Favourite Quotes

Here are mine:

'Don't Panic'
the famous line from the Hitch Hiker's guide, and coincidentally the best and most comforting piece of advice that anyone could give. Its so simple, yet means so much. I briefly thought of writing it on a piece of paper and carrying it around in my wallet to look at in times of need, but I didn't- because I'm not a c*nt.

'Confrontation rarely solves anything'
Is a paraphrase from- of all people- Richard Dawkins, from - of all books- The God Delusion. It is advice that I genuinely took to heart and believe in. The God Delusion its self is possibly the most misunderstood book around, and it criticised for it's anger. Those people haven't read it, and I do recommend you all read it- it is the best written argument I have ever seen, he makes a point, covers it from every angle and really leaves no stone unturned, and effectively identifies and dismisses every counter argument effectively- without becoming personal. If I could argue the way he does, so thoughtfully, I'd be a better man. But I can't, so I just stick to the lesson that confrontation rarely solves anything, as I know from his book that there are much better ways.

When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him' - Jonathan Swift.
This is my favourite of Swift's numerous quotes, and I like it for much the same reason as I like the above. Some ideas are ridiculed, not because they are wrong, but because they are different.

'Hatred seems to operate the same glands as love' - Graham Green
I forget which book this is from, but I've always remembered it, I like the idea he suggests that polar opposites such as hate and love are really not so different. A similar, but less catchy quote I could have given here is from my old psychology teacher: 'what is love? a congnative state of arousal given context by the environment which caused it'. All emotions feel the same, its whats happening outside that's different.

You tell me mistakes
are part of being young
but that don't right
the wrong that's been done.

From the old song 'I'm sorry' by Brenda Lee, I totally forgot it existed until it was quotes in the (excellent) book I'm reading right now. I can't describe why I like it so much, other than its completely accurate. I never really felt happy when everybody says that they are glad they made the mistakes they did, because I'm not. Post rationalisation doesn't make mistakes I've made any less regrettable. Thanks to Brenda Lee, I know I'm not the only one who thinks this- I'm happier with reality than I am a fiction, however pleasant.

You miss 100% of the shots you never take - Wayne Gretzky

Quote: Barrington Smash, Jul 2010

You miss 100% of the shots you never take - Wayne Gretzky

That seems to be a very popular quote.

"Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got."- Janis Joplin.

See I'm a dreamer, man, and when I was a cook I'd always work with people who weren't dreamers. Like, I was cooking at this restaurant and I put a hot dog on the grill and my kitchen manager came over, and he said, "Mitch, put the hot dog up here, in the right hand corner of the grill, so in case you get a whole bunch of orders at once you have all this space available." See that's how I knew he wasn't a dreamer, 'cause the day I give up my dreams is the day I have strategic grill locations. A dreamer has a philosophy: The entire grill is hot.

- Mitch Hedberg

"Come on, people,
keep yr friends close,
yr enemies won't matter in the end"
- Enemies/Friends by Hope of the States.

"It hurst too much not too try".
"You're not special; you're extraordinary".
- They are both quotes in Buffy.

"Sans tei, les emotions d'aujord hui me seraient que la peaumonte des emotions d'autrefois"
("without you, today's emotions would be like the scurf of yesterday's").
- It is a quote in Amelie.

"I am leaning back and running with it and staring at the stars and I'm eleven,
I'm sixteen,
I'm eighteen,
I'm a newborn,
I'm everyone everywhere with you without you unbound set free in limbo lost at sea".
- Lost At Sea by Bryan Lee O'Malley.

"Tonight I must be in Asgard", he said. "I must confront my father Odin in the great hall of Valhalla and bring him to justice for what he has done".
"You mean, for making you count all the Welsh pebbles?".
"No!", said Thor. "For making the Welsh pebbles not worth counting".
- The Long Dark teatime Of The Soul by Douglas Adams.

"I'm going to follow her. Even if it means oblivion, I'll welcome it because it won't be nothing, we'll be alive again in a thousand blades of grass, and a million leaves, we'll be falling in the raindrops and blowing in the fresh breeze, we'll be glittering in the dew under the stars and the moon".
- The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman.