Great Quotes II: Source and Context are Key

[Thorvald of Lym]

"When I was a young boy, my father taught me that to be a good Catholic, I had to confess at church if I ever had impure thoughts about a girl. That very evening, I had to rush to confess my sin. And the next night, and the next. After a week, I decided religion wasn't for me."

- Fidel Castro

 

[gozpel]

Ay Caramba! - Bart Simpson.

 

[Tee Kay]

Link to video.

 

[gozpel]

Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway. -> John Wayne

 

[Tee Kay]

"I descended till I met Moses who asked me, 'What have you done?' I said, 'Fifty prayers have been enjoined on me.' He said, 'I know the people better than you, because I had the hardest experience to bring Bani Israel to obedience. Your followers cannot put up with such obligation. So, return to your Lord and request Him (to reduce the number of prayers.' I returned and requested Allah (for reduction) and He made it forty. I returned and (met Moses) and had a similar discussion, and then returned again to Allah for reduction and He made it thirty, then twenty, then ten, and then I came to Moses who repeated the same advice. Ultimately Allah reduced it to five."

- Prophet Muhammad haggling with God, via Bukhari vol. 4 hadith no. 429

 

[GenMarshall]

"No one can make you feel inferior without your permission" - Eleanor Roosevelt

 

[Borachio]

"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." Stephen Hawking

 

[holy king]

"I descended till I met Moses who asked me, 'What have you done?' I said, 'Fifty prayers have been enjoined on me.' He said, 'I know the people better than you, because I had the hardest experience to bring Bani Israel to obedience. Your followers cannot put up with such obligation. So, return to your Lord and request Him (to reduce the number of prayers.' I returned and requested Allah (for reduction) and He made it forty. I returned and (met Moses) and had a similar discussion, and then returned again to Allah for reduction and He made it thirty, then twenty, then ten, and then I came to Moses who repeated the same advice. Ultimately Allah reduced it to five."

- Prophet Muhammad haggling with God, via Bukhari vol. 4 hadith no. 429

imagine he hadnt had such immense haggling skills...

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Here are some of my favorites:

Chutzpah is "gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible 'guts,' presumption plus arrogance such as no other word and no other language can do justice to...that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan" - Leo Rosten

"Do not praise your own faith exclusively so that you disbelieve all the rest... God, the omniscient and the omnipresent, cannot be confined to any one creed, for He says in the Koran, “wheresoever ye turn, there is the face of Allah”. Everybody praises what he knows. His god is his own creature, and in praising it, he praises himself." – Ibn Arabi

"There's a name for ladies like you, but it isn't used in high society...outside of a kennel." - Joan Crawford, "The Women,"

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

"Ireland, as distinct from her people, is nothing to me; and the man who is bubbling over with love and enthusiasm for 'Ireland' and yet can pass unmoved through our streets and witness all the wrong and the suffering, the shame and the degradation, wrought upon the people of Ireland – yea, wrought by Irish men and women upon Irish men and women – without burning to end it is, in my opinion, a fraud and a liar in his heart, no matter how he loves that combination of chemical elements he is pleased to call 'Ireland'."

- James Connolly

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Ah, dear Connolly!

Here is a great quote from another great Irishman I love:

"The only way to atone for being occasionally a little over-dressed is by being always absolutely over-educated." -- Oscar Wilde

 

[cardgame]

"So what you're saying is, religion is the fan fiction of reality?"
- Renian, anonymous redditor

"The price of being a sheep is boredom. The price of being a wolf is loneliness. Choose one or the other with great care."
- Hugh MacLeod

 

[cardgame]

C'mon guys

"An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex." -- Aldous Huxley

"The Internet is a powerful example of free speech and the free market in action; it is curious that the Net has alarmed the lawmakers of a nation founded on those principles."
-- Denise Caruso

 

[Traitorfish]

"The Internet is a powerful example of free speech and the free market in action; it is curious that the Net has alarmed the lawmakers of a nation founded on those principles."
-- Denise Caruso

Latvia?

 

[KaiserElectric]

"Do what is right because it is right, and leave it alone."

-Chiune Sugihara

Spoiler :

The year was 1940, and the Nazis were about to invade Lithuania. Chiune Sugihara, employee at the local Japanese consul, found himself swamped by a desperate crowd of Jewish refugees. They needed transit visas so that the Soviets, then in power, would let them leave the country. Although Japan was technically a Nazi ally at the time, Sugihara decided “screw it” and started on a renegade visa-issuing rampage, working up to 20 hours a day to create thousands of life-saving permits. It’s estimated that 40,000 people are alive today because of what Sugihara did.

Unsurprisingly, Japan didn’t take kindly to this, and quickly ended Sugihara’s public service career, sending his family into poverty. Sugihara could have spent the rest of his life complaining about this. He didn’t, though, and also continually shrugged off any attention given to his heroics. Why? The answer lies in Sugihara’s quote, given in response to a question about why he’d chosen to help the refugees. He didn’t save lives in order to gain anything, or to impress anyone. He did it because it was right.

 

[capslock]

God made man. Samuel Colt made them equal.

 

[Traitorfish]

"O you Members of Parliament, and rich men in the City, that are at ease, and drink Wine in Bowls, and stretch your selves upon Beds of Down, you that grind our faces, and flay off our skins, Will no man amongst you regard, will no man behold our faces black with Sorrow and Famine? What then are your russling Silks and Velvets, and your glittering Gold and Silver Laces? are they not the sweat of our brows, and the wants of our backs and bellies?"

From the Leveller pamphlet "Vox Populi", published c.1647/8

The more things change, eh?

 

[nerdfighter13]

From his autobiography, "I have to live the third volume first." Issac Asimov when asked about writing a 3rd volume of his autobiography.

 

[Gucumatz]

"In this, our land, we are called upon to give but little in return for the advantages which we receive. Shall we give that little grudgingly? Our definition of patriotism is often too narrow.

Shall the lover of his country measure his loyalty only by his service as a soldier? No! Patriotism calls for the faithful and conscientious performance of all of the duties of citizenship, in small matters as well as great, at home as well as upon the tented field.

There is no more menacing feature in these modern times than the disinclination of what are called the better classes to assume the burdens of citizenship."

- William Jennings Bryan speaking to a crowd of lawyers - Criticizing in part the nature of many to ignore the needs of the poor among them and asking for reform of the jury system.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

"Do what is right because it is right, and leave it alone."

-Chiune Sugihara

Spoiler :

The year was 1940, and the Nazis were about to invade Lithuania. Chiune Sugihara, employee at the local Japanese consul, found himself swamped by a desperate crowd of Jewish refugees. They needed transit visas so that the Soviets, then in power, would let them leave the country. Although Japan was technically a Nazi ally at the time, Sugihara decided “screw it” and started on a renegade visa-issuing rampage, working up to 20 hours a day to create thousands of life-saving permits. It’s estimated that 40,000 people are alive today because of what Sugihara did.

Unsurprisingly, Japan didn’t take kindly to this, and quickly ended Sugihara’s public service career, sending his family into poverty. Sugihara could have spent the rest of his life complaining about this. He didn’t, though, and also continually shrugged off any attention given to his heroics. Why? The answer lies in Sugihara’s quote, given in response to a question about why he’d chosen to help the refugees. He didn’t save lives in order to gain anything, or to impress anyone. He did it because it was right.

This is all kinds of awesome.