When in doubt, just tell 'em it was Carlin or Vonnegut.

There's a quote that I write in the front of all my sketchbooks. It's become so natural that I don't really even think about it anymore, but last night I had a conversation at a party and it came up.

It occurs to me that it would be a good use of the internet to ask a bunch of random, allegedly intelligent people to share their favorite quote, so much so that it could become a really inspiring and valuable permanent and ever-growing collection.

The quote I'm talking about is from an article in the Village Voice in 1968, "Looking for Lightnin'" by Grover Lewis. Lewis went to Texas in search of the elusive blues great Lightnin' Hopkins, and when he found him he followed him around for awhile. This is one of his observations, and it has inspired me for years:

Unlike many in my generation, he'd passed far beyond the lachrymose, self-pitying posture that accompanies a frightened, solipsistic preoccupation with survival.
Accepting the bedrock necessity of unceasing struggle for existence as a simple, inflexible condition of life, he had summoned up the strength, courage and raw marrow to forge ahead and confront a vaster dilemma: The problem of fashioning something outside of oneself worthy of continued life.

So let's hear yours, people - give us the quote that you think of, over and over again throughout your life.

 

I have a huge Evernote notebook that I always throw quotes into whenever I come across something that resonates with me. By far, my personal favorite is the poem 'If'.

I like it so much, that I've requested my grandmother paint a border around the text on a 11" x 17" matboard so I can frame it. These are the three basic designs that she said I have to pick between.

 

It's kind of cliche, but l really like this short one from Abraham Lincoln.
"Whatever you are, be a good one."

 

From the Infantryman's creed.

"I am relentless.
I am always there,
now and forever."



"You shouldn't take life to seriously. You'll never get out alive."-Van Wilder

 

"Bravery and stupidity are often synonymous. So are cowardice and intelligence."

I have no idea who said it.

 

Because Kurt Vonnegut is the shit, that's why:

 

"When you see a fork in the road, take it." ~Yogi Berra. I think about this every time I get shitty road directions.

On a more serious note:

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." ~Robert Heinlein.

I HATE being helpless due to not having a skill. I'd like to have a basic understanding of pretty much every trade, if only for the knowledge. Right now, I'm good with computers and terrible with cars. I need to fix that; a human being should know how to change his brake pads, even if he pays someone else to do it. Same thing with plumbing, carpentry, masonry, landscaping, electrical troubleshooting, and a million other skills that are just good to know.

 

Aldo Leopold is one of my favorite authors. Here are a few bits of wisdom from him.

“Civilization has so cluttered this elemental man-earth relationship with gadgets and middlemen that awareness of it is growing dim. We fancy that industry supports us, forgetting what supports industry.”
-Aldo Leopold, "A Sand County Almanac"

"For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun. The Cro-Magnon who slew the last mammoth thought only of steaks. The sportsman who shot the last pigeon thought only of his prowess. The sailor who clubbed the last auk thought of nothing at all. But we, who have lost our pigeons, mourn the loss. Had the funeral been ours, the pigeons would hardly have mourned us. In this fact, rather than in Mr. Du Pont’s nylons or Mr. Vannevar Bush’s bombs, lies objective evidence of our superiority over the beasts."
-Aldo Leopold, "On a Monument To A Pigeon"

 

"I drink, therefore I am"

 

The source of this quote is pretty absurd, yet it is always on my mind when I face any obstacles.

It's from a fantasy novel called Silverthorn by Raymond Feist.

"Life is problems. Living is solving problems."

Small, simple quote that has always resonated with me. I consider myself fairly well read across many genres of literature, both fiction and non-fiction and a random quote from the middle of an average fantasy novel is always the top one that comes to my mind. Go figure.

This thread got me thinking about this quote and if the author lifted it from elsewhere. Maybe from a more notable source. I'm surprised I never looked this up before. I just found an interesting quote by a US psychologist named J.P. Guilford who mainly studied human intelligence. He's quoted with this line that's a bit along the same lines and the one above. "To live is to have problems and to solve problems is to grow intelligently." Not bad, but I like the simplicity of the one in the book. I can't find any other similar quotes by anybody really famous, etc. I'll just continue along peacefully with my quote as is and continue attributing it to the random novel it came from.

 

First two by Eckhart Tolle:

“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but thought about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking. Separate them from the situation, which is always neutral. It is as it is.”

“When you don't cover up the world with words and labels, a sense of the miraculous returns to your life that was lost a long time ago when humanity, instead of using thought, became possessed by thought.”

Yoda:

"Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try."

 

Got a list at home I'll check out later, but off the top of my head:

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

- Often attributed to Dr. Seuss, but I'm not sure that's correct.

"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You."

- Defnitely from Dr. Seuss

"Never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed."

-Hunter Thompson

Two from Carlin:

"The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."

"You know an odd feeling? Sitting on the toilet eating a chocolate candy bar."

"A fly was very close close to being named a 'land', cuz that's what they do half the time."

-Mitch Hedberg

"Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind."

-Einstein

I'll only pick two Vonnegut quotes:

"Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college."

"During my three years in Vietnam, I certainly heard plenty of last words by dying American footsoldiers. Not one of them, however, had illusions that he had somehow accomplished something worthwhile in the process of making the Supreme Sacrifice."

And then of course, the one I think about most often, my signature quote from Bill Hicks:

 

"The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit." ~ W. Somerset Maugham

"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . ." ~ St. Ex

A man said to the universe:
“Sir, I exist!"
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
“A sense of obligation.” ~ Stephen Crane

Her whole life is an epigram: smack smooth, and neatly penned,
Platted quite neat to catch applause, with a sliding noose at the end. ~ William Blake

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardentfor some desperate glory
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est.
Pro patria mori. ~ Wilfred Owen

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime. ~ Andrew Marvell



I will return to this thread. I really love quotations.

 

Only one quote as per my ethos:

"A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well—or ill?” John Steinbeck, East of Eden.

That one stays with me all the time. It's been known to make me feel guilty late at night.

Since everyone else is doing multiples...

"It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure on the world.”

“In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted shortcuts to love...We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.”

Steinbeck from East of Eden again. That book holds more use for me than most other philosophies.

 

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right."
Henry Ford

"Prayer doesn't change our circumstances. Prayer changes us, and we change our circumstances."
Soren Kierkegaard

"Don't be so humble--you're not that great."
Golda Meir

 

A word after a word after a word is power. -Margaret Atwood

"Offenbar gibt es nur die wahl zwischen Fernweh und Heimweh, weh ist immer dabei." - "Apparently there is only the choice between wanderlust and homesickness, but there is always an ache." (Don't know which German dude said this. I found it on a travel blog.)

unbeingdead isn't beingalive
-e.e cummings

 

Long or short, thick or thin, Vasline will get you in.

 

My father's two favourite quotes were often repeated in our house and stay with me to this day.

"Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
and
"There but for the grace of God go I."

Good quotes for putting things into perspective.

 

Even though I'm sure I've posted this one somewhere on here before, it's worth repeating every day.

"Most people live for love and admiration. But it is by love and admiration that we should live." - Oscar Wilde