"It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life."
I do think of this quote as being something awesome that Picard said, but something also bugs me when I think of it that way... I'm attributing a great line, and advice I follow a lot through life to a fictional character, instead of to the man that actually said it.
David Kemper wrote that episode of TNG, and while he may have heard it elsewhere or paraphrased it from a common saying in some distant land or who knows, at least we can attribute it to him as best we can :-)
Here are a few nice ones, I can't really pick:
“Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work together for the benefit of all.” - John Maynard Keynes
(You can also apply this one to proprietary software vs. Free software (don't say open source in my presence))
“The tyrants are only great because we are on our knees.” - Étienne de La Boétie
“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” - Rosa Luxemburg
don't say [those words] in my presence
Will I regret asking why?
"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self."
We do not inherit the world from our ansestors, we borrow it from our children. -Antoine de Saint Exupéry
"I'd love to agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong."
“For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, direct, easy to understand and wrong.“
- Paraphrased H.L Mencken
“To study religion is merely to know the mind of man, but if one truely wanted to know the mind of God, you must study physics.”
- Iain Banks
“I believe that children are our future. Unless we stop them now.”
- Homer Simpson“When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.”
“The brutally honest care more about the brutality than the honesty.”
“Reasonable people can disagree reasonably.”
I can’t live up to those ideals but it would be cruel to myself and others to stop trying to.
“With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion.” ― Steven Weinberg
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is not democracy.
The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
I don't want to believe, I want to know - Carl Sagan
"Not everything's a lesson Ryan. Sometimes you just fail."
Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience. - Mark Twain
The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #2)
As someone who loves space:
"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." - Arthur C. Clarke
Good people do good things and bad people do evil things but for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
Grief, I’ve learned, is really just love. It’s all the love you want to give, but cannot. All that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go. -Jamie Anderson
"I ship is safest in harbour, but that's not what ships are for."
"When people turn to you when shit goes wrong. That's when you're a man."
It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life. -Jean-Luc Picard - Star Trek - The Next Generation
“Be excellent to each other”
"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence,—it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”
-George Washington (allegidly) The true author is debatable, but the quote is accurate, none the less.
"Oh no, not again." -Bowl of Petunias
"The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few."
Not growing up with TOS, I always thought this quote was super old, like Greek philosopher stuff. Nope. It was friggin Spock! I gotta believe that the sentiment had to have existed long before Star Trek though. If it wasn't, then... That sucks.
Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
'Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
-George Orwell
He who controls the spice, controls the universe.
-Baron Harkonnen
“Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”
I struggle with this one a lot, I definitely have a lot of resentment built up as I've grown up. But holding all in just makes my life worse, it only hurts me. It is mental prison of sorts. I think there's another Mandela quote that states exactly that as well.
"Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you."
Tyron Lannister
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.
“I’m Batman.”
Some context, Batman says this frequently when explaining why a man dressed up as a Bat is there to a confused onlooker.
I didn't learn until I was in college about all the other cultures, and I should have learned that in the first grade. A first grader should understand that his or her culture isn't a rational invention; that there are thousands of other cultures and they all work pretty well; that all cultures function on faith rather than truth; that there are lots of alternatives to our own society. Cultural relativity is defensible and attractive. It's also a source of hope. It means we don't have to continue this way if we don't like it.
Kurt Vonnegut
“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”
-G.K. Chesterton
“You build bridges your entire life and no one calls you a bridge builder, however you suck one dick and all of a sudden you’re a cock sucker.”
"Gentlemen, I don’t know whether we are going to make history tomorrow, but at any rate we shall change geography"
General Sir Charles Harrington
Just before one of the largest non-nuclear explosions was detonated.
your future hasn't been written yet. No one's has. Your future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one.
From Back to the Future.
"Comfort was the answer to all life's problems. It didn't solve them, but it made them more distant for a bit as they quietly worsened."
There are tons of quotes I like. Below are some of my favorites.
The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself. - The Brothers Karamazov (book) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I don't want to live someone else's idea of how to live. Don't ask me to do that. I don't want to find out one day that I'm at the end of someone else's life. - Out of Africa (movie) by Sydney Pollack
Someone once told me the definition of hell; on your last day on earth, the person you could have become will meet the person you became. - Anonymous
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C. Clarke
The world needs fewer cynics and more skeptics.
I had a favorite quote growing up. I'm not sure if it's still my favorite today but it was
Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. – Albert Einstein
If I had to choose a quote today it would probably be the one that goes something like "What you do in life is ultimately insignificant but you should do it anyways"
"I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee...",
Unknown Soldier - Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
It's easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission.
Please don't ask me to explain it because I don't know, but the writer/musician John Darneille of the Mountain Goats once wrote "God is present in the sweeping gestures, but the devil is in the details". I just really like it even though I'm stuck on its meaning.
God as broad: Your Mom makes you a sandwich.
Devil as details: The meat in the sandwich is a dead animal. Your mom bought it from an evil mega corp. She paid for it with wages from her soul crushing job. No one makes her a sandwich.
"If you're not falling, you're not learning". No idea who said it but it was about skateboarding at the time. It works for everything though.
"You gotta learn to live between the lines". From Big Deal by the Dead Milkmen.
There are only two things that are infinite. The universe and the stupidity of man. I’m not sure about the universe, though.
As soon as you're born, you start dying, so you might as well have a good time. - John McCrea
Money can't buy happiness; but at least you can live miserably in comfort
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