Favourite quotations

First topic message reminder :

"The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending - and to have the two as close together as possible."
George Burns

“The fundamental cause of trouble in the world is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”
Bertrand Russell

"Money can't buy you happiness... but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery."
Spike Milligan

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
Richard Dawkins

"Civil disobedience is not our problem, our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war and millions have been killed because of this obedience...Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity and war and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves while the grand thieves are running the world. That’s our problem."
Howard Zinn

“There is in every village a torch - the teacher: and an extinguisher - the clergyman.”
Victor Hugo

"There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today."

Vice Admiral David Beatty, RN

“A few months ago I told the American people I had no knowledge of the arms deal with Iran in exchange for hostages – my heart still tells me that’s true, but the facts now say differently.”
Ronald Reagan

Setting an example is not the main means of influencing people, it is the only means.

Albert Einstein

"He who laughs last, laughs longest"

unknown

I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.

Oh do not worry yourself Sharon, we are well armed on this forum I assure you.

I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.



Hi Sharon

boatlady wrote:I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.



Hi Sharon

Well Sharon? quotations are not forthcoming?
Now "nothing is impossible, the word itself says i'mpossible"

audrey hepburn

stuart torr wrote:Well Sharon? quotations are not forthcoming?
Now "nothing is impossible, the word itself says i'mpossible"

audrey hepburn

How about:

Life's journey is not about arriving at the grave in a well-ordered fashion, rather skidding in sideways yelling, holy s***, what a ride!

hahahahahahaha now that is what I would say I think
Good one for starters Sharon, if they are all as good as that we should be laughing well. Well DVD time now back later hope you are too, enjoyed our chat.

Well the DVD was not that good, or I was not in the mood for that type tonight so off it went until another time.
Do you watch the soaps Sharon? myself I do not watch very much t.v at all, don't know why I buy the licence myself.

Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come, that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of truth in every one

From George Fox - 'truth' substituted for 'god'

We did not dare to breathe a prayer.
Or to give our anguish scope !
Something was dead in each of us.
And what was dead was hope.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

When Cameron became prime minister, an old quotation came to mind.

"When I was called upon to be prime minister, now nearly two years ago, there were not many applicants for the job. Since then perhaps the market has improved."

Winston Churchill (1874-1965)  speech in 1942 jan

“In all the countries there are people in numbers large and small who are moved by the vision of a new social order in which democracy, egalitarianism and co-operation – the essential values of socialism – would be the prevailing values of social organisation. It is in the growth of their numbers and in the success of their struggles that lies the best hope for mankind.”  
Ralph Miliband

“Socialism is not a rigid economic doctrine, but a set of values. It is a tale that never ends. Indeed, the strange fact is that while there’s capitalism, there’ll be socialism, because there is always a response to injustice.”
Ed Miliband

Oh so damn true.

Stu Torr

Seems Pope Francis knows what he is talking about.

Do not forget that mint sauce!!!!

[Taggart looks for a pen and paper while Hedley talks]

Hedley Lamarr: I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists.

Taggart: [finding pen and paper] Could you repeat that, sir?

"Blazing Saddles" 1974 movie

"You can’t put even a bad king’s bones on show in a museum when preservation of the idea of monarchy requires holy respect. It matters not that so many have been villains or halfwits. The one benefit of a supremely privileged family is to prove, once and for all, that talent and brains are randomly assigned. Forget a super-race, this royal selective breeding with the very best education and top university tutors has produced the least intellectually curious, least artistic, dullest bunch of polo-playing, hunting, shooting, fishing dullards you could hope not to meet. But then their adherents praise their very 'ordinariness' as a quality."
(Polly Toynbee)

Well said Polly.

A man who knew what he was talking about I do believe Ivan.

"The promise was that when the glass was full it would overflow, benefiting the poor. But what happens instead is that when the glass is full, it magically gets bigger - nothing ever comes out for the poor."
(Pope Francis)

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
(Albert Einstein)

"It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled."
(Mark Twain)

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
(Napoleon Bonaparte)

“If Colonel Sanders isn’t going to pay the lady behind the counter enough to live on, then Uncle Sam has to, and I for one am getting a little tired of helping highly profitable companies pay their workers.”
(Bill Maher)

Clive Anderson: "Is there no beginning to your talents?"
Jeffrey Archer: "The old jokes are always the best."
Clive Anderson: "Yes, I've read your books!"

“I drink it when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it – unless I’m thirsty.”
(Lilly Bollinger, talking about when she drank champagne)

When asked on his deathbed to renounce Satan, Voltaire (who died on 29 May 1778) said:-
"This is no time for making new enemies."

.... but if by a single act you can piss-off most of the capitalist World, there may be some devilish attraction in the notion of going it alone.

Rule Britannia! Confusion to the Enemy!  We're CLOSED - can't you foreigners read?

(I wrote that. Don't expect to be quoted as often as Voltaire, but you've got to start somewhere.)

"The Republic has no need of scientists or chemists.”
(the judge who sentenced Antoine Lavoisier to death)

“Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my Browning!” (Hermann Goering)

“People in this country have had enough of experts.”
(Michael Gove)

"Public cynicism towards professional expertise .... is entirely wrong, and it's the road back to the cave."

Professor Brian Cox, interviewed by Decca Aitkenhead
The Guardian, Saturday 2 July 2016

.... and much else besides, in the political spectrum.

"I'm £50 away from getting free shipping which is worth £5, and what I want is £12, so I need to spend £38 more to save money."