Quotes ya just gotta share with the rest of us....
 

"Beware of dissipating your powers; strive constantly to
concentrate them. Genius thinks it can do whatever it sees
others doing, but is sure to repent of every ill-judged
outlay."


Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832), author


Sidhe

It is not lack of love but lack of friendship that makes
unhappy marriages.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher


Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who
could have acted, the indifference of those who should have
known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it
mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.
--Halie Selassie


"It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when
you know that you would lie if you were in his place.
--H. L. Mencken, Reporter, columnist and editor

It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to
find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.
--Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BC)


Sidhe

I like these...


"Genius may have its
limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped."

--Elbert Hubbard
(1856-1915), American author.


"How rare is the truly dissenting voice, and how perilous the consequences of its utterance."

--John Norman


"You wouldn't be intelligent enough to understand anything
that I would be stupid enough to tell you anyways."

--Bill Merrill


Sidhe

This is just damned funny...


ARISTOCRAT: Who is that ugly woman who just came in?

LORD NORTH: Oh, that is my wife.

ARISTOCRAT: Sir, I beg your pardon. I do not mean her. I mean
that shocking monster who is along with her.

LORD NORTH: That is my daughter.

--Lord Frederick North (1732-1792) British Prime Minister
(1770-82) Conversation


Sidhe

Here are some from Hollywood I thought were cute. Enjoy.


On Julie Andrews: "Working with her is like being hit over
the head with a Valentine's card." -Christopher Plummer

On Marilyn Monroe: "It's like kissing Hitler." -Tony Curtis

On Margaret O'Brien: "If that child had been born in the
Middle Ages, she'd have been burned as a witch." -Lionel
Barrymore



Sidhe

<see sig>
or,
"Everything in moderation, including moderation."
Sam Clemens

That's, directly translated:

"See, Father, you the prototype not?"

I think you're missing a verb.

edit: It occurs to me that there, uh, is a verb. This bodes well for my German test tomorrow.

(In my defense, the word order /is/ wacky, and it should probably be 'keinen' instead of 'nicht den'.)

Regular, everyday German word order is wacky.

Poetic German, more so.

And to understand the sig, you need to know a small amount of german mythology.

Elves are not nice, happy, helpful people in German Mythology.

EDIT TO ADD: The translation you were groping for is "Father, Don't YOU see the Erl-King?"

The Erlkonig
 

Erlkonig, (1780), Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?
Es ist der Vater mit seinem Kind;
Er hat den Knaben wohl in dem Arm,
Er faßt ihn sicher, er hält ihn warm.

»Mein Sohn, was birgst du so bang dein Gesicht?« -
»Siehst, Vater, du den Erlkönig nicht?
Den Erlenkönig mit Kron und Schweif?« -
»Mein Sohn, es ist ein Nebelstreif.« -

»Du liebes Kind, komm, geh mit mir!
Gar schöne Spiele spiel ich mit dir;
Manch bunte Blumen sind an dem Strand,
Meine Mutter hat manch gülden Gewand.«

»Mein Vater, mein Vater, und hörest du nicht,
Was Erlenkönig mir leise verspricht?« -
»Sie ruhig, bliebe ruhig, mein Kind:
In dürren Blättern säuselt der Wind.« -

»Willst, feiner Knabe, du mit mir gehn?
Meine Töchter sollen dich warten schön;
Meine Töchter führen den nächtlichen Reihn
Und wiegen und tanzen und singen dich ein.«

»Mein Vater, mein Vater, und siehst du nicht dort
Erlkönigs Töchter am düstern Ort?« -
»Mein Sohn, mein Sohn, ich seh es genau:
Es scheinen die altern Weiden so grau.« -

»Ich liebe dich, mich reizt deine schöne Gestalt;
Und bist du nicht willig, so brauch ich Gewalt.«
»Mein Vater, mein Vater, jetzt faßt er mich an!
Erlkönig hat mir ein Leids getan!« -

Dem Vater grausets, er reitet geschwind,
Er hält in Armen das ächzende Kind,
Erreicht den Hof mit Mühe und Not:
In seinen Armen das Kind war tot.

"The fucking whores in South Philly who can blow lunch out of their cunts are better mothers than you."

(quote from commitment paperwork.)

What, no attribution, Wolf? :cool:

-- Crazy Guy to Wife who was attempting to commit him

My all time favorite
This I'm proud of because I made it up.
A few others that I like:

"The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong -- but that's the way to bet."
-- Damon Runyon

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity"
-- Hanlon's Razor

"Later in this talk, I intend to define the universe and give three examples."
-- Larry Wall (author of the Perl programming language)

"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord ask of you, but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"
-- Micah 6:8

"This calls for a subtle combination of mathematics and explosives."
-- Unknown

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside a dog it's too dark to read.
-- Groucho Marx

"Ah! You have made a common mistake here...what you have there is a beet and you have confused it with food. Food is something like a ham sandwich or a bowl of chile."
-- Paul Hinrichs

"By diligent effort I seemed to be prolonging my adolescence into total absurdity."
-- John D. MacDonald - The Empty Copper Sea

"I'm not sure."
-- Werner Heisenberg

"The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne."
-- Chaucer

The early bird gets the worm. But the early worm gets eaten.

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid isle of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."

H.P. Lovecraft

Some funny ones that I enjoy:

Usenet is not sanitized for your
protection.

Too often, we lose sight of life's simple pleasures.
Remember, when someone annoys you it takes 42
muscles in your face to frown BUT, it only takes 4
muscles to extend your arm and bitch-slap the
motherfucker upside the head...

The longer I read about the Government, the more I'm
convinced that there's no problem in the Government that
can't be solved by the sun exploding.
-- Rodney Lee

Contraceptives should be used at every conceivable opportunity.

Childfree: Productive members of society as opposed to reproductive
members of society

"As far as papertowel skin goes, even leather can be cut with a knife." OnyxCougar
(I thought that was clever, so I made it into a sig. file)

Some others that I like:

If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.
(never mind what you think about God,etc. *I* like it)

Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice.
It is not something to be waited for; but, rather something to be achieved.
(William Jennings Bryan)

Don't tell people to get over the past when it's still haunting their
present. "Jeff"

"When physical and mental health is secured, all of the energy that was tied up in one’s own illness and problems can be finally freed and directed toward living the life you truly want." David Briscoe

"Illness has this edge of grace. If the illness lifts, even for a few days, and one can enter the world again, all things shine with clarity and value." "Lydia Cassatt Reading The Morning Paper" by Harriet Scott Chessman

"The time is always right to do what is right" - Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
-President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Re: The Erlkonig
 

I have that song on tape...got it when I was in music appreciation class in college...we were lucky enough to have an instructor who gave us some good peices of music to listen to. It's still one of my favorites. It's one of those songs that you don't have to know the language of to get the full impact and drama.

Sidhe

It's actually a kind of sad song, since the kid dies in the end--or, rather, is stolen by the Elf-King, which was pretty much the same thing...

Sidhe

"The more the fruits of knowledge become accessible to men,
the more widespread is the decline of religious belief."

--Sigmund Freud
The Future of an Illusion (1927)



Sidhe

Great quotes by women....


Inside every older person is a younger person -- wondering what the hell happened.
-Cora Harvey Armstrong-


The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy.
-Helen Hayes (at 73)-

Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse.
-Lily Tomlin-


Old age ain't no place for sissies.
-Bette Davis-


A man's got to do what a man's got to do. A woman must do what he can't.
-Rhonda Hansome-


The phrase "working mother" is redundant.
-Jane Sellman-


Every time I close the door on reality it comes in through the windows.
-Jennifer Unlimited-


Whatever women must do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.
-Charlotte Whitton-


Thirty-five is when you finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart.
-Caryn Leschen-


I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.
-Jennifer Unlimited-


If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.
-Catherine-


I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb ... and I'm also not blonde.
-Dolly Parton-


If high heels were so wonderful, men would still be wearing them.
-Sue Grafton-


I'm not going to vacuum 'til Sears makes one you can ride on.
-Roseanne Barr-


When women are depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country.
-Elayne Boosler-


Behind every successful man is a surprised woman.
-Maryon Pearson-


In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man- if you want anything done, ask a woman.
-Margaret Thatcher-


I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man I keep the house.
-Zsa Zsa Gabor-


Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission.
-Eleanor Roosevelt-



Sidhe

"In seinen Armen das Kind war tot."

trans: In his arms the child was dead.

The Erl-king steals souls and life essence, leaving the physical body behind.

(no elves here)
 

"If voting could change anything, it would be illegal" -- used by an employee of Diebold, a company making electronic voting machines. And sometimes attributed to Karl Hess, who definitely wrote Goldwater's famous line:

"Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue"

I'm positively surprised how much german you understand. Actually I speak german since I'm six and we did "Erlkönig" when I was about 13 years and I didn't understand a word. And it's just now that I rer-read it and the whole splendour of the poem occurs to me.
Thank you cellar!

Right. The way our instructor put it was that the Elf-king stole the child's soul to fairyland, leaving only the body behind (which, without a soul, was of course, dead). I guess it all depends on whether you're the elf or the father...

Sidhe

Re: (no elves here)
 

I LIKE that one. How true....I always wondered why we bother to vote, anyway. The Electoral College, though pledged to vote the way the state votes, will vote whichever way they want, regardless of what we say....


Sidhe

"Too often, we lose sight of life's simple pleasures.
Remember, when someone annoys you it takes 42
muscles in your face to frown BUT, it only takes 4
muscles to extend your arm and bitch-slap the
motherfucker upside the head..."


Damn, that's a good one....I'll have to remember that...hahahahha!!!


Sidhe

Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level
then beat you with experience.

"I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it."

Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands
and at whom it is aimed.
- Stalin

"Fear the revenge of a patient man"

"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work
within the system' but too early to shoot the bastards."
-- Claire Wolfe, "101 Things To Do 'Til the Revolution"

"The most effective armor is to keep out of range"
-Italian Proverb

"You've got to dance like nobody's watching, and love like it's
never going to hurt."

Become who you were, before you have been, with
the wisdom and understanding of what you are now!

"It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better
still to be a live lion. And usually easier."

Oliver Wendall Holmes : I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what
direction we are moving.

Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. --Ernest Hemmingway

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat."
- Teddy Roosevelt

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
-Benjamin Franklin

"I criticize by creation - not by finding fault."

Cicero (106-43 B.C.), Famous Roman politician


"We are not retreating - we are advancing in another
Direction."

General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964)


Sidhe

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit.
There's no point in being a damn fool about it."

WC Fields (1880 - 1946), Comedian


"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is
trying to please everybody."

Bill Cosby (1937 - ), Comedian, actor



Sidhe

To be fair, you should give proper attribution where possible. This quote in your post above is from Robert A. Heinlein. I'm fairly sure it's from Time Enough for Love.

"You can't fix stupid."--unknown

Favorite Mark Twain quotes
 

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.

In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination.

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.

Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.

Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.

"Never eat where you shit."--unknown

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.
- Groucho Marx

An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right.
- H. L. Mencken

I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.

Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?
- George Carlin

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.
- Sir Winston Churchill

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Okay, one more before I crash. This was part of an actual conversation between a friend of mine and I.

Whit: You've got no morals, man.
Joe: I've got morals, I won't fuck just anything.
Whit: No, Joe, those are standards, morals are different.
Joe: Ya know, I think you're right.

There's a difference between standard morals and moral standards ?:)

"Once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes
to think little of robbing; and from robbing, he comes next
to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility
and procrastination." --Thomas De Quincey


"Fools and wise men are equally harmless. It is the half
fools and the half wise who are dangerous."

--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe



John Wilkes, and English politician noted for his firm
opposition to George III, was a man of courageous liberal
principles, but who led a personal life of great dissipation.

At one time, an opponent of Wilkes, shaking with rage at some
quip the latter had made, said to him, "Sir, I predict you
will die either on the gallows or of some loathsome disease."

To which Wilkes replied, "Which it will be depends entirely
on whether I embrace your principles or your mistress."



DAMN....good one.

Sidhe

“Certainty of death, small chance of success... well, what're we waiting for? ”

-- Gimli to the Captains of the West


“"I am a servant of the Secret Fire, Wielder of the Flame of Anor; you cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udun! Go back to the Shadow. You cannot pass!”

--Gandalf, to the Balrog


“Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to...”

-- Frodo to Sam




Sidhe

I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.


--Bilbo Baggins, at his eleventy-first birthday party in the Shire

"I liked it for the educational value, but they wouldn't let me drink."
- Ozzy Osbourne, responding to questions about his stay at the Betty Ford clinic.

Words of wisdom from the world of sports:

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf."
-Tug McGraw, asked whether he preferred grass or Astroturf

"I told [GM] Roland Hemond to go out and get me a big name
pitcher. He said, 'Dave Wehrmeister's got 11 letters. Is
that a big enough name for you ?'"
-Eddie Eichorn, White Sox owner

"Raise the urinals."
-Darrel Chaney on how management could keep the Braves on
their toes

"He treats us like men. He lets us wear earrings."
-Torrin Polk, University of Houston receiver, on his coach,
John Jenkins, 1991

"I want to rush for 1,000 or 1,500 yards, whichever comes
first."
-New Orleans Saint RB George Rogers

"Left hand, right hand, it doesn't matter. I'm amphibious."
-Charles Shackleford of the NCSU basketball team

"Are you any relation to your brother Marv?"
-Basketball player Leon Wood to announcer Steve Albert

"I can't really remember the names of the clubs that we
went to."
-Shaquille O'Neal on whether he had visited the Parthenon
during his visit to Greece

"He (Julio Cesar Chavez) speaks English, Spanish, and he's
bilingual, too."
-Don King, boxing promoter.


Sidhe

"Those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end, we'd sing and dance forever and a day,
We'd live the life we'd choose, we'd fight and never lose, for we were young, and sure to have our way."

"Those Were the Days"
(it's a song, but I don't remember the name of the woman who sang it)

Sidhe

Mary Hopkin

All Music Guide is your friend.

Thanks. I've loved that song since I was a little girl, but they never play it anymore. It seems I identify with it more and more as the years go by....

Sidhe

I was asked to memorise what I did not understand; and, my memory being so good, it refused to be insulted in that manner.

- Aleister Crowley

It is not merely that I dislike, distrust and disbelieve anyone who seeks political office. I would extend privacy rights even to politicians were it not for two countervailing circumstances.

First, they themselves violate privacy rights wholesale. They regulate virtually everything that peaceful people can do behind closed doors, from taking drugs to having sex. It is elitist hypocrisy for them to demand the privacy rights that they routinely deny to ordinary people. If a politician wishes me to respect his personal life, then he needs to respect mine.

- Wendy McElroy

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82)

Very nice TS. I've copied the RWE quote into my quotes file.

Dude, did you have to sleep on the sofa last night for that one?

: )

No, but I did get the dagger stare and some choice words.

I felt it was appropriate as a matter of general principle as well as for the nature of the thread.

"Falling in love is like dying -- you don't get enough practice to become good at either of them."

[edited because I remembered the syntax was a little different from how I originally had it.]

I read that in a local music rag last night in a bar. It was attributed to a friend of the article's author, but to me it has the ring of something that's been said before. I can't remember by whom, though.

Yeah, and neither of them are worth the experience.

Sidhe

...That's our sorry damn need to shift responsibility whenever we possibly can. A spineless desire to get out from under responsibility is in our genes. I swear it is, and the only way we get anywhere in this world is by constantly fighting our natural inclination to be utterly irresponsible.

Dean Koontz
Midnight




Sidhe

"Men...lie and cheat because they feel no responsibility for others. [People] want power, and they want acclaim when their [plans] succeed, but they seldom stand up and take responsibility for failure. The world's full of people who want to tell you how to live your life...but when their ideas turn out half-baked...they turn their heads, avert their eyes, and pretend they had no responsibility for the [outcome]."

Dean Koontz
Midnight



Sidhe