Quotes 2



To see you here before me. O my soul’s joy! If after every tempest come such calms, May the winds blow till they have waken’d death!
-Othello; Act II: Scene I-
William Shakespeare: Othello


Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee,
And love thee after. One more, and this the last:
So sweet was ne’er so fatal. I must weep,
But they are cruel tears; this sorrow’s heavenly,
It strikes where it doth love.
-Othello; Act V: Scene II-
William Shakespeare: Othello


Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind
William Shakespeare


"O cursed spite
That ever I was born to set it right!"
-Hamlet; Act I: Scene V-
William Shakespeare: Hamlet


To be, or not to be- that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die- to sleep-
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die- to sleep.
To sleep- perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub!
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death-
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns- puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.- Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia!- Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins rememb'red.
-Hamlet; Act III: Scene 1-
William Shakespeare: Hamlet



the greatest happiness of life it the conviction that we are loved. loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves
Victor Hugo


if i were a girl, i'd despair. the supply of good women far exceeds that of the men who deserve them
Robert Graves


don't go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing; it was here first
Mark Twain [Samuel Langhornne Clemens]


life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises
Samuel Butler


all my life i've wanted to be someone; i guess i should have been more specific
Jane Wagner/Lily Tomlin


twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. so throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. catch the trade winds in your sails. explore. dream
Mark Twain [Samuel Langhornne Clemens]


there is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way, and not to give others absurd maddening claims upon it Christopher Darlington Morley


if a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing
Anatole France


when people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other
Eric Hoffer


every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new
Henry David Thoreau


whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect
Mark Twain [Samuel Langhornne Clemens]


it is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong
Voltaire [François Marie Arouet]


in any free society, the conflict between social conformity and individual liberty is permanent, unresolvable, and necessary
Kathleen Norris


the person who has no opinion will seldom be wrong



my opinions may have changed, but not the fact that i'm right
© Ashleigh Brilliant


The fellow who thinks he knows it all is especially annoying to those of us who do
Harold Coffin


too bad all the people who know how to run this country are busy running taxicabs or cutting hair
George Burns


doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd
Voltaire [François Marie Arouet]


it is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them
Mark Twain [Samuel Langhornne Clemens]


as i grow older, i pay less attention to what men say. i just watch what they do
Andrew Carnegie


those are my principles. if you don't like them i have others
Groucho Marx


people who have what they want are very fond of telling people who haven't what they want that they don't want it
Mark Twain [Samuel Langhornne Clemens]


a jury consists of twelve people who determine which client has the better lawyer
Robert Frost


making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity
Charles Mingus


the most difficult thing in the world is to know how to do a thing and to watch somebody else doing it wrong, without comment
T. H. White


blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact
George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans]


of those who say nothing, few are silent
Thomas Neill


wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something
Plato


all truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality
Jules de Gaultier


if you want to make enemies, try to change something
Woodrow Wilson


the most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust
Samuel Butler


this report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read
Winston Churchill


you must believe in free will; there is no choice
Isaac Bashevis Singer


i haven't failed, i've found 10,000 ways that don't work
Thomas Edison


why does the air force need expensive new bombers? have the people we've been bombing over the years been complaining?
George Wallace


tragedy is when i get a papercut, comedy is when you fall into an open manhole and die
Mel Brooks, The 2000 Year Old Man In The Year 2000


it is difficult to fight with anger, for a man will buy revenge with his soul
Heracleitus, 500 B.C.


Lester (Kevin Spacey): My name is Lester Burnham. This is my street. This is my neighborhood. This is my life. I am 42 years old. In less than a year, I will be dead. Of course, I don't know that yet, and in a way, I'm dead already. Look at me, jerking off in the shower. This will be the highlight of my day. It's all downhill from here. That's my wife Carolyn. See the way the handle on those pruning shears match her gardening clogs? That's not an accident. That's our neighbor, Jim, and that's his lover, Jim. Man, I get exhausted just watching her. She wasn't always like this. She used to be happy. We used to be happy. My daughter, Jane. Only child. Janie's a pretty typical teenager: angry, insecure, confused. I wish I could tell her that's all going to pass..... but I don't want to lie to her. Both my wife and daughter think I'm this gigantic loser. And in away, they're right. I have lost something. I'm not exactly sure what, but I know I didn't always feel this...sedated. But you know what? It's never too late to get it back.
American Beauty



Ricky (Wes Bentley): It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing. And there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it, right? And this bag was just... dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. That's the day I realized that there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid ever. Video's a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember...I need to remember. (disntant) Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it...and my heart is going to cave in.
American Beauty



Jane (Thora Birch): Tell me about being in the hospital.
Ricky: (smiles) When I was 15, my dad caught me smoking dope. He totally freaked and decided to send me to military school. I told you his whole thing about structure and discipline, right? (laughs) Well, of course, I got kicked out. Dad and I had this huge fight and he hit me...and then the next day at school, some kid made a crack about my haircut and...I just snapped. I wanted to kill him. And I would have. Killed him. If they hadn't pulled me off.
(then) That's when my dad put me in the hospital. Then they drugged me up and left me in there for two years.
Jane: Wow. You must really hate him.
Ricky: He's not a bad man.
American Beauty



Lester: I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn't a second at all, it stretches forever, like an ocean of time....for me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout Camp, watching falling stars...and yellow leaves, from the maple trees that lined my street...Or my grandmother's hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper... and the first time I saw my cousin Tony's brand new Firebird. And Janie...and Janie. (twice we see his memories of Jane, when she was younger) And...(with love) Carolyn. (We see a younger happier Carolyn shrieking happily in a carnival ride. We've seen a photo from this long-ago family activity before--he was looking at one right before his death) I guess I could be really pissed off about what happened to me...but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... and then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain. And I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life...(amused) You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry...(fade to black)
You will someday.
American Beauty



Simon (Greg Kinnear): Alright, what I do is.. I watch people. Do you ever watch someone who doesn't know that your..watchin' 'em? An old lady on a street corner, or some kids getting on a bus to school? Well, they stand there and you look, and all of a sudden this -- flash comes over them, and you know it has nothing to do with anything external, because that hasn't changed. They just suddenly become realer and more alive. If you look at someone long enough, you can discover their humanity.
As Good As It Gets



Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson): I might be the only person on the face of the earth that knows you're the greatest woman on earth. I might be the only one who appreciates how amazing you are in every single thing that you do, and how you are with Spencer, "Spence", and in every single thought that you have, and how you say what you mean, and how you almost always mean something that's all about being straight and good. I think most people miss that about you, and I watch them, wondering how they can watch you bring their food, and clear their tables and never get that they just met the greatest woman alive. And the fact that I get it makes me feel good, about me.
As Good As It Gets



Luke (Paul Newman): Anybody here? (walks down, looks up toward ceiling) Hey old man, you home tonight? (continues walking) Can spare a minute, it's about time we had a little talk. I know I'm a pretty evil fellow; killed people in the war an'..got drunk and...chewed up municipal property and the like, I know I got no call to ask for much, but even so, you gotta admit you ain't dealt me no cards in a long time...From here, it looks like, you got things fixed so I can never win out! Inside, outside, all them...rules, and regulations, and bosses. You made me like I am! So just, where am I supposed to fit in? Old man, I gotta tell ya...I started out pretty strong and fast. But it's beginning to get to me. When did it end? What do ya got in mind for me? What do I do now? (beat) All right. All right. (kneels) On my knees, asking...(closes eyes, prays, after a while, he opens one eye, looks up half-smiling). Yeah, that's what I thought... .I guess I'm pretty tough to deal with, huh? A hard case...yeah, I guess I gotta find my own way.
(Dragline emerges from the door)
Dragline (George Kennedy): Luke?
(Luke looks up and addresses one last aside to God, still grinning slightly, knowing he's in trouble.)
Luke: That's your answer ol' Man? I guess you're a hard case too.
Dragline: Luke? You all right? They got us, boy. They're out there, thicker than flies. Bosses, dogs, sheriffs, more guns than I've ever seen in my life. You ain't got a chance. They caught up with me right after we split up. And they was aimin' to kill ya. But I fixed it. I got 'em to promise if you give up peaceful, they won't whip ya this time...Luke, you gotta listen to me. All ya got to do is give up nice and quiet. Just play cool.
Luke: Cool?
Dragline: (confused) Yeah...cool.
(Luke emerges from the church and looks out on the Captain and other sheriffs, all after him. Never broken by the powers-that-be, with a assured AND always-cool smile, he mocks the Captain with the famous final line)
Luke: What we've got here is a failure to communicate!
(Luke is shot by the Boss with no eyes. He dies on the way to the hospital.)
(Surrounded by other chain-gang inmates, Dragline ends the movie, telling the story and remembering the now-legendary figure -- a voice-over over images of Luke from the film)
Dragline: They took him right down that road.
Convicts: (eager, overlapping) What'd he look like, Drag?...Yeah, what'd he look like?..He had his eyes opened or closed, Drag?
Dragline: He was smiling...That's right. You know, that, that Luke smile of his. He had it on his face right to the very end. Hell, if they didn't know it 'fore, they could tell right then that they weren't a-gonna beat him. That old Luke smile. Oh, Luke. He was some boy. Cool Hand Luke. Hell, he's a natural-born world-shaker.
Cool Hand Luke



Tyler (Brad Pitt): Remember this: the people you're trying to step on, we're everyone you depend on. We're the people who do your laundry and cook your food and serve your dinner. We make your bed. We guard you while you're asleep. We drive the ambuleances. We direct your call. We are cooks and taxi drivers and we know everything about you. We process your insurance claims and credit card charges. We control every part of your life. We are the middle children of history, raised by television to believe that someday we'll be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars, but we won't. And we're just learning this fact. So don't fuck with us.
Fight Club



Meditation Guide: And you open the door, and you step inside. We're inside our hearts. Now imagine your pain as a white ball of healing light. That's right, the pain, the pain itself, is a white ball of healing light.
Tyler: I don't think so. This is your life, good to the last drop. It doesn't get any better then this. This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time. This isn't a seminar, this isn't a weekend retreat. Where you are now, you can't even imagine what the bottom will be like. Only after disaster can we be resurrected. It's only after you've lost everything, that you're free to do anything. Nothing is static; everything is falling. Everything is falling apart. This is your life. Doesn't get any better then this. This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time. You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake! You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else! We are all part of the same compost heap. We are the all singing, all dancing crap of the world. You are not your bank account, you are not the clothes you wear, you are not the contents of your wallet. You are not your bowel cancer, you are not your grande latte, you are not the car you drive. You are not your fucking khakis. You have to give up. You have to give up. You have to realize, that some day you will die. Until you know that, you are useless. I say, let me never be complete. I say, may I never be content. I say, deliver me from Sweidsh furniture! I say, deliver me from clever art! I say, deliver me from clear skin and perfect teeth! I say, you have to give up. I say, evolve; and let the chips fall where they may. This is your life, doesn't get any better then this. This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time. (Background: I want you to hit me as hard as you can! Welcome to Fight Club. If this is your first night, you have to fight.) You have to give up. You have to give up.
Fight Club



Jules (Samuel L. Jackson): Well there's this passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you." I been sayin' that shit for years. And if you ever heard it, it meant your ass. I never gave much thought what it meant. I just thought it was some cold-blooded shit to say to a motherfucker before I popped a cap in his ass. I saw some shit this mornin' made me think twice. See now I'm thinkin', maybe it means you're the evil man. And I'm the righteous man. And Mr. 9 Milimeter here, he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or it could mean you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish. Now I'd like that. But that shit ain't the truth. The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be a shepherd.
Pulp Fiction



Medic Wade (Giovanni Ribisi): Well actually the the trick to falling asleep is to trying to stay awake. See when my mother was an intern she use to work late through the night, sleep through the day. So the only time we ever got to talk about anything was when she'd get home. So what'd I'd, I used to do, I used to lie in my bed and try to stay awake as long as I could. But it never worked. 'Cause, cause the harder I tried, the faster I'd fall asleep. (pause) Funny thing is sometimes she'd come home early. I'd pretend to be asleep. She'd stand in the doorway looking at me, and I'd keep my eyes shut. And I knew she just wanted to find out about my day. So she came home early, just to talk to me. I still wouldn't move I'd still pretend to just be asleep. I don't know why I did that...
Saving Private Ryan


Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks): Delveckio. Yeah. Caparzo. (pause) You see when, when you end up killing one of your men you tell yourself it happened, so you can save the lives of two or three or ten others. Maybe a hundred others. (pause) You know how many men I've lost under my command? Ninety-four. But that means I've saved the lives of ten times that many. Doesn't it? Maybe even twenty? Right? Twenty times as many? (pause) And that's how simple it is. That's how ya, how ya rashionalize for making the choice, between the mishion and the men. (pause) This Ryan better be worth it. He better go home. Cure some disease or invent some longer lasting lightbulb or something. The truth is I wouldn't trade ten Ryans for one Vecki or one Caparzo.
Saving Private Ryan



Quotes 2