Quotes

[Graalsword]

Mark Twain:

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

 

[Zadius Sky]

William James:

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

 

[ines]

IF I KNEW

If I knew it would be the last time
that I'd see you fall asleep
I would tuck you in more tightly
and pray the Lord, your soul to keep.

If I knew it would be the last time
that I see you walk out the door,
I would give you a hug and kiss
and call you back for one more.

If I knew it would be the last time
I'd hear your voice lifted up in praise,
I would video tape each action and word,
so I could play them back day after day.

If I knew it would be the last time,
I could spare an extra minute
to stop and say "I love you,"
instead of assuming you would KNOW I do.

If I knew it would be the last time
I would be there to share your day,
Well I'm sure you'll have so many more,
so I can let just this one slip away.

For surely there's always tomorrow
to make up for an oversight,
and we always get a second chance
to make everything just right.

There will always be another day
to say "I love you," and certainly
there's another chance
to say our "Anything I can do?"

But just in case I might be wrong,
and today is all I get,
I'd like to say how much I love you
and I hope we never forget.

Tomorrow is not promised to anyone,
young or old alike,
and today may be the last chance
you get to hold your loved one tight.

So if you're waiting for tomorrow,
why not do it today?
For if tomorrow never comes,
you'll surely regret the day.

That you didn't take that extra time
for a smile, a hug, or a kiss
and you were too busy to grant someone,
what turned out to be their one last wish.

So hold your loved ones close today, and whisper in their ear,
tell them how much you love them
and that you'll always hold them dear.

Take time to say "I'm sorry,"
"Please forgive me," "Thank you,"
or "It's okay."

And if tomorrow never comes,
you'll have no regrets about today.


(By Dr. H. Solomon)​

 

[Soluna]

These are some quotes from a book by Richard Morgan - I think it was Broken Angels, it was either that or Woken Furies.

I enjoyed the sentiment, slightly humorous but poignant.

"The difference between virtuality and life is very simple. In a construct you know everything is being run by an all-powerful machine. Reality doesn't offer this assurance, so it's very easy to develop the mistaken impression that you're in control."

QUELLCRIST FALCONER
Ethics on the Precipice

"In any agenda, political or otherwise, there is a cost to be borne. Always ask what it is, and who will be paying. If you don't, then the agenda-makers will pick up the scent of your silence like swamp panthers on the scent of blood, and the next thing you know, the person expected to bear the cost will be you. And you may not have what it takes to pay."

QUELLCRIST FALCONER
Things I Should Have Learnt By Now VolII

And some Robert Heinlein =)

Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.
Robert A. Heinlein

Don't ever become a pessimist... a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.

I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.

Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.

 

[Alcarohtare]

I have wasted my hours.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

Leonardo da Vinci

 

[Zadius Sky]

From R.D. Laing's The Politics of Experience:

The condition of alienation, of being asleep, of being unconscious, of being out of one's mind, is the condition of the normal man.

Society highly values its normal man. It educates children to lose themselves and to become absurd, and thus to be normal.

Normal men have killed perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow men in the last fifty years...

We are not able even to think adequately about the beaviour that is at the annihilating edge. But what we think is less than what we know; what we know is less than what we love; what we love is so much less than what there is. And to that precise extent we are so much less than what we are...

 

[bngenoh]

My brothers, i see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come, when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends, and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight!! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand. - Aragon at the black gate LOTR Return of the King. :P ;) :D

 

[manitoban]

My brothers, i see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come, when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends, and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight!! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand. - Aragon at the black gate LOTR Return of the King. :P ;) :D

Love this quote, it always moves me, no matter how many times I've heard it, it still touches my heart.
Thanks for posting!

 

[bngenoh]

Love this quote, it always moves me, no matter how many times I've heard it, it still touches my heart.
Thanks for posting!

You are most welcome manitoban. One of my favorites as well, every time i play it in my head, i wanna do a battle cry.

 

[Denis]

My brothers, i see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come, when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends, and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight!! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand. - Aragon at the black gate LOTR Return of the King. :P ;) :D

Whoa!! Goose bumps upon reading this quote, thanks for sharing bngenoh! Looking forward to Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" when it hits theaters.

Mitakuye Oyasin

Mitakuye Oyasin (All Are Related) is a traditional Lakota Sioux prayer, with its opening phrase used as a refrain in many Lakota prayers and songs. It reflects the inherent belief of most Native American traditions and belief systems that "Everything is Connected". The Lakotas, Dakotas and Nakotas all the Native American tribes revere the prayer. It is used in all Yankton spiritual ceremonies and activities, like Peyotism, and employed as a prayer to end other prayers, after which the sacred food or sacred pipe is passed around.

The phrase translates as "all my relatives," "we are all related," or "all my relations." It is a prayer of oneness and harmony with all forms of life: other people, animals, birds, insects, trees and plants, and even rocks, rivers, mountains and valleys.

Aho Mitakuye Oyasin....All my relations. I honor you in this circle of life with me today. I am grateful for this opportunity to acknowledge you in this prayer....

To the Creator, for the ultimate gift of life, I thank you.

To the mineral nation that has built and maintained my bones and all foundations of life experience, I thank you.

To the plant nation that sustains my organs and body and gives me healing herbs for sickness, I thank you.

To the animal nation that feeds me from your own flesh and offers your loyal companionship in this walk of life, I thank you.

To the human nation that shares my path as a soul upon the sacred wheel of Earthly life, I thank you.

To the Spirit nation that guides me invisibly through the ups and downs of life and for carrying the torch of light through the Ages, I thank you.

To the Four Winds of Change and Growth, I thank you.

You are all my relations, my relatives, without whom I would not live. We are in the circle of life together, co-existing, co-dependent, co-creating our destiny. One, not more important than the other. One nation evolving from the other and yet each dependent upon the one above and the one below. All of us a part of the Great Mystery.

Thank you for this Life.

 

[JGeropoulas]

My son-in-law is a broker for Morgan-Stanley and we have an ongoing, friendly "debate" about what's going on "behind the scenes" in the world. Recently, I told him I believe there's a psychopathic agenda driving the U.S. economy into ruin. Naturally, he insisted that "everything was fine" and just part of routine "market cycles." After we reached our typical friendly impasse, he agreed to check out some links I offered to send.

While putting those links together, I came upon this quote, which I sent with the links:

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" – Upton Sinclair

 

[Alana]

From Tennyson's Ulysses:

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought
with me—
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

 

[bngenoh]

Here's a quote from Mr. Pithy himself aka Confucius, i have changed the last part to reflect my understanding, it originally read "From the Son of Heaven, down to the mass of the people, all must...."

Things have their root and their branches, affairs have their end and their beginning. To know what is first and what is last, will lead near to what is taught in the Great Learning. The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge laid in the investigation of things. Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy. From the mass of the people down to the single individual, all must consider the cultivation of the person, the root of everything besides.

And

Learn from science, that you must doubt the experts, science is the acute awareness of the ignorance of experts. When someone says science teaches such and such, they are using the word incorrectly. Science doesn't teach it, experience teaches it. If they say to you, science has shown such and such, you might ask. "How does science show it?" How did the scientists find out who, what, when, where, how....?" It is not that science has shown, but this experiment, this effect has shown.

 

[Thomas Alan]

My brothers, i see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come, when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends, and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight!! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand. - Aragon at the black gate LOTR Return of the King. :P ;) :D

Love this quote, it always moves me, no matter how many times I've heard it, it still touches my heart.
Thanks for posting!

An inspiring quote, indeed. But Aragorn, Gandalf, and their brave army would have gone down to defeat were it not for Frodo and Sam. Armed only with courage and persistence they walked into Hell. The small and meek completed the mission they willingly chose, destroying the Ring of Power, opening the way for the return of the Light.

In this there is inspiration as well, or so it seems to me.

Mac

 

[bngenoh]

An inspiring quote, indeed. But Aragorn, Gandalf, and their brave army would have gone down to defeat were it not for Frodo and Sam. Armed only with courage and persistence they walked into Hell. The small and meek completed the mission they willingly chose, destroying the Ring of Power, opening the way for the return of the Light.

In this there is inspiration as well, or so it seems to me.

Oh yes there is a great amount of inspiration to be drawn from it. It tells me to persist in what i have chosen to do, never anticipating what the outcome will be. To let my efforts and actions speak for me while always doing my best, and leaving the rest to the Universe.