MyDD :: Words to live by....

Words to live by....

by WashStateBlue, Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 03:47:22 PM EST

Not politics, but hoping we can all do a little unity (WINK!) by sharing some of our favorite quotes.

The first two of mine are basically about life and how to live it.

The first one is by a Catholic Bishop in South America in the 1880s:

"When your ship, long moored in harbour, gives you the illusion of being a house...put out to sea! Save your boat's journeying soul, and your own pilgrim soul, cost what it may." - Brazilian Archbishop Helder Camara

The next one is supposedly from Richard Rodgers, talking to another playwright who was complaining about getting bad reviews and his play closing after just a two week run:

""If you complain that your play flopped, at least you had the use of the hall."-Richard Rodgers

Just love that one.

My last offering is one I have actually used here, this came supposedly when Physicist Wolfgang Pauli was listening to a theory he considered to be so far away from reality as to not even deserve refuting; he said, in what must be one of the tersest and devastating comebacks of all time:

"That's not even wrong."

Tags: Quotes, favs, life statements, quips and comebacks (all tags)

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wow. yeah, that is devastating. (none / 0)

His head is bowed. He thinks of men and kings. Yea, when the sick world cries, how can he sleep?

by RisingTide on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 03:57:29 PM EST

Re: Words to live by.... (2.00 / 3)

OK here goes. The first was more about how I felt just fter Bush was elected and is from John Adams

"Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide."

Next from Will Rogers -
"If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?"

And finally my sig quote

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.

by jsfox on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 04:03:34 PM EST

Re: Words to live by.... (2.00 / 2)

Wow, never heard that John Adams quote. Nice.

Love the HBO series, got to get around to reading the book it was based on.

Damn, too bad he didn't feel strongly about things, eh!!!!

"Well the danger on the rocks is surely past... Still I remain tied to the mast"...Don Fagen, Poet and Piano Player

by WashStateBlue on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 04:06:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Words to live by.... (2.00 / 2)

Yea it was kind of sad he was so dispassionate about our forming union ;)

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.

by jsfox on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 04:09:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Words to live by.... (2.00 / 2)

"we are able to look at the world with two faculties--with reason and with wonder'

"In the eyes of the world... I am an average man. But to my heart I am of great moment. The challenge I face is how to actualize, how to concretize, the quite emminence of my being. Beyond all agony and anxiety lies the most important ingredient of self-reflection: the preciousness of my own existence...and I resist the thought of gambling away its meaning.

both are by theologian abraham joshua heschel

"Me Fail English? That's Unpossible." Ralph Wiggum

by canadian gal on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 04:13:28 PM EST

Re: Words to live by.... (2.00 / 2)

Love that last part:

"and I resist the thought of gambling away its meaning."

Really makes you stop and think.

"Well the danger on the rocks is surely past... Still I remain tied to the mast"...Don Fagen, Poet and Piano Player

by WashStateBlue on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 04:18:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

heschel has a goldmine of good quotes... (2.00 / 1)

and he was to the right of martin luther king on that famous march from selma to montgomery.

"Me Fail English? That's Unpossible." Ralph Wiggum