roosevelt

[Raenelle]

41. Lube up, lean into the fire, and laugh.

More of a mantra, or a motto maybe. Got it from my very favorite columnist, Mark Morford.

[lpbk2713]

42. "i will fight no more, forever."

........Chief Joseph.

[linazelle]

43. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will -

Frederick Douglas

[leftist_rebel1569]

44. It's my sig line...

my favorite quote from my favorite TV show ever

[CO Liberal]

45. "Ya Win Some, Ya Lose Some, and Some Get Rained Out .....

...but ya gotta get dressed for all of 'em." - Casey Stengel

:-)

[TrogL]

46. This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang, but a whimper

T. S. Eliot

[Aristus]

47. It's my sig line.

Although I'm fond of: 'When I was fourteen years old, I thought my father was the stupidest, most ignorant man that had ever lived. By the time I turned twenty-one, I was amazed at how much he'd learned in seven years.' - Mark Twain.

[Mr. McD]

48. There are so many

"Falling in love is the beginning of all wisdom, all sympathy, all compassion, all art, all religion; and in its larger sense is the one thing in life worth doing." --Elbert Hubbard



"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
--Bertrand Russell

On edit add

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
--John Kenneth Galbraith