John's Favorite Quotes

John's Favorite Quotes

Most of these quotes are rather morbid - but really I'm a fairly optimistic person. I just like nasty sayings.
     ``If I wasn't real,'' Alice said, half-crying through her tears, it all seemed so ridiculous, ``I shouldn't be able to cry.''
     ``I hope you don't think those are real tears.'' Tweedledum interrupted in a tone of great contempt.

- Lewis Carrol, "Through the Looking Glass"

Whatever else is true you
Trust your little finger
Just a single little finger can
Save the world.

- Steven Sondheim, "Assassins"

      ``Of the various executive abilities, no one excited more anxious concern than that of placing the interests of our fellow-citizens in the hands of honest men, with understanding sufficient for their stations. No duty is at the same time more difficult to fulfil. The knowledge of character possessed by a single individual is of necessity limited.
      To seek out the best through the whole Union, we must resort to the information which from the best of men, acting disinterestedly and with the purest motives, is sometimes incorrect.

- Thomas Jefferson, "Letter to Elias Shipman and others of New Haven"

Here we may reign secure; and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in hell:
Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.

- John Milton, "Paradise Lost"

      ``There is always,'' Manager Akten said, ``the komerex zha.''
      ``I do not acknowledge the existance of the Perpetual Game,'' Margon said without turning, ``Society is society, war war. If they are games at all, surely they are not all the same game. I deny it.''
      ``That is a favored tactic.'' Akten said.

- John Ford, "The Final Reflection"

      If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had been there, and if he found that flower in his hand as he awoke - Aye, and what then?

- Samuel Coleridge, "Anima Poetae"

      ``One man defending his home and family is worth ten hired soldiers. I learned that in the Crusades.''

- Crusader Robin of Locksley , "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves"
by Pen Densham and John Watson

      ``I can't understand where she gets it from. Her mother wasn't nearly this picky!''

- the Sultan in "Alladin", as his daughter rejects all her suitors

Ezekiel 25:17
      ``The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides with the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and good will shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children.
      And I will strike down upon those with great vengeance and with furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know that my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.''

- Jules from "Pulp Fiction" by Quentin Tarantino

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.

Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
Why not live?

- Dorothy Parker, "Resume"

What are you sayin'? What are you playin'?
Who you obeyin' - day out and day in?
``Baby - Baby - Baby!''
That stuff is drivin' me crazy.
DJ's communicate ... to the masses -
Sex and violent classes.
Now our children grow up prisoners -
All their life - Radio Listeners!

- R.E.M., "Radio Song"

Life 's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

- William Shakespeare, "Macbeth"

      Man is still the fastest and most efficient computer that can be mass-produced with unskilled labor.

- Wernher Von Brown
Jive Dude 2 : Mnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Attendent   : Can I get you something?
Jive Dude 2 : S'mo fo butter layin' to the bone. Jackin' me up.
              Tightly.
Attendent   : I'm sorry I don't understand.
Jive Dude 1 : Cutty say he cant hang.
Jive Lady   : Oh stewardess, I speak jive.
Attendent   : Ohhhh, good.
Jive Lady   : He said that he's in great pain and he wants to know
              if you can help him.
Attendent   : Would you tell him to just relax and I'll be back as
              soon as I can with some medicine.
Jive Lady   : Jus' hang loose bloood.  She gonna catch up on the`
              rebound a de medcide.
Jive Dude 2 : What it is big mamma, my mamma didn't raise no dummy, 
              I dug her rap.
Jive Lady   : Cut me som' slac' jak!  Chump don wan no help, chump
              don git no help.  Jive ass dude don got no brains anyhow.
- Airplane (1980)

Quotation confesses inferiority.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Letters and Social Aims", 1875
John H. Kim <jhkim-at-darkshire-dot-net>
Last modified: Thu Apr 15 14:24:14 2004