Inspirational Quotes

[acheron]

never do today what you can put off until tomorrow, and never put off until tomorrow what you can ignore completely.

 

[JMapleton]

"If" by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

 

[Perknose]

Two of my idiosyncratic, personal faves. Neither are really pithy quotes, inspiration and wisdom all wrapped up in a single sentence 'n all, so they will lack the punch of other contributions here, but they do come from two of my favorite authors ever, so there's that . . .

From William Faulkner's 1950 acceptance speech of the Nobel prize in literature:

I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail.

And this relatively brief excerpt from Thomas Pynchon's epic 750 page plus masterwork, Gravity's Rainbow. I was amazed to find this on the web, btw.

The setting is exhausted England in dreary winter around Christmas during the depths and despair of WWII, as the "hero" and his babe chance upon a service in small stone church in the countryside. I consider this prose at its very finest, stretched taut and singing like poetry. Read it out loud to yourself and see if you agree:

So this pickup group, these exiles and horny kids, sullen civilians called up in their middle age, men fattening despite their hunger, flatulent because of it, pre-ulcerous, hoarse, runny-nosed, red-eyed, sore-throated, piss-swollen men suffering from acute lower backs and all-day hangovers, wishing death on officers they truly hate, men you have seen on foot and smileless in the cities but forgot, men who don't remember you either, knowing they ought to be grabbing a little sleep, not out here performing for strangers, give you this evensong, climaxing now with its rising fragment of some ancient scale, voices overlapping three- and fourfold, up, echoing, filling the entire hollow of the church?no counterfeit baby, no announcement of the Kingdom, not even a try at warming or lighting this terrible night, only, damn us, our scruffy obligatory little cry, our maximum reach outward?praise be to God!?for you to take back to your war-address, your war-identity, across the snow's footprints and tire tracks finally to the path you must create by yourself, alone in the dark. Whether you want it or not, whatever seas you have crossed, the way home. . . .

 

[seemingly random]

"Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently." Henry Ford

"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough" Mario Andretti

"Life sucks, get a fucking helmet." Denis Leary

"If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem." J. Paul Getty

"It is better to keep one?s mouth closed and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt." ?

"All people improve the gene pool, some by birth, some by their demise." ?

 

[rip]

See sig.

 

[SlitheryDee]

"Progress doesn't come from early risers ? progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things". R.A.H.

"Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naïve, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as "empty," "meaningless," or "dishonest," and scorn to use them. No matter how "pure" their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best." R.A.H.

 

[Fenixgoon]

i found this from someone on ATOT:

the death rate is 100% - 1 per person.

 

[venkman]

Originally posted by: Babbles
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."
Siddhartha Gautama

:thumbsup: for the Buddah

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Before enlightenment
You chop wood, and carry water.
After enlightenment
You chop wood, and carry water.

 

[Howard]

If you want something done, do it yourself.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
i found this from someone on ATOT:

the death rate is 100% - 1 per person.

Heinlein

In fact... http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein

 

[edro]

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing.
Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Being willing is not enough; we must do.
-Leonardo da Vinci

To see the world in a grain of sand,
And heaven in a wild flower;
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
-William Blake

If I have see further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.
-Newton (in a letter to Hooke, 1676)

Behind it all
is surely and idea so simple,
so beautiful,
so compelling that when-
in a decade, a century,
or a millennium-
we grasp it,
we will all say to each other,
how could it have been otherwise?
How could we have been so stupid
for so long?
-John Wheeler

I contend that we are both atheists.
I just believe in one fewer god than you do.
When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours.
-Stephen Roberts

Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.
-Thomas Huxley (Darwin supporter, coined "agnostic")

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
-Albert Einstein

If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.
-Albert Einstein

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.
-Albert Einstein

The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One
cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates
the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous
structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely
to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.
-Albert Einstein

 

[CallMeJoe]

"C'mon you sons-of-bitches, do you want to live forever!" ~ Gunnery Sgt Dan Daley, Belleau Wood

 

[imported_Champ]

I know this because Tyler knows this

 

[sao123]

If you firmly believe that you can make up for a lack of knowledge by doubling your efforts, there's no end to what you can fuck up.

 

[timosyy]

?Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall? - Ray Bradbury

 

[Aberforth]

When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always.
Mahatma Gandhi

"I am in every religion as the thread through a string of pearls. Wherever thou seest extraordinary holiness and extraordinary power raising and purifying humanity, know thou that I am there." - God

"Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great." - Comte de Bussy-Rabutin

 

[guitarslingerchris]

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions" - Samuel Johnson (sorta)

 

[Rachael]

The one in my signature.

 

[Fenixgoon]

god made men. samuel colt made them equal

 

[Evadman]

It's that dawning moment of comprehension that I live for.

Cows do not belong in dairy farmers' pens. They belong out in the wilderness, where they may run free with the wolves and bears

The flame thrower is in existence because at some point someone thought to themselves, 'I want to start those people way over there on fire, but they are just too far away'.

 

[datalink7]

Originally posted by: Perknose

From William Faulkner's 1950 acceptance speech of the Nobel prize in literature:

I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail.

I have an audio of that speech on my computer. Good speech :thumbsup:

 

[dr150]

DON'T LET YOUR DICK RUN YO' LIFE!

 

[IEC]

"It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum. And I'm all out of gum."

 

[Iron Woode]

There are two kinds of people in the world, those with loaded guns, and those who dig. - Man with no name.

No good deed goes unpunished. - unknown