Finding Solace in Favourite Quotes: Escaping Despair with Words of Wisdom

[DaveC426913]

In the spirit of Monty Python's "You are all individuals!", "(I'm not.)", I give you something that my friend said to me the other day, while we were moving a dresser of drawers:

"All the drawers are different sizes, except the last one."

 

[Ivan Seeking]

We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1936

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I hope this hasn't already been posted.

Are we there yet?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

On the average, married men claim that about five hours are dedicated to sexual activities each week - thirty minutes of actual sex, and four hours and thirty minutes of begging. - a Jewish Rabbi [name unknown]

A Christian minister has been urging the married couples in his congregation to make love every night for a week. The Rabbi said that Jews would do this too, but it gets in the way of their suffering.

 

[Astronuc]

My mother was that girl with the movie of beautiful black people in her head, flattered by my father's attention, confused and alone, trying to break out of the grip of her own parents' lives. The innocence she carried that day, waiting for my father, had been tinged with misconceptions, her own needs. But it was a guileless need, one without self-consciousness, and perhaps that's how any love begins, impulses and cloudy images that allow us to break across our solitude, and then, if we're lucky, are finally transformed into something firmer.

Barack Obama reflecting on his mother in his book, "Dreams of My Father".

I find Obama to be exceptionally introspective as well as insightful.

 

[Eezekiel]

"great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds"
A.einstein

 

[neu]

Put it in the curry.

Spike Milligan et al

 

[Redbelly98]

I used to have a book of fake quotes, this was one of my favorites:

"And how did I do?"
-- Dan Quayle, election night 1992

 

[Astronuc]

We aren't the consumers of democracy, we are the proprietors, . . . .

Raj Patel

I would have used the word stewards instead of proprietors, or both, as in

We are the proprietors and stewards of democracy.

 

[Quincy]

"I have no special talent. I was just passionately curious." -- Albert Einstein - the most modest quote I've ever heard in my life; no surprise, it's from Einstein.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Welcome to my hanging

GW Bush






- at his portrait hanging.

 

[Astronuc]

What is family? Is it just a genetic chain, parents and offspring, people like me? Or is it a social construct, and economic unit, optimal for child rearing and divisions of labor? OR is it something else entirely: a store of shared memories, say? An ambit of love? A reach across the void?

I could list various possibilities. But I'd never arrived at a definite answer, aware early on that, given my circumstances, such an effort was bound to fail. Instead, I drew a series of circles around myself with borders that shifted as time passed and faced changed but that nevertheless offere the illusion of control. An inner circle, where love was constant and claims unquestioned. Then a second circle, a realm of negotiated love, commitments freely chosen. And then a circle for colleagues, acquaintances; the cheerful grey-haired lady who rang up groceries back in Chicago. Until the circle finally widened to embrace a nation or a race, or a particular moral course, and the commitments were no longer tied to a face or a name but were actually commitments I'd made to myself.

Good book, which I highly recommend.

I'm now reading "The Audacity of Hope".

I think Obama is the right man for the job, particularly at this time. Seems he's already pissed off the far left.

 

[OmCheeto]

Good book, which I highly recommend.

I'm now reading "The Audacity of Hope".

I think Obama is the right man for the job, particularly at this time. Seems he's already pissed off the far left.

If he(Obama) just sits on his hands for the next four years, he'll do much better than G.W.

sorry...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
but I really do hate GW
Hey!
I'm a Veteran!
I didn't spend 6 years of my life defending our right to free speech such that I couldn't say I hated my president at least once!
God let this be the last time...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Blagojevich gives idiots a bad name

- CNN panel discussion.

 

[Astronuc]

Obama on liberty and values

As its most elemental level, we understand our liberty in a negative sense. As a general rule we believe in the right to be left alone, and are suspicious of those - whether Big Brother or nosy neighbors - who want to meddle in our business. But we understand our libery in a positive sense as well, in the idea of opportunity and subsidiary values that help realize opportunity - all those homespun virtues that Benjamin Franklin first popularized in Poor Richard's Almanack and that have continued to inspire allegiance through successive generations. The values of self-reliance and self-improvement and risk-taking. The values of drive, discipline, temperance, and hard work. The values of thrift and personal responsibility.

These values are rooted in a basic optimism about life and a faith in free will - a confidence that through pluck and sweat and smarts, each of us can rise above the circumstance of our birth. But these values also express a broader confidence that so long as individual men and women are free to purusue their own interests, society as a whole will prosper. Our system of self-government and our free-market economy depend on the majority of individual Americans adhering to these values. The legitimacy of our government and our economy depend on the degree to which these values are rewarded, which is why the values of equal opportunity and nondiscrimination complement rather than imping on our liberty.

Our individualism has always been bound by a set of communial values, the glue upon which every healthy society depends. We value the imperatives of family and the cors-generational obligations that family implies. We value community , the neighborliness that expresses itself through raising the barn or coaching the soccer team. We value patriotism and the obligations of citizenship, a sense of duty and sacrifice on behalf of our nation. We value a faith in something bigger than ourselves, whether that something expressess itself in formal religion or ethical precepts. And we value the constellation of behaviors that express our mutual regard for one another: honesty, fairness, humility, kindness, courtesy and compassion.

In every society (and in evey individual), these twin strands - the individualistic and the communal, autonomy and solidarity - are in tension, and it has been on of the blessings of America that the circumstances of our nation's birth allowed us to negotiate these tensions better than most. We did not have to go through any of the violent upheavals that Europe was forced to endure as it shed its fuedal past. Our passage was eased by teh sheer size of the continent, vast tracts of land and abundant resources that allowed new immigrants to continually remake themselves.

But we cannot avoid these tensions entirely. At times our values collide because in the hands of men each one is subject to distortion and excess. Self-reliance and independence can transform into selfishness and license, ambition into greed and a frantic desire to succeed at any cost. More than once in our history we've seen patriotism slide into jingoism, xenophobia, the stifling of dissent; we've seen faith calcify into self-righteousness, closed-mindedness, and cruelty toward others. Even the impulse toward charity can drift into a stifling parternalism, an unwillingness to acknowledge the ability of other to do for themselves.

When this happens - when liberty is cited in the defense of a company's decision to dump toxins in our rivers, or wehn our collective interest in building an upscale new mall is used to justify destruction of somebody's home - we depend on the strength of countervailing values to temper our judgement and hold such excesses in check.

Sometimes finding the right balance is relatively easy. We all agree, for instance, that society has a right to constrain individual freedom when it threatens to do harm to others. . . . .

More often, though, finding the right balance between our competing values id difficult. Tensions arise not because we have steered a wrong course, but simply because we live in a complex and contradictory world. . . . But I acknowledge that even the wisest president and most prudent Congress would struggle to balance the critical demands of our collective security against the equally compelling need to uphold civil liberties. . . . .

His thoughts seem generally consistent with mine. I'd love to have a chat over a few beers with him some afternoon.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Here is a curveball for the right

Nothing will stamp out gay sex faster than gay marriage

- a comment made by an unnamed person on CNN.

 

[Astronuc]

Shake the dust from you sandals: Disappointment without Cynicism
From Jacob's Shadow, by Rev. Herbert Anderson

Sometimes, we get trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of setbacks that turn life sour. The chief energy of the soul is not disappointment or sadness but pretense and cynicism.

Mix of paraphrase and quote from Jacob's Shadow:

When disappointments are not resolved, they fester and foster a negative attitude about life that tilts toward cynicism. If the personal return on our emotional investment in the company, one's marriage, one's social or collegial group, is not enough, the temptation is to withdraw, shutdown, declare it was a dumb idea in the first place, pledge not to do it again, and risk becoming cynical. When one concludes that nobody really cares, nothing matters, people cannot be trusted, change is not possible, and no matter how hard one tries, things are not likely to get better, then disappointment transforms into cynicism.

When one is disappointed or things don't go as intended or expected, let it go.

Once one has named the pain and grieved the loss, one needs to let go in order to dream again and move toward a new future.

It may not be easy to lose or let go, for "giving it up" seems like defeat. But "letting it go" or "giving it up" is the only healing option.

Disappointment will not go away on its own accord. One simply needs to grieve the loss and let it go, and renew the dreams and expectations of a better future.

 

[moe darklight]

Here is a curveball for the right

"Nothing will stamp out gay sex faster than gay marriage"

- a comment made by an unnamed person on CNN.

I'm so stealing that.

*yoink!*

Here's one from some comedian I saw on TV:

A friend is someone who will help you move.
A real friend is someone who will help you move a body.

 

[jobyts]

"If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself." ―conservative columnist Kathleen Parker

 

[lonton]

Mẹ mua cho em con heo đất
Mẹ mua cho em con heo đất...í o í ò
Ngày hôm nay em vui lắm
Cầm heo trên tay em ngắm ...í ò í o
Làm sao cho heo mau lớn
làm sao cho heo mau lớn...í o í ò
Heo không đòi ăn cơm
Heo không đòi ăn cám
Heo chỉ cằn em bế trên tay ầu ơ
Em không thèm mua kem
Em không thèm Mua bánh
Em để dành cho heo
Em lì xì heo đất hai trăm mỗi ngày
Này heo ơi ngoan nhé í o
Này heo con ơi mau lớn í o .

That is a top hit quote in my native language at present

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Mẹ mua cho em con heo đất
Mẹ mua cho em con heo đất...í o í ò
Ngày hôm nay em vui lắm
Cầm heo trên tay em ngắm ...í ò í o
Làm sao cho heo mau lớn
làm sao cho heo mau lớn...í o í ò
Heo không đòi ăn cơm
Heo không đòi ăn cám
Heo chỉ cằn em bế trên tay ầu ơ
Em không thèm mua kem
Em không thèm Mua bánh
Em để dành cho heo
Em lì xì heo đất hai trăm mỗi ngày
Này heo ơi ngoan nhé í o
Này heo con ơi mau lớn í o .

That is a top hit quote in my native language at present

Translation?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Luke: Alright, I'll try.

Yoda: NO! Do, or do not. There is no try.

 

[Math Jeans]

"Would you believe that this amazing sentence contains ninety two letters, one comma and a single question mark?"

-Not sure

 

[baywax]

The trick to money is having some.

Stuart Wilde

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Mẹ mua cho em con heo đất
Mẹ mua cho em con heo đất...í o í ò
Ngày hôm nay em vui lắm
Cầm heo trên tay em ngắm ...í ò í o
Làm sao cho heo mau lớn
làm sao cho heo mau lớn...í o í ò
Heo không đòi ăn cơm
Heo không đòi ăn cám
Heo chỉ cằn em bế trên tay ầu ơ
Em không thèm mua kem
Em không thèm Mua bánh
Em để dành cho heo
Em lì xì heo đất hai trăm mỗi ngày
Này heo ơi ngoan nhé í o
Này heo con ơi mau lớn í o .

That is a top hit quote in my native language at present

Mom bought for the children of pigs
Mom bought for the children of pigs at ... at
Today they very happy
Hold hands on the pig ... I view them in at
How big color for pork
how pork color at large ... at
Pig not require diner
Pork does not require food cám
Pig just baby on Western Europe where
I not buy ice cream
She not Buy cake
For children to pork
I lì xì pork land two hundred per day
This intelligent pig ơi at nhé
This piggy ơi color at large.

Got it.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Birds are like teenagers: They look for a place to eat; a place to hangout; a place to reproduce.

- aviation expert talking about birds

 

[Red Rum]

The Bible was a consolation to a fellow alone in the old cell. The lovely thin paper with a bit of matress stuffing in it, if you could get a match, was as good a smoke as I ever tasted.

- Brendan Behan

 

[OmCheeto]

Mom bought for the children of pigs
Mom bought for the children of pigs at ... at
Today they very happy
Hold hands on the pig ... I view them in at
How big color for pork
how pork color at large ... at
Pig not require diner
Pork does not require food cám
Pig just baby on Western Europe where
I not buy ice cream
She not Buy cake
For children to pork
I lì xì pork land two hundred per day
This intelligent pig ơi at nhé
This piggy ơi color at large.

Got it.

That makes about as much sense as something my mother used to say:

Die hexe mit die besenstiel
hott die kinder viel zu viel
viel zu viel ist ungesund
meine mutter ist schweinehund

translation:

The witch with the broomstick
hit the children much too much
much too much is unhealthy
my mother is a pigdog

hmmm... I think the Vietnamese might be runners up in the oddball game, right behind the Germans.

I mean really. Who else dresses their kids up in leather just for the fun of it?

Actually, I think I still have my little pair of lederhosen.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Actually, I think I still have my little pair of lederhosen.

Strange and disturbing images enter my mind! Too much information!

 

[Red Rum]

Who else dresses their kids up in leather just for the fun of it?

The Swiss?

 

[baywax]

"A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval."

Samuel Clements (Mark Twain)

(thought this fit with the wearing leather banter!)

edit:

Had to get this one on as well.

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."

Same author.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Just because you have the legal right to withhold information, doesn't mean you should... For a long time now, there's been too much secrecy in this city

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/01/obama-establish.html
- Obama on his first day in office.

 

[OmCheeto]

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/01/obama-establish.html
- Obama on his first day in office.

Wow. It's no wonder the right wing was afraid of him: openness, pay freezes for the senior white house staff, public servants actually serving the public interest, tighter restrictions on lobbyists. I think I like my new president.

“Every generation needs a new revolution.”
---- Thomas Jefferson

 

[Ivan Seeking]

On The View today:
~
Joy Behar: I understand that you do a great Nixon impression
Blagojevich: [acknowledges with hesitation]... What do you want me to do?
Joy Behar: Say "I'm not a crook"

 

[Mit-chan]

Talk to the hand, 'cause the face is on vacation.