Favorite Quotes

Curubethion · 10-11-2005, 09:49 PM

I'd like to know, what are some of your favorite quotes in the literature world?

"Thou wast not bold!-Thou wast not true!" ~Pearl, from The Scarlet Letter

I've got a few others...I'll have to think about it...

Mercutio · 10-12-2005, 05:31 PM

It's not my favorite as in spiffy or nifty or cool, but one of my favorite quotes is "the horror, the horror."

You ask why? Because it sums up one of the best books in English, Heart of Darkness which in turn sums up humanity. I don't know...I just thought H o D was brilliant. And saddening

, as Conrad doesn't have an answer to "the horror, the horror" like Dostoevesky and others did--redemption through Christ (Christianity)

.

I'm thinking of others...how about something from Jane Austen like "Run mad as often as you choose but do not faint," or "you are endeavoring to disarm me by reason."

Or from Lord Peter, "How fleeting are all human passions
compared with the massive continuity of ducks."

Beren3000 · 10-14-2005, 09:27 AM

My current favorite quote is from a poem by John Keats:

"Can death be sleep when life is but a dream,
And scenes of bliss pass as a phantom by?"

Jabberwock · 10-17-2005, 11:22 AM

I think one of my favorite quotes of all time comes from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It goes like this:

`I quite agree with you,' said the Duchess; `and the moral of that is--"Be what you would seem to be"--or if you'd like it put more simply--"Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."'

That's nonsense on a mind-boggling scale people.

A close second is Cheech Marin saying
"Responsibility is a heavy responsibility."

ringbearer · 12-09-2005, 02:02 AM

"He knew everything about literature, except how to enjoy it."

from Catch 22

MangoPi · 12-31-2005, 01:25 AM

lol that last one was great. My fave comes from (what else?) the Bard hisself -- Shakespeare:

"Do you know sir, that I am the greatest man living? I am the bold thunder!"

You should always introduce yourself with a bit of flair, you know? Helps people remember you.

Serenoli · 01-22-2006, 12:19 PM

I have one; not very striking, but at the time I liked it very much, and I still think its very true:

"... all human wisdom is summed up in the following words: Wait and hope" -Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo.

And here's a quote I keep coming across in P.G. Wodehouse, but its really by some poet, Keats or one of those guys whose names I never remember:

"The year's at the Spring, the day's at the morn,
Morning's at seven, the hill-side's dew-pearled,
The lark's on the wing, the snail's on the thorn,
God's in his heaven, all's right with the world"

Its conjures up such a very neat, perfect image of happiness...

hectorberlioz · 01-25-2006, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MangoPi

lol that last one was great. My fave comes from (what else?) the Bard hisself -- Shakespeare:

"Do you know sir, that I am the greatest man living? I am the bold thunder!"

You should always introduce yourself with a bit of flair, you know? Helps people remember you.

That reminds me of non-fiction quote:

"What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven."
~Beethoven

sun-star · 01-25-2006, 05:37 PM

This is a quote from the fantastic Old English poem "The Battle of Maldon" (inspiration for the death of Theoden in LOTR):

Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre,
mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað.

It means (roughly):

Our resolve must be firmer, hearts must be braver,
spirits must be greater as our strength diminishes.

littleadanel · 02-04-2006, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Serenoli

I have one; not very striking, but at the time I liked it very much, and I still think its very true:

"... all human wisdom is summed up in the following words: Wait and hope" -Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo.

I loved that part too, when I read that book

Goodness, it was years ago. Maybe it's time for a re-read... after I've finished all the C. S. Lewis books of the library

One of my recent favourites (actually planning to squeeze it into my sig somehow):

"The good of a book lies in its being read. A book is made up of signs that speak of other signs, which in their turn speak of things. Without an eye to read them, a book contains signs that produce no concepts; therefore it is dumb." -- Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose.

Falagar · 02-09-2006, 11:58 AM

Eco!

"There are four kinds of people in this world: cretins, fools, morons, and lunatics."

"The true initiate is he who knows that the most powerful secret is a secret without content, because no enemy will be able to make him confess it, no rival devotee will be able to take it from him."
-Foucault's Pendulum

Got to reread Dumas myself as well, used to be one of mye favorites.

Serenoli · 02-10-2006, 10:02 AM

Hey, the Eco quote is good!

Falagar, whats a cretin? I hope I'm not a fool, a moron or a lunatic, so I'm pinning all my hopes on the cretin.

Here's one from Trollope:

"It is good to be merry and wise,
It is good to be honest and true,
It is good to be off with the old love,
Before you are on with the new."

Falagar · 02-10-2006, 11:45 AM

Ehm. Hope you didn't get your hopes too high, cretin = idiot. But Belbo (the speaker) did add another group ("us")...and wasn't entirely sober.

Other quotes

Quote:

Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry.

- The Name of the Rose

Quote:

I started to write it [The Name of the Rose] in March of 1978, moved by a seminal idea. I wanted to poison a monk.

- Some interview

Merenwen Vardamir · 02-10-2006, 11:52 AM

One of my favorites is from King Kong- which is technically a movie, so I'm sorry. It's "And lo, the beast beheld the face of beauty, and beauty stayed his hand. And from that day on, he was as one dead." I think I like it because it goes along with my 'love ruins lives' theory. lol.

littleadanel · 02-12-2006, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Falagar

Eco!

Yeees.

I read all of his books I found on my parents' shelf. I loved Foucault's Pendulum! And Baudolino. And The Name of the Rose. And The Island of the Day Before... I think the Pendulum is my favourite so far.

'Tis great that you've posted some more Eco quotes; I don't have any of his books in English, so I can't really show my favourites here... I was determined to get that one about the books, though - I was facinated by it when I read it, and wanted to share. So I ended up in a bookstore, scribbling it out to a piece of paper (my first idea was to borrow the book from the library, but they didn't have it in English).

And I love that part of the interview too!

Falagar · 02-12-2006, 06:07 PM

My father has a beautiful copy of The Name of the Rose in english, was that one (and...ehm...a girl, really

) which turned me on Eco. Never got the girl (still friends

) but fell in love with Eco, and proceeded to read Foucault's, Baudolino, How To Travel With A Salmon, and now recently, after a long Eco-free pause, started reading The Search for the Perfect Language. Great guy.

The Pendulum is probably my favorite as well, great piece of art (his "opus magnum", isn't that what they call it?). The sheer complexityof the Plan, all the historical facts and "facts", all the layers of meaning...and of course Templar Knights.

Actually rereading both it and The Name of the Rose now, slowly, trying to decipher everything. Impossible.

Oh, yeah. Quotes.

Probably only meaningsful and/or good if you've read the book, but anyways:

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Lions of Al-Rassan

Then he turned away from them to the man lying on the ground and he sank to his knees beside him as the sun went down.
Soon after that the clouds began rolling in from the west, blanketing the sky.
No sun, no moon, no stars over Al-Rassan

Quote:

Originally Posted by A Song of Ice and Fire

Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought honorably. And Rhaegar died.

Pytt · 02-14-2006, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Falagar

My father has a beautiful copy of The Name of the Rose in english, was that one (and...ehm...a girl, really

) which turned me on Eco. Never got the girl (still friends

) but fell in love with Eco, and proceeded to read Foucault's, Baudolino, How To Travel With A Salmon, and now recently, after a long Eco-free pause, started reading The Search for the Perfect Language. Great guy.

The Pendulum is probably my favorite as well, great piece of art (his "opus magnum", isn't that what they call it?). The sheer complexityof the Plan, all the historical facts and "facts", all the layers of meaning...and of course Templar Knights.

Actually rereading both it and The Name of the Rose now, slowly, trying to decipher everything. Impossible.

And you turned me on Eco. The girl mentioned helped abit too, if I am not mistaken. You should read The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. You should read it. I think it is my second favourite book of him, with Pendulum on top. I think I have to reread the Pendulum. It all gets mixed up a bit.

Quotes will come another time!

sun-star · 02-20-2006, 03:30 PM

P.G. Wodehouse:

The drowsy stillness of the afternoon was shattered by what sounded to his strained senses like G. K. Chesterton falling on a sheet of tin.

Mercutio · 02-20-2006, 04:54 PM

That's great sun-star

Lotesse · 03-03-2006, 06:08 PM

When angry, count four; when very angry, swear. ~ Mark Twain

My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine. ~ Mary Shelley

" . . . a belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness." ~ Joseph Conrad

It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them. ~ P.G. Wodehouse

10-11-2005, 09:49 PM	#1
Curubethion Fenway Ranger, Lord of Red Sox Nation Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: College! Posts: 1,976	Favorite Quotes I'd like to know, what are some of your favorite quotes in the literature world? "Thou wast not bold!-Thou wast not true!" ~Pearl, from The Scarlet Letter I've got a few others...I'll have to think about it... __________________ Adventure...betrayal...heroism... Atharon: where heroes are born. My wife once said to me—when I'd been writing for ten or fifteen years—that I could always go back to being a nuclear engineer. And I said to her, 'Harriet, would you let someone who quit his job to go write fantasy anywhere near your nuclear reactor? I wouldn't!' (Robert Jordan)

10-12-2005, 05:31 PM	#2
Mercutio Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Narnia Posts: 1,656	It's not my favorite as in spiffy or nifty or cool, but one of my favorite quotes is "the horror, the horror." You ask why? Because it sums up one of the best books in English, Heart of Darkness which in turn sums up humanity. I don't know...I just thought H o D was brilliant. And saddening , as Conrad doesn't have an answer to "the horror, the horror" like Dostoevesky and others did--redemption through Christ (Christianity) . I'm thinking of others...how about something from Jane Austen like "Run mad as often as you choose but do not faint," or "you are endeavoring to disarm me by reason." Or from Lord Peter, "How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks." __________________ Mike nodded. A sombre nod. The nod Napoleon might have given if somebody had met him in 1812 and said, "So, you're back from Moscow, eh?". Interested in C.S. Lewis? Visit the forum dedicated to one of Tolkien's greatest contemporaries.

10-17-2005, 11:22 AM	#4
Jabberwock Enting Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Canadian temporarily in USA. Posts: 55	quote I think one of my favorite quotes of all time comes from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It goes like this: `I quite agree with you,' said the Duchess; `and the moral of that is--"Be what you would seem to be"--or if you'd like it put more simply--"Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."' That's nonsense on a mind-boggling scale people. A close second is Cheech Marin saying "Responsibility is a heavy responsibility."

12-09-2005, 02:02 AM	#5
ringbearer Elf Lord Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: St. Louis, Mo. USA Posts: 561	"He knew everything about literature, except how to enjoy it." from Catch 22 __________________ Ringbearer Hide Witch, hide! The Good Folks come to burn thee! Their keen enjoyment hid behind A Gothic mask of duty!

01-22-2006, 12:19 PM	#7
Serenoli Head of the Department for the Invention and Propagation of Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice! Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Ithilien Posts: 852	I have one; not very striking, but at the time I liked it very much, and I still think its very true: "... all human wisdom is summed up in the following words: Wait and hope" -Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo. And here's a quote I keep coming across in P.G. Wodehouse, but its really by some poet, Keats or one of those guys whose names I never remember: "The year's at the Spring, the day's at the morn, Morning's at seven, the hill-side's dew-pearled, The lark's on the wing, the snail's on the thorn, God's in his heaven, all's right with the world" Its conjures up such a very neat, perfect image of happiness... __________________ "I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?" Death thought about it. "Cats," he said eventually. "Cats are nice." -Terry Pratchett, Sourcery Join the Harry Potter discussion, click here

10-14-2005, 09:27 AM	#3
Beren3000 Fëanorophobic Join Date: May 2004 Location: Between the pages of a book Posts: 1,417	My current favorite quote is from a poem by John Keats: "Can death be sleep when life is but a dream, And scenes of bliss pass as a phantom by?"

12-31-2005, 01:25 AM	#6
MangoPi Enting Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Head in hands. Posts: 51	lol that last one was great. My fave comes from (what else?) the Bard hisself -- Shakespeare: "Do you know sir, that I am the greatest man living? I am the bold thunder!" You should always introduce yourself with a bit of flair, you know? Helps people remember you.

01-25-2006, 05:37 PM	#9
sun-star Lady of Letters Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England Posts: 2,476	This is a quote from the fantastic Old English poem "The Battle of Maldon" (inspiration for the death of Theoden in LOTR): Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað. It means (roughly): Our resolve must be firmer, hearts must be braver, spirits must be greater as our strength diminishes. __________________ And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand As they have done for centuries, as they will For centuries to come, when not a soul Is left to picnic on the blazing rocks, When England is not England, when mankind Has blown himself to pieces. Still the sea, Consolingly disastrous, will return While the strange starfish, hugely magnified, Waits in the jewelled basin of a pool.

02-09-2006, 11:58 AM	#11
Falagar Death of Mooters and [Entmoot] Internal Affairs Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Oslo, Norway Posts: 2,870	Eco! "There are four kinds of people in this world: cretins, fools, morons, and lunatics." "The true initiate is he who knows that the most powerful secret is a secret without content, because no enemy will be able to make him confess it, no rival devotee will be able to take it from him." -Foucault's Pendulum Got to reread Dumas myself as well, used to be one of mye favorites. __________________ Fëanor - Innocence incarnated Still, Aikanáro 'till the Last battle. Last edited by Falagar : 02-09-2006 at 12:01 PM.

02-10-2006, 10:02 AM	#12
Serenoli Head of the Department for the Invention and Propagation of Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice! Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Ithilien Posts: 852	Hey, the Eco quote is good! Falagar, whats a cretin? I hope I'm not a fool, a moron or a lunatic, so I'm pinning all my hopes on the cretin. Here's one from Trollope: "It is good to be merry and wise, It is good to be honest and true, It is good to be off with the old love, Before you are on with the new." __________________ "I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?" Death thought about it. "Cats," he said eventually. "Cats are nice." -Terry Pratchett, Sourcery Join the Harry Potter discussion, click here Last edited by Serenoli : 02-11-2006 at 04:48 AM.

02-10-2006, 11:52 AM	#14
Merenwen Vardamir Enting Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Ever Lost, Childress. Posts: 93	One of my favorites is from King Kong- which is technically a movie, so I'm sorry. It's "And lo, the beast beheld the face of beauty, and beauty stayed his hand. And from that day on, he was as one dead." I think I like it because it goes along with my 'love ruins lives' theory. lol. Last edited by Merenwen Vardamir : 02-11-2006 at 10:03 PM.

02-20-2006, 03:30 PM	#18
sun-star Lady of Letters Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England Posts: 2,476	P.G. Wodehouse: The drowsy stillness of the afternoon was shattered by what sounded to his strained senses like G. K. Chesterton falling on a sheet of tin. __________________ And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand As they have done for centuries, as they will For centuries to come, when not a soul Is left to picnic on the blazing rocks, When England is not England, when mankind Has blown himself to pieces. Still the sea, Consolingly disastrous, will return While the strange starfish, hugely magnified, Waits in the jewelled basin of a pool.

02-20-2006, 04:54 PM	#19
Mercutio Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Narnia Posts: 1,656	That's great sun-star __________________ Mike nodded. A sombre nod. The nod Napoleon might have given if somebody had met him in 1812 and said, "So, you're back from Moscow, eh?". Interested in C.S. Lewis? Visit the forum dedicated to one of Tolkien's greatest contemporaries.

03-03-2006, 06:08 PM	#20
Lotesse of the House of Fëanor Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,150	When angry, count four; when very angry, swear. ~ Mark Twain My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine. ~ Mary Shelley " . . . a belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness." ~ Joseph Conrad It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them. ~ P.G. Wodehouse __________________ Few people have the imagination for reality. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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