The Quotable Groghead

[Jarhead0331]

I love great quotes. Love using them. Love finding new ones. Love reading about the context behind them. I've found that as eloquent as I am capable of being, there is always someone who has said it better.

Thought it would be nice to post favorites here for reference and posterity.

I'm reading a new book on naval aviation and each chapter starts with a good quote...here are some I've read so far:

Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who did not.

-Unknown

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.

-Vernon Law

A diamond is a chunk of coal that is made good by applying pressure.

-Henry A. Kissinger

If you're going through hell, keep moving!

- Winston Churchill

[Gusington]

^That first one is quite the kicker.

"These pretzels are making me thirsty!"

-Jerry Seinfeld

[airboy]

My favorite is from my deceased Dad: "Those who can't think have to feel."

[Sir Slash]

I like the one about experience.  "Where the People fear the Government, there is Tyranny. Where the Government fears the People, there is Liberty". George Washington.

[al_infierno]

Great idea for a thread!  I challenge anyone to find a more eloquently worded version of the Silent Disapproval Robot quote found in my sig.   


Not sure if film quotes are what you're really looking for, but here are a couple great ones that I feel are applicable:

A King may move a man, a father may claim a son, but remember that even when those who move you be Kings, or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus." Or that, "Virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice. Remember that.

- King Baldwin in Kingdom of Heaven

Every day above ground is a good day.

- Mel Bernstein in Scarface

[Jarhead0331]

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice, — is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.” 

-John Stuart Mill

[airboy]

"Beer is a sign God loves us and wants us to be happy."  Ben Franklin

"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." PJ O'Rourke

[Sir Slash]

"The Contest is not always to the Strong, nor the race to the Swift. But that's the way to bet". Or words to that effect. Paul 'Bear' Bryant. 

[Jarhead0331]

Nothing is quite as exhilarating as being shot at with no effect.

- Winston Churchill

[al_infierno]

   Winston Churchill may hold the title of 'Most Quotable Man Who Ever Lived.'

[bobarossa]

  Winston Churchill may hold the title of 'Most Quotable Man Who Ever Lived.'

From a Great Insults email I received recently:

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

 "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend, if you have one. "
George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one."
Winston Churchill, in response

[Jarhead0331]

Winston Churchill was most certainly the man. A rare breed.

MP Bessie Braddock: Winston, you are drunk, and what's more you are disgustingly drunk.

Winston Churchill: My dear, you are ugly, and what’s more, you are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be disgustingly ugly."

[Gusington]

^One of my favorites, with the added zing of 'disgusting,' which I have never seen before.

[W8taminute]

Better crippled in body than corrupt in mind

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, page 182

[al_infierno]

"Your status as a doomed man lends your words a certain prestige and authority.  As the time nears, I think you'll find that people will be eager to hear what you have to say.  They will seek you out.  [...]  You can't let down the living by slipping into self-pity and despair.  People will depend on you to be brave.  What people look for in a dying friend is a stubborn kind of gavel-voiced nobility, a refusal to give in, with moments of indomitable humor."

- Don DeLillo, White Noise