What is your favorite quote?

Alpha Echo said:

From the movie Hope Floats

"...beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it's the middle that counts the most. Try to remember that when you find yourself at a new beginning. Just give hope a chance to float up. And it will..."

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I always liked that line from Hope Floats.
I really love Anais Nin's words like the quote below:

There is not one big cosmic meaning for all,
there is only the meaning we each give to our life,
an individual meaning, an individual plot,
like an individual novel, a book for each person.

"My works are like water. The works of the great masters are like wine. But everybody drinks water." - Mark Twain, from his private notebook, 1885

And, because I'm never good with rules-- my other favorite:
"Whatever you are, be a good one," -- Abe Lincoln

“To me, homesteading is the solution of all poverty’s problems, but I realize that temperament has much to do with success in any undertaking, and a person afraid of coyotes and work and loneliness had better let ranching alone. At the same time, any woman who can stand her own company, can see the beauty of the sunset, loves growing things, and is willing to put in as much time at careful labor as she does over the washtub, will certainly succeed; will have independence, plenty to eat all the time, and a home of her own in the end. ... I am only thinking of the troops of tired, worried women, sometimes even cold and hungry, scared to death of losing their places to work, who could have plenty to eat, who could have good fires by gathering the wood, and comfortable homes of their own, if they but had the courage and determination to get them.”
Elinore Pruitt Stewart
Letters of a Woman Homesteader

“I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it.” - Edgar Allan Poe

I've always liked this one (and perhaps some other quotes by scientists and such that don't quite come to mind now), it was posted on a Fidonet (1980's-1990's computer BBS version of the Internet, for those who remember 1200 baud modems) science echo (probably "THE" Fidonet science echo). It could have been made up by the person who posted it, but it seems like it would be a quote from a "famous person," as I found it quite accurate and even a little profound.

Anyway, the gist of it is:

There are two basic mistakes humans make: Not seeing a pattern that exists, and seeing a pattern that does not exist.

"...lazy mental habits have huge inertia."
-- Eric S. Raymond

"If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself." -- St. Augustine.

"Originality is the act of remembering what you heard while forgetting where you heard it."

And, of course, I don't remember who said it.

Lust is the craving for salt of a man dying of thirst.
~Frederick Buechner~ (I think)

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop. ~Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland

"Dyin' ain't much of a livin', boy." Clint Eastwood in Josie Wales, The Outlaw. After a line from a bounty hunter about a man needing to make a living somehow.

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul simply has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradicts every thing you said to-day. -- 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' -- Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

And cause it's fun to break rules...

"Keep Making Art,
and when you get tired; eat,
and/ or watch movies, every kind
make tea and then Keep Making Art.
That Will Keep You From Becoming
'THEM'
- You Know-
those people
who could, but don't
and know there is nothing left for them
them, the terrible them
that tear down the ones
WHO NEVER GAVE UP
on the dream
because you and me kid,
we were made of that stuff
and were born to dream,
even sometimes
for 'them'" - Ryan Adams

"The knowledge is the treasure, and the treasure its own dominion." -Peter Straub

hlcorbin said:

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop. ~Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland

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Lewis Carroll was a genius. Since you already picked one of my favorites, I'll pick another that I've always liked for writing:

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all."

--Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

jgold said:

Lewis Carroll was a genius. Since you already picked one of my favorites, I'll pick another that I've always liked for writing:

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all."

--Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

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Might as well put one more from Carroll....

'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. 'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' (haha we could totally look at that as being about the absolute write posters, lol) ~Lewis Carroll

Oh, i would like to add three more...and then i'm done adding quotes, i swear!


Why do writers write? Because it isn't there.
Thomas Berger


When King Lear dies in Act Five do you know what William Shakespeare has written? He Dies. That's all, nothing more,
no fan fare, no metaphor, no brilliant final words. The culmination of the world's most inspirational work
of dramatic literature is, He Died. It took Shakespeare a genius to come up with he dies.
And every time I read those two words I find myself overwhelmed with dysphoria,
I know its only natural to be sad, but not because of the words he dies,
but because of the life we saw prior to the words - Mr. Magorioum


Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. -Jane Austen

chevbrock said:

"All first drafts are shit" - Hemmingway.

My mantra.

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Um...


"The first draft of anything is shit." Hemingway

Jackfishwoman said:

I always liked that line from Hope Floats.
I really love Anais Nin's words like the quote below:

There is not one big cosmic meaning for all,
there is only the meaning we each give to our life,
an individual meaning, an individual plot,
like an individual novel, a book for each person.

Click to expand...

That is beautiful!

As for me- the Emily Bronte quote I have in my sig line is a fave since it describes how I always try to live my life.

I know Mr. Anon said we could only pick one favorite, but he didn't say we couldn't list others that we love. so here are some others:

1. "There is only one happiness in life, and that is to love and be loved."- George Sands
2. "The Heart has reasons that Reason can not know."- Pascal
3. "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing else to add-but when there is nothing left to take away."- Pascal (something that I keep in mind while editing)
4. "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature."- Helen Keller

Oh, and I also quote all the time from, "Alice in Wonderland". It's sublime!

I've always loved this line said in sarcasm in a movie I can't remember about a character whose name I forget. Since I first heard it the line has been used again but it still tickles me. One character said that another character was "mercifully free from the ravages of intelligence".
Linnea

"The lack of money is the root of all evil" Mark Twain

Richard

"So you see, Lonestar, evil will always triumph. Because good is dumb."
-Dark Helmet, Spaceballs

"We're not running away, we're advancing! Towards future victory."
-Sarge, Red vs Blue